Y Combinator’s new batch features its largest group of Indian startups

Y Combinator's latest batch — W21 — features 350 startups from 41 nations. Fifty percent of the firms, the highest percentage to date, in the new batch are based outside of the United States. India is the second-largest demographic represented in the new batch. The world's secon

Pre-seed round funding is under scrutiny: Is VC pandemic posturing here to stay?

All successful companies start off as a great idea, scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin during a late-night meeting of the minds or gleaned from a fleeting inspiration that leaves you with a feeling of “I could do that better.” For most, that's as far as entrepreneurship ever goes, b

New York’s Department of Financial Services says Apple Card program didn’t violate fair lending laws

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released a report today that cleared the Apple Card credit card program of discriminatory practices and specifically, gender-based discrimination, following an investigation triggered by online complaints back in November 2019. At the time

Eat Just (the alt-protein company formerly known as Hampton Creek) has raised another $200 million

Eat Just, the purveyor of eggless eggs and mayonnaise and the first government-approved vendor of lab-grown chicken, has raised $200 million in a new round of funding, the company said. The funding was led by the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar, with addi

Roll still doesn’t know how its hot wallet was hacked

Move fast, break things, get hacked. That’s what happened at Roll, the social currency platform that allows creators to mint and distribute their own Ethereum-based cryptocurrency known as social tokens. Last week, Roll disclosed a hacker had stolen $5.7 million from its hot wallet, a little

Most African YC-backed startups in today’s batch are focused on fintech

In Africa, Y Combinator is known to be a major backer of most of the continent’s well-known startups. Two of the most talked-about in the last two quarters — Flutterwave and Paystack — are YC-backed. Their recent successes (Flutterwave’s billion-dollar valuation and Paystac

QuantumScape’s share sale to fund solid-state battery production roils its market value

QuantumScape has issued a share offering to pay for an expanded pilot production line for its solid-state batteries just months after it became a publicly traded company via a reverse merger. QuantumScape said in a regulatory filing that the net proceeds from its sale of 13 million shares — along

Stock trading app Freetrade raises $69 million

U.K. challenger stockbroker Freetrade has raised a $69 million Series B round led by Left Lane Capital. The growth fund of L Catterton and existing investor Draper Esprit also participated. Freetrade operates a stock trading app and has managed to attract 600,000 users in the U.K. — they generate

A newly-wormable Windows botnet is ballooning in size

Researchers say a botnet targeting Windows devices is rapidly growing in size, thanks to a new infection technique that allows the malware to spread from computer to computer. The Purple Fox malware was first spotted in 2018 spreading through phishing emails and exploit kits, a way for threat group

Chinese automaker Geely launches luxury EV brand Zeekr

Chinese automaker Geely Automobile Holdings is launching a new brand of premium electric vehicles as it aims to capture a share of the luxury EV market that has been dominated by Tesla and other homegrown companies. The new brand of vehicles, called Zeekr, will be manufactured by parent company Zhe

Tiny silver flakes can improve conductivity in soft robots

Soft robotics have long been one of the more exciting categories among emerging technologies. Of course, as with most new tech, the field has some drawbacks over more traditional models. While they improve flexibility and compliance over their more rigid counterparts, robots made of soft materials

OnePlus unveils its smartwatch, and Wear OS is nowhere to be seen

Well before the rumors, we knew this day was coming. After several generations of smartwatches and a handful of headphones, the smartwatch was the next logical step for OnePlus. At today's big launch event, the company made its first major wearable official, sporting the decidedly pared-down na

OnePlus 9 arrives, sporting a Hasselblad-branded camera system

Cameras have long been the battleground on which the smartphone wars have been fought. Short of any left-field innovation like folding screens or strange form factors, that looks likely to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Year after year and generation after generation, companies

Startups book an expo booth at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021 to double down on connection and exposure

When it comes to fast-moving technology, mobility zooms ahead of the pack — both literally and figuratively. Early-stage startup founders and investors need to keep their fingers on the sector's very rapid pulse and the best place to do that is, you guessed it, TC Sessions: Mobility 2021 on J