Blume Ventures’ Karthik Reddy on Indian startup ecosystem, geo-political tension with China and coronavirus
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, which has slowed down deal-making across the world, dozens of startups in India have raised considerable amounts in recent months. Unacademy, which raised $110 million in February, closed a new round of $150 million this month.
These large check sizes, and the freq
SmartNews’ U.S. app unveils new features for the elections, COVID-19 and local weather
"attachment_2047231" aria-describedby="" style="width: 1024px">News discovery app SmartNews’ new election features for U.S. users
At technewss Disrupt today, SmartNews announced the release of major new features for the American version of its news discovery app, designed to make it easier fo
Narrator raises $6.2M for a new approach to data modelling that replaces star schema
Snowflake went public this week, and in a mark of the wider ecosystem that is evolving around data warehousing, a startup that has built a completely new concept for modelling warehoused data is announcing funding. Narrator — which uses an 11-column ordering model rather than standard star s
Southeast Asia’s East Ventures on female VCs, foreign investment, consolidation
Melisa Irene‘s path to becoming a partner at one of Southeast Asia’s most esteemed venture capital firms is an unconventional one.
“I always consider myself to be quite lucky,” said Irene, who was promoted to be a partner at East Ventures in January 2019. At 25 years old, sh
Interswitch to revive its Africa venture fund, CEO confirms
Pan-African fintech company Interswitch plans to fire up its corporate venture arm again — according to CEO Mitchell Elegbe — who spoke at technewss Disrupt on Wednesday.
The Nigerian founder didn’t offer much new on the Lagos-based firm’s expected IPO, but he did reveal Interswitc
Infarm raises $170M in equity and debt to continue building its ‘vertical farming’ network
Infarm, the vertical farming company that has built a network of urban farms to grow fresh food closer to consumers, has raised $170 million in new investment in a “first close” of a Series C.
Leading the round — which is expected to reach $200 million and is a mixture of equity a
Justice Department says WeChat users won’t be penalized under Trump’s executive order
In a Wednesday filing in federal court, the United States government said that users who use or download WeChat “to convey personal or business information” will not be subject to penalties under President Donald Trump's executive order banning transactions with the Tencent-owned me
Gillmor Gang: In The Bag
This may be counterintuitive. I hope so. I remember the day I first started using Twitter. My friend Gabe Rivera suggested it would be a good idea to sign on to the fledgling network. Basically it was a land grab — claim the real estate of my name. I most likely was aware of the fundamentals of
The art of pivoting with Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins and Jessica O. Matthews
Building and growing a startup is hard, but pivoting said startup into something new and then achieving that same growth is even harder. But it’s not impossible.
Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, founder and CEO of PromisePay, and Jessica O. Matthews, founder and CEO of Uncharted Power, both have experi
Lightspeed announces the launch of its Southeast Asia operations
"attachment_2047245" aria-describedby="" style="width: 1024px">Lightspeed’s Southeast Asia team: Akshay Bhushan, Marsha Sugana, Pinn Lawjindakul and Bejul Somaia
Lightspeed Venture Partners announced the launch of its Southeast Asia operations today. Based out of the firm’s new regional
PlayVS is halfway to recruiting every state into its global esports community
Millions of high school kids play online multiplayer games, but they seldom have crosstown rivals in Fortnite or Valorant. PlayVS wants to make that happen with its platform for school-sponsored esports, and it’s growing like crazy, doubling its staff in the last year and putting thousands of
Daily Crunch: Facebook unveils the Oculus Quest 2
Facebook makes its next steps in VR, Apple releases iOS 14 and the PlayStation 5 gets a launch date. This is your Daily Crunch for September 16, 2020.
The big story: Facebook unveils the Oculus Quest 2
Facebook announced the smaller, more affordable follow-up to the Oculus Quest VR
JAWS architect Glen Gordon is joining Sight Tech Global, a virtual event Dec. 2-3
"speakable-summary" style="font-weight: 400;">For people who are blind or visually impaired, JAWS is synonymous with freedom to operate Windows PCs with a remarkable degree of control and precision with output in speech and Braille. The keyboard-driven application makes it possible to navigate GUI-
Prox helps influencers and experts make money by connecting with fans
If you’ve got a large online following, as well as knowledge that might be valuable to that audience, Prox is a startup currently in beta testing that’s building tools to help you make money.
Michael Mathieu, formerly the CEO of YuMe, joined Prox as CEO in January. The goal, he told me,