Penfold, a startup that offers a full stack pension in a smartphone app, has closed a $8.5 million (£6m) funding round, $4M of which was from a crowdfunding campaign. The company is now approved by the FCA to operate a pension itself rather than relying on third parties, and is aimed at freelancers who rarely […]
Monthly Archives: May 2021
Kitt, an office-outfitter-as-a-service, raises $5M Seed round led by Barclay Ventures
Landlords have sometimes looked on the tech-enabled spaces of the likes of WeWork and longed to be part of the cool kids – and attract that new wave of founders. Now a UK startup has come up with a way for Landlords to do this directly. Founded by Steve Coulson and Lucy Minton in 2018, […]
Brislen on Tech: An HR-led recovery
Paul Brislen, Editor. 28 May 2021, 4:12 pm This week’s Digital Boost launch at the AUT Mind Lab facility in Auckland was a bit like a fever dream. Everyone there was someone I knew but everyone looked older, and like they’d swelled a bit. I met former TUANZ colleagues, former Vodafone colleagues, former Chorus folk, […]
Brazilian proptech startup QuintoAndar lands $300M at a $4B valuation
Fintech and proptech are two sectors that are seeing exploding growth in Latin America, as financial services and real estate are two categories in particular dire need of innovation in a region. Brazil’s QuintoAndar, which has developed a real estate marketplace focused on rentals and sales, has seen impressive growth in recent years. And today, […]
Gillmor Gang: Nothing Was Delivered
[embedded content] Somehow it’s Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday this week. Some of you may not think that’s a big deal, but I do. The fact of his talent pretty much drowns out most other ideas of what to write about, but here’s to the birthday boy. Keep up the good work. Back then, we wondered […]
Tesla has activated its in-car camera to monitor drivers using Autopilot
Tesla has enabled the in-car camera in its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles to monitor drivers when its Autopilot advanced driver assistance system is being used. In a software update, Tesla indicated the “cabin camera above the rearview mirror can now detect and alert driver inattentiveness while Autopilot is engaged.” Notably, Tesla has a […]
Dismantling the myths around raising your first check
As startups and venture capital grow in tandem, fundraising has gone from a formal affair on Sand Hill Road to a process that can happen anywhere from Twitter to Zoom. While fundraising may no longer require a trip to California, it might depend on whether you got an invite to a private audio app. And […]
Daily Crunch: Saving-investing app Acorns files to go public in $2.2B SPAC deal
Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Thursday, May 27. From the home desk, TechCrunch has a few notes to share. First, we’re hosting a virtual meetup in Pittsburgh as part of our national tour spotlighting neat startup markets. And if you are a super early-stage founder, you can still apply to take part in […]
Darryl Finkton Jr. closes $200M to go from asset management to poverty eradication
Darryl Finkton Jr. is a man on a mission. He believes there’s enough money in the world to help put an end to poverty. But only if it’s distributed differently than it is today. Earlier this year, the investor left a career in asset management to launch a $1 billion venture fund aimed at eradicating […]
Box beats expectations, raises guidance as it looks for a comeback
Box executives have been dealing with activist investor Starboard Value over the last year, along with fighting through the pandemic like the rest of us. Today the company reported earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal 2022. Overall, it was a good quarter for the cloud content management company. The firm reported revenue of […]