Justin Mateen

Riogrande takes in first capital to incubate Latin America’s next local brands

Riogrande plans to have about 30 brands under its umbrella.

Ghanaian fintech Float raises $17M seed to power cash flow for commerce in Africa

Cash flow is a major pain point for small businesses in Africa. Long payment cycles, which can take 30-90 days after services or products have been rendered, and little or no capital, of which researc

Quo.com raises $7.2M seed round led by SignalFire to broaden access to mortgages

Almost three million Americans a year are denied a mortgage. Most don’t even know where to start or understand what would qualify them. The system has become complex and confusing, causing peopl

Match settles lawsuit with Tinder co-founders for $441 million

Dating app giant Match has settled its lawsuit with a group of Tinder founders and executives for $441 million. The suit, filed in 2018, had alleged that IAC and its then-subsidiary Match Group had m

Yummy bags $18M as its expands delivery app across Latin America

Yummy plans to have 50 active dark stores in both Peru and Chile by the end of 2022, touting that it will be able to deliver over 2,000 products in less than 15 minutes.

PideDirecto bags $5.25M; aims to be ‘Shopify with 30-minute deliveries’

Since its launch a year ago, the company has grown 32% month over month, has approximately 1,000 brand clients and processed over 500,000 orders.

BreachQuest emerges from stealth with $4.4M to modernize incident response

BreachQuest, an early-stage startup with a founding team of cybersecurity experts building a modern incident response platform, has emerged from stealth with $4.4 million in seed funding. The investme

Orchata raises $4M, aims to build a ‘Gopuff for Latin America’

Orchata's mobile app enables consumers in Mexico to get groceries delivered in 15 minutes with no substitutes and at supermarket prices.

This Week in Apps: In-app events hit the App Store, TikTok tries Stories, Apple reveals new child safety plan

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with 

YELA secures $2M to reproduce Cameo’s celebrity success with an app for the Middle East

The Cameo app, where celebrities send video messages to paying fans, has taken off globally. But now the concept is set to come to the Middle East and South Asia. Tech startup YELA has secured $2 mill

Yummy raises $4M, aims to be ‘super app of Venezuela’

Yummy, a Venezuela-based delivery app, raised $4 million in funding to expand its dark store delivery operations across Latin America.

Nowports raises $16M to build the OS for LatAm’s shipping industry

Nowports, an automated digital freight forwarder in Latin America, has raised $16 million in Series A funding. Mouro Capital — a venture capital fund focused on fintechs and adjacent businesses

Egypt’s customer engagement platform for F&B brands in MENA, Koinz, raises $4.8M seed

As the restaurant industry across different cities was massively hit by the pandemic-induced lockdowns last year, food aggregator platforms helped by driving online customers to them. Koinz is one suc

Uber vet raises $5.2M for blue-collar logistics marketplace

After working as a general manager for Uber in Nevada, Jason Radisson realized the need for a way to connect blue-collar workers to companies looking to employ them. So in late 2018, the idea for Shif

Singapore-based Volopay raises $2.1 million seed round to build a ‘financial control center’ for businesses

Volopay, a Singapore-based startup building a “financial control center” for businesses, announced today it has raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The round was led by Tinder co-founder

Space manufacturing startup Varda, incubated at Founders Fund, emerges with $9 million in funding

From a young age, Will Bruey, the co-founder and chief executive of Varda Space Industries, was fascinated with space and running his own business. So when the former SpaceX engineer was tapped by Del

Latin America roundup: Neobanks raise $205M+; Softbank backs VTEX

Argentina’s Ualá became the most recent Latin American fintech to receive a growth-stage funding ($150 million) from Asian investors, Tencent and Softbank.  This marks Tencent’s second round of

An Indian startup that uses WhatsApp to serve thousands with chronic disease raises $5.5M seed round

Another startup in India is cashing in on the popularity of WhatsApp, the most popular app in the country with more than 400 million users, to build a business around it. Digi-Prex is a seven-month ol

How to grow your app

The app ecosystem is strong and growing. By 2020, App Store consumer spend is supposed to exceed 100 billion dollars. Mobile now represents 65 percent of digital media time; 86 percent of this time on

College Party App WiGo Brings On Tinder’s Sean Rad And Justin Mateen As Backers

Over the past few months, a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit from a former Tinder employee has rocked Tinder. CMO Justin Mateen was suspended almost immediately (and then resigned) and the
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