The Latest
Scalapay raises $48M to scale its buy now, pay later service in Europe
Buy now, pay later services — which let consumers finance the purchase of goods online by paying back the total in installments over time — have been growing in ubiquity this past year. To
Robinhood restricts trading in GameStop after retail brouhaha shakes markets
Update: Robinhood has made public note of the changes, stating that “in light of recent volatility” it is “restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, i
Qualtrics prices IPO at $30 per share, above its upgraded target range
Last night, Qualtrics priced its IPO at $30 per share, selling 50.4 million shares in the process. Notably, the company’s IPO price was harder to chase down than usual, with a formal press relea
UCLA is building a digital archive of mass incarceration with a new $3.6M grant
UCLA researchers have been awarded a $3.65 million grant to collect, contextualize, and digitally preserve a huge archive of materials relating to policing and mass incarceration. It should help histo
Fetch’s latest warehouse robot is designed to replace forklifts
San Jose-based robotics company Fetch unveiled its latest robot this morning. The PalletTransport1500 is an autonomous bot designed specifically to replace forklift uses in warehouses. The systems, wh
Location broker X-Mode continues to track users despite app store bans
Apple and Google banned apps from sharing users' location data with X-Mode, a data broker with links to U.S. military contractors.
Online wholesale retailer Boxed taps Aeon for Asia expansion
Boxed, the New York-based online retailer that sells and delivers bulk-sized groceries, makes its foray into Asia by partnering with Aeon, one of Asia’s largest brick-and-mortar retail operators
Tecera launches with $225M to fund cloud consulting firms
As we move deeper into a cloud-centric world, everything was supposed to get easier, but in truth there’s a lot of moving parts, and companies need help getting everything to work. This takes pe
Heights raises $2M for its subscription supplements aimed at new ‘braincare’ category
New wellness startup Heights is formally launching this week, focusing on a category it describes as ‘braincare’. The startup will market “ultra high quality, sustainable plant-based supple
Fintech darling Nubank raises blockbuster $400M Series G at $25B valuation
While the pandemic has left some startups strapped for cash, the aptly-named Brazilian neobank Nubank is swimming in it. This morning, the company announced that it has raised a $400 million Series
UK’s competition watchdog still eyeing Facebook’s Giphy buy
The UK’s competition regulator will make a decision on whether or not Facebook’s purchase of Giphy has a ‘realistic prospect’ of substantially lessening competition by March 25
Berlin Brands Group commits $302M to acquire D2C and Amazon merchants
If the rise of direct-to-consumer businesses has been one of the big e-commerce trends of the last decade, then the growth of startups raising huge rounds to consolidate D2C players, to bring more eco
Google updates Play Store policies on gamified loyalty programs following confusion in India
Google has updated and broadened its Play Store policy on gaming loyalty programs to help developers better understand the practices that are permitted, months after confusion about the guidance promp
Female-led startups dominate Catalyst Fund’s inclusive fintech 2021 cohort
Catalyst Fund, a global accelerator managed by BFA Global, announced the 8th cohort for its Inclusive Fintech Program today. The accelerator runs the flagship program annually and with a focus on Keny
Ula raises $20 million to expand its e-commerce marketplace in Indonesia
Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, and other firms created an e-commerce market in Indonesia in the past decade, making it possible for consumers to shop online in the island nation. But as is true in other A
Flowhaven raises $16M to evolve brand licensing management beyond emails and spreadsheets
The media licensing business is a massive market, but much of the work involved is still handled manually through emails and spreadsheets. A startup called Flowhaven is working to change that. The co
Nigeria’s Cowrywise raises $3M pre-Series A to scale its wealth management platform
Cowrywise, a Nigerian fintech startup that offers digital wealth management and financial planning solutions, has raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding. Quona Capital led the round as Tsadik Found
WhatsApp adds biometric authentication to its web and desktop versions
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned popular messaging app with more than 2 billion users, has been getting a lot of heat and losing users in recent weeks after announcing (and then delaying) changes to how i
Levity is a ‘no-code’ AI tool to let anyone create workflow automations
Levity, which has been operating in stealth (until now), is the latest no-code company to throw its wares into the ring, having picked up $1.7 million in pre-seed funding led by Gil Dibner’s Angular
Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature will be enabled by default and arrive in ‘early spring’ on iOS
Apple has shared a few more details about its much-discussed privacy changes in iOS 14. The company first announced at WWDC in June that app developers would have to ask users for permission in order