The Latest from Ingrid Lunden
Rows, formerly dashdash, raises $16M to build and populate web apps using only spreadsheet skills
Spreadsheet software — led by products like Microsoft’s Excel, Google’s Sheets and Apple’s Numbers — continues to be one of the most-used categories of business apps, wit
Ageras nabs $73M at a $244M valuation for its accountancy marketplace and bookkeeping tech stack
Vertical marketplaces continue to be a key lynchpin in the digital economy, a centralized place where people providing certain goods or services can connect with those specifically looking to buy them
Fictiv nabs $35M to build out the ‘AWS of hardware manufacturing’
Hardware may indeed be hard, but a startup that’s built a platform that might help buck that idea by making hardware a little easier to produce has announced some more funding to continue buildi
Peak AI nabs $21M for a platform to help non-tech companies make AI-based decisions
One of the biggest challenges for organizations in modern times is deciding where, when and how to use the advances of technology, when the organizations are not technology companies themselves. Today
vArmour, the multi-cloud security startup, raises $58M en route to IPO
Enterprises have been loading more of their operations into cloud — and, more often than not, multi-cloud — environments over the last year, creating vast networks of services that can be
Sinch acquires Inteliquent for $1.14B to take on Twilio in the US
After raising $690 million from SoftBank in December to make acquisitions, the Sweden-based cloud communications company Sinch has followed through on its strategy in that department. Today the compan
Palo Alto Networks acquired DevOps security startup Bridgecrew for $156M
Update: after this article was published, Palo Alto Networks confirmed the acquisition for $156 million. Our original story is below. The pandemic and the world’s big shift to doing (even) more
Travel startup GetYourGuide secures $97M revolving credit facility
Many countries hit hard by COVID-19 are beginning to see a glimmer of optimism from the arrival of vaccinations. Now, a promising travel startup that saw its growth arrested by the arrival and persist
TikTok emerges as a political battleground in Navalny-stirred Russia
TikTok has crafted a number of policies over the years to distance itself from the often-messy political fray, but its users continue to have other agendas in mind. In Russia, a tug-of-war has emerged
Thrasio raises $750M more in equity for its Amazon roll-up play
The Amazon Marketplace roll-up play is well and truly underway. In the latest development, Thrasio — one of the biggest and earliest movers in the market to consolidate third-party sellers on th
Sentropy launches tool for people to protect themselves from social media abuse, starting with Twitter
Last year, in the midst of a particularly spiky U.S. presidential election campaign, a startup called Sentropy emerged from stealth with an AI-based platform aimed at social media and other companies
RapidSOS raises $85M for a big data platform aimed at emergency responders
Emergency response services have been one of the unsung heroes of the last chaotic year, providing essential and urgent medical and other assistance during a period that has faced not just the usual r
Symend nabs $43M for a platform to help customers avoid defaulting on bills
The pandemic-fueled economic uncertainty of the last year has led many to project that the rate of credit defaults among consumers will continue to wobble into 2021. Today a startup that has built a p
Target Global leads $150M round for Amazon Marketplace consolidator Branded
There’s been a profusion of startups emerging in the last year around the concept of rolling up smaller e-commerce businesses — operations that mainly sell and distribute their products on
Infinitus emerges from stealth with $21.4M for ‘voice RPA’ aimed at healthcare companies
Robotic process automation (RPA) has found a strong foothold in the world of enterprise IT through its effective use of AI and other technology to help automate repetitive tasks to free up people to f
Tovala, the smart oven and meal kit service, heats up with $30M more in funding
With more of us spending significant amounts of time at home because of COVID-19, our attention has turned increasingly to how and what we eat. Even for those who like to cook, but especially for thos
BigChange raises $102M for a platform to help manage service fleets
We talk a lot these days about the future of work and the proliferation of new and better tools for distributed workforces, but companies focused on developing fleet management software — even i
Rocket.Chat raises $19M for its open-source approach to integrated enterprise messaging
Chat platforms like Slack have been game-changers when it comes to what business users want and expect out of their work communications. Today, a company that’s aiming to move the goalpost again
Granulate nabs $30M for software to optimize workloads and latency
Services like video streaming, gaming, media-intensive advertising and marketing technology are putting more strain on bandwidth and backend latency than ever before due to the surge of online traffic
TouchCast raises $55M to grow its mixed reality-based virtual event platform
Events — when they haven’t been cancelled altogether in the last 12 months due to the global health pandemic — have gone virtual and online, and a wave of startups that are helping p