Ingrid Lunden
Writer
The Latest from Ingrid Lunden
Rapyd raises $100M for its ‘fintech as a service’ API, now valued at nearly a $1B valuation
The digital payments market is forecast to balloon to $3 trillion by 2023, and today a startup that lets businesses implement not just payments, but also the many other related (and necessary) servic
Terminal raises $17M led by 8VC to source and build remote teams of engineers
As LinkedIn announces the next stage of its own ambitions in the world of recruitment by bringing in more big data insights, another one of the startups indirectly chipping away at its position among
Honeycomb.io raises $11.4M to help developers observe and debug their apps
As companies continue to expand the number of cloud-based tools and apps that are used to run their businesses, DevOps continues to grow as a field of IT to help developers meet those demands. In one
Mercury banks $20M for its banking service aimed at startups
Online-only banks have become a viable option for many people who would have traditionally used a brick-and-mortar bank but are now looking for more flexible, potentially cheaper ways to handle their
How Amazon is closing out competitors by opening up voice
We’ve come a long way with voice-based interfaces in the last several years: They can find and play the music you like, tell you jokes, set timers, control your lights and help you shop, among m
Duda nabs $25M to take on WordPress with a web development platform aimed at agencies
WordPress last week secured its position as a top dog in the world of web development when its parent company Automattic announced a $300 million raise at a $3 billion valuation, just weeks after it s
Kreditech, the AI-based near-prime loans platform, nabs $22M under new CEO to expand globally
Cash advances (or simply, loans) continue to be a lucrative area for startups to tackle. By leveraging new AI-based tools to evaluate potential customers, the network effect of the internet and the qu
Tipalti collects $76M from Twitter alums’ 01 Advisors and more for its AI-based accounts payable solution
Accounting is one of the cornerstones to building a business, but for most companies, getting it right is more of a necessity than it is one of their core competencies. That has created a vacuum, and
Kabbage founders raise $11M for Drum, an SMB marketplace for sourcing salespeople, goods and services
It’s often said that smaller businesses get the short end of the stick when it comes to technology solutions: they are more high-maintenance than consumers, but not as lucrative as larger enterp
Facebook has acquired Servicefriend, which builds ‘hybrid’ chatbots, for Calibra customer service
As Facebook prepares to launch its new cryptocurrency Libra in 2020, it’s putting the pieces in place to help it run. In one of the latest developments, it has acquired Servicefriend, a startup
Clutter acquires The Storage Fox for $152M to add self-storage to its on-demand platform
The world of on-demand storage has seen some ups and downs, with some of the biggest hopefuls pivoting into new areas, some as unrelated as cryptocurrency, in the search for better product-market fit
Twitter discloses another 10,000 accounts suspended for fomenting political discord globally
Twitter’s ongoing, and possibly Sisyphean, effort of policing and removing nefarious content disseminated on its platform is taking another step forward today. The company’s safety team ha
Payments giant Stripe is raising another $250M at a $35B pre-money valuation
After a week of launching new services to bring payments giant Stripe into the areas of lending and credit, the company is announcing another big step forward to fuel its growth: it’s raising an
HappyOrNot raises $25M for its customer satisfaction terminals for stores and other locations
Customer experience in the physical world has been getting a major infusion of tech in recent years. We now have systems being built to replace cashiers, sensors in stores and other physical locations
Aliro comes out of stealth with $2.7M to ‘democratize’ quantum computing with developer tools
It’s still early days for quantum computing, but we’re nonetheless seeing an interesting group of startups emerging that are helping the world take advantage of the new technology now. Ali
Andrew Mason’s Descript snags $15M, acquires Lyrebird to let users type text to create audio in their own voices
The boom in popularity for podcasting has given a new voice to the world of spoken word content that had been largely left for dead with the decline of broadcast radio. Now riding the wave of that gro
LinkedIn launches skills assessments, tests that let you beef up your credentials for job hunting
LinkedIn, the social networking service for the working world, is today taking the wraps off its latest effort to provide its users with better tools for presenting their professional selves, and to m
Snapchat is adding a 3D Camera Mode, the latest salvo in its feature race with Instagram
The newest version of Snap’s Spectacles already has a 3D feature that lets you see the world with immersive filter effects, and now the company’s flagship app Snapchat is levelling up. Tod
Under pressure, The We Company now only says it expects to go public ‘by the end of the year’
The We Company, beleaguered parent of the short-term real estate property management and development company WeWork and other We-related subsidiaries, has issued a statement that says it “expect
Trigo raises $22M for an automated grocery check-out platform, similar to Amazon Go
Automated check-out systems in supermarkets, where cashiers are replaced by barcode-readers and touchscreen interfaces for taking payments, have become a commonplace fixture in many parts of the world