Startups and VC The TechCrunch crew has been more than busy in the last 24 hours, so buckle in for a deluge of data. First, however, a few spotlights: A Better.com two-pack: Adventuring fintech reporter Mary Ann Azevedo has been crushing the Better.com beat as the previous public-company candidate implodes. In the latest chapter of its larger layoff saga, another chunk of the consumer mortgage serviceâs staff was laid off. This time some of them learned of the fact when they got paid severance before the news dropped. Whoops. And the companyâs former CFO just raised capital for Glean AI, which is taking on the accounts payable market, Mary Ann reports. The latest from Africa: Yesterday we noted Tage Kene-Okaforâs reporting on Ghanian startup Dash raising $32 million in a seed round. Kene-Okafor today highlighted a Sudanese startup that is taking part in Y Combinatorâs current batch. It turns out that Bloom, the company in question, is the first startup from Sudan to take part in the U.S. accelerator. Today in money raising money: Natasha Mascarenhas has a few notes on the site today that I think we should group. The first is Lolita Taub putting together a new venture firm called Ganas Ventures. Ganar is the Spanish word for to win, so you can imagine where the fund is planning on investing! And Mascarenhas covered Angelistâs latest huge funding round. Angelist is perhaps best known these days for helping birth the rolling-fund boom, so the company that helps other people raise money to invest just raised money to invest in itself. Neat. And now, a massive digest of the rest of the dayâs critical startup news: Mozilla drops new iOS, Android features: Mozilla is a browser company that has made other products in its history, and is today something of an alternative offering for the ubiquitous Chrome. Regardless, the company is adding âan HTTPS-only mode to Firefox Focusâ for its Android users, and iOS users are getting a ânew adjustable search bar,â we write. One-click payments are big business: Selfbook does what it says on the tin, namely helping hotel guests self-book. And it does that with some modern checkout work. The companyâs model is finding traction, we can infer, as investors just put $15 million into the company at a $300 million valuation. Forma helps companies compile a benefits stack: Everyone loves a stack, or collection of integrated tools or services that help accomplish a particular task. Forma wants to help HR departments collect an array of employee benefit options into something akin to a stack. And it just raised $40 million in a round led by Ribbit. Nvidia hearts cute robots: Something that I have really enjoyed of late are cute delivery robots. You know, the little âbots that race around campuses and the like, ferrying vodka nips and aspirin to the youths. Well, itâs an investable market, it turns out, as Nvidia is putting $10 million into âUber spinout Serve Robotics,â TechCrunch reports. Yes, Serveâs robots are adorable. Now bring them to my city, please. Betting on the IRL economy: As Amazon works to shutter its physical book and âfour starâ stores, not everyone is throwing in the towel on shopping IRL. Indeed, Swiftly is hammering away on the concept, working to help grocery stores digitize. We have an update on the company past what we learned last year. Also Swiftly just raised $100 million, so, you know, thatâs worth mentioning. Calico raises $2.1M for fashion supply chain software: Coming from an itch that founder Kathleen Chan found when she was building fashion companies, Calico just picked up capital from Serena Williams, who recently launched a fund. |
