Author: TechBrunch

Aletiq raised a 6 million euro funding round led by Point 9 several months ago (approximately $6.5 million at current exchange rates). The French startup today announced its establishment round. ALETIQ develops product lifecycle management (PLM) software for manufacturing industrial companies working in aerospace, automotive, electronics, luxury and more. When you think about aerospace companies, it's a chance to think of giants like Airbus and Boeing. However, these major industrial companies work with galaxies of small and large suppliers working on components, parts and specialized processes. The same can also be said for automobiles, medical device manufacturers and other industries.…

Factorial, a Barcelona-based “unicorn” startup, offers an all-in-one HR platform in the cloud for small businesses, earning $120 million undiluted (no equity) from common catalysts. The company initially went viral and cut its teeth in the HR services boom along with social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic via a “free” version of the product that has gained over 60,000 users. There was only a payment soon after, and CEO and co-founder Jordi Romero told TechCrunch in an interview that last year, its clients and revenues rose six times, reaching 13,000 paying companies. The factor uses modern cash injections to take…

Spending time in college inevitably you will come across someone who has a plan to save the world, or at least someone who will make a small part of it better. It might just be young optimism, but sometimes they are actually working on something. Key venture partners bet that young founders, fresh from the university, can solve some of the world's most challenging issues, including climate change, healthcare and economic opportunities. The company was founded by a trio of recent graduates from the University of Pennsylvania. “We are young people, we are young people, we are investing in other…

Spending time in college inevitably you will come across someone who has a plan to save the world, or at least someone who will make a small part of it better. It might just be young optimism, but sometimes they are actually working on something. Key venture partners bet that young founders, fresh from the university, can solve some of the world's most challenging issues, including climate change, healthcare and economic opportunities. The company was founded by a trio of recent graduates from the University of Pennsylvania. “We are young people, we are young people, we are investing in other…

There's a huge qualifier on Tuesday in the big news that Google is getting its security startup Wiz for a record $32 billion. Google says it will position Wiz as a provider of “Multicloud.” This means that Wiz is not a Google-only shop. In reality, Google had no choice but to do this. A closer look at the reasons behind the decision also highlights Google's weaknesses over the coming months. Customer retention Wiz brings Google a large list of customers. As of today, the startup has already reached an annual return of $700 million. Before the news broke on Tuesday,…

Maju Kuruvilla, who resigned from the role of CEO of the controversial One-Click Checkout Startup Bolt last year, is back. He launches his own startup and focuses on another issue with online shoppers. He calls it “check-in.” Clicking on an ad like a T-shirt can make the experience afterwards feel a little clunky. The website you land may not even have the product you first clicked on. It bouncing off many shoppers and hurting conversion rates, Kurbila told TechCrunch. Kurubila wants to change that with AI. His new startup, Spangle AI, creates custom landing pages for shoppers based on what…

They say imitation is a sincere form of flattery, and Google seems to agree. On Tuesday, the company added functionality to its AI-powered Gemini chatbot. Similar concepts to OpenAI's identically named canvas tool for CHATGPT and Anthropic artifacts provide Gemini users with an interactive space to create, refine and share writing and coding projects. “Canvas is designed for seamless collaboration with Gemini,” writes Dave Citron, Gemini's product director, in a blog post shared with TechCrunch. “These new features make Gemini more effective collaborators and help you realize your ideas.” Workspaces such as Gemini Canvas, ChatGpt Canvas and Artifact are the…

The US government's cybersecurity agency oversees contacting more than 130 former employees after the Trump administration ruled that workers who were fired “illegally” must be recovered. US District Judge James Bleder last week ordered the Trump administration to revive the leisurely fired by many U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The ruling focuses on federal probation employees, including workers who have been employed or promoted within the past three years. The CISA fired 130 probation employees in February as part of the Trump administration's broad push to cut…

When it comes to climate-related investments, Lion's share was spent on companies working on energy and transportation. Most investors overlook the real lion. So nature-based solutions like biodiversity tend to be shorter in the investment world. In 2022, just $35 billion was invested in nature-based solutions, compared to $1.46 trillion for the rest of the climate finance sector. To address the shortage, Climate raised $175 million from Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund and Calstrs. Just climate is a derivative of Algoa's generational investment management. Until this year, like most other private climate technology investors, they focused on what they called industrial…

This week, the StrictlyVC download has joined TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos and StrictlyVC's Alex Gove, Michael Kim, longtime VC and founder of Cendana Capital, who manages $2.6 billion in funding. This episode discusses Sendana's latest $600 million funding. Secondary rises and how they affect returns. And what Sendana needs to help a new manager or small team. And of course, they address how AI is changing the startup ecosystem. StrictlyVC downloads posts every Tuesday. Subscribe to Apple, Spotify, or where you can listen to podcasts that will alert you when new episodes drop. Source link