Author: TechBrunch

FlowFi, a startup creating a marketplace of financial experts for entrepreneurs, has closed on $9 million in seed funding. Blumberg Capital led the investment, with participation from a group of investors including Parade Ventures, Differential Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Special Ventures, 14 Peaks Capital, and Cooley LLP. Nate Kavanaugh and co-founder JJ List launched the company in 2021 to automate accounting functions for founders. Prior to that, Mr. Cavanaugh founded his Brainbase. Brainbase was then acquired by Constellation Software in 2022. Investor List was Cavanaugh's first company to join his Brainbase. Accessing key accounting metrics in an understandable way was something…

Seal Security, a Tel Aviv-based startup founded by a group of former members of Israel's intelligence unit 8200, today emerged from stealth and launched 740, as well as Vertex Ventures Israel, with participation from Crew Capital and PayPal. Announced $1 million in seed funding round. Alumni Fund and Cyber ​​Club London. Since the Log4j vulnerability was discovered and the White House issued a software supply chain executive order, it's important for anyone building software to keep the many open source libraries they rely on up to date. I am aware of this. However, this is easier said than done, as…

TechCrunch Early Stage returns to Boston on April 25, 2024, and the flagship founder event agenda is nearly complete. We're excited to share a not-so-sneaky sneak peek at some of the great speakers and sessions we're attending. For builders just starting their startup journey, TechCrunch Early Stage is the place to be. With the help of a large body of leading investors and entrepreneurs, we take a deep dive into founder-focused topics such as: How to use Startup Accelerator. How to raise your first funding. How to find product-market fit. How to make a killer pitch deck. Early Stage is…

Adobe and TikTok today announced that TikTok's AI-powered Creative Assistant is now available directly within Adobe Express. Through the integration, the two companies will We help businesses and creators create and market content more effectively. Creative Assistant is now available worldwide in English as an add-on to Adobe Express for both free and premium users. The Creative Assistant add-on for Adobe Express is designed to reduce the time and effort required when working across different platforms when creating content. Adobe Express gives creators access to templates, Adobe Stock video clips, audio, stickers, and the Adobe Express TikTok video creator. The…

Klaus, an Estonian-born startup launched in 2019 to help customer service agents, has been acquired by global customer service platform Zendesk for an undisclosed amount. Last year, Zendesk also acquired employee management tool Tymeshift and incorporated it into its product. It goes without saying that the overall slump in the tech economy and declining valuations are certainly driving a wave of M&A in this sector. Ultimately, Kraus raised a total of $19.3 million from investors including Global Founders Capital, Acton Capital, Icebreak.vc, and Creandum. “By introducing Klaus as part of our WEM portfolio, we are now able to provide enterprises…

The European Parliament's Civil Liberties (LIBE) Committee and Internal Market (IMCO) Committee overwhelmingly supported a bill that would establish a risk-based framework for regulating the application of artificial intelligence. In a vote this morning, the commission voted 71 to 8 (with seven abstentions) in favor of the compromise plan negotiated with EU member states in a long-running trilateral “tripartite talks” late last year. The EU AI Law was originally proposed by the European Commission in April 2021 and would set rules for AI developers based on the capabilities of their models and the purposes for which they are applying AI.…

What could be more rewarding? More than paper returns for startups for angel investors? An acquisition that converts paper proceeds into cash payments while retaining equity in the company. “The diluted return was eight times my investment,” Selma Ribica said in a recent interview with TechCrunch. “I had some stock in the new company, but mostly in cash.” Ribica currently serves as a general partner at First Circle Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in FinTech SaaS (FinTech 2.0 in her words). Sources familiar with her dealings say she made an angel investment in Expensya, an expense management startup based…

Finom, a European challenger bank targeting small businesses and freelancers, has raised €50 million ($54 million) in a Series B equity round. Founded in the Netherlands in 2019, Finom allows businesses to open an online bank account in minutes and receive an IBAN (International Bank Account Number) to support cross-border transactions. In addition to that, customers also receive integration support for physical or virtual bank cards, expense management tools, and accounting software. In fact, the Dutch startup is one of a number of players in the space, including Wise, Qonto, Revolut and others, but Finom's funding represents a significant jump…

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Monday that the FCC should investigate Apple over the company's decision to block the Beeper Mini service, which was working to bring iMessage to Android. Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky's Beeper launched a new service in December called Beeper Mini. The service claims to have reverse engineered the iMessage stack to run on Android. The next few days were a cat-and-mouse game as Apple repeatedly blocked Beeper Mini and Beeper Mini tried to find a solution. Later that month, Beeper abandoned his attempt to get iMessage to work on his Android through Beeper Mini, calling it…

Bob W, the premium short-term apartment rental marketplace, has raised €40 million ($43 million) in a Series B round. Founded in Finland in 2018, Bob W rents around 3,000 aparthotels in 17 European cities, including Amsterdam, Athens, London, Berlin, Madrid and Helsinki, and is a technology-enabled hospitality company. We advertise that we are “operators''. From US giants like Airbnb to Europe's Booking.com, there's no getting away from the myriad incumbents that have been operating in Bob W's realm for years. However, there is a somewhat insatiable appetite for conceptual variations in the accommodation market, such as hybrid models that combine…