Author: TechBrunch
It's going to be a great week! Tech revenues are rising, the EV wars are on (and oh my!), and venture capital feels like it's on cloud nine. All of this adds up to one packed stock episode. Today, we delve into the latest market news, including upcoming financial results, IPOs, and the impact (if any) of Bitcoin's halving will have on the value of cryptocurrencies. We also had to discuss two new venture capital funds. Seraphim's new vehicle focused on space and TLcom Capital's new fund focused on Africa. From there, we talked about EVs and how recent price…
Mobile phone cameras have come a long way, making image processing increasingly important and allowing fine-grained control to allow users to adjust the image. Despite this, many people still prefer old-fashioned photography styles and techniques. Developer Alex Fox wanted to focus on that nostalgia when building the Mood.camera app. The iPhone app allows you to switch between different retro filters when taking photos. You can also adjust the tone and sound quality using the dial. From the main screen, you can easily switch between various lenses and adjust exposure. All of this seems familiar, but what you don't get is…
Venture capital activity in Africa has shown resilience over the past six months, with major firms backing African startups closing funds despite an ongoing funding winter. In the latest development, African venture capital firm TLcom Capital, which has offices in Lagos and Nairobi and focuses on early-stage startups, has announced its second fund, TIDE Africa Fund II, totaling $154 million. Completed financing. The final transaction makes the company the largest seed and Series A investor in Africa. The oversubscribed fund, originally targeted to close at $150 million, attracted participation from more than 20 limited partners. Notable investors include the European…
Tree-planting search engine Ecosia today released a new cross-platform browser to expand its online footprint. This new browser is available for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android and is built on Chromium. Therefore, there are not many functional differences with Chrome. The company believes this is a good thing, as people may be tempted to switch without letting go of their web browsing habits. However, you can customize your landing page and remove sections that don't suit your tastes, such as Top Sites or Climate Impact. Image credit: Ecosia Michael Metcalf, Ecosia's chief product officer, told TechCrunch by phone that the…
UK-based space technology investment group Seraphim Space is officially launching its second VC fund following an initial close with a limited number of partners including Airbus, TechCrunch exclusively reports Ta. This early-stage fund will build a global portfolio of 30 startups backed at seed and Series A stages. CEO and manager Mark Boggett did not disclose the success rate or target size of the fund, but it is larger than Seraphim Space's 2017 £70m VC fund (approximately $90m at the time). He said it should happen. Like its predecessor, Seraphim's second VC fund, SSV II, is backed by leading companies…
The two are parting ways on amicable terms, two sources exclusively tell TechCrunch. Piyush Gupta, one of Peak Mr. Gupta joined Peak XV, formerly known as Sequoia Capital India & SEA, in 2017 to lead the strategy development team for impact ventures. Prior to joining Peak XV, he worked at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank for more than a decade, where he focused on similar things such as mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs. Although Mr. Gupta did not serve as an investment partner at Peak I accomplished it. News of Mr. Gupta's departure was communicated to limited partners from Peak XV…
TikTok's social commerce marketplace, TikTok Shop, is launching a second-hand luxury goods category in the UK, with strong competition from the likes of The RealReal, Vestiere Collective, Depop, Poshmark and Mercari. This service has already been present on TikTok Shop US for more than 6 months. The new category will allow customers in the UK to buy second-hand luxury clothing, designer handbags and other accessories without leaving the TikTok app. At launch, only five of his British brands are available: Sellier, Luxe Collective, Sign of the Times, HardlyEverWornIt and Break Archive. Since launching TikTok Shop in 2022, the platform has…
To give female academics and others focused on AI their well-deserved and overdue spotlight time, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews highlighting notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. Start. As the AI boom continues, we'll be publishing several articles throughout the year highlighting key research that may go unrecognized. Click here for a detailed profile. Anna Korhonen is Professor of Natural Language Processing (NLP) at the University of Cambridge. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at Churchill University, a Research Fellow at the Association for Computational Linguistics, and a Research Fellow at the European Institute…
When you board a United Airlines flight, the gate agents, flight attendants, and others are coordinating in chat rooms to ensure the plane departs on time, coordinating many tasks that you, as a passenger, may never notice. Is there still space for my carry-on baggage? Did the caterer bring the missing orange juice? Is there a way for the family to sit together? If your flight is delayed, you'll receive an explanatory message via text and in the United Airlines app. In most cases, that message is generated by AI. Meanwhile, in offices around the world, dispatchers examine this real-time…
Welcome to TechCrunch FinTech! This week, we cover Ramp's big raise and soaring valuation, Mercury's expansion into personal banking, Klarna's new credit card, a global funding round, and more. Get TechCrunch's roundup of the biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT. Subscribe here. big story Ramp, a spend management startup that rivals the likes of Brex, Navan, and Airbase, told TechCrunch exclusively last week that it had raised $150 million at a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion. Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund co-led the round, which represents a 31.9% valuation increase…