Startups | TechCrunch

India’s HealthKart valued at $500 million in new investment

Manish Singh — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 08:53:09 +0000

Indian omni-channel nutrition startup HealthKart has raised $153 million in one of the country’s largest consumer startup transactions this year, valuing the business at about $500 million, according to a source familiar with the matter. The new investment was co-led by private equity firms ChrysCapital and Motilal Oswal, with Avendus Capital serving as financial advisor. […]

Oyo founder seeks new investment at $3.8B valuation

Manish Singh — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 04:44:22 +0000

An investment vehicle backed by Oyo’s founder, Ritesh Agarwal, has proposed to inject another $65.1 million into the Indian hospitality startup, according to notices to shareholders that were reviewed by TechCrunch. The investment, through Redsprig Innovation Partners, would value the SoftBank-backed company at $3.8 billion, according to terms shared in a notice to shareholders. While […]

Norwegian startup Factiverse wants to fight disinformation with AI

Rebecca Bellan — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

In the wake of the U.S. 2024 presidential election, one fact became clear: Disinformation proliferated online at a startling rate, shaping Americans’ views about each candidate as well as a diverse set of topics, including public health, climate change, and immigration. Generative AI – with its ability to produce deepfakes in seconds and its propensity to […]

TikTok parent ByteDance reportedly values itself at $300 billion

Anthony Ha — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 17:26:40 +0000

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, valued itself at $300 billion in a recent share buyback offer, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. That number might sound familiar, as the WSJ previously reported on a ByteDance buyback offer at a $300 billion valuation back in September 2022. But a year […]

Here’s the full list of 44 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024

Rebecca Szkutak — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 23:03:00 +0000

In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally.

The US IPO window hasn’t reopened yet, but startups take what they can

Anna Heim — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:05:00 +0000

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here! Despite the short workweek in many locations, the last few days have been crammed with deal announcements and funding news, although it is too early to tell how much was just on hold before […]

‘I went to Greenland to try to buy it’: Meet the founder who wants to recreate Mars on Earth

Margaux MacColl — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 19:01:40 +0000

Praxis co-founder Dryden Brown wants to build a city in Greenland that emulates what a community on Mars could be like.

After raising nearly half a billion dollars, ABL Space pivots from launch vehicles to missiles

Aria Alamalhodaei — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 17:44:12 +0000

Significant changes are coming to ABL Space Systems. The leader of the 7-year-old startup took to social media last night to make a big announcement: The company will no longer be focusing on the commercial launch market but will be turning instead to missile defense. ABL had been developing a small launch vehicle called RS1 […]

Microsoft bets a carbon removal bake-off will help offset its skyrocketing AI emissions

Tim De Chant — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 17:23:57 +0000

Microsoft is buying 10,000 tons of carbon credits from Deep Sky, a direct air capture developer.

JobGet, a ‘LinkedIn’ for hourly workers, acquires rival Snagajob

Ingrid Lunden — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 14:51:18 +0000

If you’re an hourly worker, the number of go-to options you have for finding new jobs is shrinking a little. JobGet, a Boston-based startup that operates an hourly job-hunting site with social features built in, à la LinkedIn, is acquiring Snagajob, one of its rivals in the U.S. market. JobGet claims this will make it […]

Meghan Markle is expanding her consumer portfolio

Dominic-Madori Davis — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 14:11:36 +0000

InStyle reported yesterday that Meghan Markle is an investor in the hair and wellness company Highbrow Hippie, founded by her colorist Kadi Lee and Myka Harris. The company was announcing the launch of a new hair care line and Meghan told the outlet that she was “proud to invest in her as a friend and […]

How to use Bluesky, the Twitter-like app that’s taking on Elon Musk’s X

Sarah Perez — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:53:05 +0000

Bluesky is continuing to blow up. The Twitter-like service and alternative to Elon Musk’s X, has now surpassed 16 million users after seeing rapid growth in the days following the U.S. presidential election. While many are leaving X over the service’s increasing right-wing leanings and Musk’s campaigning for Trump, others are unhappy with other changes […]

Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony AI seeks up to $224M in US IPO

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:30:52 +0000

Pony AI is inching closer to its initial public offering in the U.S., but as it does so, it continues to drop its minimum target for what it hopes to raise in the transaction. Pony operates a fleet of 190 “robotrucks” in Beijing and Guangzhou and more than 250 robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and […]

Mission Space launches next quarter to provide real-time space weather forecasts

Devin Coldewey — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 15:01:00 +0000

When you board a plane, the pilot already knows the weather on the flight path and can steer clear, or at least warn you it’s coming. The same can’t be said of “space weather” from solar events, which can seriously affect satellites and even passenger planes. Mission Space is about to launch a constellation to […]

Sales tax automation startup Kintsugi doubled its valuation this year

Rebecca Szkutak — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:17:35 +0000

A 2018 Supreme Court ruling eliminated the requirement that an e-commerce retailer needed a physical location in a state in order for said state to be able to collect sales tax on purchases made by residents. While the decision was a boon for states, it created a headache for e-commerce sellers. Kintsugi is looking to […]

German travel startup Tourlane raises $26M led by Sequoia

Ingrid Lunden — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:14:01 +0000

Global travel continues to gain ground, with the World Travel and Tourism Council predicting the industry will cross $11 trillion in revenues this year. Consumers are evolving from the so-called “revenge travel” of the post-COVID-19 years, dedicating a growing share of their budget to a wider array of experiences away from home. Add AI to […]

Team-GPT raises $4.5M to offer suite of AI tools to companies

Dominic-Madori Davis — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

To stay competitive, some companies are scrambling to adopt AI, but they are sometimes unsure of the best way to integrate it into their business. Iliya Valchanov, co-founder and CEO of Team-GPT, thinks he has an answer to their worries. In 2023, Valchanov and Ilko Kacharov, Yavor Belakov, Katya Vaptsarova, and Maria Valchanova launched Team-GPT […]

Influur wants to stand out from other influencer marketplaces by promising timely payout

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

As the influencer economy grows, startups like Passionfroot, Agentio, and One Impression, along with social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are trying to build marketplaces to connect brands with creators. Miami-based startup Influur is banking on two unique aspects of its platform: quick response from creators and financial tools to ensure they are paid […]

Atlas.co wants its web-based mapping tool to be the Figma of geospatial data

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Startup inspiration can strike anywhere. But for Atlas.co*, a freemium browser-based, real-time mapping tool that’s being built by an Oslo, Norway-based team of (initially student) engineers, the realization that there might be a business opportunity in competing with expensive legacy mapping software hit the founders during class. “When we took introduction class to GIS [geographic […]

ePlane looks to ride the Indian government’s interest in air taxis with new $14M round

Jagmeet Singh — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:30:00 +0000

India's ePlane Company has raised $14 million in a Series B round as it plans to commercialize its air taxi in 2026.