Startups

Meet Ponte Labor, a startup matching Hispanic immigrants to jobs using WhatsApp

Startups /

While working on their MBAs at Harvard Business School, Colombian immigrants Stephanie Murra and Lorenza Vélez noticed that most of the workers in the cafeteria were Hispanic. In conversations with them, a common theme kept coming up: how difficult it was for people who legally moved to the U.S. from Spanish-speaking countries to find their […]

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Fashion startup CaaStle appears to be in trouble

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CaaStle, a startup that launched in 2011 as a plus-sized clothing subscription service and in 2018 became an inventory monetization platform for clothing retailers, is facing financial difficulties, reports Axios. The company is almost out of money, CEO Christine Hunsicker has resigned, and law enforcement is investigating alleged financial misconduct, Axios reported, citing a leaked

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Here are Africa’s biggest startups based on valuation

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Last year, funding into African startups edged past $2 billion, returning to pre-pandemic levels and presenting a mixed bag as expected. Signs suggest 2025 will follow the cautious trends of the past two years. A sharp decline in mega-deals, mirroring global venture capital tightening since the boom of 2020-2021, pushed local and international investors to

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Startups Weekly: Mercury more than doubled its valuation, and other news

Startups /

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. This week reminded us that creative accounting doesn’t only happen in Hollywood. Some hopes were dashed, but startups are delivering on all sorts of promises, from nuclear

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OpenAI is aiming for AGI but landing on Studio Ghibli

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OpenAI is reportedly nearing completion of a massive $40 billion funding round, with SoftBank leading the way. But this week, it wasn’t just the company funding news making headlines— its new image generator went live in ChatGPT, with capabilities including the ability to turn ordinary images into Studio Ghibli-style animation stills. While AI-generated art often

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YC-backed Taxo raises $5M to slash healthcare admin with its AI ‘reasoning engine’

Startups /

When British doctor Ahmed Kerwan began working as a physician, the paperwork burden shocked him. On some days, he would spend only three hours actually caring for patients, with the rest of his workday spent on things like dealing with insurance claims. There are already dozens, perhaps hundreds, of startups using AI to reduce the

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Krafton acquires controlling stake in Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14M

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Krafton, South Korea’s gaming giant known for titles including PUBG: Battlegrounds and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), has acquired a controlling stake in 12-year-old Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14 million in an all-cash deal. On Friday, the South Korean gaming company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has acquired a “north of 75% stake” in

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Certification platform Certiverse nabs $11M Series A led by Cherryrock

Startups /

Certification platform Certiverse raised an $11 million Series A led by Cherryrock Capital, it announced this week. The company was founded by Ruben Garcia, Pablo Meyer, and Federico Lopez in 2023. It lets organizations develop certification exams at, its founders say, far less cost than traditional methods.  Certifications are an age-old method to gain technical

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Ebay backs WunderGraph to build an open-source GraphQL federation

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A fledgling open-source startup that’s setting out to tackle API sprawl in the GraphQL ecosystem has secured the backing of e-commerce giant eBay. WunderGraph, as the company is called, today said it has raised $7.5 million in a Series A round of funding to “scale its open source GraphQL federation.” Investors include eBay’s VC arm

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Fintech Mercury lands $300M in Sequoia-led Series C, doubles valuation to $3.5B

Startups /

Digital banking startup Mercury has raised $300 million in primary and secondary funding at a $3.5 billion post-money valuation, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday. The valuation is more than double the startup’s valuation when it last raised capital – a $120 million Series B round in 2021 that valued the company at $1.62

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