Startups

Data infrastructure startup Cribl raises $319M at a $3.5B valuation

San Francisco-based data infrastructure startup Cribl has raised $319 million in a Series E funding tranche led by new investor GV (Alphabet’s corporate venture arm) with participation from GIC, CapitalG, IVP and CRV. Bringing Cribl’s total raised to $600 million, the cash injection values the company at $3.5 billion — up around 40% from Cribl’s […]

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Palico is now the first FINRA-approved company to facilitate online LP-led secondaries deals

Limited partners selling their investment stakes in venture capital funds to other LPs on the secondary market is nothing new. But traditionally these transactions happen offline through an opaque network of brokers that could charge costly fees and prove prohibitive for certain LPs to participate. Palico is looking to change that. Paris-based Palico quietly got

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Travly lets travelers submit videos for a chance to earn a 5% commission from hotel bookings

Travly is a new social-first discovery and hotel booking platform designed to cater to the growing number of travelers who rely on short-form video content for trip ideas.  The platform features user-generated content that provides authentic reviews of hotels instead of generic information and often outdated images. Creators who submit videos of hotels have the

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Harmonyze wants to build AI agents to help franchisors make sense of unstructured data

For some businesses, there is a clear path to growth that doesn’t involve acquiring other companies or expanding organically: franchising. The U.S. has more than 800,000 franchise businesses, according to Statista, and that number is predicted to keep growing year over year. But franchising a business — licensing a business model and brand to an

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Etched founder Gavin Uberti thinks his company stands on the “shoulders of giants”

The release of ChatGPT in November 2022 sparked a new wave of AI companies. It also brought attention to the companies that were already building in the space like Etched. Etched co-founder and CEO Gavin Uberti said on a recent episode of TechCrunch’s Found podcast that his company “stands on the shoulders of giants.” While

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Maybe Friend wasn’t crazy for spending $1.8M on a domain after all

When AI companion startup Friend revealed it had spent $1.8 million on buying the www.friend.com domain name last week, it set off a debate around what exactly branding is worth, and how startups should be spending cash. Founders of other companies like Loom and Public came forward to share stories of their own quests to

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Thursday, the dating app that you can use only on Thursdays, expands to San Francisco

Thursday seeks to shake up conventional online dating in a crowded market. The app, which recently expanded to San Francisco, fosters intentional dating by restricting user access to Thursdays. At midnight, all matches disappear. The idea is that by restricting usage to one day a week, potential matches will be encouraged to set up real-life meetings

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Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst thinks everyone needs to be more realistic on what AI can, and cannot do

AI companies are gobbling up investor money and securing skyhigh valuations early in their lifecycle. This dynamic has many calling the AI industry a bubble. Nick Frosst, a co-founder of Cohere, which builds custom AI models for enterprise customers, recently said on TechCrunch’s Found podcast that he doesn’t think the AI industry is in a

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