TechCrunch Startup News

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LottieFiles raises Series B to make the animation format even more ubiquitous May 03, 2022

Show notes

Lottie animations are everywhere. The JSON-based file format, first introduced as an open-source library by Airbnb engineers, can now be seen in the top 500 iOS and Android apps, said LottieFiles co-founder Kshitij Minglani.

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Anthropic’s quest for better, more explainable AI attracts $580M May 03, 2022

Show notes

Less than a year ago, Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI VP of research Dario Amodei, intending to perform research in the public interest on making AI more reliable and explainable. Its $124 million in funding was surprising then, but nothing could have prepared us for the company raising $580 million less than a year.

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Vyoma is the latest player seeking to prevent satellite collisions with space junk May 02, 2022

Show notes

As you might’ve heard, it’s getting a little crowded in space, between thousand-satellite constellations à la SpaceX’s Starlink and the millions of pieces of space junk accumulated from decades of launches.

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Glorang scores $10M Series A to expand its edtech marketplace across Asia May 02, 2022

Show notes

Glorang, a Seoul-based edtech startup that offers after-school classes and extracurricular activities via online for students between the ages of 3 and 18, said Friday it has raised a $10 million Series A funding co-led by Korea Investment Partners and Murex Partners, along with Japan’s Pksha Capital.Â

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HackerOne buys YC-backed PullRequest to add code review to bug-squashing platform Apr 29, 2022

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PullRequest, a five year old startup that came out of Y Combinator in 2017, helps software developers by providing an external code review team.

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Madison Reed, which made DTC hair color a thing, is now going after larger retail footprint Apr 29, 2022

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Buoyed by a new $33 million investment, plans are in the works to add another 20 hair color bar locations and hire 850 new colorists by the end of the year.

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Deepset raises $14M to help companies build NLP apps Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

Natural language processing (NLP), the field of AI that involves parsing text for tasks including summarization and generation, is a fast-growing technology.

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Zippedi is using robots to digitize inventory for last-mile delivery Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

Luis Vera believes the third time is the charm. The self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur admits that his vision for digitizing retail was a decade or two early when he started his journey in the 90s.

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Umaro is turning ocean-farmed seaweed into imitation bacon Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Don’t call it a pivot, exactly — but it’s a fascinating journey, nonetheless. Umaro Foods, which is set to release a seaweed-based bacon replacement, entered the world as Trophic.

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Qualified raises $95M to help Salesforce users with sales pipeline generation Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Lead generation is a critical cornerstone in the world of sales — in a seemingly infinite sea of potential customers, you need to know who wants to buy, or who might buy.

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