TechCrunch Startup News

Latest Episodes:

Deep-linking startup Branch is raising more than $100M at a unicorn valuation Sep 10, 2018

Show notes

Branch, the deep-linking startup backed by Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures, will enter the unicorn club with an upcoming funding round. The four-year-old company, which helps brands create links between websites and mobile apps, has authorized the sale of $129 million in Series D shares, according to sources and confirmed by PitchBook, which tracks venture capital deals. The infusion of capital values the company at roughly $1 billion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vtrus launches drones to inspect and protect your warehouses and factories Sep 07, 2018

Show notes

Knowing what’s going on in your warehouses and facilities is of course critical to many industries, but regular inspections take time, money, and personnel. Why not use drones? Vtrus uses computer vision to let a compact drone not just safely navigate indoor environments but create detailed 3D maps of them for inspectors and workers to consult, autonomously and in real time.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PoLTE lets you track devices using LTE signal Sep 07, 2018

Show notes

Meet PoLTE, a Dallas-based startup that wants to make location-tracking more efficient. Thanks to PoLTE’s software solution, logistics and shipment companies can much more easily track packages and goods. The startup is participating in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield at Disrupt SF. If you want to use a connected device to track a package, you currently need a couple of things — a way to determine the location of the package, and a way to transmit this information over the air.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ashton Kutcher hates cars, loves scooters Sep 06, 2018

Show notes

Ashton Kutcher and Effie Epstein discussed their investment strategy at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. With their VC fund Sound Ventures, they invested in Bird. While they are conflicted on this topic, Kutcher had a passionate answer about scooters. Here’s a video of what he had to say: Ashton Kutcher: It's a better world if scooters like Bird take off #TCDisrupt pic.twitter.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unity CEO says half of all games are built on Unity Sep 06, 2018

Show notes

Unity CEO John Riccitiello came to TechCrunch Disrupt SF to give everyone an update on the world’s most popular game engine. You might not be aware that most of the games you’re playing, especially mobile games, are built using Unity. For those not familiar with game engines, Riccitiello started by describing game engines very clearly. Back in the days, “[game developers] would write out a game program that had lots of art assets, lots of animation, lots of sounds.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here are the six startups participating in Betaworks LiveCamp Sep 05, 2018

Show notes

Betaworks this morning revealed this list of six startups participating in its fourth Camp accelerator program. Launched in 2016, the program brings together a collection of young companies united under a single theme. This time out, things are focused on live-streaming, for a program fittingly titled, LiveCamp. Betaworks settled on the topic based on the popularity of apps like Twitch and HQ Trivia. It’s admittedly a bit more nebulous than past topics like BotCamp, VoiceCamp and VisionCamp.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber’s chief diversity officer is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2018 Sep 04, 2018

Show notes

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2018, Uber’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Bo Young Lee will be joining us to talk about the ride-sharing company’s efforts to put detoxify its corporate culture and promote a more inclusive environment for employees. Lee was hired as the company’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer this past January, after leaving insurance company Marsh LLC where she held a similar role.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotinst, excess cloud capacity management service, snares $35M Series B Aug 30, 2018

Show notes

Spotinst, the startup that helps companies purchase and manage excess cloud infrastructure capacity, announced a hefty $35 million Series B today led by Highland Capital. Existing investors Leaders Fund, Intel Capital and Vertex Ventures also participated. Today’s round brings the total investment to over $52 million.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Datree gets $3M seed round to build DevOps policy engine in GitHub Aug 30, 2018

Show notes

Datree, an early-stage startup based in Israel, wants to help companies create a set of policies for their applications, and apply them in GitHub before a commit goes live. Today, it announced $3 million in seed funding from TLV partners. The check was actually written last September, according to the founders, and they are making the investment public today.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cleo Capital sets $10M target to fund female entrepreneurs Aug 29, 2018

Show notes

Sarah Kunst has filed to raise $10 million for her debut venture capital fund, Cleo Capital. According to Axios, the firm will give cash to female entrepreneurs who will act as scouts. Scouts look for viable early-stage startups for firms to invest in and then receive a cut of the profits on the investments. Kunst, pictured above, is a scout for Sequoia; it’s unclear if that will change now that she’s running her own firm.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected