BoxGroup closes on $425M for two funds to back early-stage startups
Each fund is $212.5 million and will invest in pre-seed, seed and Series A companies across consumer enterprise, healthcare, financial, biotech and climate. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreInstagram introduces gen-AI powered background editing tool
Instagram introduced its generative AI-powered background editing tool to U.S.-based users Wednesday. Meta’s lead for generative AI Ahmad Al-Dahle posted on Threads saying that the tool will let users change the background to their images through prompts for Stories. When users will tap on the background editor icon on an
Read moreQogita — a wholesale marketplace for retailers — raises $86M Series B to compete with Ankorstore in Europe
Qogita, a two-sided e-commerce wholesale marketplace aimed at retailers largely in the health and beauty sectors, has raised €80 million ($86 million) in a Series B round led by London’s Dawn Capital. The company plans to use the cash to expand into more categories. Also participating were previous investors Accel,
Read moreIndia’s Udaan scores $340 million in new funding
The investment arm of the UK retail bank M&G has led a funding of $340 million into Udaan, a business-to-business e-commerce startup, in one of the largest financing rounds secured by an Indian startup in 2023. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which helps merchants in smaller Indian cities and towns secure inventories
Read moreJumia discontinues food delivery across seven markets, shifts focus to expanding physical goods business
Pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia has disclosed its intention to discontinue its food delivery service, Jumia Food. The company said its food delivery business is not aligned with the current operational landscape and prevailing macroeconomic conditions in the seven markets, including Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Ivory Coast. As
Read moreSocial commerce platform Maka raises $2.65M to simplify buying fashion and beauty products in Africa
Maka, an African fashion and beauty e-commerce platform, has raised a $2.65 million pre-seed round led by Pan-African venture capital firms 4DX Ventures and Janngo Capital. Other investors include Palm Drive Capital, angel investor Jonathan Shipman, founder of EVP and Twitch founding member, and executives from delivery platform Wolt. In
Read morePrivacy complaint takes aim at Musk’s X over EU ads targeted on sensitive data
Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is facing a new privacy complaint in Europe related to its ad targeting tools. The complaint, which is being lodged with the Dutch data protection authority by privacy rights not-for-profit noyb, accuses X of failing to enforce its own its
Read moreLineNext secures $140M funding for its web3 platform
LineNext, a web3 unit of the Japanese messaging app Line, raised $140 million in its funding led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a Peter Thiel-backed private equity firm in South Korea, to expand its web3 platform. The new funding comes nearly a year after LineNext released its browser-only beta service —
Read moreBerlin climate startup ecoworks is using a high tech blend to decarbonize buildings
Berlin-based climate startup ecoworks is using digital technologies, AI and industrial robots to tackle a huge and critical problem: Energy inefficient buildings. Around three-quarters of buildings in Europe are deemed energy inefficient, per the startup, while around half of the 315 million residential units in the region have energy performance
Read moreTwitch’s new nudity policy allows illustrated nipples, but not human underboob
Twitch announced sweeping updates to its sexual content policy and content classification system, which now allows previously prohibited content like illustrated nipples and “erotic dances,” in addition to clarifying what nudity is and isn’t allowed on the platform. The update follows the widespread “topless meta” backlash, after streamer and OnlyFans
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