Snap announced today that it paid over $250 million to more than 12,000 creators this year on Spotlight, its TikTok clone. Unlike Snapchat’s friend-to-friend, ephemeral messaging, Spotlight allows users to reach a wide audience. Since last year when Spotlight launched, Snap says that creators are posting three times as often now. It’s no secret that…
Open has acquired consumer neo-banking startup Finin for $10 million as the Bangalore-based, Google-backed business-focused neobanking platform looks to broaden its offerings and deepen relationships with banks. The deal involves both cash and stock, the two said. Launched in 2019, Finin is among the first consumer-focused neobanking startups in India. The startup, which had raised…
ForwardX Robotics, a Beijing-headquartered company that makes autonomous mobile robots (AMR), said Tuesday it has closed the initial tranche of its Series C funding round as it looks to expand globally. The startup is fundraising for the rest of its Series C round at a time investors are courting warehousing and manufacturing robot makers in…
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Monday, December 13! The theme of today is crypto, or web3 if you prefer that rebranding. Why? Because it turns out that an NFT project…
StudyFree — which connects students with international educational opportunities via a community-driven B2B SaaS model — has raised a $3 million seed investment round led by I2BF Global Ventures, TMT Investments, and TechStars. Also participating was PandaDoc CEO Mikita Mikado and Google’s ex-director of product Andrey Doronichev. StudyFree has now received a total of $3.6…
Indonesia-based insurtech startup Fuse announced today it has secured $25 million of Series B extension round as it plans to enter more countries including Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia. The startup has closed three funding rounds of Series B within the past six months, bringing the company’s total raised to over $70 million. The…
Well, it turns out the Beatles didn’t get broken up by Yoko after all. But Peter Jackson may have gotten closer. His Get Back movie seemed to be so far over the top that even Beatlemaniacs like myself had had enough. But no. On this edition of the Gang, we still can’t stop talking about…
Steven R. Rogers Contributor Steven R. Rodgers is executive vice president and general counsel of Intel Corporation, where he serves on the senior executive team and oversees the company’s legal, government and trade groups. The U.S. patent system, which should fuel invention, is increasingly being abused to hinder innovation. It desperately needs reform, and there’s…
Ali Al-Ahmed is the founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs. Matthew Hedges Contributor Dr. Matthew Hedges is a postdoctoral teaching assistant at the University of Exeter. The TechCrunch Global Affairs Project examines the increasingly intertwined relationship between the tech sector and global politics. Governments that purchase spyware tend to share a common pretext: the…
The Twitter account of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “briefly compromised” on Sunday, his office said. Modi’s account — whose handle is @narendramodi — tweeted after the midnight that India had officially adopted bitcoin as a legal tender, prompting suspicions about a hack because of the timing of the announcement and also as New…
