Instagram added two features to Reels yesterday: text-to-speech and voice effects. These features are popular already on TikTok, but now, creators can use them on Instagram too. This marks yet another effort from Instagram to keep up with TikTok when it comes to short-form video, as Instagram offers big reels bonuses to incentivize creators, Text-to-speech…
Once I was recovered from the initial surrealism of Amazon launching its own home robot, I immediately thought about iRobot. The company cornered the home robotics market a decade ago, and while there are now countless robot vacuums, they’re all more or less riffs on the Roomba. The issue with having a big hit is…
Indonesia-based startup GoTo Group announced today it has secured more than $1.3 billion in the first close of its pre-IPO funding. The latest round was led by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), with participation from Avanda Investment Management, Fidelity International, Google, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Primavera Capital, SeaTown Master Fund, Temasek, Tencent and Ward Ferry.…
The fall hasn’t been kind to Disney’s streaming ambitions. Disney+ added just 2.1 million subscribers in its fourth quarter, giving it a total of 118.1 million customers. That’s in line with the company’s already cautious estimate (in the “low single-digit millions”) and 60 percent more total customers than a year earlier, but well below what some…
Priti Choksi, partner at Norwest Venture Partners, has a portfolio that includes Bright, Lumosity, Citcon, UPSIDE Foods and Birdies. But before she ever entered the world of VC, she was an operator at companies like Facebook and Google. She managed business development teams and ran M&A and has vast experience in the world of growing…
This week we talk to the runner-up in Tech Crunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield: Megan O’Connor from Nth Cycle. Megan first found out about the impending shortage of materials used in batteries, phones, electric vehicles, and many of the products needed for a more sustainable green economy while studying at Yale and immediately began working towards…
In February, Disha, a Nigeria-based platform that allows digital creators to curate, sell digital content, create portfolios and receive payments from their audience globally, announced that it was closing shop. Before the news, Disha had bootstrapped to more than 20,000 users; at some point, it claimed to have a monthly growth rate of about 100%.…
Mathpresso, the Seoul-based edtech company behind QANDA, an AI-based learning app for K-12 students, announced today it has added Google as a new investor. Google’s undisclosed investment is not part of its Series C raised in June, the company said without providing its valuation. The additional investment event comes five months after its $50 million…
fuboTV is making a significant move in Europe with plans to acquire Molotov, a French startup with a leading television streaming service. fuboTV also operates a TV streaming platform, but it is currently only operating in the U.S., Canada and Spain. The transaction is a cash-and-stock deal that values Molotov at $190 million (€164.3 million).…
Sweetgreen, a fast-casual restaurant chain that attracted ample venture capital during its life as a private company, set early terms for its IPO this morning. The well-known salad-slinger expects to sell stock in its public market debut at a range of $23 to $25 per share. Inclusive of shares reserved for its underwriting banks, Sweetgreen is…
