Month: November 2022

Patreon adds a long-awaited native video feature

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Patreon creators can now upload videos directly to the platform. After hyping it up for a full year, Patreon Video will roll out to eligible creators on Patreon’s Pro and Premium plans. “We’re just so excited to see what creators do with this,” Patreon CPO Julian Gutman told TechCrunch. “I think it’s going to free … Read more

Dropit picks up $25M to digitize brick-and-mortar stores and unify inventories

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Dropit, a retail technology platform that bridges the digital divide by unifying merchants’ online and in-store inventories, has raised $25 million in a Series C round of funding. Founded in 2014, London-based Dropit counts retail brands including L’Occitane, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Estee Lauder as customers, in addition to shopping malls. At its core, Dropit … Read more

500 Global, GIZ establish bootcamp for accelerators in Africa to help them define sustainable business models

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Silicon-Valley based VC firm 500 Global and German’s economic development agency Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) will train managers of leading accelerators in Africa over the next two years, to help them establish sustainable business models that commandeer greater influence in their ecosystems. The program, dubbed Bootcamp for Accelerator Managers (BAM), will use project-based teaching … Read more

Musk to slash Twitter’s headcount by half — report

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More on rumors of looming job cuts at Twitter: Bloomberg is reporting that new owner Elon Musk will slash headcount by 50% to cut costs, citing people familiar with the matter. Its report suggests staff will begin being told Friday. Additionally, Bloomberg says Musk will reverse Twitter’s current ‘work from anywhere’ policy — and intends to … Read more

Google Play Games for PC program expands to the US and seven other countries

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Google is expanding its Google Play for PC program to eight more countries including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore in open beta. That means all players in these regions with Windows systems that meet the minimum requirements can access Google Play on a desktop computer. The company first launched the … Read more

Privilège Ventures launches $20M fund investing in women-led startups

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Lugano, Switzerland-based venture capital fund Privilège Ventures just launched its fourth fund. The CHF 20 million (just over $20 million) fund is earmarked for women-led early-stage startups across Europe. “We don’t just want to support women,” Jacqueline Ruedin Rüsch, founding general partner at Privilège Ventures said in an interview with TechCrunch. “The data shows women … Read more

Satellite startup Constellr wins backing to build out its water-monitoring platform

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We are living in the era of so-called microsatellites, which are equipped with thermal cameras and other regalia to, for instance, alert farmers before crops are damaged, predict droughts, and aid in the juggling of supply chains. Climate change is making less land available for agricultural food production, leading to strict regulations on the use … Read more

Fintecture wants to replace paper checks or manual transfers for B2B payments

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Meet Fintecture, a French startup that wants to upgrade B2B payments. While many payment companies have focused on B2C payments with Stripe leading the way, B2B payments haven’t changed much over the years. “In the U.S., there are still a lot of paper checks. In Europe, it’s mostly transfers and manual reconciliation,” Fintecture co-founder and … Read more