TechCrunch Startup News

SoftBank wants its competing portfolio companies to stop losing so much money and, in some cases, to merge. That’s the news out from the Financial Times today, which reported that Uber and DoorDash discussed merging last year. The talks didn’t wind up in a deal. The two companies, each heavily backed by SoftBank and its formerly active Vision Fund, compete in the food delivery space at great expense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Insticator, a startup helping publishers add elements like polls, quizzes and suggested story widgets to their content, has made its first acquisition — a commenting platform called Squawk-It. Insticator CEO Zack Dugow said his platform benefits online publishers by keeping audiences engaged and bringing in new ad revenue (which is split between Insticator and the publisher). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If parties came with an alert system, this post would qualify as Def Con 4. Now hear this — we just released the final batch of tickets to our3rd Annual Winter Party at Galvanize, which heats up on February 7 in San Francisco. If you want to be there with more than 1,000 of Silicon Valley’s finest, act now with all due haste. Buy your ticket right here. Hang out with your crowd and enjoy cocktails, craft beer and tempting appetizers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Perdoo, a Berlin-based OKR-focused software startup, has decided to make its basic service free, potentially shaking up its growing, and somewhat crowded, market. “Objectives and Key Results,” a planning and management technique usually shortened to “OKRs,” is a hot space for software startups, with several raising in recent months. WorkBoard and Gtmhub, for example, each raised capital for their OKR products in the last two months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Teller raises $4M to take on Plaid in the U.S. by providing API access to bank accounts “They’re idiots, they’re really naive,” is how Stevie Graham, the co-founder of fintech Teller, once described Open Banking Limited, the body charged with delivering open banking in the U.K. His view back in 2017 — which now looks somewhat prophetic — was that open banking wouldn’t be the competition driver it was hyped up to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cooks Venture, the agtech company looking to revolutionize the chicken industry, has today announced the close of a $4 million funding round led by Golden West Food Group. Cooks Venture has been working in stealth for many years, but launched onto the scene in 2018 with a plan to reshape agriculture from the ground up. And the key to that strategy? Chickens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Challenger bank N26 has reached 5 million customers. In 2019 alone, N26 managed to add over 2.5 million customers. And the company’s growth rate seems to be accelerating as N26 reached 3.5 million customers in June 2019. That represents an addition of 1 million customers during the first half of 2019 and an addition of 1.5 million customers during the second half of 2019. One reason why N26 is growing at a faster pace is that the company is still expanding to new market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you didn’t see this coming, then clearly you didn’t have your eyes on the road. Bird, the LA-founded e-scooter giant, has confirmed that it is acquiring European competitor Circ, the micromobilty company founded by Lukasz Gadowski of Delivery Hero fame. The deal, for which terms remain undisclosed, was first reported by the FT late last week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Memphis Meats, a developer of technologies to manufacture meat, seafood and poultry from animal cells, has raised $161 million in financing from investors including Softbank Group, Norwest and Temasek, the investment fund backed by the government of Singapore. The investment brings the company’s total financing to $180 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Layoffs in the technology and venture-backed worlds continued today, as 23andMe confirmed to CNBC that it laid off around 100 people, or about 14% of its formerly 700-person staff. The cuts would be notable by themselves, but given how many other reductions have recently been announced, they indicate that a rolling round of belt-tightening amongst well-funded private companies continues. Mozilla, for example, cut 70 staffers earlier this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices