TechCrunch Startup News

Two large Indian startups, Ola Electric and FirstCry, are set to test investor appetite with their public listings this month, but both have had to price their shares below their previous valuations as they come to terms with new market realities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sybill, a startup that has built an AI assistant specifically for sales reps, has raised $11 million in a Series A round led by Greycroft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Date Like Goblins is geared toward the gaming community and allows users to connect through voice chat while playing video games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The startup has raised $21.5 million to build more of its machines and deploy them throughout the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shared micromobility giant Lime is piloting two new vehicles designed to appeal to women and older folks who might appreciate a lower step-through frame, smaller wheels and an upgrade from pedal-assist. Lime has experimented with several new form factors over the years, something it can do because it designs and engineers its vehicles in-house. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The California Department of Motor Vehicles this week granted Nuro approval to test its third-generation R3 autonomous delivery vehicle in four Bay Area cities, giving the AV startup a positive boost after facing some setbacks and financial struggles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Skip exited stealth this week to announce a partnership with outdoor clothing specialist Arc’teryx. The deal is the first to bring Skip’s MO/GO technology to market: “powered pants” that utilize a soft exoskeleton technology, developed in-house at Alphabet’s X Labs moonshot factory. MO/GO, short for “mountain goat,” is a hybrid soft/rigid exoskeleton system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Payments giant Stripe has acquired a four-year-old competitor, Lemon Squeezy, the latter company announced Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As a self-proclaimed “merchant of record,” Lemon Squeezy calculates and pays global sales tax for digital products, handling legal processing and fees in every country. It primarily serves SaaS and software businesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The energy transition is a marathon, not a sprint. But opportunities for acceleration are growing. Swedish startup Greenely* has just spotted one. It’s closing an €8 million Series A funding round to expand its energy management platform into neighbouring Nordic countries (so around $8.7M at current exchange rates). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Voice recognition is getting integrated in nearly all facets of modern living, but there remains a big gap: speakers of minority languages, and those with thick accents or speech disorders like stuttering are typically less able to use speech recognition tools that control applications, transcribe or automate tasks, among other functions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices