Tue.Oct 18, 2022

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AI content platform Jasper raises $125M at a $1.7B valuation

TechCrunch

As the enthusiasm around AI image and text generators grows, Jasper , a startup developing what it describes as an “AI content” platform, has raised $125 million at a $1.7 billion valuation. The tranche is the company’s first, remarkably, and comes as Jasper is in the process of acquiring AI startup Outwrite , a grammar and style checker with more than a million users worldwide.

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Five Pillars of PLG with Carilu Dietrich

Tomasz Tunguz

Yesterday, Office Hours hosted Carilu Dietrich, marketer at Atlassian & advisor to many iconic product-led growth companies (PLG). She’s seen many different types of businesses from startups to massive publicly traded software companies. Her unique vantage point on the tension facing the companies pursuing both PLG & classic selling formed the basis of most of our conversation.

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Here’s a peek at what’s happening on day one at Disrupt

TechCrunch

Welcome to the first day of TechCrunch Disrupt ! Yeah, baby, we are ready to jump right into a jam-packed day dedicated to the growth and success of the entire early-stage startup ecosystem. Check out our day-one highlights to whet your appetite and then dig in! Latecomers always welcome: Buy a pass right here. You’ll find all the day’s programs, stage location and times listed in the Disrupt agenda and in the event app.

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Weekly 18: How do VCs choose which startups to fund?

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Welcome to another edition of our new newsletter! You’ll receive the best practical startup advice straight to your inbox every week. In this week’s edition, we share: How VCs choose which startups to fund. How you can sell your startup to VCs with a one-pager. Plus, a recording of our second AMA event (see below). Let’s do this. You won’t believe how VCs decide which startups to fund Aaron Dinin, PhD teaches entrepreneurship at Duke.

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From Curiosity to Competitive Edge: How Mid-Market CEOs Are Using AI to Scale Smarter

Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage

This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.

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DigestAI’s 19-year-old founder wants to make education addictive

TechCrunch

When Quddus Pativada was 14, he wished that he had an app that could summarize his textbooks for him. Just five years later, Pativada has been there and done that — earlier this year, he launched the AI-based app Kado, which turns photos, documents or PDFs into flash cards. Now, as the 19-year-old founder takes the stage for Startup Battlefield, he’s looking to take his company, DigestAI , beyond flashcards to create an AI dialogue assistant that we can all carry around on our phones

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Code analysis tool AppMap wants to become Google Maps for developers

TechCrunch

In December 2021, a vulnerability in a widely used logging library that had gone unfixed since 2013 caused a full-blown security meltdown. . The 10/10-rated Log4Shell flaw in Log4j, an open source logging software that’s found practically everywhere, from online games to enterprise software and cloud data centers, claimed numerous victims from Adobe and Cloudflare to Twitter and Minecraft due to its ubiquitous presence.

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Singapore insurtech bolttech secures funds to continue global growth

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register bolttech, one of the world’s fastest growing international insurtech companies, announced that Tokio Marine, alongside other shareholders, will lead its Series B funding round. The investment values bolttech, Singapore’s only homegrown insurtech unicorn, at an up-round valuation of approximately $1.5 billion, one year after it closed the largest ever Series A funding round for an insur

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NXgenPort aims to detect early signs of infection in cancer patients before symptoms arise

TechCrunch

Meet NXgenPort , a Saint Paul, Minnesota-based startup that’s looking to remotely monitor cancer patients in between doctor visits using a port catheter. NXgenPort, which presented today at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, is building an implantable chemo port that features added sensors and remote connectivity functions. The port combines chemo-port efficacy with sensor technology to measure and remotely monitor early onset of complications by reporting and tracking patient response over

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The 7 Types of Startup Founders: Why It Matters To You

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Here’s how to find yourself as a founder Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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Omneky uses AI to generate social media ads

TechCrunch

Meet Omneky , a startup that leverages OpenAI’s DALLE-2 and GPT-3 models to generate visuals and text that can be used in ads for social platforms. The company wants to make online ads both cheaper and more effective thanks to recent innovations in artificial intelligence and computer vision. Omneky is participating in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022.

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Apple’s Top 100 Meeting: Lessons from Steve Jobs’ Secret Agenda

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Due to a lawsuit with Samsung, a confidential email from Jobs became public Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Staax thinks peer-to-peer payments can onboard a new generation of stock investors

TechCrunch

For better or for worse, Robinhood helped inspire a new generation of investors to enter the stock market. Now that investing is cool again, upstarts like Staax , which pitched today at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield, are finding new ways to cash in on its cachet, particularly among young people. Nikki Varanasi, Staax’s founder and CEO, was managing an $800 million fund-of-funds at McKinsey when she began to take notice of the lack of resources available to aspiring investo

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Indonesian fintech startup Pocket nets pre-Seed funding

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register Indonesia-focused venture capital investor East Ventures has anchored the pre-Seed funding round of Pocket , an fintech startup that provides a financial health platform for Indonesian families. In a statement, Pocket said it will allocate the fresh funds mainly for product penetration in increasing adoption and users.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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Meet E-liza Dolls, the startup that’s building dolls to help young girls learn to code

TechCrunch

E-liza Dolls , a Berkeley-based startup, is aiming to challenge the gender gap in STEM by helping young girls learn to code using dolls. The company, which exhibited as part of the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, builds dolls that include programmable computers that girls can code through an app. The startup was founded in 2021 by Eliza Kosoy, a PhD student at UC Berkeley, who is focused on the intersection of child development and artificial intelligence.

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Brazil’s Surprising Fintech Tailwind

Andreessen Horowitz

When most people think of Brazil, the country’s golden beaches, world-class soccer players, and famous Carnaval festival spring to mind. Top of mind for us, however, is Brazil’s financial regulation. Over the past decade, the government has introduced regulatory changes … The post Brazil’s Surprising Fintech Tailwind appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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How to combine PLG and enterprise sales to improve your funnel

TechCrunch

Kate Ahlering. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Kate Ahlering is the chief revenue officer at Calendly, where she leads sales, sales enablement, revenue operations and partnerships functions. Between the changing tides of the economy and digital buying preferences, SaaS companies are under tremendous pressure. Many of these companies understand that 80% of their interactions with buyers occur on digital channels.

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Crypto Startup School: relaunched and expanded

Andreessen Horowitz

… The post Crypto Startup School: relaunched and expanded appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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The GTM Intelligence Era: ZoomInfo 2025 Customer Impact Report

ZoomInfo customers aren’t just selling — they’re winning. Revenue teams using our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform grew pipeline by 32%, increased deal sizes by 40%, and booked 55% more meetings. Download this report to see what 11,000+ customers say about our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform and how it impacts their bottom line. The data speaks for itself!

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Swap Robotics is paving the way for electric solar vegetation cuts and sidewalk snow plowing

TechCrunch

Swap Robotics , a company that manufactures electric grass-cutting and snow removal robots, presented today at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield to detail how it’s making sustainable outdoor work equipment. For the next few years, 95% of the startup’s focus will be on facilitating robots that cut grass and vegetation on 1,000+ acre utility-scale solar farms.

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Public Randomness and Randomness Beacons

Andreessen Horowitz

… The post Public Randomness and Randomness Beacons appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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Egypt’s Nexta to launch “next-gen banking” app with fresh $3M

TechCrunch

Nexta , an Egyptian startup that plans to launch its banking app in the coming months, has secured a $3 million investment from eFinance Group, a state-owned provider of digital payments solutions. This news follows the $2 million pre-seed round Nexta announced this March, which Egyptian early-stage VC Disruptech led. Last year, Nexta obtained a provisional license from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and will look to fulfil further requirements and meet certain obligations before obtaining the

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Smart farming startup Beleaf harvests $2m in Seed round

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register Beleaf , an I ndonesian smart farming startup , announced raising $2 million in a Seed funding round led by Jakarta-based venture capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures. The funding round was also backed by BRI Ventures’ Sembrani Nusantara, MDI-Finch Capital’s Arise, and several prominent angel investors.

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How Top Tech CFOs Solve Annual Planning’s Biggest Challenges

Gearing up for 2025 annual planning? Our latest eBook from the Operators Guild is your ultimate guide. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community. Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments.

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Drivetrain is the “Google Maps for business growth”

TechCrunch

Businesses usually plot their growth strategies on spreadsheets, but Drivetrain wants to provide a faster alternative for financial planning and decision-making. The startup, which calls itself “Google Maps for business growth,” announced today that it has raised $15 million from Elevation Capital, Jungle Ventures and Venture Highway, plus 25 angel investors.

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How to Use AI-Driven Insights to Improve Sales Efficiency

Startup Blogpost

How are you using AI-driven insights to improve sales efficiency? AI and machine learning outpaces humans in almost every way. So, why leave your business in the hands of human error, and why not augment your capabilities with AI-driven insights? Learn the best ways to achieve sales-singularity by reading the ways these business leaders and managers have found success in their teams by using AI.

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Nigeria’s AltSchool increases course options amidst soaring tech-skill demand

TechCrunch

After launching its inaugural school of engineering earlier this year and raising pre-seed funding, Nigeria’s AltSchool has expanded its catalog to include data and product schools, responding to the growing demand for these technical skills by youth and employers. Among the new courses are product marketing, design and management, data science, engineering and analysis.

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V3 Ventures launches to put €100M into startups in health, beauty and food

TechCrunch

Verlinvest , a family-backed, “evergreen”, growth fund investor, that has previously funded a few well-known consumer brands like Oatly, Vita Coco, Tony’s Chocolonely, Who Gives A Crap, Pedego, Chewy.com, Hint & others, is getting into the venture game. After putting around €50m into VC initiatives globally, it’s now embarking on being the kick-starter LP in a new VC fund dubbed V3 Ventures , the idea being to invest up to €100m into founders and brands directly.

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5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.