The air taxi market prepares to take flight

Twelve years ago, Joby Aviation consisted of a team of seven engineers working out of founder JoeBen Bevirt’s ranch in the Santa Cruz mountains. Today, the startup has swelled to 800 people and a $6.6 billion valuation, ranking itself as the highest-valued electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) company in the industry. As in any disruptive industry, the forecast may be cloudier than the rosy picture painted by passionate founders and investors. It’s not the only air taxi company to reach unicorn status. The field is now dotted with new...

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Extra Crunch roundup: EU insurtech, 30 years of ‘Crossing the Chasm,’ embedded finance’s endgame

This morning, Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm dug into the EU insurtech market, interviewing European VCs and collating the biggest recent rounds to take the temperature of the waters across the pond: Alex Timm, CEO, Root Dan Preston, CEO, MetroMile Luca Bocchio, partner, Accel Florian Graillot, investor, Astorya.vc Stephen Brittain, director and founder, Insurtech Gateway Several European-based insurtech startups entered unicorn territory this year, such as Bought By Many, which offers pet insurance; London-based Zego; and Alan, a French startup...

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5 questions startups should consider before making their first marketing hire

Jamie Viggiano Contributor Share on Twitter Jamie Viggiano is the chief marketing officer at FUEL Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in consumer, SaaS and infrastructure businesses. “Who should my first marketing hire be?” This is (by far) the most common question I’ve received since starting as Fuel’s CMO, and for good reason. Your first marketer will have an outsized impact on team dynamics as well as the overall strategic direction of the brand, product and company. The nature of the marketing function has expanded...

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Despite flat growth, ride-hailing colossus Didi’s US IPO could reach $70B

Didi filed to go public in the United States last night, providing a look into the Chinese ride-hailing company’s business. This morning, we’re extending our earlier reporting on the company to dive into its numerical performance, economic health and possible valuation. Didi is approaching the American public markets at a fortuitous moment. While the late-2020 IPO fervor, which sent offerings from DoorDash and others skyrocketing after their debuts, has cooled, valuations for public companies remain high compared to historical norms. And Uber and...

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Last day to save $100 on passes to TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing & Fundraising

Now that we have your attention, know this: Prices go up tonight on passes to TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing & Fundraising. If you’re an early-stage founder (pre-seed through Series A), don’t miss this chance to save $100 on our two-day virtual event dedicated to helping you build a stronger startup. It’s one of the best investments you’ll ever make. It’s Now O’clock: Buy your pass here before the sale expires tonight at 11:59 p.m. (PT). Why should you attend TC Early Stage 2021? Chloe Leaaetoa, the founder of Socicraft and an Early Stage 2020...

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Lydia partners with Cashbee to add savings accounts

French startup Lydia is better known as the dominant app for peer-to-peer payments. But the company has been adding more features, such as a debit card, account aggregation, donations, money pots and more. This week, the company is adding savings accounts thanks to a partnership with French fintech startup Cashbee. If you aren’t familiar with Cashbee, the company lets you open savings accounts through a mobile app. After connecting your bank account with Cashbee, you can transfer money back and forth between your bank account and a savings account. Right...

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Fresha raises $100M for its beauty and wellness booking platform and marketplace

Beauty and wellness businesses have come roaring back to life with the decline of COVID-19 restrictions, and a startup that’s built a platform that caters to the many needs of small enterprises in the industry today is announcing a big round of funding to grow with them. Fresha — a multipurpose commerce tool for independent wellness and beauty businesses such as hair, nail and skin salons, yoga instructors and more, based first and foremost around a completely free subscription platform for those businesses to schedule bookings from customers —...

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Tiger Global in talks to invest in Classplus at over $250 million valuation

Tiger Global is in talks to lead a $30 million round in Indian edtech startup Classplus, according to sources familiar with the matter. The new round, which includes both primary investment and secondary transactions, values the five-year-old Indian startup at over $250 million, two sources told TechCrunch. The new round follows another ~$30 million investment that was led by GSV recently, one of the sources said. The new round hasn’t closed, so terms may change. Classplus — which has built a Shopify-like platform for coaching centers to accept...

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Insurtech is hot on both sides of the Atlantic

The U.S. insurance technology market is hot, and has been for years now. Back in early 2020, to pick an example, TechCrunch reported on a wave of funding events among domestic insurtech marketplaces. Those companies have since gone on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars more. And after a long period of incubation, we’ve seen neo-insurance players from the U.S. like Root and MetroMile go public. Hippo is working to join the cohort. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.  Read it every morning on Extra Crunch or get The Exchange...

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Freelancer marketplace Toptal sues Andela and ex-employees, alleging theft of trade secrets

The war for talent in the tech world can be brutal — and so, it turns out, can the war between platforms that help companies source it. In the latest developement, Toptal — a marketplace for filling engineering and other tech roles with freelance, remote workers — has filed a lawsuit against direct competitor Andela and several of its employees, alleging the theft of trade secrets in pursuit of “a perfect clone of its business”, according to the complaint. All of the Andela employees previously worked at Toptal. Toptal’s lawsuit, filed in the Supreme...

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The huge TAM of fake breaded chicken bits

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. We’re closing our survey soon, so this is your last chance (probably) to get your voice heard! Despite it being a short week, as always, it was a busy, busy time. We had Grace on the dials today, and Danny, Natasha, and Alex making chit-chat about the tech world. As with every week this year, we had to cut and cut and cut to get the show down to size. Here’s what made it in in the end: Medium saw more employees...

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After 30 years, ‘Crossing the Chasm’ is due for a refresh

Jeff Bussgang Contributor Share on Twitter Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital, a former entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, teaches entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. When I was at Open Market in the 1990s, our CEO gave out the recently published book “Crossing the Chasm” to the executive team and told us to read it to gain insight into why we had hit a speed bump in our scaling. We had gone from zero to $60 million in revenue in four years, went public at a billion-dollar market cap, and then stalled. We found ourselves...

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Productivity startup Time is Ltd. raises $5.6M to be the ‘Google Analytics for company time’

Productivity analytics startup Time is Ltd. wants to be the Google Analytics for company time. Or perhaps a sort of “Apple Screen Time” for companies. Whatever the case, the founders reckon that if you can map how time is spent in a company enormous productivity gains can be unlocked and, money better spent. It’s now raised a $5.6 million late seed funding round led by Mike Chalfen, of London-based Chalfen Ventures, with participation from Illuminate Financial Management and existing investor Accel. Acequia Capital and former Seal Software chairman...

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