Budget hotel network pioneer OYO raises $250M led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund

 India-based OYO, a startup that pioneered and popularized the concept of budget hotel networks, has closed $250 million in new funding led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund. The startup was founded in 2013 by Thiel Fellow Ritesh Agarwal, now aged 24, and the concept centers around standardizing the quality of India’s wildly differentiated affordable hotels, and providing some structure… Read More

Allbirds plans to expand to new materials with $17.5 million in fresh funds

 You can’t walk outside your door in San Francisco these days without seeing some tech worker or VC wearing a pair of Allbirds. The eco-friendly wool shoes have taken over the tech world since the startup’s launch a mere 18 months ago. Now, it plans to expand globally and develop new materials beyond its signature merino wool. Allbirds has a good amount of capital to go there as… Read More

Via raises $250M led by Daimler to bring its carpooling technology to Europe

 As outsized ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft continue to build out their taxi-style marketplaces largely based around connecting individual passengers to individual drivers, a startup focused squarely on the carpooling opportunity has raised a large round of funding to expand outside of the U.S. Via — which has developed a shuttle-based carpooling service that it offers directly… Read More

GoGoVan becomes Hong Kong’s first $1 billion startup following merger deal

 At our TechCrunch China event in June we discussed the bright future that Hong Kong’s startup scene has, despite some big challenges. This week the country passed a notable milestone as it got its first $1 billion valued startup, better known as a unicorn.
The company in question is GoGoVan, a logistics on-demand provider that connects van drivers and customers for transporting goods. Read More

Five years after its launch, website building platform Strikingly raises $6M Series A

 Half a decade after it was founded, website building platform Strikingly finally decided its time to raise a Series A. The Y Combinator alum announced that it closed a $6 million round from investors including CAS Holding, Infinity Venture Partners, Innovation Works, former Y Combinator partner Kevin Hale and TEEC. Strikingly also recently launched an app that lets users build and publish… Read More

Domuso raises $3.1M to let you pay missed rent over time

 Domuso, a property management system and payment portal that lets tenants in sticky situations pay late rent over time, has raised $3.1M in funding. This brings the total amount raised for the startup, which was part of the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2017 Battlefield competition, to $5.8M. The concept for Domuso is straightforward – there are certain life events that sometimes get in the way… Read More

Michael Jordan funds mercenary dev hub Gigster’s $20M enterprise pivot

 Gigster is shifting from letting anyone outsource full-stack app development to building next-gen tech projects for big companies. If an enterprise needs machine learning and vision, data visualization, blockchain, React or Swift work done and doesn’t want to hire full-time employees, Gigster assembles a squad of freelancers and guarantees the work at a fixed price. Read More