StartUp

In part two of a survey that asks top VCs about exciting opportunities in open source and dev tools, we dig into responses from 10 leading open-source-focused investors at firms that span early to growth stage across software-specific firms, corporate venture arms and prominent generalist firms.

In the conclusion to our survey, we’ll hear from:

• Gaura

Spanish startup Bnext is expanding beyond its home country. The company is currently rolling out its product in Mexico, and 170,000 people signed up to a waiting list. Bnext is going to invite those 170,000 potential users first before opening signups to everyone.

Bnext is building an alternative to traditional bank accounts. Customers can open a

The once-polarizing world of open-source software has recently become one of the hotter destinations for VCs.

As the popularity of open source increases among organizations and developers, startups in the space have reached new heights and monstrous valuations.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen surging open-source companies like Databricks r

Deliverr doesn’t own a warehouse or a delivery truck, but the startup is helping e-commerce companies not named Amazon achieve Amazon-like two-day shipping. The startup does it with intelligent algorithms, and today it announced a $40 million Series C investment.

Activant Capital led the round. Other investors in the company include 8VC, GLP and

LoanSnap, a new lending services technology for banks, has launched a mortgage calculator called LoanPulse for borrowers to get an accurate sense of their ability to take out loans — and at what price.

Based in Southern California, the company says that its new mortgage evaluation tool uses the same data sources that a lender would use to give

Snapchat’s developer platform is blowing up as a gateway to teen social app users. Hoop is the latest Snap Kit blockbuster, rocketing to No. 2 on the overall App Store charts this month with its Tinder -esque swiping interface for discovering people and asking to message with them over Snapchat. Within a week of going viral, unfunded French

This morning The Zebra, an Austin-based insurance marketplace startup, announced it has closed a $38.5 million Series C. Accel led the funding event, which was participated in by prior investors Silverton Partners, Ballast Point Ventures, and the company’s CEO Keith Melnick. Floodgate and Weatherford Capital also invested in the round.

According to

Casting a cold eye on customer behavior and their future lifetime value has brought the Los Angeles-based startup Retina $2.5 million in new funding.

The new financing was anchored by previous seed round investor Crosscut Ventures (the Los Angeles-based venture firm), and shows how the startup ecosystem in Los Angeles is allowing for companies

Drone startup Wingcopter, working with partners Merck and the Frankfurt University of Applied Science, has completed a first flight of a new drone delivery trial designed to show the benefits of using drones instead of trucks or other road-faring vehicles for moving small cargo between two physically separate office facilities. This first flight

Early-stage European VC firm Blossom Capital is fresh from closing a $185M fund— a big jump up on its prior close. The firm makes just a handful of investments per year, mostly at the Series A stage, working very closely with founders in its portfolio, a strategy it refers to as “high conviction” investing.

One of its chosen few is Inne, a

Fintech startup N26 recently reached a new milestone as it now has five million customers. The company launched onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt five years ago.

The premise was simple. A young startup wanted to build a bank that didn’t suck. Given the company’s impressive growth rate and its 4.8-star rating in the App Store, it’s clear that N26 is on t

With just about one month until go-time, TC Sessions: Robotics + AI 2020 (March 3 in Berkeley, Calif.) is going to be a true powerhouse event. Prepare to spend the day engaging with the leading innovators, makers and investors bent on shaping the future of these two game-changing technologies.

Don’t have a ticket yet? Beat the price hike at the d

Following Tier Mobility’s $60 million Series B late last year, the e-scooter rentals startup has been busy bolstering its C-suite.

The Berlin-based company is announcing that Moritz Werner has joined as chief commercial officer (CCO), and Roger Hassan has joined as chief operational officer (COO). Werner will be responsible for revenue related

Lemonade, the homeowners and renters insurance provider that’s raised $480 million, has announced its plans to expand into pet insurance. This marks the startup’s foray into a new insurance vertical.

To be clear, Lemonade is simply announcing its plans. Right now, the company is going through the regulatory process, which will make its intentions

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

Casper, the well-known D2C mattress company, has lowered its IPO price range in a new S-1/A filing made public this morning. The repricing leads to a lower expected valuation for the former startup and a lower IPO raise.

The

Instamojo, a Bangalore-based startup that helps merchants and small businesses accept digital payments and sell on the web, has acquired Gurgaon-based startup GetMeAShop.

The deal is worth $5 million and includes conglomerate Times Internet making an investment in Instamojo, Sampad Swain, co-founder and chief executive of the Bangalore-based

As esports grows and creates opportunities for gamers to level up to the pro or streamer level, there is still a huge barrier in the way. There is not a wealth of training options for gamers. If you can’t get better within the environment of the game itself, then you’ve peaked. Practice makes perfect, but what if there’s no such thing as practice?

T

With a fresh commitment of $5 million for its on-demand staffing and care management service for at-home healthcare and nursing facilities, Los Angeles-based Gento is looking to grow.

The new financing came from Palisades Growth Capital, and the company said it would use the money to expand nationally and invest more capital in research and

Fearing weak fundraising options in the wake of the WeWork implosion, late stage startups are tightening their belts. The latest is another Softbank-funded company, joining Zume Pizza (80% of staff laid off), Wag (80%+),  Fair (40%), Getaround (25%), Rappi (6%), and Oyo (5%) that have all cut staff to slow their burn rate and reduce their funding

Rocket launch startup Firefly Aerospace has signed a new agreement with Satlantis, a maker of Earth observation and remote sensing payloads for satellite-based operation. Firefly will launch a constellation of small satellites on behalf of Satlantis that will provide high-res, multispectral imaging of Earth from low Earth orbit.

Firefly is still

The growing ubiquity of open-source software has been a big theme in the evolution of enterprise IT. But behind that facade of popularity lies another kind of truth: Companies may be interested in using more open-source technology, but because there is a learning curve with taking on an open-source project, not all of them have the time, money and

Everyone wants to lend to small businesses, as the fintech boom continues to bring constituent players closer together in feature-terms. Thinking broadly, the rising focus on small-business lending amongst B2B fintech and finservices companies feels directionally similar to the rise of consumer-oriented fintech startups adding banking-like

Trucking is currently the most popular mode of transporting freight in the U.S., accounting for around $12.5 billion of the $17 billion freight market, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. But with thousands of small and single-vehicle operators and legacy (often paper-based) systems underpinning communications, it’s also one of t

Clear is an early-stage startup with a big ambition. It wants to build a blockchain for high-volume transaction systems like payments between telcos. Today it announced a $13 million Series A investment.

The round was led by Eight Roads with participation from Telefónica Innovation Ventures, Telekom Innovation Pool of Deutsche Telekom, HKT and

Homie has made an impression among younger, first-time home buyers in the Utah and Arizona markets for cutting out the traditional closing costs, 6% real estate commissions and arduous paperwork associated with traditional home sales. It now plans to explore opening up in three new markets and will begin a Vegas launch in March with a fresh

Email is garbage and we’re all buried in the stuff. Actually getting someone’s attention given the constraints that digital missives present is difficult. How do you snag someone’s eye when the Internet Age’s key communication channel is a mess?

One option is to skip the inbox altogether and send something physical instead. That’s where a startup c

Amidst the staggering rise of on-demand delivery services, the convenience store has been left relatively untouched. Until very recently.

Foxtrot, founded in 2013, is looking to reimagine the corner convenience store, offering customers the option to buy in-store or order online for delivery.

The company today announced the close of a $17 million

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

Asana, a well-known workplace productivity company, announced yesterday it has filed privately to go public. The San Francisco-based company is well-funded, having raised more than $200 million; well-known, due in part to its

Hinge Health, the San Francisco-based startup that offers a digital solution to treat chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions — such as back and joint pain — has closed a $90 million Series C.

The round is led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Lead Edge Capital. All of Hinge’s existing institutional investors followed on: I