Nail product market fit in an ever-changing market with Underscore VC and Hi Marley

Mike Greene founded Hi Marley in 2017 and has since raised $41.75 million to fund the AI-powered insurance chat platform. Hear how the company — which was designed as an SMS texting platform — is finding product market fit as the insurance landscape rapidly changes, and how Underscore VC Lily Lyman provides support for the…

After two years in development, Salesforce launches its web-based IDE in beta

Regular TechCrunch readers might recall that, roughly two years ago (in June 2020), Salesforce made waves with the announcement of Code Builder, a web-based integrated development environment (IDE) modeled after GitHub Codespaces. Mum had been the word since then, but today, Salesforce unceremoniously dropped the beta for Code Builder, which the company describes in a…

India proposes right to repair framework for mobile phones, consumer durables

India has proposed to introduce a right to repair law, aiming to provide consumers the ability to have their devices repaired by third parties to fight the growing “culture of planned obsolescence” in a move that follows similar deliberations in the U.S. and the UK. The Indian Department of Consumer Affairs said Wednesday that it…

Google faces fresh antitrust probe in Italy after data portability complaint

Italy’s competition watchdog has opened an investigation into Google over concerns it has abused a dominant position by hindering data portability rights which are afforded to individuals under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The procedure follows a complaint made to the authority by the operator of a direct marketing platform called Weople….

Gridtential thinks the OG renewable battery chemistry is ripe for disruption

Lithium-ion batteries are one of the driving forces behind the transition away from fossil fuels, but the rechargeable battery that started it all — lead-acid — has received very little attention. Invented over 160 years ago, lead-acid batteries have been upgraded a few times, but today’s cells are largely unchanged from those sold in the…

Okendo wants to turn your shoppers into buyers through better customer reviews

No merchant likes a bad customer review and Okendo, a customer marketing platform, announced $26 million in Series A funding today to continue developing its customer review tools for e-commerce brands. Base10 Partners led the funding round and was joined by Craft Ventures and existing investor Index Ventures. It gives the company $33.5 million in…

Wysa raises $20 million to expand its therapist chatbot into a wider set of mental health services

Wysa, a popular mental health app originally founded in India around an AI chatbot that helps users talk through their feelings, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round to expand its business on the heels of hitting 4.5 million users in 65 countries. The all-equity round is led by India’s digital health-focused…