The Browser Company raises $50 million at $550 million valuation

The Browser Company, which makes the Arc browser, has raised $50 million in a round led by Pace Capital at a $550 million valuation, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. The company’s head of storytelling Nashilu Mouen confirmed the investment to TechCrunch. “Now, more than ever, we continue to believe that the successor to the personal computer … Read more

Turkish central bank raises key interest rate to 50% as inflation soars

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 5 percentage points on Thursday, resuming a policy of rate hikes aimed at combating soaring inflation that is causing households severe economic pain. In a surprise decision, the central bank said it was raising the benchmark one-week repo rate to 50%. The bank … Read more

Turkey central bank raises interest rate to 50%

A picture taken on August 14, 2018 shows the logo of Turkey’s Central Bank at the entrance of its headquarters in Ankara, Turkey. ADEM ALTAN | AFP | Getty Images Turkey’s central bank on Thursday raised its key interest rate, the one-week repo rate, from 45% to 50%, citing the continuing need to counter climbing … Read more

Mermaid Chart, a Markdown-like tool for creating diagrams, raises $7.5M

Mermaid, the open source diagramming and charting tool, has long been popular with developers for its ability to create diagrams using a Markdown-like language. As is often the case, Mermaid founder Knut Sveidqvist created the project because he saw a need for it in his own job as a software architect and then open sourced … Read more

Cure51 raises a €15M Seed round aiming to crack the code on cancer survival

Rather than grimly assembling data about cancer deaths to predict outcomes in treatment, the founders of Cure51 had another idea. They decided to turn the model around 180 degrees. Instead, the company assembles data about long term survivors of cancer, thus hoping to crack the code on what keeps people alive. It’s now raised a … Read more

The Carevoice raises $10M Series B, bucking the funding slowdown in health tech

The field of insurance technology has had a rough time. About 7 years ago, early insurtech companies promised to disrupt the insurance industry with new tech, but today, most of those companies have either been acquired or are floundering in the public markets. Fortunately, insurtech has found a new wave to ride in the past … Read more

Nigerian fintech Zone raises $8.5M seed to scale its decentralized payment infrastructure

African financial institutions typically scale their solutions using a mix of local and foreign tech. Appzone is one of the standout local fintech software providers for banks and fintechs, providing better pricing and flexibility. For over a decade, the Nigeria-based Appzone has functioned as an enabler (at payment rails and core infrastructure) within banking and … Read more

Nigeria’s Youverify raises $2.5M to enhance anti-money laundering compliance

Youverify, a Nigerian provider of identity verification and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions for banks and startups, secured a $2.5 million investment from Elm, which specializes in offering ready-made and customized digital solutions to public and private institutions in Saudi Arabia. The pre-Series A investment from Elm also includes a strategic partnership to help Youverify streamline … Read more

Kate Middleton photo scandal raises questions about media, celebrity photos

Paul Clarke, a veteran photographer, was out rowing on the River Thames in the rain Sunday when his phone started lighting up. The royal family had just released a photo of Catherine, Princess of Wales, and her three children — officially, a greeting in honor of Mother’s Day in Britain, yet one that also arrived … Read more

‘Banking as a Service’ startup Griffin raises $24M as it attains full banking license

Founded by former Silicon Valley engineers, UK-based Griffin Bank, an API-driven banking-as-a-service platform just obtained a banking license, roughly one year after starting the application process. This means it has been given the green light from the UK’s financial services regulators, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to exit ‘mobilization’ and … Read more