No-code fintech-services startup Taktile closes $20M Series A round businessroundups.org

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Soooo maybe you got the, er, first edition of Daily Crunch yesterday, where we mentioned a certain conference, and put it in the wrong country. Oops, we updated the headline. Sorry, Finland, we honestly love you.

That was yesterday. Today there is a wall of new exciting things to look at…including an opportunity Neesha for you if you run a space startup: Sign up to pitch on stage at TC Sessions: Space 2022!

Alright, that’ll get us started with the TC Top 3. — Christine and Hey

The businessroundups.org Top 3

• I have the golden IT ticket: Placing a ticket with the IT department to make a minor adjustment to certain lending criteria can make a bank’s credit chief wait longer than necessary. Enter Taktile, making this more of a no-code self-service feature. With $20 million in new funding, it helps fintech companies test and deploy those tweaks without a developer, Kyle reports.
• No cloudy days here: Amazon is pouring more money into India, this time $4.4 billion for its cloud unit over the next eight years as it launches a second cloud region in Hyderabad, Manic reports.
• This is a popup you don’t want to remove with an “X”.: When building an online store in some marketplaces, merchants are offered the basic tools. However, as their business grows, salespeople need to lean on more and more tools. Popup raised $3.5 million in funding to solve this problem with a no-code way to design online storefronts using just one tool, Christine writes.

Startups and VC

Aura, a startup founded by early Twitter employees that creates digital photo frames and photo-sharing apps that can also be used to update those photo frames, has raised some cash to expand its business as it hits Twitter’s 3 million users. his app is approaching and selling 1 million frames, Ingrid reports. The company raised $26 million in a mix of debt and equity — money the company is using to boost production this quarter and invest in 2023 plans.

All eyes are currently on the collapse of FTX in the crypto industry. Therefore, today’s news from Bitpanda is an important signal for the Austrian unicorn company, which has been awarded a crypto license by Germany’s financial regulator, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), reports Roman.

Here’s a handful of additional VC and startup stories for you:

Cold range with a warm touch: This is the quick pitch we emailed to investors

Pitching a startup to investors without a personal recommendation isn’t a bad idea — as long as you’ve done your research first.

Tetra Insights co-founders Michael Bamberger and Panos Rigopoulos raised $5 million Series A last year, and the duo said cold outreach was an important part of their strategy.

“When I changed my criteria to finding people who were suitable, the process moved very quickly,” says Bamberger, who initially raised $500,000 from friends and family in 2019, followed by a $1.5 million seed round a years later.

Three more from the TC+ team:

businessroundups.org+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has brought similar social media companies into the spotlight. Ivan writes that the Indian social network Koo is one such platform that is gaining popularity in Brazil, but it comes with some challenges, including how to deal with moderation.

Meanwhile, with holiday shopping here again, Rita reports that Temu, Pinduoduo’s shopping app, has gained some notoriety after topping the US App Store.

And we have five more for you:

• Look who became fast friends: One-time hostile security hacker George Hotz and Elon Musk seem to have buried the hatchet, and Hotz has signed up to help on Twitter, Connie reports. In the meantime, Amanda tells us that Twitter’s Blue Verified relaunch is once again on hold. Oh, and if Twitter’s own archiving is taking too long for you, Kyle has a list of free tools that make archiving a breeze.
• Locked out of Mars: Hackers found a way to keep Mars Stealer malware from their own servers, Bag writes.
• Tumblr comes to the rescue: People are flocking to Twitter-like alternatives, but many of these new platforms can’t handle the sudden interest. Here to help is Tumblr, which adds support for ActivityPub, the social protocol that powers Mastodon and other apps, Sarah writes.
• A global currency puzzle: Tage writes about FTX’s impact on Africa, where billions in cryptocurrency were processed monthly before the company collapsed.
• Straight from “Big Hero 6”: If you’ve never seen “Big Hero 6”, one of the storylines is about this ambitious tween who creates robots that can build things, and now Brian reports that researchers are building robots that can build themselves.