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Speaking is one of the hardest parts of learning a new language, especially if you don’t have someone to practice with regularly. ELSA is an app that helps by using speech recognition technology to correct pronunciation. Based in San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City, ELSA announced today it has raised a $15 million Series B, led by VI (Vietnam Investments) Group and SIG. Other participants included returning investors Google’s AI-focused fund Gradient Ventures, SOSV and Monk’s Hill Ventures, along with Endeavor Catalyst and Globant Ventures. The capital will be used to expand ELSA’s operations in Latin America and build a scalable B2B platform, allowing companies and educational organizations to offers the app’s coaching services to employees or students. Founded in 2015, ELSA, which stands for English Language Speech Assistant, now claims more than 13 million users. Its last round of funding was a $7 million Series A announced in 2019. Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI fund, leads $7M

Tensions are rising in Delhi where thousands of farmers are demanding agriculture reforms be repealed. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2M9glER

Almost 100,000 people have seen Amy Hawkins sing World War One song It's A Long Way to Tipperary. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/3ptCEmZ

Twitter users take time off their busy writing schedules to share helpful - or unhelpful - tips. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/3r9kZS7

Since the pandemic hit the UK, reports of investment scams targeting Instagram users have risen 50%. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/3j0BYmy

Ben , a London-based employee benefits and rewards platform, has raised $2.5 million in funding. The seed round is led by Cherry Ventures, and Seedcamp. A number of angel investors with backgrounds in fintech and HR tech also participated. They include Paul Forster (founder of Indeed), Taavet Hinrikus (founder of TransferWise), Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas (previously an exec at GoCardless but now a partner at Index Ventures ), Philip Reynolds (VP of Engineering at Workday), and Matt Robinson (founder of Nested). Part fintech, part HR play, Ben has built an employee benefits platform to enable SMEs to offer much more personalised and flexible benefits to employees. The U.K. startup does this via a SaaS for managing benefits, including a benefits marketplace, combined with per-employee debit cards powered by Mastercard. The idea is to give employees more individual choice around which benefits they choose, while making it easy to on-board additional providers. This can be via the marketp

The investors that caused GameStop to surge are now turning their attention to silver. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2MdHir2

Stardust 1.0 has become the first commercial launch of a rocket powered by bio-derived fuel. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/39AFcu8

IT experts say that with people working from home the risk of hacking has increased. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/39ClePH

Edtech is so widespread, we already need more consumer-friendly nomenclature to describe the products, services and tools it encompasses. I know someone who reads stories to their grandchildren on two continents via Zoom each weekend. Is that “edtech?” Similarly, many Netflix subscribers sought out online chess instructors after watching “The Queen’s Gambit,” but I doubt if they all ran searches for “remote learning” first. Edtech needs to reach beyond underfunded public school systems to become more sustainable, which is why more investors and founders are focusing on lifelong learning. Besides serving traditional students with field trips and art classes, a maturing sector is now branching out to offer software tutors, cooking classes and singing lessons. For our latest investor survey, Natasha Mascarenhas polled 13 edtech VCs to learn more about how “employer-led up-skilling and a renewed interest in self-improvement” is expanding the sector’s TAM. Here’s who she spoke to:

Where can new founders and budding entrepreneurs turn for expert advice to navigate the formative phases of building a startup? Head to TechCrunch Early Stage — a two-day virtual bootcamp that gives early founders (pre-seed through Series A) access to the leading experts across a range of essential entrepreneurial skills. We’re talking dozens of workshops addressing operations, fundraising, pitch deck pointers, term sheet tips, product-market fit, brand building, growth marketing, recruiting, taming your tech stack and a lot more. That’s a lot of ground to cover, amirite? That’s exactly why we’re hosting two Early Stage events this year. Each one offers different content, a separate slate of speakers and unique perspectives. Both feature highly interactive Q&As with the experts. Get answers to all your burning questions! Note: In a hurry? Scroll down to the bottom (or click here ) to get the 411 on pass types, early-bird pricing and deadlines. The first TC-ES, on  April 1 &a

Yousuf Khan Contributor Share on Twitter Yousuf Khan is a partner at Ridge Ventures . Prior to joining Ridge, he was the first CIO of Automation Anywhere, CIO and Vice President of Customer Success at cloud-based AI platform Moveworks, as well as CIO of Pure Storage, Qualys and Hult International Business School. As a 20-year CIO and advisor to multiple startups, I sat on many customer advisory boards (CABs) and saw how they were formed. Some companies have highly functioning CABs, others merely serve as feedback loops. Any startup striving to connect directly with their customers would benefit from establishing one. Here are some considerations to make certain your customer advisory board is a success. Why CABs matter For those unfamiliar, a customer advisory board is a group of customers who come together to share their experiences, insights and advice with an organization. First and foremost, the CAB functions to recognize and include the voice of the customer, an e

In June of 1999, Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins invested $25 million into an early-stage company developing a new search engine called Google, paving the way for a revolution in how knowledge online was organized and shared. Now, Sequoia Capital is placing another bet on a different kind of search engine, one for physical objects in three dimensions, just as the introduction of three-dimensional sensing technologies on consumer phones are poised to create a revolution in spatial computing. At least, that’s the bet that Sequoia Capital’s Shaun Maguire is making on the Cincinnati, Ohio-based startup Physna . Maguire and Sequoia are leading a $20 million bet into the company alongside Drive Capital, the Columbus, Ohio-based venture firm founded by two former Sequoia partners, Mark Kvamme and Chris Olsen. “There’s been this open problem in mathematics, which is how you do three dimensional search. How do you define a metric that gives you other similar three dimensional objects.

A gig economy-powered consumer edtech platform is heading to the New York Stock Exchange. Edtech startup Nerdy , which owns the popular tutoring business Varsity Tutors, is seeking to become a public company through a special purpose acquisition vehicle, otherwise known as a SPAC. Nerdy will merge with TPG Pace Tech Opportunities (NYSE: PACE), a publicly traded SPAC since 2015. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year. The deal will value Nerdy at $1.7 billion. Through the transaction, the business plans to raise up to $750 million in cash, including $150 million in PIPE financing aggregated by Franklin Templeton, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, Koch Industries and Learn Capital. Nerdy’s flagship business, Varsity Tutors, is a two-sided marketplace that matches tutors to students in large, small or 1:1 group environments. The learning platform covers more than 3,000 subjects. Like other edtech companies , Varsity Tutors uses artificial intellige

Cybersecurity startup CybSafe , a “behavioral security” platform, has raised $7.9 million in a Series A funding round led by IQ Capital with participation from Hanover Digital Investments (HDI) GmbH and B8 Ventures. The investment round will be used to focus on expanding its enterprise and midmarket client base. CybSafe is a SaaS product with a per-user-based, subscription licensing model. As most people in tech know, the big concern with security isn’t so much the system as the people. Indeed, 90% of U.K. data breaches are generally due to human error , for instance. CybSafe’s “behavior-led” platform manages these people-related security risks using behavioral science and data analytics by delivering personalized cyber support for users. The company already has 350 clients in 15 countries, including Credit Suisse, Air Canada, HSBC and NHS Trusts. Launched in 2017, the company was founded by cyber resilience and intelligence expert, Oz Alashe MBE , a former lieutenant colonel in

Cybersecurity startup CybSafe , a “behavioral security” platform, has raised $7.9 million in a Series A funding round led by IQ Capital with participation from Hanover Digital Investments (HDI) GmbH and B8 Ventures. The investment round will be used to focus on expanding its enterprise and midmarket client base. CybSafe is a SaaS product with a per-user-based, subscription licensing model. As most people in tech know, the big concern with security isn’t so much the system as the people. Indeed, 90% of U.K. data breaches are generally due to human error , for instance. CybSafe’s “behavior-led” platform manages these people-related security risks using behavioral science and data analytics by delivering personalized cyber support for users. The company already has 350 clients in 15 countries, including Credit Suisse, Air Canada, HSBC and NHS Trusts. Launched in 2017, the company was founded by cyber resilience and intelligence expert, Oz Alashe MBE , a former lieutenant colonel in

Chris Fox explains stocks, short-selling and what has been happening with GameStop shares. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/3r5Ij3c

As a turbulent week in the capital world, we’re taking a look at something a bit slower moving: venture capital trends in Africa during 2020. The Exchange has long explored quarterly and yearly data regarding the North American , European and Asian venture capital markets , along with data on particular startup categories . From today, we’ll also provide regular examinations of what’s happening in Africa. As an aside, we’re sorry The Exchange didn’t come out yesterday. The world went mad and we had to tend to breaking news. We’re back!  To dig into African venture capital results, we’re looking at a report concerning 2020 data from Briter Bridges , a research group that focuses on the continent’s private capital market. The Exchange also interviewed report author and Briter director Dario Giuliani about the collected data. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on Extra Crunch , or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. What emerges is a g

Sirenum , a platform for remotely managing a shift-based workforce across industries such as railway, aviation, construction, and the gig economy, has raised a $2.7 million Series A funding round from new investors, including former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy, alongside the William Currie Group. Sirenum says its subscription model platform simplifies the process of managing shift workers, including rostering and managing schedules, monitoring and engaging staff, and processing key financial processes including payroll. Its clients include Randstad, Impellam, Manpower and GI Group as well as specialist agencies like TES. The issue with shift workers is that they need to be in the right place at the right time and paid the right amount. Obviously. Sirenum says it allows staff to manage their own time by accepting or rejecting shifts and check their payroll at any time through a mobile app. The platform handles shift management, payroll, compliance, and scheduling. The app also tracks th

Tech giants promise faster, wider access to data thanks to cheaper satellite launches. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/3t4Tzyo

In recent years we’ve seen a whole bunch of visual/style fashion-focused search engines cropping up, tailored to helping people find the perfect threads to buy online by applying computer vision and other AI technologies to perform smarter-than-keywords visual search which can easily match and surface specific shapes and styles. Startups like Donde Search , Glisten and Stye.ai to name a few. Early stage London-based Cadeera , which is in the midst of raising a seed round, wants to apply a similar AI visual search approach but for interior decor. All through the pandemic it’s been working on a prototype with the aim of making ecommerce discovery of taste-driven items like sofas, armchairs and coffee tables a whole lot more inspirational. Founder and CEO Sebastian Spiegler, an early (former) SwiftKey employee with a PhD in machine learning and natural language processing, walked TechCrunch through a demo of the current prototype. The software offers a multi-step UX geared towards