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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Challenger bank Bunq rolls out Spanish IBANs
Amsterdam-based challenger bank Bunq is updating its service with a handful of new features. In addition to Dutch, German and French bank account numbers, existing and new users in Spain can now get a Spanish IBAN. European IBANs are supposed to work across Europe. Your employer or internet provider can’t force you to get a local IBAN. And yet, that’s rarely the case. When you move to another European country, chances are the first thing you do is that...

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Tiger Global in talks to make Apna...
Apna, a 21-month-old startup that is helping millions of blue- and gray-collar workers in India upskill themselves, find communities and land jobs, is inching closer to becoming the fastest tech firm in the world’s second-largest internet market to become a unicorn. Tiger Global is in advanced stages of talks to lead a $100 million round in Apna, according to four sources familiar with the matter. The proposed terms value the startup at over $1 billion, the sources said. The...

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Coral Capital closes third fund with $128M...
Coral Capital, a Tokyo-based venture capital firm, announced today that it has closed its third fund, Coral Capital III, raising $128 million (14 billion yen). Coral Capital’s total assets under management (AUM) is now $275 million. Limited partners in the vehicle include Mizuho Bank, Mitsubishi Estate, Shinsei Bank, Pavilion Capital, Founders Fund, Dai-ichi Life Insurance, GREE, and undisclosed domestic and international institutional investors. Coral Capital, founded by two partners James Riney and Yohei Sawayama, will continue to invest in...

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Daily Crunch: China sets three-hour weekly time...
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for August 30, 2021. The startup world is gearing up for Y Combinator Demo Day this week, but the rest of tech isn’t taking a pause. So we have Apple news, Telegram news, antitrust news, video game news, you name it. But we have some TechCrunch news to start: Ryan...

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5 takeaways from Toast’s S-1 filing
Welcome back to IPO season. No, we won’t call it hot liquidity summer, but after an August lull, the public-offering cycle is back upon us. Last week we saw filings from Warby Parker, Toast and Freshworks. We’ve dug into Warby already. This week, we’re tackling the details of the latter two debuts, starting with Toast. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Read it every morning on Extra Crunch or get The Exchange newsletter every Saturday. Why do we...

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Ideanomics to buy EV fleet maker Via...
Ideanomics, a fintech and electric mobility firm based in New York, has added to its list of acquisitions on Monday to buy commercial electric vehicle manufacturer Via Motors in an all-stock deal valued at $450 million. Ideanomics has been aggressively purchasing mobility businesses this year, as it seeks to build out vertically integrated offerings for fleet operators and transit authorities transitioning to electric vehicles. The Via Motors acquisition announcement pushed Ideanomics’ share price up 6% since the market opened...

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Alpaca raises $50M to rapidly scale its...
Alpaca said this morning that it has closed a massive $50 million Series B round of capital. TechCrunch previously covered the company’s late-2019 $6 million seed round and its late-2020 $10 million Series A. Alpaca offers equities trading software via API. The company initially allowed firms to plug into its technology, powering the trading capabilities of investing groups. More recently, Alpaca has begun allowing other fintech companies to offer equities trading through its service to their consumer user bases, work...

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Daily Crunch: In latest tech crackdown, China...
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for Friday, August 27, 2021. What a week! In the last 24 hours we’ve had big news from around the world, including China’s latest regulatory push, Apple making modest concessions regarding the App Store and, of course, startup news aplenty. Oh, and Canva CEO Melanie Perkins is coming to Disrupt....

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Find trends, advice and value at these...
TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 takes place September 21-23, and we’re here to call out just some of the awesome content we have scheduled over three very busy days. The Disrupt agenda so far features more than 80 interviews, panel discussions, events and breakout sessions that span the startup tech spectrum…with more to come! You gotta pay to play: Buy your pass to Disrupt 2021 here and open a door to opportunity. Let’s talk about the special breakout sessions, which are...

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Zeal banks $13M to offer employers a...
Embedded fintech company Zeal secured $13 million in Series A funding to continue developing its platform for building individualized payroll products. Spark Capital led the Series A, with participation from Commerce Ventures and a group of individual investors, including Marqeta CEO Jason Gardner and CRO Omri Dahan, Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev, UltimateSoftware executives Mitch Dauerman and Bob Manne and Namely founder Matt Straz. The latest round now gives the company $14.6 million in total funding, which includes a $1.6...

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Daily Crunch: Copenhagen-based Leapwork lands $62M Series...
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. ‘Ello and welcome to Daily Crunch for August 26, 2021. Or as someone called it recently, Friday Jr. We have lots and lots of news today, with a slight bias toward big items from Big Tech companies. But first, do note that we’re going to spend a lot of time talking fintech at Disrupt this year,...

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Daily Crunch: Copenhagen-based Leapwork lands $62M Series...
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. ‘Ello and welcome to Daily Crunch for August 26, 2021. Or as someone called it recently, Friday Jr. We have lots and lots of news today, with a slight bias toward big items from Big Tech companies. But first, do note that we’re going to spend a lot of time talking fintech at Disrupt this year,...

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We’re focusing on fintech at TechCrunch Disrupt...
Do you dig digital currency? Dream about decentralized finance? Need to know NFTs? Maybe you’re just crypto-curious. Heck, check “all of the above” and get ready to focus on fintech at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23. Disrupt is known for bringing the top experts, visionaries, founders, investors and makers to the stage, and this year we’ve packed more than 80 stellar presentations, events and breakout sessions into three full days. Join the discussion: Buy your pass today and...

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We’re focusing on fintech at TechCrunch Disrupt...
Do you dig digital currency? Dream about decentralized finance? Need to know NFTs? Maybe you’re just crypto-curious. Heck, check “all of the above” and get ready to focus on fintech at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 on September 21-23. Disrupt is known for bringing the top experts, visionaries, founders, investors and makers to the stage, and this year we’ve packed more than 80 stellar presentations, events and breakout sessions into three full days. Join the discussion: Buy your pass today and...

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Israel’s maturing fintech ecosystem may soon create...
Adi Levanon Contributor Adi Levanon has been an early-stage VC for nearly a decade, with a strong focus on fintech investments since 2015, both in the U.S. and Israel. Currently, she is the Tel Aviv-based investor at Flint Capital. “Even with its vast local talent, it seems Israel still has many hurdles to overcome in order to become a global fintech hub. Having that said, I don’t believe any of these obstacles will prevent Israel from...

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