Crunch Hype

Space Force’s Lt. Gen. John Thompson spoke at TechCrunch Session: Space earlier this week. Throughout the wide-ranging interview, General Thompson explained the various ways and means for private companies like startups should interact with Space Force. Thompson knows what he’s talking about. As the Commander of the Space and Missiles Systems Center, he oversees research, […]

Following numerous reports that the U.S. government was seeking to crack down on DJI, the Department of Commerce today will be adding the drone giant to its “Entity List.” Reuters and Drone DJ have issued early reporting based on a conference call with a state official. The full list of 77 impacted companies is available […]

Creditas, the Brazilian lending business, has raised $255 million in new financing as financial services startups across Latin America continue to attract massive amounts of cash. The company’s credit portfolio has crossed 1 billion reals ($196.66 million) and the new round will value the company at $1.75 billion thanks to $570 million raised in outside […]

Zomato has raised $660 million in a financing round that it kicked off last year as the Indian food delivery startup prepares to go public next year. The Indian startup said Tiger Global, Kora, Luxor, Fidelity (FMR), D1 Capital, Baillie Gifford, Mirae, and Steadview participated in the round — a Series J –which gives Zomato […]

The market will decide how valuable Poshmark is. But who will it enrich with its final pricing decision? Let's find out.

Unfold, the social media startup acquired by Squarespace last year, is launching a new tool for users to share all the links that are important with them. This is the first step Unfold has taken beyond its story-format authoring tools. Co-founder Andy McCune told me that the team has a bigger vision now — just […]

In a return to active launch, constellation satellite operator OneWeb has sent 36 new satellites to join its existing spacecraft on orbit. This is the third large batch of OneWeb satellites to be delivered, after an initial launch of six in 2019, and then a second and third launch of 34 satellites each in February […]

We’ve seen a big wave of proptech startups emerge to reimagine how houses and bought and sold, with some tapping into the opportunity with distressed property, and others exploring the “iBuyer” model where houses are bought, fixed up and resold by a single startup to homeowners who don’t want to invest in a fixer-upper. But […]

I was made aware of Surrogate.tv’s work earlier this year when the site released a Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit tournament. Nintendo’s IRL take on its popular racing title was a great showcase for the technology — though, admittedly, there was enough lag in the remote operation to make control something of an issue. Of […]

After spending more than a decade disrupting the neighborhood stores in the U.S. and several other markets, Amazon and Walmart are employing an unusual strategy in India to face off this competitor: Friending them. Walmart and Amazon, both of which face restrictions from New Delhi on what all they could do in India, have partnered […]

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China’s top chipmaker, is under mounting pressure as reports of its CEO’s looming departure and a potential U.S. sanction concern investors. The U.S. Commerce Department is looking to add dozens of companies, mostly Chinese and including partially state-owned SMIC, to its trade blacklist, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal reported […]

Sony has pulled “Cyberpunk 2077,” one of the most anticipated games in recent years, from its PlayStation Store after a flood of complaints and ridicule over compatibility issues and bugs from customers. The gaming giant said it is offering full refunds to any customer who purchased CD Projekt’s title from the PlayStation Store — though […]

Tencent is further strengthening its ties with music giant Universal Music Group as it continues to dominate the Chinese music streaming market. A consortium led by Tencent and comprising Tencent Music Entertainment, the internet giant’s music spinoff, is set to buy an additional 10% equity stake in UMG from French media conglomerate Vivendi SA, TME […]

When an accident on a building site resulted in the death of their friend, the founders of Safesight were inspired to launch the platform to digitize safety programs for construction. The data from that gave birth to a new InsurTech startup this year, Foresight, which covers workers’ compensation. The startup has now released, for the […]

V7 Labs, the makers of a computer vision platform that helps AI teams “automate” and future-proof their training data workflows as advances in AI continue, has picked up $3 million in funding. Leading the seed round is Amadeus Capital Partners, with participation from Partech, Nathan Benaich’s Air Street Capital and Miele Venture. Founded in 2018 […]

Chinese tech giants have drawn international criticism after research showed they have technologies that enable the authorities to profile Muslim Uyghurs. The cloud computing unit of Alibaba, Alibaba Cloud, developed a facial recognition algorithm that can identify a person’s ethnicity or whether a person is “Uyghur”, according to research from surveillance industry publication IPVM. China […]

After a period of public feedback, Twitter adjusted some its plans for a new verification process, set to roll out next year. The company suspended public verification applications in 2017 and since appears to have rethought a few aspects of what information the platform should signal to its users, blue checks and beyond. One big […]

Autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation sent offers Thursday to more than 75% of employees at Uber Advanced Technologies Group, just a week after announcing plans to acquire the self-driving subsidiary, according to a source familiar with the post-merger integration plans. Uber ATG Toronto, which employs about 50 people where the subsidiary conducted its research and […]

Ned Desmond, a longtime publishing executive who spent more than half a dozen years at Time Inc. before becoming the chief operating officer of both TechCrunch and Engadget for more than eight years, has joined the investment firm SOSV as a senior operating partner. It’s seemingly a good fit for both sides. SOSV — which […]

Google has been all about the fun little augmented reality Easter Eggs lately, with a bevy of search terms triggering Halloween-themed AR experiences back in October. Ghosts! Jack-o-lanterns! Dancing skeletons! Now they’ve got another one. Rolled out just in time for tomorrow’s Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, this one brings The Child (or, as […]

The coronavirus pandemic has underscored, and often exacerbated, the mental health crisis that exists across the world. Even the spread of remote work is part of the problem: As everyone stays at home, the lack of interaction and watercooler chat has left employees without in-person interaction. The need for a solution has helped tech-powered mental […]

NASA’s Artemis mission is just starting to get underway, and among the commercial partnerships vying for the privilege of building the lunar landing system is one between Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin, which is leading the effort. Lockheed VP and GM of Commercial Civil Space Lisa Callahan says that the collaboration has been surprisingly smooth […]

Discord announces a big funding round, Google gets European approval to acquire Fitbit and Twitter launches a new voice-based feature. This is your Daily Crunch for December 17, 2020. Discord raises $100M The popular gaming chat platform confirmed today that it has raised $100 million and also announced that it has 140 million monthly active […]

UiPath, the robotic process automation startup that has been growing like gangbusters, filed confidential paperwork with the SEC today ahead of a potential IPO. “UiPath, Inc. today announced that it has submitted a draft registration statement on a confidential basis to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) for a proposed public offering of […]

Social gaming platform Rec Room has scored some new funding as it aims to bring its once VR-centric world to every major gaming platform out there. The startup has closed a $20 million Series C led by Madrona Venture Group . Existing investors, including First Round Capital, Index, Sequoia and DAG, also participated in the […]

Umba, a digital bank for emerging markets and aiming first at Africa, has secured a $2 million seed funding round from new investors including Lachy Groom, ex-Head of Issuing at Stripe; Ludlow Ventures; Frontline Ventures and Act Venture. Currently operating in Kenya and Nigeria, Umba offers a digital financial service alternative to legacy African banks. […]

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For the first time in donkey’s years, we didn’t have our full crew this week. Instead, we had just Natasha and Chris and myself — we had to survive without Danny while he took the week […]

Coinbase, perhaps the best-known American crypto company, announced today that it has filed confidentially to go public. The company’s debut was expected, having been reported earlier in the year. As the well-funded unicorn has filed confidentially, its debut looks to be an early-2021 affair. What sort of flotation the company will pursue is not clear […]

To anyone paying attention, it has become painfully evident that the surveillance pendulum has swung too far.

Now we're making it easier and more secure for you to contact our reporters and editors.

Whatnot, a company I first wrote about back in February, has spent the months since growing rapidly — both in terms of feature set and user base. This morning the company is announcing it has raised a $4 million seed round. Originally focused on being a platform for safely reselling FunkoPop vinyl figurines, Whatnot has […]

Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis, Astra CEO Chris Kemp and VOX Space (Virgin Orbit’s national-security-focused subsidiary) President Mandy Vaughn all joined us at TC Sessions: Space to jointly discuss their varied approaches to the small spacecraft launch market. Each has a very different type of space launch system, but each is targeting roughly the same […]

NASA’s head of human spaceflight Kathy Lueders joined us on stage at TechCrunch Sessions: Space, where she spoke to scientist and Netflix host Emily Calandrelli about her work at the agency — including NASA’s progress on the Artemis program and the return of American astronauts to the surface of the moon. The 2024 target for […]

Orbit Fab CDO Jeremy Schiel shows off the company’s satellite coupling system on stage at TC Disrupt 2019. On-orbit servicing startup Orbit Fab, which bills itself as the company focused on creating “gas stations in space,” has added an additional investor to its seed funding round. The add-on investment comes from Munich Re Ventures (the […]

Another day, another major antitrust effort seeking to dismantle the unprecedented power of the world’s biggest tech companies. On Thursday, a group of 38 attorneys general announced a bipartisan lawsuit against Google, alleging the company has engaged in “illegal, anti-competitive conduct” to create a monopoly in search and search advertising. “Google’s anti-competitive actions have protected […]

The world of virtual communications continues to hold a central place in our socially-distanced lives, and today it looks like one of the companies reaping some of the spoils is also reaping some funding out of it. Discord, the chat and communications platform wildly popular with gamers and, increasingly, many others, is raising up to […]

GeneMe, Poland-based biotechnology company with a COVID-19 test, has secured a €5.2M round of seed funding led by Robin Tombs, co-Founder of Yoti and previously of Gamesys, and other angel investors. The startup has developed and patented a universal protein (polymerase) for RT-LAMP testing, which allows the production of highly accurate, rapid, molecular genetic COVID […]

Last month, Twitter announced it would soon begin testing a new social experience on its platforms involving audio-only chat rooms, similar the sometimes controversial startup called Clubhouse. Today, Twitter Spaces, as the product is now being called, is launching into private beta testing. During this time, the product will be limited to select individuals, largely […]

The pandemic is surging once more — but so is the demand for common ground. We can choose how we respond.

"There’s not a single organization who can claim cybersecurity perfection."

Amid the rise of remote selling due to the pandemic, Walnut, billing itself as a ‘Wix for Sales teams,’ has raised $3.5m from SV Angel (Ron and Topher Conway) and A.Capital by Ronny Conway and former a16z partners. This brings its total amount raised to $6m. Other investors include NFX, Joe Montana, Wix CEO, Immad […]

Back in 2018, Google announced that it would provide $9 million in Google Cloud Platform credits — divided over three years — to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) to help it run the development and distribution infrastructure for the Kubernetes project. Previously, Google owned and managed those resources for the community. Today, the two […]

Microsoft -owned GitHub today announced that it is doing away with all non-essential cookies on its platform. Thanks to this, starting today, GitHub .com and its subdomains will not feature a cookie banner anymore, either. That’s one less cookie banner you’ll have to click away to get your work done. “No one likes cookie banners,” […]

Yesterday, day one of TC Sessions: Space 2020, was (brace yourself) out of this world. Bad puns aside, today’s lineup promises even more in-depth interviews, Q&As and breakout sessions with the top experts in the space industry. It also includes a pitch-off and plenty of networking opportunities to connect with the leading movers and shakers […]

Businesses today feel, more than ever before, the imperative to have flexible e-commerce strategies in place, able to connect with would-be customers wherever they might be. That market driver has now led to a significant growth round for a startup that is helping the larger of these businesses, including those targeting the B2B market, build […]

Do the price gains make sense in the short-term? Who knows. But they are not based on nothing.

If you’ve ever used a Snapchat or Instagram filter, you know that one of the popular use cases for AR (augmented reality) is to change up your appearance with virtual makeup — like a different shade of lipstick or eyeshadow, for example. Today, Google is moving into this space, as well, with the launch of […]

Europe has greenlit Google’s $2.1BN acquisition of fitness wearable maker Fitbit, applying a number of conditions intended to shrink competition concerns over letting it gobble a major cache of health and wellness data following months of regulatory scrutiny of the deal. While Google announced its plan to buy Fitbit over a year ago, it only […]

While 2020 won’t be remembered fondly by many of us for much of anything, it was a blockbuster year for enterprise M&A with the top 10 deals totaling an astounding $165.2 billion. This is the third straight year I’ve done this compilation. Last year the number was $40 billion. The year prior it was $87 […]

It’s been an eventful fall for Perigee CEO and founder Mollie Breen. The former NSA employee participated in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield in September, and she just closed her first seed round on Thanksgiving, giving her a $1.5 million runway to begin building the company. Outsiders Fund led the round with participation from Westport, […]