Crunch Hype

As traditional brands grapple with a new world where selling online is as much or perhaps even more important than how you are positioned in a physical store, a startup that helps them get all their inventory, marketing and selling strategies all on one page has raised a significant round of funding. Salsify, which provides […]

It used to be the case that in order to scale globally, European companies needed to spend big on launching in the US to achieve the kind of growth they wanted. That usually meant re-locating large swathes of the team to the San Francisco / Bay Area, or New York. New research suggests that is […]

Freeletics, the “AI-powered” fitness coaching app, has closed $25 million in Series B funding. Leading the round is U.S.-based JAZZ Venture Partners and Causeway Media Partners, with support from KKCG. The fresh injection of capital follows $45 million in Series A funding in late 2018. It will be used by the company to develop new […]

Servify, a Mumbai-headquartered startup that operates a device lifecycle management platform and works deeply with brands including Apple and Samsung in a number of geographies, has raised $23 million in a new financing round. The Series C financing round for the five-year-old startup was led by existing investor Iron Pillar, and other existing investors including […]

The Traton Group, Volkswagen AG’s heavy-truck business, has taken a minority stake in TuSimple as part of an agreement between the two companies to develop self-driving trucks. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the partnership or the percentage of the minority stake. Traton did make a direct capital investment into TuSimple, according to one […]

Uncapped, the London-headquartered and Warsaw-based startup that offers “revenue-based” finance to European businesses so that founders don’t have to give up equity stipulated by venture capital, has raised $26 million in new funding. The round was led by Mouro Capital (the recently spun-out fund previously called Santander InnoVentures), with participation from Iron Ventures and existing […]

For the first time in more than 20 years since Apple began its operations in India, the iPhone-maker has started selling its products directly to consumers in the world’s second largest smartphone market. Apple launched its online store in India on Wednesday, which in addition to offering nearly the entire line-up of its products, also […]

The September 20 deadline for a purported TikTok sale has already passed, but the parties involved have yet to settle terms on the deal. ByteDance and TikTok’s bidders Oracle and Walmart presented conflicting messages on the future ownership of the app, confusing investors and users. Meanwhile, Beijing’s discontent with the TikTok sale is increasingly obvious. […]

Syfe, a Singapore-based startup that wants to make investing more accessible in Asia, announced today that it has closed a SGD $25.2 million (USD $18.6 million) Series A led by Valar Ventures, a fintech-focused investment firm. The round also included participation from Presight Capital and returning investor Unbound, which led Syfe’s seed funding last year. […]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed Tuesday the Model S Plaid, the newest variant to the company’s flagship sedan that boasts some eye-popping performance and range claims, including the ability to travel at least 520 miles on a single charge. The Model S with this more powerful “Plaid” powertrain won’t be available until late 2021. Tesla, […]

Amid a packed afternoon of announcements from Tesla around innovations the company is pursuing to slash the cost of electric vehicles and energy storage through better battery design, the company said it’s made new advancements in material science for the key components of the lithium-ion batteries that are the heart of all of its products. […]

A little more than a year ago, during Tesla’s 2019 shareholder’s meeting, CEO Elon Musk said the company “might get into the business of mining minerals used in electric vehicle batteries.” Today, during Tesla’s so-called Battery Day event, Musk confirmed that the company is taking the first official step by securing the rights to a […]

Tesla held its Battery Day event on Tuesday to discuss a variety of innovations it has developed and is pursuing in battery technology for its vehicles. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering Drew Baglino detailed a new anode and cathode technology the company is working on, as well as materials […]

TransferWise, a European fintech unicorn, announced the financial results of its fiscal year ending March, 2020. The company posted strong growth, continued profit and new customer records. TransferWise was most recently valued at $5 billion during a secondary sale worth $319 million in July of this year. On the results front, we can compare the […]

Caura, a new U.K. startup that aims to take the hassle out of car ownership, is breaking cover today. Founded by Sai Lakshmi, who previously co-founded Echo, the medication management service acquired by LloydsPharmacy owner McKesson, Caura is an iOS app designed to manage all of the vehicle-related admin that car owners endure. Drivers are […]

For Tesla to reach the ambitious goal of 10 to 20 terawatt hours of battery production per year that the company has set, it will need to advance the battery and its production. Today, during Tesla’s self-described Battery Day event, the company laid out a series of innovations that its CEO Elon Musk said will […]

Tesla has fundamentally redesigned the way that its battery packs integrate into their vehicles, turning them into structural elements of the car, rather than just fuel sources on their own. At Tesla’s Battery Day event on Tuesday, Elon Musk compared this to how commercial aircraft used to load fuel into tanks that were contained within […]

Microsoft takes on Twilio, Google launches a work-tracking tool and Mirakl raises $300 million. This is your Daily Crunch for September 22, 2020. The big story: Microsoft launches Azure Communication Services Microsoft announced today that it’s ready to compete with Twilio by launching a set of features that allow developers to add voice and video […]

With the most uncertain election in modern American history fast approaching, social networks are doing a final big push to get their users registered to vote. The efforts align with National Voter Registration Day, which punctuates ongoing efforts from companies like Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat to get people to the polls, whether IRL or through […]

The Miami-based startup Papa has raised an additional $18 million as it looks to expand its business connecting elderly Americans and families with physical and virtual companions, which the company calls “pals.” The company’s services are already available in 17 states and Papa is going to expand to another four states in the next few […]

This Gillmor Gang episode is as much about what we didn’t talk about as what we did. In the run up to the recording session, we somehow suspected we’d talk about Apple’s virtual event on Tuesday. Then, 15 minutes after we finished, RBG lost her battle to keep the Supreme Court from tipping even further […]

Carnegie Mellon University and spin-off space startup Astrobotic are developing a robotic rover to look for water on the moon, and the little bot just passed the crucial preliminary design review phase, putting it one step closer to its inaugural mission planned for 2022. MoonRanger is aiming to be the first robotic detective to investigate […]

Facebook removed two networks of fake accounts spreading government propaganda on the platform Tuesday, one originating in China and one in the Philippines. In its latest report on this kind of coordinated campaign, the company says it took down 155 Facebook accounts, 11 pages, nine groups and seven Instagram accounts connected to the Chinese activity […]

While electric scooters first launched at scale in the U.S., they quickly made their way overseas. Now, there’s a bustling electric scooter market in Europe, China, Latin America and one that’s growing in parts of Africa. At TC Sessions: Mobility on October 6 & 7, we’ll explore the journey of electric scooters and bikes from […]

Millions of homes have voice-enabled devices, but when was the last time you heard a piece of synthesized speech longer than a handful of seconds? WellSaid Labs has pushed the field ahead with a voice engine that can easily and quickly generate hours of voice content that sounds just as good or better than the […]

Earlier this year, we launched The TechCrunch List, a carefully curated group of VCs who lead rounds recommended by thousands of founders for their acumen and friendliness, grouped by market focus, stage and geography. Since the launch of the List, we’ve seen great engagement: tens of thousands of founders have each come back multiple times […]

Where tech has succeeded in creating of hundreds of thousands of independent contractor positions, it also has to lead the way in reimagining how we may treat them and reward them for their work.

Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, TechCrunch media and advertising reporter Anthony Ha sat down with Blavity CEO Morgan DeBaun and The Shade Room CEO Angelica Nwandu to chat about their respective media companies, 2020 in the media world and how they view a recent conversation inside of media to hire and retain more diverse workforces. […]

The question of how policymakers should respond to the power of big tech didn’t get a great deal of airtime at TechCrunch Disrupt last week, despite a number of investigations now underway in the United States (hi, Google). It’s also clear that attention- and data-monopolizing platforms compel many startups to use their comparatively slender resources […]

French startup Mirakl has raised a $300 million funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation — the company is now a unicorn. Mirakl helps you launch and manage a marketplace on your e-commerce website. Many customers also rely on Mirakl-powered marketplaces for B2B transactions. Permira Advisers is leading the round, with existing investors 83North, Bain […]

More than seven years after Amazon began its e-commerce operations in India, and two years after its shopping service added support for Hindi, the most popular language in the country, the American giant is embracing more local languages to court hundreds of millions of new users. Amazon announced on Tuesday its website and apps now […]

Don’t let budget woes keep you from participating in TC Sessions: Mobility 2020 on October 6-7. We’re dedicated to making this event accessible to as many members of the mobility community as possible. Case in point: Today we’re announcing the new Expo Ticket for just $25. Pro tip: Get your Expo ticket today. The price […]

Over the past four years or so, HMD has carved out a nice little niche for itself with its Nokia-branded handsets. The instant name recognition of a legacy brand was a nice little perch on which to gain some footing in an overcrowded market. Pricing has long been a key to its appeal, as well, […]

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way a number of companies have had to do business. For the event discovery startup, IRL, it meant pivoting into the virtual events space. This April, the startup quickly reacted to government lockdowns and restrictions on in-person gatherings to focus on helping people find their online counterparts and other virtual […]

Sleep is tough to come by even when there isn’t a pandemic raging. Even when it doesn’t feel like the world is coming apart at the seams every damn day. Bose’s original Sleepbuds pre-date the current desperate moment of “coronasomnia” (not my turn of phrase, mind) by a couple of years, but the timing of […]

HubSpot, the Boston firm that made its name by helping to define the in-bound marketing concept, sees a pandemic landscape that’s changing the way companies sell, forcing more inside sales. Today, the company announced the HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise at Inbound, their annual conference being held virtually this year. While the company has been offering […]

Mailchimp may have started out as an easy to use newsletter tool, but that was almost 20 years ago. Today’s company still does email, but at its core, it is now a marketing automation platform for small businesses that also offers a website builder, basic online stores, digital ad support and analytics to make sense […]

Microsoft today announced the launch of Azure Communication Services, a new set of features in its cloud that enable developers to add voice and video calling, chat, text messages to their apps, as well as old-school telephony. The company describes the new set of services as the ” first fully managed communication platform offering from […]

Microsoft Azure offers developers access to more data center regions than its competitors, but it was late to the game of offering different availability zones in those regions for high-availability use cases. After a few high-profile issues a couple of years ago, it accelerated its roadmap for building availability zones. Currently, 12 of Microsoft’s regions […]

Amazon teamed up with Echelon to build and sell the Prime Bike. The $500 exercise bike is a virtual clone of the $1900 Peloton bike minus the screen — even the color scheme and design are the same. The bike is available now from Amazon (and Walmart with slightly different branding). Echelon builds several fitness […]

After the last few weeks of IPOs, you’d be forgiven if you missed Corsair Gaming’s own public offering. The company is not our usual fare. Here at TechCrunch, we care a lot of about startups, usually technology startups, which often collect capital from private sources on their way to either the bin, an IPO, or […]

Blue Origin just announced the timing of its next rocket launch – and it’s surprisingly soon, in just two days on Thursday, September 24. The launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle will be its 13th overall for that category of launch craft, and the 7th in a row for this particular rocket. The payload […]

I first spent time with the Royole Flexpai at a TechCrunch event in China back in 2018. The devices was exciting. It was the first commercially released foldable, after all, before Samsung and Huawei offered their respective takes on the form factor. But ultimately it felt like, at best, a proof of concept. It was […]

Trying to outflank competition from neo banks and other potential challengers, two of Brazil’s largest financial services institutions, Bradesco and Itaú Unibanco, have invested in Quanto, a company developing technology to let retailers and other businesses access financial information and services. Joining Brazil’s two largest banks are Kaszek Ventures, one of Latin America’s largest venture […]

Tech that powers physical spaces is in the midst of a growth spurt. One company in the mix, Latch, is today announcing the next phase of the company with the launch of LatchOS. Latch was founded back in 2014 with the mission of creating a vertically integrated hardware/software solution for door access in apartment buildings. […]

Google’s in-house incubator Area 120 is today introducing a new work-tracking tool, Tables, which aims to make tracking projects more efficient by investing in automation. Instead of simply tracking notes and tasks associated with a project in various documents that have to manually updated by team members, Tables’ bots help do things like scheduling recurring […]

Willow, the startup company making a new, wearable, breast pump for women, is capping off a frenetic 2020 with $55 million in fresh funding as it looks to expand its product line to more offerings for new mothers. The company is coming off a year which saw sales increase, and Laura Chambers, the former eBay […]

No-code and low-code software have become increasingly popular ways for companies — especially those that don’t count technology as part of their DNA — to bring in more updated IT processes without the heavy lifting needed to build and integrate services from the ground up. As a mark of that trend, today, a company that […]

Over the past decade, the dynamic between Chinese and United States tech companies has undergone dramatic shifts. Once seen as a promising market for American companies, that narrative flipped as China’s tech innovation and investment power became increasingly evident, and the expanding reach of the Chinese Communist Party’s cybersecurity regulations fueled concerns about data privacy. […]

In-space manufacturing company Made In Space is pushing the envelope on what can, well, be made in space with its next mission – which is set to launch aboard a Northrop Grumman International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission set for next Tuesday. Aboard that launch will be Made In Space’s Turbine Ceramic Manufacturing Module (aka […]