Crunch Hype

Metadata.io announced today that it has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding. It’s been more than four years since I wrote about the startup’s $2 million seed funding. At the time, co-founder and CEO Gil Allouche described the product as helping business-to-business marketers target their ads as people who resemble their existing sales leads. Since […]

Ireland’s data protection watchdog, the DPC, has sent Facebook a preliminary order to suspend data transfers from the EU to the US, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter and including a confirmation from Facebook’s VP of global affairs, Nick Clegg. The preliminary suspension order follows a landmark ruling by Europe’s […]

Google Maps has had a sort of spotty relationship with the Apple Watch over the years. Google first shipped a Watch-friendly build of Maps back in September of 2015, just months after the Apple Watch first hit the shelves. In 2017, however, Google nixed Map’s Watch support with little more than a suggestion that it’d […]

Monthly financing isn’t an entirely new concept in the world of Xbox. Microsoft offered a similar plan for the Xbox One S a few years ago. The idea is pretty simple: pay a monthly fee for hardware and software for two years until you outright own the device. What’s new here, however, is that the […]

A new startup called Kinspire wants to make it easier for parents to find activities to help keep kids occupied — away from a screen. The app, which launches with hundreds of activities vetted by parents and teachers alike, arrives at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has many families continuing to engage in social […]

Bay Area-based Iron Ox today announced a $20 million Series B. The funding, led by Pathbreaker Venture and family office firms, brings the robotics company’s total funding up to $45 million to date. A number of other investors also took part in the round, including Crosslink Capital, Amplify Partners, ENIAC Ventures, R7 Partners, Tuesday Ventures, […]

Last year’s Motorola Razr reboot should have been a slam-dunk. An iconic name attached to a cutting-edge form factor — what could possible go wrong? A lot, turns out, especially in the world of foldables, where nothing seems to go according to plan. Some questionable design choices gave rise to a poorly reviewed device that […]

According to Palantir’s latest S-1 amended filing published this morning, the company intends to start trading in two weeks on September 23 under the ticker PLTR. That gives us a bit of time to speculate about how the company will perform on the public markets, particularly given Palantir’s unusually shareholder-hostile governance structure, which was a […]

That strange feeling? That’s the sensation of being excited about new movies again. Now that theaters are slowly reopening (though not yet in New York or most of California, and I am 100% okay with that), studios are once again releasing trailers to hype up their scheduled releases for 2020 and beyond. Today, we finally […]

Women founders who exhibit in Digital Startup Alley at Disrupt 2020, this opportunity’s designed with you in mind. Don’t miss your chance to meet with — and pitch to — accelerators focused on women entrepreneurs. We partnered with cela to bring accelerators to Disrupt, and they’re here to pre-interview candidates for their upcoming virtual cohorts. […]

The National Football League is naming Postmates as its very first on-demand food delivery partner. In this context, a partnership means a multiyear sponsorship, which also makes Postmates a sponsor of the Super Bowl. And as the season kicks off with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans, Postmates is teaming up with the […]

Young "remote learners" often struggle to navigate the keyboards, menus, and interfaces required to make good on the promise of education technology.

Peloton and DoorDash probably don’t seem to have much in common, but the connected fitness platform and food delivery app have both built massive service businesses that are touching millions. We’re amped to announce that Peloton co-founder/CTO Yony Feng and DoorDash cofounder/CTO Andy Fang are joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt next week for a wide-ranging conversation […]

A Silicon Valley immigration lawyer explains how to participate in the J-1 visa program.

Few electric cars made a bigger splash than the new Porsche Taycan. As President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America Klaus Zellmer has the tall order of bringing the electric sedan to America and selling it against Tesla on Tesla’s home turf. He also oversees Porsche’s digital assets in the U.S. market namely the […]

Electric vehicles, dock-less scooters, autonomous trucks, ride-hailing apps and the AI that fuels them all — it’s a world of transportation that even a visionary like Leonardo Da Vinci could scarcely imagine. On October 6-7, modern-day visionaries from around the world will gather virtually for TC Sessions: Mobility 2020. This is your chance to channel […]

Even if you’ve been through a successful IPO process, you’ll still need to educate yourself — the SPAC process and the IPO process are completely different.

Things have gone from bad to worse for a stumbling smartphone market in 2020. Already plateauing and decline figures have taken a big hit from COVID-19. The pandemic has hampered sales of non-essential items, particularly those best enjoyed outside of the home. According to new figures from Canalys, smartphone shipments are set to experience a […]

Cannabis is now available from vending machines in select California dispensaries. Made by California-based Greenstop, the self-serve kiosks can simultaneously serve four customers while still conforming to local regulations. And they couldn’t come at a better time. During the COVID-19 pandemic cannabis is considered an essential business in California, and the system provides dispensaries with […]

The coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the holiday shopping season is already underway. Amazon has delayed its annual sales event, Prime Day, from July to October 2020, while top e-commerce retailers, including Walmart, Target and Amazon, are becoming more powerful than ever. According to a new report from App Annie, mobile shopping apps are poised to […]

Snap and the NFL recently announced a multi-year extension to their content partnership. Now, with the season starting tomorrow, they’re revealing more details about what kinds of content fans can expect to find on Snapchat. For tomorrow night’s kickoff, they’ve created a special augmented reality Lens that takes fans from the Kansas City Chiefs’ locker […]

Before she became the chief executive officer of LanzaTech, one of the first generation of companies working on carbon capture and conversion technologies, Jennifer Holmgren was the general manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business at UOP (which stands for Universal Oil Products). That division of Honeywell, the $115 billion dollar industrial conglomerate, was […]

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our <a href=”https://forms.gle/k4Ji2Ch7zdrn7o2p6”>survey of VCs in Vienna will capture how the city is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. The deadline is Tuesday. (Please note, if you have filled […]

Since her departure from Drake’s entourage (where she worked as his longtime personal assistant) Courtne Smith has launched a line of hair products; a giveaway game that dropped swag like Yeezy shoes and Kardashian beauty products called Suprize; and now, NewNew, a social network based on the videos its users like and share. Think of […]

Amazon this morning announced it’s teaming up with AT&T on a new feature that will allow some AT&T customers to make and receive phone calls through their Alexa-enabled devices, like an Amazon Echo smart speaker. Once enabled, customers with supported devices will be able to speak to the Alexa digital assistant to start a phone […]

When companies need to find manufacturers to build custom parts, it’s not always an easy process, especially during a pandemic. Xometry, a 7-year old startup based in Maryland has built an online marketplace where companies can find manufacturers across the world with excess capacity to build whatever they need. Today, the company announced a $75 […]

Astute, a customer engagement platform headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, is announcing that it has acquired social media marketing company Socialbakers. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Socialbakers CEO Yuval Ben-Itzhak will become president of Socialbakers for the combined company, and he told me via email that the entire Socialbakers team will be […]

Slack’s shares are set to fall sharply this morning, down around 16% in pre-market trading. As the company beat analyst expectations last quarter and guided within range, the selloff might feel a little surprising. Perhaps it shouldn’t. I spoke with a VC last week about what the new benchmark results are for private SaaS companies, […]

If you know one thing about Mint Mobile, it’s probably the fact that it’s owned by Pizza Place guy turned Pikachu voice, Ryan Reynolds. The actor’s been building a nice investment portfolio for himself, beginning with a piece of the Aviation American Gin company in 2018 and an ownership stake in Mint last year. The […]

As has been said so many times before: “Hardware is hard.” But has building a hardware company gotten any easier over the years? Or has 2020 introduced all new challenges of its own? At Disrupt 2020 — our first ever entirely virtual Disrupt! — we’ll be joined by two people who have tons of insight […]

Calling all Extra Crunch members! We’ve partnered with Amazon Web Services for an Extra Crunch Partner Perk, and now eligible members can get $1,000 in AWS Activate credits as a part of an annual Extra Crunch membership plan. If you are already an Extra Crunch member, scroll down to the bottom of the post for […]

The flagship Xbox Series X is arriving on November 10, and will carry a retail price tag of $499, Microsoft confirmed on Wednesday. The console will also be available for pre-orders beginning on September 22. Alongside the Xbox Series X console, Microsoft is also going to be selling a less powerful, but still next-gen, Xbox […]

Sana Benefits, a manager of self-funded insurance plans for small businesses, said it has raised $20.8 million in a recent round of funding as it looks to roll up all of the latest startup health benefit providers into a convenient package for small businesses. Self-financed insurance plans are set up by companies to pay out […]

Boston Dynamics this morning announced that it’s bringing Spot robot to a number of new markets, following sales in the U.S. Interested parties in the European Union, U.K. and Canada can now purchase the technologically advanced quadrupedal robot. Spot is Boston Dynamics’ first commercially available product, building on a quarter century of pushing the boundaries […]

When we last reported on Snyk in January, eons ago in COVID time, the company announced $150 million investment on a valuation of over $1 billion. Today, barely nine months later, it announced another $200 million and its valuation has expanded to $2.6 billion. The company is obviously drawing some serious investor attention and even […]

Zymergen, one of the companies that’s developing biomanufacturing technologies which could reshape any number of industries, said it has raised $300 million in financing yesterday. It’s part of a wave of biotech companies that TechCrunch covered in depth last month. Synthetic biology startups are giving investors an appetite The investment total, announced yesterday, includes Series […]

Remote working has become the norm for many of us not on the frontlines, and what’s been notable is that this is also changing the mindset for a lot of organizations, which are now hiring from an increasingly global talent pool. Today, a startup called Deel — which provides payroll, compliance tools and other services […]

The UK government has published a national data strategy today, setting out a plan to promote the use and prioritize the reuse of data as a lever for economic growth and digital innovation. It has also opened up a 12-week public consultation on the policy plan. The top-line message from the secretary of state for […]

Sprinklr has been busy the last few years acquiring a dozen companies, then rewriting their code base and incorporating them into the company’s customer experience platform. Today, the late-stage startup went back to the fund raising well for the first time in three years, and it was a doozy, raising $200 million on a $2.7 […]

NotCo, the Chilean food technology company making plant-based milk and meat replacements, has confirmed the close of a new $85 million round of funding to take the company’s products into the US market. The announcement confirms earlier reporting from TechCrunch that the company had raised new capital, but according to people with knowledge of the […]

Yubico, a maker of hardware security keys, has unveiled its newest YubiKey 5C NFC, which the company says offers the strongest defenses against some of the most common cyberattacks. Security keys provide a physical security barrier to your online accounts. Hackers can steal usernames and passwords, and two-factor authentication codes sent to your phone spoofed […]

Swyg, a Dublin-based startup that believes it can reduce bias in recruitment by combining a peer-interview process with its own AI, has picked up $1.2 million in pre-seed funding. Leading the round is Frontline Ventures, alongside angel investors including Charles Bibby (co-founder of Pointy) and Martin Henk (co-founder of Pipedrive). The funding will be used […]

For China’s food delivery workers, life can feel like a constant battle with algorithms, traffic police, and disgruntled customers. An essay detailing the hazardous work conditions of China’s food delivery drivers went viral on the internet on Tuesday, causing a moment of national reckonings on algorithmic harms to people. In China’s populated urban hubs, one […]

Dawn Capital, the London-based VC that focuses on B2B software, has closed its fourth and largest fund: $400 million that it plans to use to continue investing in early stage startups. Oversubscribed and closed (all remotely) within six months of launching in the midst of a global health pandemic, the news underscores how VCs — […]

Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail business Reliance Retail said on Wednesday it will raise $1.02 billion from Silver Lake, kickstarting a fundraising spree months after its sister venture Jio Platforms raised $20 billion. The investment in Reliance Retail will grant Silver Lake a 1.75% equity stake in India’s largest retail chain. The deal values Reliance […]

Panasonic is adding another production line to the massive factory it operates with Tesla in Nevada, an expansion that will increase battery cell capacity by 10%. The Sparks facility, dubbed Gigafactory 1, is the centerpiece of Tesla’s plan to expand global battery capacity and reduce the cost of electric vehicles. Panasonic has been its most […]

Disrupt 2020 is mere days away, but we’ve added pre-Disrupt events to help startup founders up their game, increase their ROI and drive their business forward. What’s next on the agenda? If you’re a founder with big ideas, get ready for a rare opportunity designed to help you fund your startup dreams. Thursday, September 10th […]

I quite like the iPad Pro 11 inch with the Magic Keyboard. In the Land of Pandemic, where every day is Saturday, the tablet is king. With no real purchase on the chaotic flow of life, the rules — any rules — of the road are very dear to me. Structure is arbitrary but mandatory. […]

Online advertising is a game of scale, but one attempt to consolidate two competitors to better take on Google and Facebook has fallen apart. Taboola and Outbrain, startups that each provide publishers with ad-based content recommendation platforms, have called off a planned $850 million merger that would have valued the combined company at more than […]

Apple strikes back at Epic Games, Android 11 is here and Microsoft announces a new stripped-down Xbox. This is your Daily Crunch for September 8, 2020. The big story: Apple files countersuit against Epic Apple has made the latest move in a legal battle against Epic Games, filing a lawsuit claiming that the company behind […]