Crunch Hype

Epic Games wins a victory against Apple, Fitbit announces a new smartwatch and Microsoft Word adds a transcription feature. This is your Daily Crunch for August 25, 2020. The big story: Judge says Apple can’t block Unreal Engine U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers weighed in on the legal battle between Epic Games and […]

And we’re back! Today was part two of Y Combinator’s absolutely massive Demo Day(s) event for its Summer 2020 class. As we outlined yesterday, this is the first YC accelerator class to take place entirely online, from the day zero interviews all the way on through to their eventual demo day debut. We talked with […]

New York-based startup Muze is rethinking mobile messaging. While today’s messaging apps have expanded over the years to include support for sharing photos and videos, voice messages, reactions and more, Muze has fully redesigned the traditional messaging experience as a blank canvas, allowing for more creative interactions. The company’s new mobile app on iOS allows […]

Figma for filmmakers, TikTok for English learners and a cryptocurrency twist that actually makes sense? After 197 pitches, Y Combinator’s Demo Day for its Summer 2020 cohort has concluded. While the fanfare, run-ins and fortune cookies were missing in this virtual session, it was still exciting to see and hear founders from 26 countries pitch […]

Porsche is rolling out a less expensive subscription plan in four U.S. cities as the German automaker experiments with different pricing and products in an effort to expand its customer base. Porsche now has three plans, or tiers, that are all housed under its newly rebranded Porsche Drive vehicle subscription program. This new plan, called […]

COVID-19 is proving to be a massive driver for robotics investments — and for good reason. Robots don’t call in sick, and they’re far less likely to be disease vectors than their human counterparts. Companies attempting to keep the lights on during this and potential future pandemics are no doubt taking a serious looking at […]

Netflix’s children’s programming library continues to grow, and its latest is one of its best original offerings yet – Emily’s Wonder Lab, a TV series hosted by engineer, space expert and Emmy-nominated TV science host Emily Calandrelli. The new show’s first season of 10 episodes is now available to stream in its entirety, and each […]

Gig Workers Collective, a gig worker-activist group led by Instacart shoppers, is asking Instacart to provide disaster relief to workers impacted by natural disasters. The demands come at a time when several parts of California are engulfed in flames. The three biggest fires, the LNU Lightning Complex, SCU Lightning Complex and CZU Lightning Complex, have […]

It goes without saying that tech alone won’t change deeply embedded structures, but it sure can open a lot of doors.

One of the areas of autonomous driving technology with the most potential to have a near-term and dramatic impact remains trucking: There’s a growing lack of drivers for long-haul routes, and highway trucking remains a relatively uncomplicated (though still very challenging) type of driving for AV systems to tackle. Many companies are pursuing the challenge […]

When Snowflake filed its S-1 ahead of an upcoming IPO yesterday, it wasn’t exactly a shock. The company which raised $1.4 billion had been valued at $12.4 billion in its last private raise in February. CEO Frank Slootman, who had taken over from Bob Muglia in May last year, didn’t hide the fact that going […]

Founders are encouraged, incentivized and pressured to begin transacting with customers as quickly as possible to drive growth and revenue. But making legal mistakes early in the game can create costly liabilities down the road. That’s why we invited James Alonso from Magnolia Law and Adam Zagaris from Moonshot Legal to join us at TechCrunch […]

Jason Kong Contributor Jason Kong is an Investor at IVP, where he focuses on identifying and evaluating later-stage enterprise and consumer technology investments. Cack Wilhelm Contributor Share on Twitter Cack Wilhelm is a partner at IVP who focuses on growth-stage technology companies. She serves as a Board Director for CircleCI. Each year, LinkedIn tracks the […]

The emergence, and now seemingly extended presence, of the novel coronavirus health pandemic has made remote working into a pretty standard part of office life for so-called knowledge workers. Today, a startup that has built a labor marketplace to help companies source and develop teams of remote developers is announcing some funding as to looks […]

A lot happened in cybersecurity over the past week. The University of Utah paid almost half a million dollars to stop hackers from leaking sensitive student data after a ransomware attack. Two major ATM makers patched flaws that could’ve allowed for fraudulent cash withdrawals from vulnerable ATMs. Grant Schneider, the U.S. federal chief information security […]

Facebook is moving further away from the Oculus brand. The company says it is changing the name of their augmented reality and virtual reality division to “Facebook Reality Labs,” a division which will encompass the company’s AR/VR products under the Oculus, Spark and Portal brands. The company’s AR/VR research division had its title changed from […]

In a nod to the show Parks and Recreation, it’s time to “treat yo self” — with an additional $100 discount on Disrupt 2020 passes. For the next 72-hours only, you can save an extra $100 and get your Disrupt Digital Pro passes for $245 each. Simply head to our website and boom — you […]

Later today, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson is joining the TechCrunch crew for a live Q&A. The discussion is part of our Extra Crunch Live series that has been live for the last several months. It’s been a good run, with guests like Charles Hudson, Sydney Sykes and Mark Cuban. We’ve also had entrepreneurs swing by, including […]

Zendesk has been offering customers the ability to track customer service statistics for some time, but it has always been a look back. Today, the company announced a new product called Explore Enterprise that lets customers capture that valuable info in real time, and share it with anyone in the organization, whether they have a […]

The COVID-19 pandemic is, understandably, proving to be a major driver for robotics and automation adoption. The already hot categories are proving to be even more appealing as companies look to technology amid the spread of a deadly and highly contagious virus. Warehouses and fulfillment centers are, naturally, a big category for funding. Amazon, which […]

This ain’t your average back-to-school sale but then again, there’s nothing average about TC Sessions: Mobility 2020. This two-day event — October 6-7 — draws the world’s top technologists, investors and researchers determined to invent the future with mobile technology. Achieving that audacious goal requires investing in the next generation of smart visionaries — students. […]

Eden, the office management platform founded by Joe du Bey and Kyle Wilkinson, is today announcing the launch of several new enterprise software features. The company, which offers a marketplace for office managers to procure services like office cleaning, repairs, etc., is looking to offer a more comprehensive platform. The software features include a COVID […]

Google today will begin rolling out several updates to its Chrome web browser, with the goal of increasing user productivity and making the browsing experience faster. Specifically, Google is making Chrome’s tabs and its newer tab groups easier and quicker to use. Under-the-hood, it promises improvements that will deliver up to 10% faster page loads […]

Trove, a startup that sells a suite of internal compensation tools to other startups, has quietly graduated from this summer’s Y Combinator batch with millions in venture capital and a whopping valuation. A16z and Trove did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The deal likely closed weeks after the company joined the famed […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has left no industry untouched, but the healthcare industry is arguably the one that stands to be transformed the most by the ongoing pandemic. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2020, get the perspectives of two founders who’ve created entirely new healthcare modals with their respective startups on how their companies have adapted to a […]

Facebook is announcing a number of new e-commerce features both within the main Facebook app and on Instagram. The pandemic has forced many businesses to shift online, and Facebook made a big announcement in May around the ability of merchants to create Facebook Shops that are viewable on both Facebook and Instagram. More recently, Instagram […]

Microsoft today announced that Immersive Reader, its service for developers who want to add text-to-speech and reading comprehension tools to their applications, is now generally available. Immersive Reader, which is part of the Azure Cognitive Services suite of AI products, developers get access to a text-to-speech engine, but just as importantly, the service offers tools […]

Perhaps some day in the not-so-distant future, we’ll all be wearing smart glasses. Stranger things have happened. And hey, most people were fairly skeptical in the early days of smartwatches. And while I’m not saying that it will definitely take Apple launching its own pair to accelerate mainstream acceptance à la the Apple Watch, I […]

Microsoft today launched Transcribe in Word, its new transcription service for Microsoft 365 subscribers, into general availability. It’s now available in the online version of Word, with other platforms launching later. In addition, Word is also getting new dictation features, which now allow you to use your voice to format and edit your text, for […]

Palantir, the secretive data analytics startup founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, would challenge a government order seeking the company’s encryption keys, according to a leaked document. TechCrunch has obtained a leaked copy of Palantir’s S-1, filed with U.S. regulators to take the company public. We’ve covered some ground already, including looking at Palantir’s financials, […]

Facebook News, the social network’s dedicated news section launched to U.S. audiences in June, is soon expanding to international markets. The company announced today it plans to accelerate its plans to bring the product to non-U.S. markets, including the U.K., Germany, France, India, and Brazil, within the timeframe of six months to a year. As […]

After far too few startups appeared ready to take advantage of warm public market conditions and ecstatic IPO receptions, a deluge of private companies filed to go public yesterday. There was Sumo Logic in the morning and JFrog a bit later on. Unity filed in there as well. Snowflake also dropped, along with Asana later […]

The private launch industry isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, and a new $172 million Series B round of funding for China commercial launch startup iSpace indicates it could be heating up internationally. The new funding was led by Beijing Financial Street Capital Operation Center, CICC Alpha, Taizhonghe Capital and includes participation from existing […]

If 2020 hasn’t been wild enough, there’s an extra special twist going down at Disrupt 2020 beyond the fact that, for the first time ever, the conference will be fully virtual. It also happens to be the show’s 10th anniversary. Time flies when you’re changing the world, eh? As part of Disrupt’s 10th anniversary celebration, […]

The last couple of years have been tough on the smartphone industry, as sales plateaued and eventually eroded. But nothing could have prepared manufacturers for 2020. This was supposed to be the year numbers began bouncing back, courtesy of 5G and some radical new designs. But the real figures have been utterly dismal. According to […]

Manasi Vartak, founder and CEO of Verta, conceived of the idea of the open source project ModelDB database as a way to track versions of machine models while she was still in grad school at MIT. After she graduated, she decided to expand on that vision to build a product that could not only track […]

Firefly is expanding its ad business in New York City by acquiring the out-of-home business of Strong Outdoor, as well as by becoming the advertising partner for fleet operator Sally. Firefly launched in 2018 by offering Uber and Lyft drivers a digital display that they could place at the top of their vehicles, making extra […]

Global communications startup Kymeta has raised a new $85.2 million funding round, led by Bill Gates . The Redmond-based company has developed a new type of smart, powered flat panel antenna that can be used to to vastly improve satellite and cellular connection signal strength. Kymeta’s new funding is intended to help it continue with […]

Fitbit would be the first to admit it was late to the smartwatch game. When it did finally launch a proper smartwatch with the Ionic, it was something of a misfire. But the Versa helped the wearable pioneer make up for some lost ground, courtesy of a solid, Android-compatible device at a good price. In […]

Fitbit’s big news for today was the launch of the Sense, a new, more premium smartwatch line designed to compete directly against the likes of Apple and Samsung. But Fitbit has never been one for solitary product launches. As such, two of its biggest lines are also getting key updates. First off is the Versa. […]

Accessory maker Nomad has a long history of delivering great accessories for iOS and Android devices, using great quality materials and craftsmanship. Now, the company is partnering with wireless charging technology startup Aira to debut the later’s premiere product: FreePower, a position-free wireless charging technology. Nomad’s new Base Station Pro ($229) is the first product […]

Chicago has a long history of creating industry-leading companies and it doesn’t seem COVID-19 is slowing down the city. TechCrunch surveyed Chicago venture capitalists who remain optimistic despite the current crisis. COVID-19 could be good for Chicago, they told TechCrunch throughout their survey responses. It’s clear from the responses below investors in Chicago are interested […]

Pleasanton-based green energy startup NDB, Inc. has reached a key milestone today with the completion of two proof of concept tests of its nano diamond battery (NDB). One of these tests took place at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the other at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, and both saw NDB’s battery tech […]

Amazon is rolling out a new augmented reality shopping tool, Room Decorator, that will allow you to see furniture and other home decor in their own space. While the retailer had experimented with AR tools in the past, what makes Room Decorator different is that it’s capable of virtually adding multiple products to the room […]

When Google announced Anthos last year at Google Cloud Next, it was a pretty big deal. Here was a cloud company releasing a product that purported to help you move your applications between cloud companies like AWS and Azure — that would be GCP’s competitors — because it’s what customers demanded. Google tapped into genuine […]

Hardware startup Level introduced their first product earlier this year, and now they’re already following it up with a brand new smart lock. The original Level Lock broke new ground in the smart lock category with an invisible design that works with a range of standard doors and existing deadbolt external hardware, but the new […]

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe. Our <a href=”https://forms.gle/k4Ji2Ch7zdrn7o2p6”>survey of VCs in Paris will capture how the city is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. We’d like to know how your Paris’s startup scene is evolving, how the […]

Napster, the pioneering digital music brand from way back when, is changing hands once more. Today, a UK startup called MelodyVR, which creates immersive live music experiences that you watch either through VR headsets or phones, announced that it has acquired Rhapsody International — the company that owns Napster and was most currently majority-owned by […]

Eduardo Saverin will forever be known for cofounding Facebook 16 years ago with four other Harvard classmates (one of whom is still running the company). But even before splitting in 2009 for Singapore with his shares of the company, Saverin’s attention was on startup investing, and since 2015, he has been laser focused on B […]

A district court denied Epic Games’ motion to temporarily restore Fortnite game to the iOS App Store, but also ordered Apple to not block the gaming giant’s ability to provide and distribute Unreal Engine on the iPhone-maker’s ecosystem in a mixed-ruling delivered Monday evening. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Apple can’t retaliate […]