Crunch Hype

The Not Company, Latin America’s leading contender in the plant-based meat and dairy substitute market, is about to close on an $85 million round of funding that would value it at $250 million, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The latest round of funding comes on the heels of a series of successes […]

One little-known home and retail automation startup might seem like an unlikely candidate to help combat the ongoing pandemic. But its founder says its technology can do just that, even if it wasn’t the company’s original plan. Butlr, a spin-out of the MIT Media Lab, uses a mix of wireless, battery-powered hardware and artificial intelligence […]

The state of New York voted this week to pause any implementation of facial recognition technology in schools for two years. The moratorium, approved by the New York Assembly and Senate Wednesday, comes after an upstate school district adopted the technology earlier this year, prompting a lawsuit in June from the New York Civil Liberties […]

HBO Max, the AT&T-owned streaming service that combines HBO with WarnerMedia content, now has 4.1 million subscribers who have activated their Max accounts, since its launch on May 27. Combined, HBO and HBO Max reached a total of 36.3 million U.S. subscribers by the end of the second quarter, according to statements made by AT&T […]

Quantum computing is at an interesting point. It’s at the cusp of being mature enough to solve real problems. But like in the early days of personal computers, there are lots of different companies trying different approaches to solving the fundamental physics problems that underly the technology, all while another set of startups is looking […]

Policies can feel burdensome and detached from reality, but guidelines are reasonable steps that any company across any industry can exercise to improve the resilience of their software systems.

The U.S. Space Command has released details about an alleged anti-satellite weapons test it suspects Russian of conducting using an existing probe already on orbit, The Verge reports. The Russian satellite in question is the same one that made headlines back at the beginning of 2020 when it seemed to be tailing an existing orbital […]

When it comes to choosing a tech stack, the decisions you make today could have a cascading impact for years.

We have never been in a better position to pass a federal data privacy law that can rebalance the system and set standards that rebuild trust with the people providing the data.

As an early-stage investor, Floodgate’s Ann Miura-Ko looks for two breakthroughs in order to invest in a startup: The first happens in the value-seeking stage of a startup’s journey and the second occurs in its growth-seeking phase. “There are really two stages to building a company,” Miura-Ko said at the TechCrunch Early Stage virtual event […]

After reporting Q2 earnings that showed a marked dip in ad revenue, Twitter has said its exploring alternatives — dangling the possibility of a subscription option. Earlier today the social media giant reported ad revenues of $562M, down almost a quarter (23%) on a year ago — saying that the pandemic and “civil unrest” leading […]

Last month Sony showcased gameplay from a slew of upcoming PlayStation 5 titles, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Stray and NBA 2K21. Today it was Microsoft’s turn. The company announced 13 titles for the Xbox Series X back in May, but today it gave gamers the best look at what the next-gen console will have to […]

American micromobility startups Lime along with European competitors Dott and Tier Mobility have won permits to operate shared electric scooters in Paris, following a seven-month tender process that had as many as 16 companies vying for a spot. Paris is one of a handful of cities in the world that have become key battlegrounds over […]

TikTok today announced a $200 million fund, aimed at helping top creators in the U.S. supplement their earnings, and potentially coax the next Charli D’Amelio out of the woodwork. Called the TikTok Creator Fund, the money is aimed at helping “eligible” creators on the platform earn a livelihood, it said. Eligible for now is defined […]

As we move deeper into the pandemic, companies are looking for ways to digitize processes that previously required in-person meetings with manual approaches. Investors appear to be rewarding companies who can achieve this. iObeya, a French company that helps digitize management planning processes like lean and agile, announced a $17 million Series A today. Red […]

Working with a team of ten trained mental health clinicians, the Y Combinator -backed startup Daybreak Health is working with Bay Area high schools to provide mental health support for teens. Alex Alvarado, Siddarth Cidambi, and Luke Mercado, the three co-founders of Daybreak Health, either worked with startups in the health care industry or consulted on […]

The Toronto Blue Jays may not have a have a home yet this season, but one things for sure: plenty of teams are going to be playing in the uncanny valley this year. The spectacle of a major league baseball team playing in front of an empty has some precedent from places like Korea, Taiwan […]

Zoom has run away with the prize in the last few months for becoming the video calling platform of choice for people confined to their homes, whether they are making work calls or friend calls. No one really talks about “Teamsing up” (“Skyping,” perhaps?), or “Hangoutsing” or “Meeting“, or indeed “Roomsing.” But many people talk […]

If we don’t reinvent cybersecurity, things will get worse before they get better.

SpaceX and NASA are aiming to launch the first official operational mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon human-rated spacecraft sometime in September, the agency revealed via a media update this week. The launch had been tracking towards an August date, but the updated timeframe indicates “late September,” allowing time for the completion of the current […]

Startups that fit under the broad umbrella of insurance technology are having quite a year. In early 2020, insurtech marketplaces raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and as the year continued, more insurtech startups saw their fortunes rise. But these busy and lucrative recent quarters are perhaps best demonstrated by Lemonade’s IPO. The rental and […]

Camping has been on the rise, especially among younger people, for the past couple years. Even during a pandemic, camping represents a relatively safe way to get back on the road again. Arrive Outdoors, a startup based out of Santa Monica, is looking to capitalize on the growing popularity of camping and interest in outdoor […]

You might not know Gorilla Glass by name, but odds are pretty good you own at least one device sporting Corning’s chemically strengthened glass composite. It’s been a ubiquitous feature of consumer products ranging from smartphones to wearables for more than a decade now, courtesy of excellent drop and scratch resistance. All in all, it […]

In this sophisticated threat landscape, you can’t be reactive – you must be proactive.

In a bid to further expand into the world of audio production, the paper of record has acquired the one podcast (other than your own) that your parents have definitely heard of. The New York Times Company issued a press release last night noting that has entered into an agreement to purchase Serial Productions, the podcasting […]

Waze upended the world of navigation when it took the approach of blending basic mapping data with crowdsourced feedback on the best routes, annoying traffic and other road conditions. Now, one of the founding employees of Waze is applying a similar concept to the world of healthcare. StuffThatWorks, an Israeli startup that has built a […]

Streaming media platform Plex announced today it’s further expanding into live TV with the addition of over 80 free live TV channels accessible by free users and subscribers alike. The company had already allowed consumers to capture and record live TV by way of a digital antenna and tuner connected to a Plex media server, […]

Contracts contain a lot of easy-to-miss details, especially for companies that need to deal with high volumes of paperwork. At the same time, many lack access to software that makes the process easier by digitizing contracts. SirionLabs, the contract management software startup backed by Tiger Global, wants to help with a new product called SirionAE. […]

Pandora is launching interactive voice ads into wider public testing, the company announced this morning. The music streaming service first introduced the new advertising format, where users verbally respond to advertiser prompts, back in December with help from a small set of early adopters, including Doritos, Ashley HomeStores, Unilever, Wendy’s, Turner Broadcasting, Comcast and Nestlé. […]

Levitate, a Raleigh-based marketing platform and customer relationship solution provider, has raised an additional $6 million for its A.I.-powered software offering small businesses and alternative to mass blast emailing. To date, the startup has raised $12 million from investors including Tippet Venture Partners, Durham, N.C.-based Bull City Venture Partners, and angel investor Peter Gassner, the […]

Swiss keyboard startup Typewise has bagged a $1 million seed round to build out a typo-busting, ‘privacy-safe’ next word prediction engine designed to run entirely offline. No cloud connectivity, no data mining risk is the basic idea. They also intend the tech to work on text inputs made on any device, be it a smartphone […]

China successfully launched a combination Mars orbiter and rover early this morning, using a Long March 5 rocket that took off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island at 12:41 AM EDT. The Tianwen-1 payload it carries represents China’s first full-scale Mars exploration mission, after a prior partial attempt with a orbital Mars satellite […]

On the back of a major security breach last week that saw a bitcoin scam ripple through some of the highest profile accounts on Twitter, the company today reported Q2 earnings that point to the ongoing struggle for ad-based social platforms to weather the pandemic storm while (ironically) handling record levels of traffic and the […]

The COVID-19 lockdown around the world introduced online grocery to many shoppers for the first time, boosting an industry that had long drawn skepticism. In China particularly, the older generations often worry about buying perishable food without scrutinizing them in person. Still, venture investors are bullish on the future of online grocery. One beneficiary is […]

Partipost, a Singapore-based marketing startup that lets anyone with a social media profile sign up for influencer campaigns, has raised $3.5 million in new funding. The round was led by SPH Ventures, the investment arm of publisher Singapore Press Holdings, with participation from Quest Ventures and other investors. The funding will be used to grow […]

Tesla’s energy storage business picked up steam in the second quarter and even played a minor role in the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of profitability, according to earnings reported Wednesday. Commercial and residential energy storage sales as well as solar are still mere slices of Tesla’s overall business, which is largely dominated by automotive. However, […]

Last week’s hack of over 100 very high-profile Twitter accounts did in fact expose the direct messages of many of those accounts, the company admitted today — including those of an elected official in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders. The attack saw numerous popular accounts of celebrities and politicians taken over and tweeting a very obvious […]

When you need a loan, the cost and speed of getting it can be as critical to get right as the financing itself, a principle that might be even more relevant today in our shaky pandemic-hit economy than ever before. Today, a company that proposes to cut both the time and price for securing financing, […]

Facebook is testing a new design for Facebook Pages that will, among other things, remove the “Like” count, offer a cleaner and more readable layout, and make it easier for those who operate Pages to actually use and manage them. These features and others were initially tested with a small percentage of public figures on […]

How’s your 60-second pitch working for ya? Could it stand a refresh? Get ready to learn new and better ways to make your pitch more effective at opening doors to opportunity. Step one: register here — it won’t cost you a dime. Step two: tune in and join us tomorrow, July 23 at 4:30 p.m. […]

I’ve learned a lot during this pandemic. About myself, about the world. But perhaps most important of all, I’ve learned the value of a good chair. In normal years I’m rarely home, between work and travel, and as such it’s not something I gave much thought to. So naturally, I spent the first month and […]

An antitrust battle is brewing between Microsoft and Slack, Apple continues to defend its App Store policies and Dexterity raises funding for warehouse robots. Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 22, 2020. PS: I’m going to be on vacation until Wednesday of next week. Until then, I leave you in Darrell Etherington’s capable hands! The […]

Quantum science is just getting started, and although we’ve already hit some important milestones in both theory and practice, basic research is still needed in just about every nook and cranny of the field. To that end the National Science Foundation has dedicated $75 million to the establishment of three brand new scientific institutes. “Through […]

Tesla has picked a site near Austin for its next U.S. factory, a four to five-million-square foot $1.1 billion plant that will assemble the automaker’s futuristic Cybertruck, the Tesla Semi and the Model Y and Model 3 for sales to customers on the East Coast. The decision announced Wednesday during the Tesla second-quarter earnings call […]

Tesla extended its profitability streak to four quarters today, its longest period of profitability to date according to Q2 earnings it disclosed after the market closed. Tesla hit that profitability mark despite nearly flat quarter-over-quarter revenues — and a 5% drop compared to the same period last year — thanks to a reduction in operating […]

I assumed most investors were jerks in pitch meetings, but my white colleagues told me the level of disrespect and dismissiveness I received was not typical.

Glimpse is giving Airbnb hosts a way to make extra money while also supplying their accommodations with new products. The startup was founded by CEO Akash Raju, COO Anuj Mehta and CPO Kushal Negi, who all attended Purdue University together. It’s part of the current batch of startups at accelerator Y Combinator — where, coincidentally […]

Hello everyone; it’s a busy week with TechCrunch Early Stage underway and a slew of tech earnings to parse through. But that didn’t stop the Equity crew from sitting down to chat about the recent wave of SPAC commentary. Danny and I wanted to talk about what a SPAC is — the acronym stands for special […]

WhatsApp plans to offer credit, insurance and pension products to lower-income individuals and those in rural areas in India and help digitize local small and medium-sized businesses as the Facebook service looks to make a digital payments push in its biggest market by users. The instant messaging app maker has been working with banks — […]

Back in 2016, Mobalytics wowed the judges at Disrupt SF with its data-based coach for the exploding competitive gaming world, winning the Startup Battlefield. The company is building on the success of the past few years with a new funding round and a compelling new collaboration with Tobii that uses eye-tracking to provide powerful insights […]