Crunch Hype

Startup buzz comes in waves, with a particular thesis or focus coming into vogue at certain times. Remember the short-lived boom in chat bots? That was good fun. And there was the ICO craze, which lead every startup you’ve heard to consider the financing option for at least a weekend. We’ve also endured the early-AI […]

Kiwibot, the delivery robot startup that got its start shuttling burritos and snacks to students on the University of California-Berkeley campus, is expanding to San Jose with a new business model and partners Shopify and Ordermark. About 25 Kiwibots will begin today delivering food and goods to customers in downtown San Jose and Buena Vista, […]

One thing’s for certain about Amazon’s Scout robot: it’s as much of a brand ambassador as it is an experiment in the future of last mile delivery. After debuting early last year, the company has limited to Scout to select markets — namely Irvine, California and Snohomish County, which neighbors King County, home of Amazon’s […]

When Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman first met Natalie Portman a few years ago to talk about ways their non-profit organizations All Raise and Time’s Up could collaborate, she never realized they’d eventually be partners on a sports franchise. Now the two women are co-founders of Angel City, leading a gaggle of venture capital, sports, […]

From CryptoKitties to the NBA, Dapper Labs has paved the way for blockchain popularity beyond speculation that’s purely monetary and now with Dr. Seuss Enterprises another collectible application arises. Featuring the Lorax, Thing One and Thing Two The Cat in the Hat and Horton too, fans of Dr. Seuss can collect characters who in retrospect […]

There’s a massive amount of revenue on the table, and it’s just too easy to blow this opportunity and alienate clients in the process.

Apple this morning announced plans to make its entire business carbon neutral within the next 10 years. The news follows the company’s push toward a fully carbon neutral corporate structure, adding its manufacturing supply chain and resulting products into the mix. The roadmap to sustainability as released today, as part of the company’s annual Environmental […]

The UK lacks a comprehensive and cohesive high level strategy to respond to the cyber threat posed by Russia and other hostile states using online disinformation and influence ops to target democratic institutions and values, a parliamentary committee has warned in a long-delayed report that’s finally been published today. “The UK is clearly a target […]

As we speak, there are professional networks for women executives, mothers, owners of small and medium-sized businesses, and many more. Medley, a new membership-based community that launches today, is looking to do things a little bit different. Instead of bringing together a specific category of people, the goal of Medley is to connect users with […]

There are other persistent, grave health crises brewing besides the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic: Antibiotic resistance is one, and the troubling trend is that it’s on the rise, leading to an increase in so-called ‘superbugs’ that are difficult to treat. IBM Research, working in partnership with Singapore’s Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, has developed a synthetic […]

TikTok has come under fire in yet another country. Pakistan has blocked Bigo Live streaming app and issued “final warning” to ByteDance’s TikTok over “immoral, obscene, and vulgar content” on the apps. The nation’s telecom authority said it had received a number of complaints from various segments of the society over the nature of videos that […]

Robinhood, the U.S.-based stock trading app, is postponing its U.K. launch “indefinitely,” more than a year and a half after the company begun executing on plans to cross the pond. It now intends to refocus its efforts on its home market. In November last year, a U.K. waitlist was opened up, garnering 250,000 signups. That’s […]

Netflix is testing a new low-cost pricing tier in India as the on-demand video streaming service looks to court more subscribers in Asia’s third-largest economy. The American giant has unveiled a “Mobile+” plan for some new and existing subscribers in India that delivers streaming in high-definition (HD) quality and supports viewing across mobile, tablet, and […]

The private medical insurance market is expanding year on year by over 5%, and that includes in Russia where the insurance market – which grew by 4% in 2019 – has reached a value of almost $22 billion. So it’s not that surprising that Russian insurtech startup BestDoctor has now closed its third round of […]

Smol is a startup that delivers eco-friendly laundry capsules and dishwasher tablets on subscription through letterboxes, which undercut the price of the leading brands, to people’s homes. It’s now raised £8 million in a Series A funding round led by Balderton Capital with participation from JamJar Investments. The funding will see smol push into new […]

Consolidation continues apace in the world of e-commerce, and today it was the turn of the classified ads market. Today, eBay announced that it had reached a deal to sell off its Classifieds business unit to Adevinta, a Norway-based classified ads publisher majority owned by Norwegian publisher Schibsted. The deal is valued at $9.2 billion, […]

Plum, the London and Athens-based fintech that offers a ‘smart’ money management app to help you improve your “financial resilience,” has raised a further $10 million in funding, as it gears up for European expansion. The new round is led by Japan’s Global Brain, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which has participated […]

A number of on-demand ride hailing companies are feeling the strain from reduced business, with many consumers still reluctant to travel, and especially to travel in surroundings that might increase the risk of spreading or catching the novel coronavirus. But today, one of the startups in the space is announcing a significant round of funding to […]

In what could be a starting gun for the commercialization of the cell-based meat business, upstart cultivated meat company Higher Steaks said it has managed to produce samples of its first products — bacon strips and pork belly made in a lab from cellular material. With the revelation, Higher Steaks, a bootstrapped Cambridge, UK-based company, […]

You’ve heard of e-bike and e-scooter rentals startups spreading across cities. But today three veterans of the startup world will launch what appears to be a brand new take on the “e-revolution” sweeping cities in the wake of the global pandemic: subscription e-bikes, or, if you will, ‘EaaS’ or ‘E-bikes-as-a-Service”. The previous founders of Soundcloud […]

Amazon’s annual sales holiday, Prime Day, has typically been a global event — one so big, it often crashes the Amazon retail website as consumers. This year, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the retailer’s plans. Today, Amazon officially confirmed reports that it will delay Prime Day in the U.S. until sometime later this year. […]

Indonesia-based ride-hailing company and “super app” Gojek said today that it has named a new chief technology officer. Severan Rault, who previously held leadership positions at Amazon and Microsoft, takes over the role from Ajey Gore, who announced last month he was leaving for personal reasons. In a statement, the company said Rault will oversee […]

A new policy-focused nonprofit that emerged from the recent wave of big tech scrutiny is calling for members of Facebook’s Oversight Board to either step up or step down. In an open letter, Accountable Tech urges the five U.S.-based Facebook Oversight Board members to “demand the Board be given real authority” or quit their positions. […]

Founded by former Apple engineers, a new app called Struck wants to be the Tinder for the Co-Star crowd. In other words, it’s an astrology-based matchmaker. But it took close to 10 attempts over several months for the startup to get its app approved by Apple for inclusion in the App Store. In nearly every […]

SpaceX has managed a first – catching both halves of the fairing used on one of its Falcon 9 rocket launches, according to CEO and founder Elon Musk. The fairing is a two-piece protective cover that surrounds the cargo on the launch vehicle as it ascends through Earth’s atmosphere on its way to space. SpaceX […]

Vaccine researchers have some good news, Google Maps adds end-to-end bikesharing directions and Roblox launches a new virtual event platform. Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 20, 2020. The big story: COVID-19 vaccine trials show promise Two vaccine trials — one conducted at the University of Oxford, and another by researchers in Wuhan — both […]

Chris Cowart, the longtime IDEO product designer, Singularity University faculty member and consultant to a variety of venture firms and tech projects, is joining the food preservation technology developer Treasure8 as its new chief innovation and strategy officer, according to a post on LinkedIn. “In the last three years food has come to the fore […]

SpaceX has completed another successful launch, this time on behalf of Lockheed Martin and its client South Korea. The payload is ANASIS-II, a dedicated military communications satellite (South Korea’s first), which the nation will use to help safeguard its national security. The Falcon 9 carrying the ANASIS-II lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida at […]

In an interview with Axios, Mark Zuckerberg shot down suspicions that Facebook is giving President Trump lenient treatment on the platform as part of a closed-door agreement. “I’ve heard this speculation, too, so let me be clear: There’s no deal of any kind,” Zuckerberg told Axios. “Actually, the whole idea of a deal is pretty […]

Grocery margins will always be razor thin, and the difference between a profitable and unprofitable grocer is often just cents on the dollar.

Carnegie Mellon today showed off new research into the world of robotic navigation. With help from the team at Facebook AI Research (FAIR), the university has designed a semantic navigation that helps robots navigate around by recognizing familiar objects. The SemExp system, which beat out Samsung to take first place in a recent Habitat ObjectNav […]

Clover Health, the medicare advantage health insurance provider for older Americans, said it will triple its geographic coverage through an expansion to eight states. The company is adding Mississippi to its roster of states covered under its insurance plans and will expand its footprint in a number of states it already operates within. The company […]

Part one of a three-part series that offers a framework for objectively considering post-IPO or concentrated stock holdings.

One reason some venture capitalists and founders don’t enter edtech is because the space has a sluggish stereotype, thanks to red tape, slow sales cycles, and, in America, a fragmented customer base. But data suggests that edtech’s reputation is not entirely earned. Byju’s is India’s second-most-valuable company. Since 2013, there have been 300 acquisitions in […]

Aurora, the autonomous vehicle technology startup backed by Amazon, is expanding into Texas as it aims to accelerate the development of self-driving trucks. The company said it plans to test commercial routes in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area with a mix of Fiat Chrysler Pacifica minivans and Class 8 trucks. A small fleet of Pacificas will […]

Let me lead with the news: After more than eight years as TechCrunch’s COO, I am leaving on August 21. My decision is as much about my appetite for a green field as it is a recognition that TechCrunch’s team is ready to put a fresh stamp on our remarkable brand. TechCrunch’s leadership is now […]

Today Jamf, a software company that helps other firms manage their Apple devices, raised its IPO price range. The company had previously targeted a $17 to $19 per-share range. A new SEC filing from the firm today details a far higher $21 to $23 per-share IPO price interval. Jamf still intends to sell up to […]

Colin O’Donnell was already rethinking the notion of what makes cities and communities function even before the COVID-19 epidemic swept through the U.S. and revealed some of the cracks in centuries-old structures of urban life. O’Donnell was part of the early wave of urban tech innovation, which began to rise about six years ago. He […]

Insider, a Singapore-based startup that develops software to help clients make marketing decisions, plans to launch in the United States after raising a $32 million Series C. The round was led by Riverwood Capital, with participation from Sequoia India, Wamda and Endeavor Catalyst. Founded in 2012, the company says its SaaS for multichannel marketing and […]

Google Maps is making it easier for bikeshare users to navigate their city with an update to Maps now rolling out across 10 major markets. Already, Google Maps could point users to bikesharing locations and it has long since offered cycling directions between any two points. The new update, however, will combine both walking and […]

Earlier today, news broke that Xpeng, a China-based electric vehicle company has raised $500 million, adding to its 2019-era $400 million Series C. The round, a Series C+ investment, brings the company’s capital raised to date to around $2.2 billion. Xpeng’s huge fundraise comes on the heels of a recent boom in the value of […]

Effx, a startup that aims to give developers better insights into their microservice architectures, today announced that it has raised a $3.9 million funding round led by Kleiner Perkins and Cowboy Ventures. Other investors and angels in this round include Tokyo Black, Essence VC Fund, Jason Warner, Michael Stoppelman, Vijay Pandurangan and Miles Grimshaw. The […]

There are more promising signs from ongoing efforts to develop a vaccine that’s effective in preventing COVID-19: Two early trials, one from the University of Oxford, and one from a group of researchers in Wuhan funded in part by the National Key R&D Programme of China. Both early trials showed efficacy in increasing the presence […]

The coronavirus pandemic and related government lockdowns have led to a surge in online gaming — particularly on social platforms where people can connect with real-life friends in a virtual venue. We’re already heard of Fortnite birthday parties, Roblox playdates, and Animal Crossing meetups taking place online amid the pandemic. Now, Roblox is launching a […]

A few days after releasing new figures for the month of June, NPD is offering up some broader trends for the gaming industry at large. It likely won’t surprise you to hear that the industry continues to thrive in 2020, and COVID-19-driven stay-at-home orders have only further contributed to gaming adoption here in the U.S. […]

As an early-stage founder, how do you draw up your first contracts? Or structure your cap table? How do you hire your first few engineers, or pitch top-tier talent? What about if that talent is abroad? How do you navigate the complicated regulatory environment? How do you make decisions around security and building a tech […]

The most recent quarterly report from specialist investor Space Capital shows that despite obvious impacts stemming from the current coronavirus pandemic, investment in general in space startups didn’t suffer as much as some predicted — and interest surged specifically in the “Applications” category they track, which monitors companies building software on the data layer enabled […]

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest big news, chats about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds, and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can […]

Customer support is a huge part of a user’s experience, and one that every bank likes to say they’re great at. But there is a lot we can learn from the mistakes that U.K. banks have made. Based on his latest research report into the user experience of a dozen leading British banks — including […]

Gig economy companies like to tout the flexibility and freedom they offer workers, but for the people finding work through companies like Instacart, Uber, DoorDash and Lyft, the economic and physical risks can outweigh the rewards. Contractors who are now considered front-line providers of essential services for their wealthier customers in the age of social […]