Crunch Hype

In a major security U-turn, videoconferencing platform Zoom has said it will, after all, offer end-to-end encryption to all users — including those who do not pay to use its service. The caveat is that free users must provide certain “additional” pieces of information for verification purposes (such as a phone number where they can […]

Headphone-maker Bose is calling it quits on their Bose AR platform play, noting that they’ll be winding down support for third-party developers on their platform next month. In a statement to Protocol, which first reported the news, a Bose spokesperson admitted the program hadn’t panned out as planned, further noting that Bose would no longer […]

Week five of a16z’s Crypto Startup School gets into the inner workings of crypto projects, with a focus on security and project development from the front lines.

Sidewalk congestion is a major pain point for cities, and fully-charged scooters for riders are no guarantee. Those are the two main selling points of micromobility docking startup Swiftmile and remote-controlled scooter repositioning startup Tortoise, respectively. Today, Swiftmile and Tortoise announced a partnership to solve those problems. “These are incredibly complementary services,” Tortoise co-founder and […]

This storm shall pass. However the choices we make now will change our lives forever.

In a new move designed to encourage more economic and scientific collaboration between spacefaring nations, the U.K. and U.S. governments have signed a new agreement that would make it possible for U.S. companies to take part in space launches from the U.K., including its many in-development spaceports. The deal sounds one-way — but the nature […]

Alongside the Android 11 beta news and updates to Android developer tools, Google has quietly rolled out a significant change in how Android app developers can market their subscriptions on the Google Play Store. The company confirmed a select set of developers are testing a new feature that allows consumers to purchase an app’s subscription […]

Disrupt 2020 offers an unprecedented opportunity to introduce your pre-series A, early-stage startup to thousands of potential investors, customers, journalists, technologists and other influential movers and shakers around the world. How? Read on. Grab yourself a Disrupt Digital Startup Alley Package and get ready to virtually showcase your innovative products, platforms or services in front […]

Lyft said Wednesday that every car, truck and SUV on its platform will be all electric or powered by another zero-emission technology by 2030, a commitment that will require the company to coax drivers to shift away from gas-powered vehicles. The target, which Lyft plans to pursue with help from the Environmental Defense Fund and […]

Microsoft tried to sell its facial recognition technology to the Drug Enforcement Administration as far back as 2017, according to newly released emails. The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the emails through a public records lawsuit it filed in October, challenging the secrecy surrounding the DEA’s facial recognition program. The ACLU shared the emails with […]

We knew remotely operated robotics were going to have their moment soon enough — but few predicted how much the category would be forced to accelerate in 2020. It’s true that many of the pieces were already in place, including the technology and the desire to innovate, but a global pandemic turned out to be […]

In this week's Decrypted, we look at the technologies that police use against the people.

Open Raven, the Los Angeles-based security startup founded by a team of cybersecurity veterans from CrowdStrike and SourceClear, has closed on $15 million in new financing only four months after emerging from stealth and in the middle of a global pandemic. The company already boasted an impressive roster of investors well-versed in enterprise software and […]

Zynn, the TikTok clone that shot to the top of the app store charts in late May, was pulled from Apple’s App Store on Monday. The controversial app had already been removed from the Google Play store, following a series of complaints from influencers who claimed Zynn had uploaded content they had published elsewhere without […]

As COVID-19 has forced companies to move employees from office to home, cloud services have seen a burst in business. Box has been speeding up its product roadmap to help companies who are in the midst of this transition. Today, the company announced the Box Relay template library, which includes a series of workflow templates […]

UNest, a Los Angeles provider of financial planning and savings tools for parents including college savings plans and other beneficial investment vehicles for various life events, has raised $9 million in a new round of funding, the company said. Its round will be used to speed up its growth through strategic hires and partnerships, according […]

European Union countries and the Commission have agreed on a technical framework to enable regional coronavirus contacts tracing apps to work across national borders. A number of European countries have launched contacts tracing apps at this point, with the aim of leveraging smartphone technologies in the fight against COVID-19, but none of these apps can […]

Here’s an overview of the most important trends we're seeing that will allow you to adjust your growth marketing effectively.

Square acquired Verse, a Spanish peer-to-peer payment app that works across Europe. Terms of the deals are undisclosed. According to Crunchbase, Verse had raised $37.6 million from Spark Capital, eVentures and Greycroft Partners and others. Square has attracted a ton of user with Cash App, its peer-to-peer payment app that lets you easily send and […]

When Bümo co-founders Joan Nguyen and Chriselle Lim began planning for the rollout of their business, a combination daycare and co-working space for professional women on the go, they never expected to be offering daycare services virtually. But in the face of a global pandemic, every company has had to improvise and in the few […]

DeepSource, a member of the Winter 2020 Y Combinator cohort, announced a $2.6 million seed investment today. The company is building a solution to help developers automate static code analysis to find certain errors before going through human code review. 645 Ventures led the round with help from Y Combinator, FundersClub, Pioneer Fund, Liquid 2 […]

It took Boston Dynamics a quarter of a century to release its first commercial product, so one can forgive the company for taking a few extra months to make that product more widely available. Nine months after making Spot available in limited quantities under its Early Adopter Program, the yellow and black quadruped is now […]

Communications between Earth and the Moon actually requires a huge amount of equipment under current circumstances. The transmission distance for any data sent from our large natural satellite and us here on Earth is 225,000 miles – which means a transmission signal requires significant power, and that translates to heavy, bulky transmission equipment to get […]

No matter what happened, the data this far into the pandemic just isn't as bad as many expected it to be. That's good news.

The Tesla Model S Long Range now has an EPA-rated range of 402 miles on a charge. This comes after a previous rating capped the Long Range variant at 391 miles — a rating Elon Musk took issue over, claiming the agency left the door open and the key in its tester overnight, draining the […]

MIT researchers have been building out the capabilities of a system they created that can monitor vital signs without requiring any direct contact sensors or wearables – using wireless signals already present in the environment. Now, the team, which is working gout of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) is taking their system […]

Shopping cart abandonment — when a person shopping online moves away from a site or mobile app before completing a sale — remains one of the biggest hurdles to e-commerce, with some 70% of all visits with an intention to buy never resulting in actual transactions. Now, a startup called Zycada is emerging from stealth […]

An email app with a waitlist? No, this isn’t 2004 and I’m not talking about Gmail. Superhuman has managed to attract and maintain constant interest for its subscription email product, with a wait list at over 275,000 people long at last count – all while asking users to pay $30 per month to gain access […]

Quantum computing startup IonQ today announced that it has raised additional funding as part of its previously announced Series B round. This round extends the company’s funding, including its 2019 $55 million Series B round, by about $7 million and brings the total investment into IonQ to $84 million. The new funding includes strategic investments […]

There’s no rule that prevents you from hiring people who you happen to be friends with, but unfortunately there’s no immigration category for friends, either!

Pale Blue Dot, a new “climate only” venture capital firm located in Malmö, Sweden, is officially de-cloaking today, with a first close of €53 million. Primarily targeting startups in Europe at pre-seed and seed, the VC plans to back companies that are using technology to help solve climate problems. The aim is to invest in […]

FirstMark Capital, the NY-based VC firm whose portfolio includes Shopify, Riot Games, Pinterest, Airbnb, InVision and more, has today announced the close of its two newest investment vehicles. FirstMark IV is a $380 million early-stage fund focused on seed and Series A investments, while FirstMark Opportunity III is a $270 million vehicle dedicated to follow-on […]

Adobe today announced a slew of updates to its various Creative Cloud apps, ranging from Photoshop and Lightroom to Premiere Pro, After Effects, Illustrator and its XD design tool. Like with some of its most recent releases, the emphasis of these updates is often on bringing more AI smarts to these applications with the help […]

Two business-to-business marketing companies are teaming up, with Demandbase acquiring Engagio. Both companies focus on account-based marketing (ABM), an approach where marketing and sales coordinate their outreach to specific, high-value accounts. Engagio co-founder and CEO Jon Miller (who previously co-founded Marketo) told me, “Most people who aren’t super close to the category would have said […]

Monzo, the U.K. challenger bank with more than 4 million customers, has confirmed it has closed £60 million in top up funding. Backing the round are existing investors Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Accel, Stripe, Goodwater, Orange, Thrive, Passion Capital, along with new investors Reference Capital, and Vanderbilt University. One of fintech’s worst kept secrets, the […]

Apple is under formal investigation by antitrust regulators in European Union — following a number of complaints related to how it operates the iOS App Store and also its payment offering, Apple Pay. The Commission said today that it has concerns that conditions and restrictions applied by the tech giant may be distorting competition in […]

Back in March, Nintendo and Lego teamed up to reveal one of the most delightful bits of colorful ephemera in an otherwise overwhelmingly bleak time. Lego Super Mario continues to be one thing worth looking forward to, through it all for the young and nostalgia-inclined old alike. And thankfully you only have to hang tight […]

Over the past few months, Yelp has been takin steps to help businesses reeling from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic — things like waived fees, virtual service listings and GoFundMe fundraisers (that last one had a mixed reception). But without getting into the question of whether the United States is reopening at the right […]

From the outside, at least, Amazon’s COVID-19 response has been a mixed bag. The company has noted in various reports the things it’s been doing in an attempt to curb the virus’s spread — particularly among warehouse employees deemed essential workers. But various attorneys general, senators and other lawmakers have demanded more information about working […]

Project management software maker Basecamp has launched a feature-packed hosted email service, called Hey — which they tout as taking aim at the traditional chaos and clutter of the email inbox. Two years of work comes alive today. Couldn’t be more proud of our team. It wasn’t easy, but it was incredibly fun. And today […]

TransferGo, the London-based international money transfer service, has raised another $10 million in funding, as it discloses that its customers numbers has surpassed two million. The round was co-led by Seventure, and Vostok Emerging finance, with follow-on funding from Hard Yaka, Revo Capital, and Bootstrap Europe. The startup is also announcing it has launched in […]

Finland-based Swappie has closed a €35.8 million ($40.6M) Series B to expand into new markets in Europe. The ecommerce business refurbishes and resells used iPhones, taking care of the entire process from testing and repairing used handsets, to selling the refurbished devices via its own marketplace, with a 12-month warranty. Local VC and private equity […]

French startup Molotov is better known for its TV streaming service in France. The company has attracted millions of users that use it to watch live TV, record movies and TV shows in the cloud, play past TV content and access on-demand channels. The company is launching Molotov Solutions, a B2B division that will build […]

SoftBank Group confirmed today it is considering selling its T-Mobile U.S. shares. Bloomberg reported last month that SoftBank was nearing an agreement to sell about $20 billion of its T-Mobile U.S. shares to investors including Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s controlling shareholder, in an effort to offset major losses from its investment business, including the Vision Fund. […]

BYD Co., the Chinese auto giant backed by Warren Buffett, is rushing to make China self-sufficient in the production of electric vehicles. On Monday, the firm said in a filing it has secured 800 million yuan ($113 million) in a Series A+ round for its chipmaking arm, BYD Semiconductor. At stake is the race to make […]

Dresden, Germany-based Wandelbots – a startup dedicated to making it easier for non-programmers to ‘teach’ industrial robots how to do specific tasks – has raised a $30 million Series B funding round led by 83North, an with participation from Next47 and Microsoft’s M12 venture funding arm. Wandelbots will use the funding to help it speed […]

Grab is laying off about 360 people, or slightly under 5% of its employees. Co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan made the announcement in a letter to Grab employees today. A Grab spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company will not be shutting down offices, and that this is the last organization-wide layoff the company will perform […]

The law firm Fenwick & West has published some new data to highlight how Covid-19 has impacted the world of venture capital in Silicon Valley. The biggest surprise? It’s how little impact the global pandemic seems to have had on dealmaking this spring. Consider first that valuations in April were actually higher than in March, […]

Stockwell AI entered the world with a bang but it is leaving with a whimper. Founded in 2017 by ex-Googlers, the AI vending machine startup formerly known as Bodega first raised blood pressures — people hated how it referenced and poorly ‘disrupted’ mom-and-pop shops in one fell swoop — and then raised a lot of money. But ultimately, it […]

Rocket Lab is creeping closer to its goal of weekly launches with its 13th commercial mission, nicknamed “Pics Or It Didn’t Happen,” which, if all goes well, will take off only three weeks after the last one. “Don’t Stop Me Now” got to orbit successfully over the weekend, on June 13, and the next one […]