Crunch Hype

With most new social media startups seeming to dial in on specific communities to thrive in a still Facebook-dominated sphere, some of the more broadly focused social investments from top VCs are going into online gaming. The latest is Mainframe Industries, a Nordic game studio building a massively multiplayer online title. The team doesn’t have […]

Neighborhood social networking app Nextdoor has introduced two new features, Help Maps and Groups, to give people a way to better support one another during the coronavirus outbreak. The Help Map offers a way to coordinate aid between those in need, like the elderly and at-risk, and those willing to offer some form of assistance […]

Today, Slack, a popular internal chat application, announced that it added 7,000 new customers between February 1st and March 18. That is 47 days. For context, Slack added 5,000 customers total in its preceding quarter, making its recent customer adds impressive. Slack, like other companies whose products can help facilitate remote work, has seen a […]

Earlier today, we learned that EU Commissioner Thierry Breton had called for Netflix to reduce streaming quality in Europe — a move to limit its overall bandwidth usage as more users turn to streaming services for in-home entertainment during the novel coronavirus outbreak. Netflix has confirmed that it will comply with this request. In a […]

The threat of vape lung seems to have receded to the distant past now that we are all facing the coronavirus, but new research has shed light on the nature of that much more limited epidemic. It turns out vitamin E acetate, the vape fluid additive until now merely associated with lung damage, converts into a toxic chemical cocktail when heated.

It’s easy to think, as we find ourselves in the midst of a truly unprecedented situation, that the rules of building a successful business have suddenly changed. While the world may be topsy-turvy at the moment, keeping your customer at the center of your business strategy is more important than ever. That means finding creative […]

Quantum Machines, a Tel Aviv-based startup that is building both hardware and software to operate quantum computers, today announced that it has raised a $17.5 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Israeli tech entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz, who, among other companies, co-founded Habana Labs and Anapurna Labs and sold them to Intel […]

In light of growing concerns around COVID-19, Wheels has decided to pause its pedal-less e-bike operations until the end of March, the company announced today. “After weighing the pros and cons, we’ve decided that the best course of action is to temporarily stop deploying bikes until the end of March and to revisit this then,” […]

A new initiative from a Los Angeles investor is taking stock of venture firms and their ability to commit capital in an effort to match firms that are still open for business and cutting checks to startups that are fundraising in the age of COVID-19. Laurent Grill, one of the investors at Luma Launch (which […]

Facebook today officially rolled out its sweeping desktop redesign that offers dark mode, tabbed homescreen, and a cleaner profile. Facebook tells TechCrunch that “starting today, the majority of people on Facebook will have access to the new desktop design” which it announced at last year’s F8 conference. Users can opt-in to turn on the redesign […]

Remote Year wants to help people travel around the world and keep their job while doing so. The Chicago startup relies on the idea that “great work can be done anywhere.” And to prove it, it brings people to 12 cities in 12 months, all while they’re working full time jobs. Think co-working spaces in Ljubljana, […]

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn addressed the ongoing work of the agency in terms of its work on potential treatments and vaccines for the COVID-19 coronavirus currently spreading globally. Despite a claim early in Thursday’s White House briefing on the pandemic by President Donald Trump that one proposed treatment, anti-malarial chloroquine, had […]

Glossier NYC, in normal times, is typically visited by more than 2,000 people every day, with lines of people from all over the world curling out the door. And when you enter, it’s tempting to touch, well, everything. The walls are adorned with flowers, mirrors and giant versions of the makeup company’s flagship product: Boy […]

Tips for writing great onboarding emails, using behavioral psychology for more referrals and other strategies for growing your startup.

After yesterday’s news that the U.S. automakers would temporarily close their doors and the US President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to shift manufacturing capacity to meet equipment shortages, trading on the major markets was mixed investors adjust to a global slowdown in trade. Warnings regarding the current economic situation are coming fast, […]

Hiring chatbot Mya Systems — which uses a conversational AI to grease the recruitment pipeline by automating sourcing for agencies and large enterprises needing to fill lots of vacancies in areas such as retail and warehouse jobs — has closed an $18.75 million Series C. The funding round was led by Notion Capital with participation […]

In a great example of what can happen when smart, technically-oriented people come together in a time of need, an open-source hardware project started by a group including Irish entrepreneur Colin Keogh and Breeze Automation CEO and co-founder Gui Calavanti has produced a prototype ventilator using 3D-printed parts and readily available, inexpensive material. The ventilator […]

Ada today took the wraps off its $44M Series B that it hopes will allow the company to expand its offering of the company’s AI-powered customer service chatbot. Accel lead the round with participation from existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark, Version One, Leaders Fund, and Burst Capital. “Although AI gets thrown around a […]

Update: The information that TechCrunch received ahead of this particular embargo wound up being dated. We’ve updated the post to reflect the latest. We previously noted a 32 million DAU figure, but Microsoft saw a surge in the last week bringing the Teams figure to 44 million. It’s also worth noting that Facebook made its […]

Storj, a startup that developed a low-cost, decentralized cloud storage solution, announced a new version today called Tardigrade Decentralized Cloud Storage Service. The new service comes with an enterprise service level agreement (SLA) that promises 99.9999999% file durability and over 99.95 percent availability, which it claims is on par with Amazon S3. The company has […]

The state of testing for the novel coronavirus currently spreading globally in the U.S. is abysmal, relative to other developed countries, but there are a number of efforts underway to help improve availability. One company doing their part is at-home lab testing startup Everlywell, which has been offering a number of in-home self collection kits […]

Dozens of startups have stepped up in India in recent quarters to improve banking experience for millions of users and businesses in the country. As a result, tens of thousands of people who could not get a loan or a credit card from a bank can now secure both from fintech startups. But this push […]

Venture capitalists have raised record-breaking funds in recent years, but that doesn’t always mean the money is there for them when they want it. In extreme downturns, the people and institutions that promise capital to venture capital firms, and then wire it when the VCs need it for their startups, have little choice but to […]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an internal memo earlier this week that the company will give employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic a $1,000 cash bonus. But, as the Intercept first reported, contractors will not receive the bonus. When TechCrunch asked Facebook why contractors won’t get the bonus, a company spokesperson sent […]

You don’t have to go far to find someone online downplaying the severity of a global pandemic that’s shut down entire economies and ground everyday life to a halt. Knowing that, Twitter will take extra steps to remove tweets that put people at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus as it rapidly sweeps through communities […]

Popular online grocer FreshDirect sent an email today notifying consumers that a warehouse worker has tested positive for COVID-19. CEO David McInerney stressed that the worker had not been present in the facility since reporting feeling unwell. Nor were they involved in either the food preparation or delivery aspects of FreshDirect’s service. The news is […]

With world events overtaking the tech world’s preferences to meet for coffees and convene at events, Y Combinator skipped its famous two-day live Demo event and went for a radical experiment: no demos at all, but instead a long list of the nearly 200 startups in its Winter 2020 batch, with links to their sites […]

NASA and SpaceX issued a media accreditation invitation on Wednesday for their Demonstration Mission 2 (aka Demo-2) commercial crew launch – the first in the commercial crew program that will carry actual astronauts to space. The invite includes the current proposed timeframe for the mission, listed as no “no earlier than mid-to-late May.” Reports from […]

The New York Stock Exchange will close its trading floor on Monday, March 23 and fully move to electronic trading, the exchange’s operator Intercontinental Exchange announced today. The actual physical locations that will close are the NYSE equities trading floor in New York, the NYSE American Options trading floor in New York and the NYSE […]

Staff at telecommunications giant Charter Communications are still having to work from corporate offices — against the advice from the federal government — despite at least one employee testing positive for coronavirus and other staff coming into contact with another confirmed case. The phone and internet giant, which owns the Spectrum brand, has doubled down […]

It was another brutal day on Wall Street as investors continue to come to grips with the new economic realities imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the S&P 500 are scraping near their lowest point in the last three years, brushing their lowest numbers since […]

While Hillary Clinton’s comments about Bernie Sanders (“Nobody likes him”) have prompted more headlines than anything else in Hulu’s “Hillary,” there’s a lot more to learn from the documentary. Over the course of four-plus hours, “Hillary” traces Clinton’s life and career, with a particular focus on the 2016 election — both the combative primary with […]

Augmented reality still has Apple’s enthusiasm behind it, but can that keep the whole industry afloat? On Wednesday, Apple debuted a new iPad Pro, the hallmark feature of which was a lidar time-of-flight sensor baked into the camera, which is designed to make augmented reality experiences more realistic and immersive. For most potential users, the […]

I’m not sure how many days we are into this “15 days” thing. Frankly, I’m not really sure what day of the week it is. As we collectively lose our grip on reality and socialization and increasingly turn to technology to cope, a number of meditation apps are offering up content free to help folks […]

Founders face many trials and tribulations when building their companies, from fundraising woes to visa challenges to product failures to company failures. And according to Kari Sulenes, “almost everybody who has built a company has a burnout story.” Her startup, Atlas, connects venture firms and startup founders to specialized therapy sessions. Plus, it views the […]

Bill Gates, newly free from his role on the Microsoft board, has taken to Reddit to answer the community’s questions about the pandemic, the government response, and what the world can do to be better prepared. Always candid but never cynical, Gates gives some heartening but realistic advice. Worth noting at the outset is that […]

Amid post-YC Demo Day discussions and online “coffee” catchups, there is a lingering sense of dread among VCs — particularly junior VCs — about their own job security. Over the past few days, I have heard rumors — and they are just rumors, for now — about three recognizable venture firms and how they are […]

It’s been a bonkers week in the world, with markets gyrating, companies fretting, investors tweeting and founders re-cutting their 2020 forecasts. But for one collection of startups, the past few days weren’t about work crises or the latest Slack share price. Instead, for Y Combinator’s Winter batch, it was Demo Day week. TechCrunch has covered […]

Kimberly Shenk has been focused for a while now on “clean” products that are made without harmful chemicals. In 2017, Shenk and friend Jaleh Bisharat launched NakedPoppy, a site that curates and sells cosmetics that have been vetted by chemists (including some of its own products). Interestingly, as the young startup was announcing $4 million […]

Dish-owned TV streaming service Sling TV announced today it’s making a selection of its content available to stream for free, no credit card or account required. The free offering includes breaking news and live events from ABC News Live, movies and kids content for families, and other lifestyle and entertainment programming. The new service arrives […]

Back in 2017, a formerly hot, formerly profitable company called Blue Apron went public. It didn’t go well. Today as the global stock market continues to fall, shares in the former venture darling are soaring, up more than 140% in midday trading. Before its IPO, the company had to reduce its price range from $15 […]

AWS CEO Andy Jassy showed signs of frustration at his AWS re:Invent keynote address in December. Customers weren’t moving to the cloud nearly fast enough for his taste, and he prodded them to move along. Some of their hesitation, as Jassy pointed out, was due to institutional inertia, but some of it also was due […]

In an effort to disseminate trustworthy health information on COVID-19, Facebook will roll out its own coronavirus information center, a central hub on the vast social network where the company will collect information from sources like the CDC and WHO. “We’re going to be putting it at the top of everyone’s Facebook feed,” Facebook CEO […]

During a White House press briefing on Wednesday, President Trump opened remarks by confirming that he has invoked the Defense Production Act, a move that many have called for him to take to help fight the coronavirus pandemic since at least earlier this week. The Act, which was originally enacted in 1950 as a measure […]

Google today announced the second developer preview of Android 11. Like the first preview, this one, too, is only meant for developers and isn’t available as an over the air update. Instead, developers have to manually download and flash their supported devices, which are currently limited to the Pixel 2, 3, 3a or 4. Unsurprisingly, […]

Update: Ford is closing its North American factories. Detroit’s big three automakers are to shut down all factories due to fears over the coronavirus. This comes by way of the Associated Press citing a person close the matter. GM, Ford, and FCA are expected to the plans later today. Over the last few days, the […]

Despite cities and states across the nation ordering people to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, gig workers are still out there delivering food to people and giving them rides for essential errands. Some companies have begun offering paid sick leave to workers but there’s more to be done, according to Gig Workers Collective. […]

In October, TikTok tapped corporate law firm K&L Gates to advise the company on its moderation policies and other topics afflicting social media platforms. As a part of those efforts, TikTok said it would form a new committee of experts to advise the business on topics like child safety, hate speech, misinformation, bullying, and other […]

The PlayStation 5 warranted little more than a mention when it was introduced at CES back in January. Sony was planning a much bigger reveal in a few weeks at GDC in SF, but, well, COVID-19 happened. So here we are with a live-streamed version of the event, offering far and away the deepest dive […]

UK on-demand food delivery startup Deliveroo has been accused of setting up an inaccessible hardship fund for couriers in the midst of the coronavirus crisis that leaves gig economy workers on its platform unable to access claimed financial support if they become ill or are self isolating. Gig economy delivery workers are one of the […]