Crunch Hype

On the first day as the new leader of the U.S. government’s efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence announced a number of new appointments to the government’s Coronavirus Task Force. The point person for the government (who will be reporting to Vice President Pence) is Deborah Birx, a longtime […]

Earlier today, during an eye-popping market selloff, DoorDash announced that it has privately filed to go public. The decision to file privately will allow the high-valued startup to get its S-1 documents in good order with the SEC before showing the rest of us what it has up its sleeve. The move to announce its private […]

Xbox-maker Microsoft announced today that it will not have a presence at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this year, highlighting concerns surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. The company made the announcement on its Game Stack Blog: After a close review of guidance by global health authorities and out of an abundance of caution, we’ve […]

Facebook has confirmed that it has canceled its annual F8 developers conference over growing concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. More specifically, the company says it’s canceling the “in-person component,” which would have been held in San Jose, Calif. There may still be video presentations, along with live-streamed and local events, under the F8 umbrella. […]

TC Early Stage SF goes down on April 28, and we are more excited than ever to introduce this brand new event to the community. The day-long event is meant to give early-stage founders the chance to pick their own adventure, hearing from a wide variety of experts in fundraising, marketing and operations in a […]

Peacock, NBCU’s upcoming streaming service, is expanding its unscripted lineup thanks to a new deal with A&E Networks. The licensing pact will allow NBCU to stream hundreds of hours of A&E and History’s most popular shows, including “First 48,” “Storage Wars,” “Cold Case Files,” “Pawn Stars,” “American Pickers,” “Ancient Aliens,” “Curse of Oak Island” and […]

Big tech’s lead privacy regulator in Europe has intervened to flag transparency concerns about a Facebook election reminder feature — asking the tech giant to provide it with information about what data it collects from users who interact with the notification and how their personal data is used, including whether it’s used for targeting them […]

Coding and other computer science expertise remain some of the more important skills that a person can have in the working world today, but in the last few years, we have also seen a big rise in a new generation of tools providing an alternative way of reaping the fruits of technology: “no-code” software, which […]

U.S. stock markets are down again in early trading as coronavirus fears continue to hit economists forecasts for growth, and a number of technology companies began to note the impact of the outbreak in their trailing earnings and future results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down roughly 650 points and the Nasdaq was off […]

After recently tweaking its design to better showcast podcasts, Spotify today announced it’s giving its entire mobile experience a refreshed look-and-feel. Starting initially with the iOS app, both Spotify Free and Premium users will notice the app has a more consistent, streamlined look, new in-app icons, changes to how cover art displays, and more. The […]

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has updated its flagship model, the Raspberry Pi 4. It’s still the same awesome tiny single-board computer with a lot of connectors. But the entry-level device now comes with 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB of RAM for the same price of $35. The foundation says that RAM prices have been […]

Gaming and social media are on a collision course, the result of which will be mainstream popularity of virtual worlds primarily driven by user-generated content (UGC) and anchored in small groups and one-to-one interactions. Games targeting core gamers will remain a thriving market, and social apps centered on broadcasting content will remain popular for photo […]

The on-demand food delivery wars continue to heat up in the U.S. DoorDash announced today that it has filed confidentially to go public. The company noted that its Form S-1, a draft registration statement, was filed with the SEC and is now being reviewed. It did not say how many shares it would potentially sell, […]

London-based insurtech AI startup Tractable, which is applying artificial intelligence to speed up accident and disaster recovery by using computer vision to perform visual damage appraisal instead of getting humans to do the job, has closed a $25 million Series C, led by Canadian investment fund Georgian Partners. Existing investors also participated, including Insight Partners […]

Cioplenu, an Augsburg-based startup that is building what it dubs an “operating system” for the production floor, has raised €4.2M in seed financing. Leading the round is Berlin-based Cherry Ventures. Also participating is Munich’s 42Cap, which led Cioplenu’s pre-seed round in 2018, along with three fairly high-profile angels. They are Fabian Heinrich, co-founder of Scoutbee […]

SparkLabs Group announced today that it has launched SparkLabs Connex, the latest program in its network of startup accelerators and venture funds. Focused on real estate technology (proptech) and the Internet of Things, SparkLabs Connex will tap into startup ecosystems in Silicon Valley, Seoul, Shenzhen, Taipei and Singapore. The program will support startups working with […]

Spin, the electric scooter company owned by Ford, is gearing up to launch its vehicles for the first time outside of the U.S. This spring, the plan is to launch in Cologne, Germany, followed by other German cities. Spin also plans to apply for the e-scooter permit in France next month, as well as explore […]

Dahmakan, a full-stack food delivery startup based in Malaysia, announced today that it has closed a $18 million Series B. Investors include Rakuten Capital, White Star Capital, JAFCO Asia and GEC-KIP Fund, along with participation from South Korean food delivery app Woowa Brothers, and returning investors Partech Partners and Y Combinator. This brings Dahmakan’s total […]

South African fintech startup Jumo closed a $55 million round from a diverse group of investors, the company confirmed. Founded in 2015 and based in Cape Town, the venture offers a full tech stack for partners to build savings, lending, and insurance products for customers in emerging markets. This week’s funding follows a $52 million […]

In an early-evening press conference, President Donald Trump tapped Vice President Mike Pence to lead the U.S. response to the COVID-19 outbreak that has spread through Europe, Asia and Latin America. The new coronavirus strain, which has infected about 81,000 people around the world and killed 3,000, has already wrought havoc on the global economy. […]

TikTok is one of the hottest social media platforms but the CEO of Reddit had some harsh words for the popular app, calling it “fundamentally parasitic” at an event Wednesday. The comments from Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman were some of the more controversial offered up during a panel discussion with former public policy […]

Online gaming platform Roblox, now home to 115 million largely Gen Z players per month, announced today it has raised $150 million in Series G funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Late Stage Venture fund. The company will also open a tender offer for up to $350 million of common and preferred shares, it says. The […]

It seems like everyone wants student entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur First makes startups out of raw student material, for instance. Most countries want high-skilled students to stick around and make new companies. Only the U.K. likes to charge them a fortune for an education and then kick them out if they don’t earn enough. But I digress! […]

Made Renovation, a new, San Francisco-based company, thinks it has found a profitable way to help homeowners get done something that busy general contractors in the Bay Area won’t otherwise make time for, which is bathroom remodels. Why they typically pass on these: they have too many entire homes, or, at least, entire floors, to […]

On the heels of her conversation-driving Twitter thread on 2020’s venture fundraising climate, Hustle Fund’s Elizabeth Yin converted her thoughts into an op-ed for TechCrunch. In keeping with her expansive thread, we asked her to adapt her thread for a TechCrunch column and join us for an extended conversation. What follows is an interview between […]

Most of the things you hear people say about fundraising is generally good advice, even when these ideas conflict. How is that possible?

Last week, the Business of Fashion broke the news that co-founder and CEO Tyler Haney was stepping down from her role as CEO of the activewear label Outdoor Voices, citing slowing growth for the company and reporting that mismanagement was one reason for executive turnover at the top of the organization. The company soon after […]

For a decade, Apple has solely relied on third-party sellers, stores and marketplaces to sell its products in India. That will begin to change this year. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday, chief executive Tim Cook told investors that Apple will open its online store in India, the world’s second largest smartphone market, at […]

When Keith Block joined Salesforce from Oracle in 2013, the CRM giant was already a successful SaaS vendor on a billion-dollar quarterly revenue cadence. When the co-CEO announced he was stepping down yesterday, the company reported revenue of $4.9 billion for the quarter. During his tenure, the company’s revenue more than quadrupled, earning an impressive […]

Weeks after Uber exited India’s food delivery market, conceding defeat to local giants Swiggy and Zomato, a new player is gearing up to challenge the heavily-backed duopoly: Amazon. The e-commerce giant plans to enter the Indian food delivery market in the coming weeks, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The launch of the […]

It’s T-minus one week to the big day, March 3, when more than 1,000 startuppers will convene in Berkeley, Calif. for TC Sessions: Robotics + AI 2020. We’re talking a hefty cross-section representing big companies and exciting new startups. We’re talking some of the most innovative thinkers, makers, researchers, investors and influencers — all focused […]

As much as we’d all like to believe that our houses are built with perfectly square angles and other highly regular measurements, that’s rarely the case — which makes remodeling complex and tedious. ShapeMeasure hopes to alleviate that pain with a device that automatically measures a space and a robotic mill that cuts the required […]

When it comes to the so-called “consumerization of the enterprise,” a workplace tool that looks an awful lot like Pinterest seems like it would be the trend’s final form. Brooklyn-based Air is building a digital asset manager for communications teams that aren’t satisfied with more general cloud storage options and want something that can show […]

San Francisco-based startup Particle was one of the rising stars in the Internet of Things space, raising more than $81 million to date on the promise of helping to manage and secure the next-generation of connected devices. But the company is only now emerging from what it’s co-founder and chief executive Zach Supalla called a […]

Eagle-eyed readers will recall that we mentioned M1 Finance earlier today in our look at a few trends in the fintech industry. We’re back with the firm this afternoon as it has a bit of news that’s worth discussing. Chicago-based M1 Finance announced today that it has reached the $1 billion assets under management mark, […]

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, then start. Sound familiar? The Konami Code, as this sequence came to be known, is one of the most recognizable artifacts of an earlier era of gaming. Kazuhisa Hashimoto, its creator, has used up the last of his 30 lives. Hashimoto was a programmer at […]

Cartesiam, a startup that aims to bring machine learning to edge devices powered by microcontrollers, has launched a new tool for developers who want an easier way to build services for these devices. The new NanoEdge AI Studio is the first IDE specifically designed for enabling machine learning and inferencing on Arm Cortex-M microcontrollers, which […]

Last November, Twitter rolled out its Hide Replies feature to all users worldwide. The feature, largely designed to lessen the power of online trolls to disrupt conversations, lets users decide which replies to their tweets are placed behind an extra click. Today, Twitter is making Hide Replies available to its developer community, allowing for the […]

$28 million-funded crypto startup Tagomi will be the newest member of the Libra Association that governs the Facebook-backed Libra stablecoin, TechCrunch has learned. A formal announcement of Tagomi joining was slated for Friday or next week. Tagomi offers a platform that helps large traders and funds easily access cryptocurrency markets. The news comes days after […]

Yesterday was a big day for executive moves, with Bob Iger stepping down as Disney CEO and Keith Block stepping down as Salesforce co-CEO. Meanwhile, Facebook has acquired another VR game studio and the owner of The Players’ Tribune has raised more funding. Here’s your Daily Crunch for February 26, 2020. 1. Disney CEO Bob […]

Wattpad, the online storytelling community that’s home to some 80 million monthly users, has successfully tapped into the power of crowdsourcing to help uncover the next potential hits for media companies including Netflix, Hulu, NBCU, Sony Pictures Television, and others worldwide. It even launched its own YA book line to bring its online stories to […]

Rocket Fiber is the latest Detroit startup to be acquired. Today, the company is announcing it was acquired by Cleveland-based Everstream for an undisclosed amount. The founders tell TechCrunch the company was at a “record multiplier for the telecom space.” Under the deal, Everstream is acquiring all of Rocket Fiber’s infrastructure, including its service platforms […]

Let's chat about fintech customer acquisition costs and the rise of card-focused plays inside of the category.

Excitement for The Europas Awards for European Tech Startups is hotting up. Here are the first wave of speakers and judges — and more are coming! The Awards – which have been running for over 10 years – will be held on 25 June 2020 in London, U.K. on the front lawn of the Geffrye […]

One thing you can say for sure about 2020’s smartphone landscape: there’s no shortage of options. Sales have taken a dip in the last few years, causing a number of manufactures to get creative with their offerings. LG’s certainly in that boat. It’s been a less than spectacular few years for the company’s mobile offerings, […]

Customer engagement platform Freshworks today announced that it has acquired AnsweriQ, a startup that provides AI tools for self-service solutions and agent-assisted use cases where the ultimate goal is to quickly provide customers with answers and make agents more efficient. The companies did not disclose the acquisition price. AnsweriQ last raised a funding round in […]

WordPress remains the juggernaut of content management systems, even though it now often gets used in ways it was never intended. And with that, managing the life cycle of WordPress sites has only gotten more complicated, too, all while hackers are trying to exploit any and all security issues to take control of a site. […]

The medical and healthcare categories have been leading robotic innovation for decades. Look no further than Intuitive Surgical, whose da Vinci robot has been performing surgery since it received FDA clearance in the early 2000s. These days, the SRI spinoff is currently valued at more than $60 billion. There’s a lot of money to be […]

Tier Mobility operates a scooter service, the kick-scooter-with-a-motor kind. And it has acquired assets from Coup, a now defunct scooter service, the moped kind. Coup shut down late last year, and Tier Mobility plans to take over and start its own shared moped service. To be clear, Coup is over but its mopeds will stick […]

B-Social, the London-based fintech building what it calls a “social bank,” is announcing that it has raised a further £7.8 million in seed funding. Once again the injection of capital comes from “high-net-worth” individuals. They include Rudy Karsan from Karlani Capital, although most of the investors remain undisclosed. It brings the total capital raised by […]