Crunch Hype

Meet AssoConnect, a French startup that is building a software-as-a-service application to give you all the tools you need to manage your nonprofit organization (association in French). The company just raised a $7.7 million (€7 million) funding round with XAnge and ISAI leading the round. Various business angels, such as Nicolas Macquin, Rodolphe Carle, Michaël […]

Russ Heddleston Contributor Share on Twitter Russ is the cofounder and CEO of DocSend. He was previously a product manager at Facebook, where he arrived via the acquisition of his startup Pursuit.com, and has held roles at Dropbox, Greystripe, and Trulia. Follow him here: @rheddleston and @docsend More posts by this contributor First mover advantage: […]

France’s competition watchdog DGCCRF announced earlier today that Apple will pay a $27.4 million (€25 million) fine due to an iOS update that capped performance of aging devices. The company will also have to display a statement on its website for a month. A couple of years ago, Apple released an iOS update (10.2.1 and […]

The CIA is ready to update its cloud technology, and multiple reports this week indicated that the agency has begun a multi-billion-dollar procurement process. A CIA spokesperson was tight-lipped when asked to confirm. That could be because an agency used to working in secret simply wants to avoid all the attention that the Pentagon’s JEDI […]

The Galaxy Fold felt like an omen for a burgeoning category. The fascinating and promising product was plagued by broken review units that forced Samsung to go back to the drawing board with a reinforced model. But even that version ultimately ran into issues, as I can personally attest. No doubt other companies readying their […]

Within the last two months, two groups of gig workers have effectively organized and joined unions. The first was a group of 40 San Francisco-based workers for scooter startup Spin that joined Teamsters Local 665. The second was a group of Instacart shoppers in Chicago who voted last weekend to unionize with the United Food […]

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was something fun. First, we were back as a group in the San Francisco studio, which is always fun. Even better, we had NEA’s Rick Yang on hand to chat with Danny and Alex about […]

Motorola’s long been a kind of quiet workhorse on the mobile scene. Aside from the occasional razzle-dazzle of a Moto Z or Razr, the Lenovo subsidiary mostly trades in budget handsets. The G line is probably the best example of the bunch. The devices aren’t flashy and the specs are often a year or two […]

This morning Carta, a startup that helps private companies manage equity, announced it has created an investing vehicle called Carta Ventures. The well-funded unicorn wants to invest in young startups that it sees building off of its data-driven perspective into the world of private companies, helping to foster an ecosystem around its core products and […]

President Donald Trump is set to request a budget of $25.6 billion for NASA for its fiscal 2021 operating year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. It’s looking for nearly $3 billion more than the $22.6 billion NASA had for its current fiscal year, and the bulk of the new funding is said to […]

Indian education firm Byju’s said on Friday that General Atlantic, an existing investor in the startup, has pumped additional money to join its new, ongoing financing round. While the startup, which helps students learn concepts from math and science using short videos, did not disclose the size of General Atlantic’s check, a source familiar with the […]

A/O PropTech is a new European VC officially launching today, after raising €250 million of so-called “permanent capital” to invest in technology companies disrupting real estate. It’s this “permanent” approach — seeing the firm structured more like a corporate with various shareholders, rather than a traditional venture capital fund that typically has a life cycle […]

Instagram may finally let IGTV video makers earn money 18 months after launching the longer-form content hub. Instagram confirms to TechCrunch that it has internally prototyped an Instagram Partner Program that would let creators earn money by showing advertisements along with their videos. By giving creators a sustainable and hands-off way to generate earnings from […]

It’s no secret that it’s hard to make the economics work at drive-share companies. That may explain the success to date of HopSkipDrive, a six-year-old, L.A.-based company that pairs drivers with both families but also, crucially, school districts. Specifically, the now 100-plus person company has deals in place with school districts in 13 markets across […]

Launched at CES 2020, NURVV, a biomechanics startup, has closed a $9m Series A round, led by Hiro Capital, the sports/Esports VC fund, along with co-investment from Ian Livingstone CBE (Games Workshop co-founder) and Cherry Freeman (co-founder of LoveCrafts). It turns out that if you can figure out how to protect a smartphone from smashing, […]

The growing market of fantasy sports in India may soon have a new and odd entrant: ShareChat . The local social networking app, which in August last year raised $100 million in a financing round led by Twitter, has developed a fantasy sports app and has been quietly testing it for six months, two sources […]

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is recommending that Boeing’s software testing processes undergo a review, following the discovery of another problem with the on-board system that was in operation during the CST-100 Starliner uncrewed Space Station docking test launch in December. Starliner never made it to the Space Station as planned during that launch, […]

When Fair laid off 40% of its staff in October, CEO Scott Painter promised it wasn’t shuttering leasing services to on-demand fleets. But just one week later, Painter was removed as CEO and replaced in the interim with Adam Hieber, a CFA from Fair investor SoftBank. Today, according to two sources, Fair announced at an […]

To find out which measures can yield better results, we must first understand the real reasons. We can then look at potential solutions by studying what we do in the real world to tackle such biases.

The activist investment firm Elliott Management has steadily amassed a $2.5 billion stake in the headline-grabbing, Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank even as a series of missteps battered the company’s share price. Famous for its investments in companies like Slack and Uber and infamous for betting billions on the co-working real estate marketplace and development company […]

Homeland Security’s cybersecurity advisory unit “has not yet completed” its plans to secure the 2020 presidential election, a government watchdog has said. The report, published on Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, said the unit, CISA, is “not well-positioned to execute a nationwide strategy for securing election infrastructure prior to the start of the 2020 […]

Many studies have established that female-founded companies outperform their all-male counterparts.

Looking at the current Latin America numbers, one can only be hopeful that more investment into female co-founders will promote further growth in the region.

Apple has throttled the competition in another category. During the company’s recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook noted the company’s wearable division now rivals the size of a Fortune 500 company. He failed to give more specifics, but the point is striking: between Apple Watch and AirPods, Cupertino has another juggernaut on its hands. Apple’s […]

Netflix announced this week that it has started to stream titles in AV1 on Android in what could significantly help the two-year-old media codec gain wider adoption. The world’s biggest streaming giant said on Wednesday that by switching from Google’s VP9 — which it previously used on Android — to AV1, its compression efficiency has […]

An app intended to speed up reporting of election results for the Iowa caucuses has failed spectacularly, not only confusing the electorate but perhaps poisoning their feelings toward making any technological “improvements” to the voting process whatsoever. TechCrunch staff reporters Brian Heater, Jonathan Shieber, Zack Whittaker, Devin Coldewey and Ingrid Lunden discussed the issue informally. […]

As the national conversation pushes companies to reexamine the HR processes suppressing sexual harassment and bias reporting, tech startups are looking to find a way to smooth out the process and encourage communication. LA-based AllVoices is building an encrypted communications platform for offices that allows employees to anonymously send complaints to their human resources department […]

Google and Facebook seem to have resigned themselves to losing part of the longest and highest profile internet cable they have invested in to date. In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission last week, the two companies requested permission to activate the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN) between the US and the Philippines and […]

Cloud hosting company Scaleway is adding a new service today — block storage. Consumers will be able to purchase additional storage, attach that volume to a cloud instance and use it for a database, for instance. Block storage works pretty much like plugging an external hard drive to your laptop. You get a ton of free […]

Instagram will now show you who you interact with least frequently in case you want to unfollow them. In an effort to help you keep your feed clean and relevant, today Instagram is launching ‘following categories’ that divides the list of who you follow into batches including “most seen in feed” and “least interacted with”. […]

NASA is looking for input from industry — including vehicle makers and tech companies not necessarily already in the space business — as to what future lunar rovers should look like. This is part of its Artemis program, which seeks to return humans to the surface of the Moon, including the first woman and the […]

7-Eleven is the latest retailer to test the “cashierless” store concept, following Amazon’s big push into the market with its Amazon Go convenience stores that use technology, instead of people, to monitor stock levels, track purchases and process payments. This week, 7-Eleven announced it’s piloting its own take on the cashierless concept with a 700-square-foot […]

Nuro, the autonomous delivery startup that raised $940 million in financing from Softbank Vision Fund last year, is the first company to receive a driverless exemption from the federal government. The exemption granted by the the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is for Nuro’s newest — and until Thursday, unseen — […]

Forescout, the network security company that has been publicly traded since 2017, announced today it was going private again. Private equity firms Advent International and Crosspoint Capital are acquiring the company in an all-cash purchase of $1.9 billion. The two private equity firms will pay $33 per share, which represented a premium of 30% over […]

Snafu Records is bringing a new approach to finding musical talent — founder and CEO Ankit Desai described the Los Angeles-headquartered startup as “the first full-service, AI-enabled record label.” It’s a world that Desai knows well, having spent the past five years working on digital and streaming strategy at Capitol Records and Universal Music Group. […]

Next Tuesday, Samsung kicks off smartphone season with its Unpacked event in San Francisco. One of two tentpole events for the company, the big show brings with it the latest edition of the company’s primary flagship line, the Galaxy S. Samsung played a fun little trick, holding the event on February 11th at 11AM PT, […]

One of the various companies looking to deploy a globe-spanning broadband internet satellite constellation is adding 34 satellites to its existing operations in space. OneWeb will launch that many satellites aboard a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan with a liftoff time set for 4:42 PM EST (1:32 PM PST) today. The new satellites will join OneWeb’s […]

In December, dating app Bumble announced new tools to filter match by more than just age and distance. Now, it seems Tinder is poised to do the same. Tinder parent company Match Group this week announced plans to expand its filtering capabilities, alongside other product updates such as new social engagement features and the forthcoming […]

Route planning sounds like it’s a problem for big logistics companies like Amazon, FedEx and UPS, but in reality, it’s something every small business with more than a few mobile employees deals with. OptimoRoute, which today announced that it has raised a $6.5 million Series A round led by Prelude Ventures, is tackling exactly this […]

Netskope has always focused its particular flavor of security on the cloud, and as more workloads have moved there, it has certainly worked in its favor. Today the company announced a $340 million investment on a valuation of nearly $3 billion. Sequoia Capital Global Equities led the round, but in a round this large, there […]

Astronaut Christina Koch made the return trip from the International Space Station (ISS) early on Thursday, along with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov. The three boarded a Soyuz capsule docked at the ISS at around 12:50 AM EST, and had a safe landing as planned at around 4:12 AM EST (3:12 […]

Google is updating Google Maps on Android and iOS with a revamped tab bar at the bottom, a new icon and a couple of new features. In particular, the company is putting more emphasis on user-generated content and recommendations. At the bottom of the app, you now get five icons — Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute […]

An algorithmic risk scoring system deployed by the Dutch state to try to predict the likelihood that social security claimants will commit benefits or tax fraud breaches human rights law, a court in the Netherlands has ruled. The Dutch government’s System Risk Indication (SyRI) legislation uses a non-disclosed algorithmic risk model to profile citizens and […]

As Twitter continues to try to find the right balance between making its platform easier to use while also less prone to toxicity and abuse, the social media platform reported mixed earnings for Q4. Twitter posted $1.01 billion in sales — notable because it is the first time its revenues have broken past the billion-dollar mark — due […]

Qualcomm is facing fresh antitrust scrutiny from the European Commission, with the regulator raising questions about radio frequency front-end (RFFE) chips which can be used in 5G devices. The chipmaker has been expanding into selling RFFE chips for 5G devices, per Reuters, encouraging buyers of its 5G modems to also buy its radio frequency front-end […]

Moteefe, the e-commerce platform for on-demand production of merchandise has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Leading the round is Gresham House, and Force Over Mass Capital. It brings total funding to date to $12.5 million, and will be used to expand into new geographies including Australia and LATAM. The U.K. company also plans […]

Huawei has filed two patent infringement lawsuits against Verizon Communications in U.S. District Court. The Chinese telecommunications equipment giant wants Verizon to compensate it for the use of technology it says are covered by 12 Huawei patents, including ones related to networking, security and video communications. Before the lawsuits were filed, Huawei claims it negotiated […]

French startup BlaBlaCar is sharing some metrics today. In 2019, the company’s revenue grew by 71% compared to 2018. The big difference between 2019 and 2018 is that BlaBlaCar diversified its activity by offering bus rides as well as bus ticketing in some markets. BlaBlaCar is still mostly known for its long-distance ride-sharing marketplace. If […]

Excitement in the consumer genetic testing market continues to show signs of slowing down. In the past two weeks layoffs have hit two of the biggest consumer genetic testing services — 23andme and Ancestry — with the latter announcing that it would slash its staff by 6% earlier today, in a blog post. CNBC first […]

Antler is a “company builder” that emerged a couple of years ago, running startup generator programs and investing from an early stage, bringing a heady mix of technologists, product builders and operators together with its own technology stack. Now, plenty of “company builders” have come and gone. It’s a bit like Apocalypse Now: everyone goes […]