Crunch Hype

Quibi has linked up with the popular esports team FaZe Clan on a new game show that would let six subscribers for the new short-form streaming service compete for a slot on the FaZe roster. The show is called “FaZe Up” and it’s an example of the new types of entertainment and game shows Quibi’s […]

After a lengthy beta phase, Nvidia is launching its cloud gaming service GeForce Now. Unlike Google’s Stadia, GeForce Now isn’t trying to build a console-like experience with its own lineup of games. Nvidia connects with your Steam, Epic or Battle.net account so you can play games you purchased on those third-party platforms. It works a […]

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Asana, a well-known workplace productivity company, announced yesterday it has filed privately to go public. The San Francisco-based company is well-funded, having raised more than $200 million; well-known, due in part to its tech-famous founding […]

Couchbase, the popular NoSQL database, today announced the launch of Couchbase Cloud, a fully managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) offering for enterprises. Once the service is generally available later this summer, users will be able to spin it up on AWS and Microsoft Azure, with support for Google Cloud coming a bit later this year. This, the […]

Extra Crunch is excited to announce a new community perk from automated subscription billing startup Chargebee. Starting today, annual and two-year members of Extra Crunch can receive free subscription invoicing until $100,000 in revenue is reached. You must be new to Chargebee to claim this offer. Chargebee helps you succeed with subscription billing. Chargebee replaces […]

After iterating on a few ideas, you’ve found something people are interested in. Users are signing up! You’ve got traction! People with money want to give you that money! Excellent. In the rush to rapid growth, it can be easy to get caught up in what’s next, like the next new layout, feature launch or […]

The Apple TV app, including access to the new streaming service Apple TV+, has now arrived on LG smart TVs. This week, LG announced the launch of the Apple TV app on compatible 2019 LG smart TVs in the U.S. and in over 80 other countries worldwide. The app will also arrive on 2018 smart […]

LoanSnap, a new lending services technology for banks based in Southern California, has launched a mortgage calculator called LoanPulse for borrowers to get an accurate sense of their ability to take out loans — and at what price. The company says that its new mortgage evaluation tool uses the same data sources that a lender […]

Infor announced today that Koch Industries has bought the company in a deal sources peg at close to $13 billion. Infor, which makes large-scale cloud ERP software, has been around since 2002 and counts Koch as both a customer and an investor, so the deal makes sense on that level. Koch was lead investor last […]

U.S. consumers aren’t adopting voice-based shopping as quickly as expected, according to a new report today from eMarketer. While consumers have been happy to bring smart speakers into their home, they continue to use them more often for simple commands — like playing music or getting information, for example — not for making purchases. However, […]

Cards Against Humanity, the company behind the card game of the same name, has acquired the satirical site ClickHole from G/O Media. BuzzFeed News broke the story last night, reporting that ClickHole’s employees will become the majority owners of the site. Cards Against Humanity founder Max Temkin told BuzzFeed that the goal is to give the […]

Facebook’s messaging app for families with children, Messenger Kids, is being updated today with new tools and features to give parents more oversight and control over their kids’ chats. Now, parents will be able to see who a child is chatting with and how often, view recent photos and videos sent through chat, access the […]

Lemonade, the homeowners and renters insurance provider that’s raised $480 million, has announced its plans to expand into pet insurance. This marks the startup’s foray into a new insurance vertical. To be clear, Lemonade is simply announcing its plans. Right now, the company is going through the regulatory process, which will make its intentions a […]

As esports grows and creates opportunities for gamers to level up to the pro or streamer level, there is still a huge barrier in the way. There is not a wealth of training options for gamers. If you can’t get better within the environment of the game itself, then you’ve peaked. Practice makes perfect, but […]

Rocket launch startup Firefly Aerospace has signed a new agreement with Satlantis, a maker of Earth observation and remote sensing payloads for satellite-based operation. Firefly will launch a constellation of small satellites on behalf of Atlantis that will provide high-res, multispectral imaging of Earth from low-Earth orbit. Firefly is still in the development and testing […]

There are more licensed private spaceports in the United States than you might guess — but depending on who you ask, there aren’t nearly enough. Last year saw new records set regarding the size and number of investments in space tech, and a fair amount of those funds went to launch startups. There are more […]

Trucking is currently the most popular mode of transporting freight in the US, accounting for around $12.5 billion of the $17 billion freight market, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. But with thousands of small and single-vehicle operators and legacy (often paper-based) systems underpinning communications, it’s also one of the most inefficient. Now, there […]

Dan Jones, the former General Partner at Global Founders Capital (the venture arm of Rocket Internet) and previously an investor with Fidelity, is thought to be nearing the first close of a new early-stage venture capital fund. Dubbed “Jigsaw,” the VC firm appears to be co-founded with Dan Smith, who previously ran Anthemis Exponential and […]

Shares of American electric car company Tesla are sharply higher again this morning, adding $122.40 (or 15.69 percent ) to their value before regular trading today. The gains come after Tesla has rapidly added value in recent days, including a nearly 20 percent gain yesterday during regular trading; shares of the company were worth around […]

Google’s lead data regulator in Europe has finally opened a formal investigation into the tech giant’s processing of location data — more than a year after receiving a series of complaints from consumer rights groups across Europe. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced the probe today, writing in a statement that: “The issues raised […]

Email is garbage and we’re all buried in the stuff. Actually getting someone’s attention given the constraints that digital missives present is difficult. How do you snag someone’s eye when the Internet Age’s key communication channel is a mess? One option is to skip the inbox altogether, and send something physical instead. That’s where a […]

Hinge Health, the San Francisco-based startup that offers a digital solution to treat chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions — such as back and joint pain — has closed $90 million in Series C funding. The round is led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Lead Edge Capital. All of Hinge’s existing institutional investors followed on: […]

Monday.com, announced version 2.0 of its flexible workflow platform today, making it easier for customers to build custom apps on top of Monday. Company co-founder and CEO Roy Mann says his product is a multi-purpose and highly flexible workflow tool, aimed mostly at medium sized businesses. “It’s process management, portfolio management, project management, CRM management, […]

On the same day that a data ethics advisor to the UK government has urged action to regulate online targeting a study conducted by pro-privacy browser Brave has highlighted how Brits are being profiled by the behavioral ad industry when they visit their local Council’s website — perhaps seeking info on local services or guidance about […]

Factories and warehouses have been two of the biggest markets for robots in the last several years, with machines taking on mundane, if limited, processes to speed up work and free up humans to do other, more complex tasks. Now, a startup out of Poland that is widening the scope of what those robots can […]

This morning Finix, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup selling payments tech to other businesses, announced that it has raised a $35 million Series B. Sequoia led the round, which also saw participation from new investors Activant Capital and Inspired Capital. Finix did not disclose a new valuation as part of its round, and declined to share […]

A UK government advisory body on AI and data ethics has recommended tighter controls on how platform giants can use ad targeting and content personalization. Concerns about the largely unregulated eyeball-grabbing targeting tactics of online platforms — be it via serving ‘personalized content’ or ‘microtargeted ads’ to individuals or groups of users — include the […]

Azimo, the money transfer service that is HQ’d in London but has the majority of its staff based in based in Poland, has secured €20 million in debt from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the lending arm of the European Union. The financing is supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the financial […]

DBP Donut, the advertising and short-form entertainment production company launched by Mark and Jay Duplass (darlings of independent film and TV) and their partners Charlie Leahy and Nigel Lopez-McBean, unveiled their new short-form production “The Ride” last week at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s the latest foray into the micro-narrative genre from the Duplass brothers, […]

Dixa, the customer engagement platform, has closed $36 million in Series B funding. Leading the round is Notion Capital, with participation from existing investors Project A Ventures and SEED Capital. The Copenhagen and now London-based startup says it will use the new capital to accelerate its product development. This will including innovating with regards to […]

Truecaller, one of the world’s largest caller-identification service providers, has amassed 200 million monthly active users and is increasingly proving that it can turn a profit, it said Tuesday. In India, Truecaller’s largest market, the service now has 150 million monthly active users, it said. Reaching the 200 million milestone gives the Swedish firm a […]

The first month of the new-year saw Africa enter the fray of U.S. politics. The Trump administration announced last week it would halt immigration from Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation with the continent’s largest economy and leading tech sector. The presidential proclamation stops short of a full travel ban on the country of 200 […]

A smartphone app tasked with reporting the results of the Iowa caucus has crashed, delaying the result of the first major count in nominating a Democratic candidate to run for the U.S. presidency. The result of the Iowa caucus was due to be transmitted by smartphone apps from delegates across the state on Monday, but […]

Workplace productivity toolmaker Asana announced late Monday that they have confidentially filed their S-1 and said in a statement that they plan to enter the public markets via a direct listing. Direct listings enable a company to go public without issuing new shares, instead allowing existing shareholders to sell shares on the chosen exchange. Direct […]

Last week at the Upfront Summit in Pasadena, there was no shortage of glitz, from the venue (the Rose Bowl) to the catering (Wolfgang Puck) to the guest list (Ice Cube, Paris Hilton and John Legend, to name just a few). Still, there were also plenty of sessions that provided the investors and founders in […]

After recently doing a survey of the top robotics investment rounds, it became pretty clear: construction is going to be huge for this industry. Global construction is expected to hit $13 trillion by 2022 (with China alone hitting that number in 2030), and there are plenty of dull, dirty and dangerous jobs that seem well […]

Shareholders have repeatedly tried to oust Facebook’s chairman Mark Zuckerberg. The board has repeatedly rejected that demand. Outside investors are unlikely to get much help with that push from Facebook’s newest board member: Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston. The addition of Houston is the first since the departure of Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann from the […]

As Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs cluster around the worldview that artificial intelligence is poised to change how we work, investors are deciding which use cases make the most sense to pump money into right now. One focus has been the relentless communication between companies and customers that takes place at call centers. Call center tech has […]

Today after the bell, Alphabet reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. The company’s revenue grew from $39.3 billion in 2018 to $46.1 billion in 2019. The firm’s net income also expanded from $8.9 billion to $10.7 billion over the same time frame. The figures, when compared to expectations, were mixed. Alphabet beat analyst estimates […]

Twitter announced today that over the holidays it identified and shut down “a large network of fake accounts,” as well as many others “located in a wide range of countries,” collectively abusing a feature that let them match phone numbers to user accounts. TechCrunch previously reported this same issue on December 24, which is also […]

HPE announced today that it has acquired Scytale, a cloud native security startup that is built on the open-source Secure Production Identity Framework for Everyone (SPIFFE) protocol. The companies did not share the acquisition price. Specifically, Scytale looks at application-to-application identity and access management, something that is increasingly important as more transactions take place between […]

Small business lending is a huge market that has attracted massive attention from VC investors in recent years. Startups like Kabbage have raised more than a billion dollars in venture capital and debt to create lending platforms for businesses, and others in the space like Fundbox for lending and BlueVine for banking are trying to […]

NASA is sending to orbit aboard a Maxar 1300-class satellite (whose primary mission is to provide commercial satellite communications for Intelsat customers) a payload that could help improve air quality forecasting, the agency announced today. NASA’s new air quality measurement tool is called “TEMPO,” which stands for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, and it’ll provide […]

RFocus asks a simple question: What if instead of just antennas and transmitters on access points and mobile devices, we put the things just about everywhere? You know, just totally slather the walls with the stuff? The new “smart surface” from MIT’s CSAIL uses in excess of 3,000 antennas to boost signal strength by nearly […]

Last summer, the Seattle-based startup Remitly closed a $135 million round to go beyond money-transfer services into a wider range of financial products catering to its primarily-immigrant customer base. Today, it’s taking the wraps off a new product that puts paid to that plan: it’s launching Passbook, a new bank aimed at immigrants that lets […]

Google Assistant is today rolling out support for Tile’s Bluetooth tracker, designed to help you keep up with your often misplaced items — like your keys, purse, wallet, remote, and more. The new integration will allow Google Assistant users on any Nest device to ask questions like, “Hey Google, where is my purse?” They can […]

New short-form video app Byte, heralded as Vine’s successor, is off to a strong start despite its issues. The app, built by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann, brings back the six-second videos made popular by Vine which was shut down in late 2016 after Twitter’s acquisition of the popular video-sharing platform. According to new data from […]

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Hulu restructures under Disney, CEO Randy Freer departs Hulu CEO Randy Freer is stepping down from his role as part of […]

Two-thirds of America's 50 million seniors use the internet and more than 40% own a smartphone.

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re talking to Alex Niehenke, a venture capitalist with Scale Venture Partners, who has an interesting argument to make: The SaaS and cloud market is maturing, and incumbents are squeezing startups out of certain […]