Crunch Hype

French startup Upflow has raised a $2.7 million funding round (€2.5 million) from Kima Ventures, eFounders and various business angels. The company tracks your outstanding invoices and makes sure you get paid on time. If you’re running a small company, chances are you’re using Excel spreadsheets to enter invoice information, check your company’s bank account […]

Facebook’s lead data protection regulator in Europe has confirmed it’s put questions to the company about a major security breach that we reported on yesterday. “The DPC became aware of this issue through the recent media coverage and we immediately made contact with Facebook and we have asked them a series of questions. We are […]

Image and video manipulation powered by deep learning, or so-called “deepfakes,” represent a strange and horrifying facet of a promising new field. If we’re going to crack down on these creepy creations, we’ll need to fight fire with fire; Facebook, Microsoft, and many others are banding together to help make machine learning capable of detecting […]

A year ago we broke the news that payment giant Stripe was quietly making its first move into business finance by testing a service for advancing cash to existing customers. Now, nearly 12 months on to the day, the company is finally unveiling an official product: today, starting first in the US, it is launching […]

The new fall semester is upon us, and at elite private colleges and universities, it’s hard to find a trendier major than Computer Science. It’s also becoming more common for such institutions to prioritize integrating ethics into their CS studies, so students don’t just learn about how to build software, but whether or not they […]

At our TC Sessions: Enterprise event, Atlassian co-CEO Scott Farquhar today announced a number of updates to how the company will sell its cloud-based services. These include the launch of new premium plans for more of its products, as well as the addition of a free tier for all of the company’s services that didn’t […]

The good news: Samsung says it has addressed the early problems with the Galaxy Fold and finally has a release date (in Korea at least). The bad news: The company is canceling the first round of U.S. pre-orders. The gooder news: If you were among those early adopters, the company is giving you a $250 […]

Parallel Markets is a new startup aiming to make it as easy to buy and sell private company shares as it is for public company stock. COO Nicholas Goss said this is becoming issue for startups as they stay private for longer, which means early employees can find their equity locked up for longer periods […]

Tyson Foods is getting into the seafood business. Through the company’s venture capital arm, Tyson is investing in New Wave Foods, a San Francisco-based startup that’s making a plant-based shrimp substitute. The company, founded by marine biologist, Dominique Barnes, and chief technology officer, Michelle Wolf, who studied biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon, is helmed by […]

Last month, Netflix was spotted testing a new section in its TV app called “Latest,” which would connect viewers with a personalized list of upcoming content due to be released over the course of the current week and the next. Today, Netflix is formally announcing the launch of the feature with a focus on its […]

Holy price hike, startuppers — you have just 48 hours left to save up to $1,300 on passes to Disrupt San Francisco 2019 on October 2-4. Don’t let time stand in your way of saving serious dough. Release your inner savvy shopper and beat the deadline. Early-bird savings disappear at 11:59 p.m. (PST) on September […]

It turns out GDPR was just the tip of the privacy iceberg. With California’s privacy law coming on line January 1st and dozens more in various stages of development, it’s clear that governments are taking privacy seriously, which means companies have to as well. New York-startup BigID, which has been developing a privacy platform for […]

LinkedIn, with 645 million users in 200 countries, is the undisputed leader when it comes to being the world’s biggest network of professionals, a position that it uses to leverage products in areas like recruitment and e-learning. But in achieving that size, it hasn’t really developed products for a more targeted approach for specific verticals […]

London based adtech startup Spirable has closed a £6M Series A. The round was led by Smedvig Capital, with existing backers Frontline Ventures, Downing Ventures and 24 Haymarket also participating. The startup is one of several playing in the customized video ads space — offering a platform that simplifies and scales video ad creation by […]

YouTube today is launching a new vertical called YouTube Fashion that aims to capitalize on the popular style and beauty content that attracts millions of viewers to its platform. According to Statista, beauty videos last year alone generated more than 169 billion views on YouTube, and more recently, some of fashion’s biggest names have set […]

Here’s what we know for sure: Apple’s holding a big event on its campus at 10AM PT on September 10. Here’s what we almost certainly know for sure: The iPhone 11 will launch with a new camera configuration. There will be probably be three different models. From there, things get a bit more complicated. There’s […]

On Sunday, November 3, at the 8th annual Breakthrough Prize Awards, hundreds of scientists will win their share of $21.6 million in awards for their outstanding work in the fields of Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, and Mathematics. Breakthrough Prize was founded by DST Global partner and billionaire Yuri Milner, who has a particular passion for […]

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple has been working on in-screen fingerprint readers. But that feature won’t be ready for the new iPhone that will be announced next week. It could be released in 2020, or maybe 2021 if Apple’s suppliers can’t meet deadlines. If you’ve played with the most recent smartphones from […]

Scooter startup Lime is ending the juicer model in Paris. The company has announced that it will stop working with freelancers to recharge scooter batteries at night. Lime is switching to Amazon’s model by partnering with third-party companies. Lime has often been criticized for relying on freelancers to take care of its scooters. As Libération […]

GM is turning to Google to provide in-vehicle voice, navigation and other apps in its Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC vehicles starting in 2021. GM began shipping vehicles with Google Android Automotive OS in 2017, starting with the Cadillac CTS and expanding to other brands. Android Automotive OS shouldn’t be confused with Android Auto, which is […]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company formerly known as WeWork is considering slashing its valuation as it looks to woo public market investors. The company is reportedly considering a valuation of somewhere in the $20 billion range for its initial public offering, a figure that’s far less than the $47 billion valuation it […]

Here’s an interesting bit of news out of IFA today. TCL this morning announced a deal with Tempow that will bring the French company’s clever bluetooth streaming protocol to its forthcoming Plex flagship device. TCL follows Motorola in adopting the Tempow Audio Profile (TAP) technology. The protocol, which Tempow showed off a few IFAs back, […]

“You are what what you’re eating eats,” says Matthew Wadiak, cofounder and CEO of Cooks Venture and former Blue Apron COO. The company, which just received $12 million in funding, is looking to rethink the way we grow crops, feed our livestock, and ultimately take better care of our planet. The strategy is three-fold. First, […]

Are Americans ready to trust Facebook with their dating life? Barely more than a month has passed since the U.S. Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook a record $5 billion over its privacy lapses, and imposed a modified corporate structure to hold the company more accountable for its decisions over user privacy. In the wake of […]

Terramera, a Canadian company selling bio-pesticides and seed treatments to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture, has raised $45 million in its latest round of financing. The round was led by strategic investor Ospraie Ag Science and the company’s previous backer, Seed2Growth Ventures. Led by Carl Casale, a former Monsanto executive, Ospraie Ag Science […]

Sonos has a new entry-level connected speaker that will give you all of its multi-room, high-quality sound – without the onboard microphones and smart assistants of the Sonos One. The microphone-free Sonos One SL retails for $179.99 ($20 less than the existing Sonos One) and comes with AirPlay 2, delivering good functional upgrades over the […]

This is the Sonos that many have no doubt been waiting for. With the Move, the premium audio company is finally getting into the portable bluetooth speaker market — but is doing so in a way that is decidedly Sonos. There are, of course, already plenty of Bluetooth speakers to choose from. Many are cheaper, […]

Sonos has a new addition to its ecosystem for connecting in your existing stereo and AV equipment, and for adding sound out and AirPlay 2 capabilities to existing speaker setups connected via an amplifier. It’s the $399 Sonos Port, and it replaces one of the older existing devices in the Sonos lineup, the Sonos Connect, […]

In the same week that it announced a $51 million round of funding, OpenGov — the startup that provides SaaS software designed to help governments and other civic organizations run their operations — is announcing an acquisition to expand the kinds of tools it provides to customers. The company has acquired ViewPoint, a platform used […]

An eight-month-old startup in India that wants to improve the user experience of credit card holders in the nation has received the backing of at least two major investors. Pune-based FPL Technologies said Thursday it has raised $4.5 million in its maiden financing round from Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital India, and others. In an […]

Google today released an open-source version of the differential privacy library it uses to power some of its own core products. Developers will be able to take this library and build their own tools that can work with aggregate data without revealing personally identifiable information either inside or outside their companies. “Whether you’re a city […]

It’s time to trot out our fractured German. Why? Because you have only 48 hours left to take advantage of super early bird pricing on passes to Disrupt Berlin 2019. And that begs the question: Warum mehr bezahlen als nötig? Why pay more than necessary? Passes at the super early bird price start at €345 […]

If you’re the founder of an early-stage startup here’s a big, fat reminder about one of the great experiences you can have at Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December. Apply to our TC Top Picks program for a chance to step into the startup spotlight. If you’re selected, you’ll receive a free Startup Alley Exhibitor Package […]

Milkbasket, a Gurugram-based micro-delivery startup, is in talks to close a new financing round as it looks to expand its footprints in milk, groceries, fruits, and vegetables delivery market that has attracted the attention of many in recent months including Amazon India. The four-year-old startup is in advanced stages of talks with private equity funds […]

The African no-fee, cross-border payment startup Chipper Cash has expanded to Nigeria. The San Francisco based startup, with offices in Ghana and Kenya, will offer its P2P payment service and app in Africa’s most populous nation in partnership with PayStack—the payment gateway company. Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade confirmed the collaboration. Chipper Cash will establishe a company […]

A Federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush has ruled that the “terrorist watchlist” database compiled by Federal agencies and used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security violates the rights of American citizens who are on it. The ruling, first reported by The New York Times, raises questions about […]

Five months after its planned launch, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is finally here. Well, almost. After offering a broad September time frame a few months back, the electronics giant just announced that the foldable foldable phone will be arriving in its native South Korea on September 6. Customers in the U.S. will have to wait a […]

Representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security met with counterparts at tech companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter to discuss election security, Facebook confirmed. “The purpose was to build on previous discussions and further strengthen strategic collaboration regarding the security […]

Palo Alto Networks surely loves to buy security startups. Today it added to its growing collection when it announced its intent to acquire IoT security startup Zingbox for $75 million. The company had raised $23.5 million, according to Crunchbase data. The three co-founders, Xu Zou, May Wang and Jianlin Zeng, will be joining Palo Alto […]

Reefknot Investments, a joint venture between Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign fund, and global logistics company Kuehne + Nagel, announced today the launch of a $50 million fund for logistics and supply chain startups. The firm is based in Singapore, but will look for companies around the world that are raising their Series A or B rounds. […]

Bellwether Coffee plans to take its tech-enabled commercial roaster overseas with the fresh funds.

Nintendo Switch Online, the subscription-based online services component of Nintendo’s Switch console, will get SNES games starting on September 5 — yes, that’s right, the first games are available to play tomorrow. There are 20 games available initially, with more planned in the future. Alongside the new software, there’s also the new SNES system wireless […]

The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Tech Lab is calling for a new approach to online tracking, one that would replace the long-lived cookie. In a lengthy post, the IAB Tech Lab’s Jordan Mitchell runs through the history of tracking, describing the cookie as “a boon to the internet” that allowed websites to tailor their ads and […]

Four years ago, Porsche showed off a concept that would mark a turning point — in investment, R&D and product trajectory — for the German automaker. The reaction to the Mission E, as it was called then, prompted Porsche AG to push forward with a plan to not only develop one electric car, but commit […]

Fourteen women today filed a lawsuit against Lyft alleging the company has not addressed complaints pertaining to sexual assault, including rape. The suit, filed today in the Superior Court of San Francisco, seeks special, general and punitive damages, among other types of relief. In one case, a woman describes a Lyft driver who ended the […]

MGM and Hulu announced today that they will be adapting “The Testaments,” Margaret Atwood’s sequel to her novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The series has been key in establishing Hulu’s reputation as a home for original content. It was the first streaming original to win an Emmy for Best Drama, and was recently renewed for a […]

At the big European tech trade show, IFA 2019, Amazon today announced more than 20 new Fire TV-branded devices, including a next-generation Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Edition soundbar from Anker — its first foray into Fire TV Edition audio products — and 15 new Fire TV Edition products, including the first OLED Fire TV […]

Hundreds of millions of phone numbers linked to Facebook accounts have been found online. The exposed server contained more than 419 million records over several databases on users across geographies, including 133 million records on U.S.-based Facebook users, 18 million records of users in the U.K., and another with more than 50 million records on […]

The Disrupt Battlefield is one of the best parts of the conference. Twenty+ startups step on to the Disrupt Main Stage with a product, a pitch and a dream. They have six minutes to convey how they’re going to fundamentally disrupt their industry, and six minutes of Q&A with world-renowned judges from the VC world. […]

Flipkart, the largest e-commerce platform in India, said Tuesday it has concluded the roll-out of a range of features to its shopping app in what is its biggest update in recent years. Chief among these new features is access to Flipkart in Hindi language. Prior to the revamp of the app, Flipkart was available only […]