Crunch Hype

Alphabet’s autonomous driving and robotaxi company Waymo does a lot of training in order to refine and improve the artificial intelligence that powers its self-driving software. Recently, it teamed up with fellow Alphabet company and AI specialist DeepMind to develop new training methods that would help make its training better and more efficient. The two […]

The Void, a developer of immersive virtual reality entertainment centers, is partnering with the multi-national, multi-hyphenate mall developer Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield to build twenty five new locations around the world. Location-based virtual reality has become the default gateway into the consumer market for virtual reality headsets given that adoption of the consumer wearable device hasn’t been all […]

Hardware developers toying with the idea of building physical stuff that can plug into the decentralized world of blockchain should point their eyes at Elk: A dev board in the making that’s been designed to support all sorts of IoT projects with a blockchain flavor. Such as, for example, a connected door-lock that doesn’t demand […]

Amazon’s Alexa ushered in a new dawn of user interfaces, bringing voice into the mix as a viable option. Dozens of companies have sprouted because of this, not least of which being Airbud.io. Airbud allows any company to add a voice interface to its website. The company just closed a $4 million round led by […]

eBay had a front row seat for Amazon’s historic growth. The auction site does just fine, thank you very much, but in terms of revenue is only a fraction of the e-commerce giant. That ship has almost certainly sailed, but eBay’s finally readying a service to take on Amazon’s offering more directly. Launching in the […]

If you’ve used Formget in the past few years, there’s a good chance we know about it. Formget bills itself as an online form maker and email marketing company based in Bhopal, India. The company allows its 43,000 customers to create online forms so others can submit their resumes or apply for a job, or […]

Space startup ispace, which is headquartered in Japan but has a European subsidiary based in Luxembourg, will take part in PROSPECT, a program run by the European Space Agency (ESA) that intends to extreme water from the Moon’s southern pole, with a target mission date of 2024 or 2025. PROSPECT isn’t just a cool reference […]

When it comes to turning the wheels of the internet, crowdsourcing is a key component of the engine: the power of people can fund big ideas and good causes; it can help you decide what (or what not) to buy, read, watch or listen to when faced with too much choice; it can help unite […]

With as successful launch from the Gobi desert blasting off at around 1:10 PM Beijing time (1:10 AM ET), Chinese space launch startup iSpace (which, awesomely, is also called ‘StarCraft Glory Space Technology Co.’) became the first private Chinese commercial space launch provider. The company’s SQX-1 Y1 rocket delivered two commercial satellites to an orbit […]

Apple led the way in solar usage as technology companies step up their development of renewable energy projects to offset their carbon emissions. That’s the word from the Solar Energy Industry Association in its latest tally of leading corporate solar energy installers across the U.S. Last year, Apple installed 400 megawatts of solar capacity, to […]

GDPR, the European data privacy regulations, have been in effect for over a year, but it’s still a challenge for companies to comply. Ethyca, a New York City startup, has created a solution from the ground up to help customers adhere to the regulations, and today it announced a $4.2 million investment led by IA […]

Sonos and Ikea’s Symfonisk collaboration took a lot of people by surprise when it was announced earlier this year, but the match up is less unlikely than it might appear at first glance. Ikea’s entire mission has been delivering practical, quality design concepts at price points that are more broadly accessible – and that’s exactly […]

We got word yesterday that the crowdfunded LightSail 2 spacecraft had successfully deployed its mylar solar sail, a large sheet of reflective material that will harness the minute power of photos bouncing off its surface to make an energy-efficient traversal through space. But that was based on data transmitted by the spacecraft, and now we […]

Facebook employees tried to alert the company about the activity of Cambridge Analytica as early as September 2015, per the SEC’s complaint against the company which was published yesterday. This chimes with a court filing that emerged earlier this year — which also suggested Facebook knew of concerns about the controversial data company earlier than […]

Months of tit-for-tat trade negotiations between China and the United States have damaged cross-border investment interest between the superpowers, especially in areas that involve deep technology and intellectual property. But one sector has so far stayed relatively intact: lifestyle. That’s what got Per Welinder, the legendary skateboarder-turned-entrepreneur who recently moved into venture investing, to look […]

Darrell Silver Contributor Darrell Silver is the co-founder and CEO of Thinkful. More posts by this contributor An insider’s take on the future of coding bootcamps Students are demanding the facts about coding bootcamps From Capitol Hill to the Democratic Presidential debates, the drumbeat for new approaches to higher education is getting louder. On the […]

Salesforce, the 20-year-old leader in customer relationship management (CRM) tools, is making a foray into Asia by working with one of the country’s largest tech firms, Alibaba. Alibaba will be the exclusive provider of Salesforce to enterprise customers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and Salesforce will become the exclusive enterprise CRM software […]

Didi Chuxing announced today that it has received new investment totaling $600 million from Toyota Motor Corporation. As part of the deal, the two companies will also set up a joint venture with GAC Toyota Motor to provide vehicle-related services to drivers on Didi’s ride-sharing platform. GAC Toyota itself is a joint venture between Toyota […]

When it was unveiled on stage, the Galaxy Fold was heralded as the next big thing. Samsung seeded units to reviews and prepared for launch. And then a funny thing happened on the way to a smartphone paradigm shift: it started breaking. Multiple review units were sent back to Samsung with busted screens. It was […]

SpaceX encountered a snag in an attempted test key to the development of its next-generation Starship spacecraft. Specifically, the StarHopper sub scale demonstration and testing craft it’s using to work on the Starthip’s propulsion system fails to undertake its first untethered test flight at a testing site in Boca Chica Beach in Texas, The plan […]

The FTC just announced the details of its settlement agreement with Facebook over years of privacy practices in violation of a previous order. To say the settlement is favorable to Facebook, even with the record $5 billion penalty, is an understatement; the company's lawyers are probably popping champagne right about now. Here's why.

Investment and stock trading app Robinhood stored some user credentials, including passwords, in plaintext on internal systems, the company revealed today. This particularly dangerous security misstep could have seriously exposed its users, though it says that it has no evidence the data was accessed improperly. Better change your password now.

Tesla is set to aggressively ramp up the rate at which it opens new service facilities, according to CEO Elon Musk’s guidance on the company’s Q2 2019 earnings call. In total, Tesla opened 25 new service centers during the quarter, and added 100 new service vehicles to its existing fleet — which is in contrast […]

Alejandra Albarrán Contributor Share on Twitter Alejandra Albarrán is ROOM’s Director of Design and Innovation, responsible for shaping the company’s iconic approach to creating products that make the open office open to more. The open office plan was intended to help collaboration and productivity across employees and teams while better utilizing less square feet per […]

Fresh from topping up its Series C with a whopping $60 million, business travel booking platform TravelPerk is launching a new product it hopes will make customers keep singing its praises by shaving further friction off of programming work trips. The Barcelona-based SaaS startup has been on a mission to make booking business travel suck […]

Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel is stepping down from his day-to-day role as an executive at the automaker, CEO Elon Musk announced during a conference call with analysts Wednesday. Drew Baglino, vice president of technology, will take over his duties, Musk said. Straubel will stay on in a senior advisor role. “I want to […]

Tesla has already started the preparations required to get production started on its forthcoming Model Y compact all-electric SUV, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk . During his introductory comments on the automaker’s Q2 2019 earnings call, Musk noted that prep had started at its facility in Fremont, confirming a report from CNBC from March. […]

Tesla said Wednesday that Model 3 production is on track to begin at its Shanghai factory by the end of the year — a critical milestone for the automaker if it hopes to continue to increase sales and avoid the high cost of shipping and tariffs. The Gigfactory Shanghai “continues to take shape,” Tesla wrote […]

Uber has lost two of its board members today. Arianna Huffington, CEO at Thrive Global, and Benchmark General Partner Matt Cohler‘s resignations from the board went into effect today, according to two Uber filings with the SEC. “Given Thrive’s growth, it has become clear to me that I will no longer be able to give […]

A second Vision Fund is in the works.

Tesla reported Wednesday a wider-than-expected loss of $408 million, or $2.31 per share, and generated $6.3 billion in revenue in the second quarter despite record deliveries of its electric vehicles. Earlier this month, Tesla reported it delivered 95,200 of its electric vehicles in the second quarter, a dramatic reversal from a disappointing first period. Those […]

Facebook’s investors were not fazed by the announcement of a $5 billion FTC fine after baking it into share price expectations, but Facebook’s admission that it was now under investigation by the FTC over antitrust issues was a surprise. Facebook detailed in its Q2 earnings release that it has paid the record fine and agreed […]

Shared electric bike and scooter services are constantly at war with each other — whether it’s battling for an operating permit in a highly coveted market, raising a massive round of funding or making a key hire. Today, the war continues with Lyft’s recent hiring of Eugene Kwak, Bird’s now-former head of vehicle product. Kwak’s […]

Hours after receiving a record $5 billion FTC fine on privacy violations, Facebook delivered a Q2 earnings beat with revenue of $16.9 billion with $1.99 adjusted EPS compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.90 EPS on revenue of $16.45 billion. Facebook reported it has 1.59 billion DAUs and 2.1 billion daily active users of […]

Postmates’ cooler-inspired autonomous delivery robot, which will roll out commercially in Los Angeles later this year, will rely on lidar sensors from Ouster, a burgeoning two-year-old startup that recently raised $60 million in equity and debt funding. Postmates unveiled the first generation of its self-described “autonomous rover” — known as Serve — late last year. […]

Snap may no longer be the laughing stock of the New York Stock Exchange. On the heels of renewed user growth and an earnings beat, Snap closed Wednesday with a share price at $17.60, up 18.68% for the day, giving the company its first close above its $17 IPO debut price since March of last […]

In today’s instalment of ‘the future is 100% subscription-based,’ Toronto-based startup Rover is testing out subscriptions for its parking marketplace. Rover lets users list their unused parking spots for on-demand rental by others on the service, giving them a passive way to earn some income while hopefully increasing the utilization rate of parking spaces at […]

There’s a gap forming in Latin America between the growing digital food delivery market and the number of businesses in the region that are actually online. Food delivery startups continue to replicate and expand throughout the region, and VCs are channeling mega rounds into them with the hope of capitalizing on consumer online buying trends […]

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. Facebook settles with FTC: $5 billion and new privacy guarantees Although in line with what was reported before the official announcement, […]

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu announced via Twitter that the company will be changing its model for compensating Dashers (a.k.a. DoorDash drivers and other delivery people). The company faced criticism this year its payment policies. Under the current system, a Dasher’s payment consists of a $1 base from DoorDash, the customer’s tip and — when the first […]

Fintech startup Revolut announced changes to its business accounts this week. The good news is that if you were thinking about trying Revolut for your business needs, it’s now cheaper to get started. But there are some limits. While Revolut is better known for its regular consumer accounts that let you receive, send and spend […]

Back in 2013, Occipital (a company then best known for making the RedLaser barcode scanning app) released the Structure Sensor, a device that turned any iPad you strapped it to into a portable 3D scanner. Six years later, they’re back with the next one: Structure Sensor Mark II. It’s about half the size, but […]

At a conference in New Delhi early last year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was confronted with a question that his company has been asked many times over the years. Would he consider lowering the subscription cost in India? It’s a tactic that most Silicon Valley companies have adapted to in the country over the years. […]

In a field where the laboratory notebook is still considered the state of the art, it’s no wonder a company like Benchling, which provides software for managing life sciences research was able to nab $34.5 million. Considering how much detailed technical work goes into the research that produces all of our great leaps forward in […]

When it comes to enterprise security, how do you move fast without breaking things? Enter Duo’s Wendy Nather, who will join us at TC Sessions: Enterprise in San Francisco on September 5, where we will get the inside track on how to keep enterprise networks secure without slowing growth. Nather is head of advisory CISOs […]

The promise of 5G is staggering. With its ultra-high bandwidth and low latency, it has the potential to alter how consumers interact with technology. However, questions remain around its deployment, use cases, and marketing. We’re excited to have Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg sit down for a fireside chat at Disrupt SF to talk about the […]

A new security feature rolling out on Tinder will help to protect LBGTQ+ users who travel to dozens of nations, which still criminalize same-sex acts or relationships. As part of the update, users who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer on the app will no longer automatically appear on Tinder when they arrive […]

It’s the absolute best economy the United States has seen in decades, and yet, you wouldn’t know it from looking at the employee rolls at major news and media outlets. Thousands of journalists have lost their jobs this year through restructurings and layoffs while cities like Youngstown, Ohio have lost their one and only daily […]

Final Reminder: Extra Crunch Event Discount for Tomorrow’s Summer Party TechCrunch’s annual Summer Party is tomorrow — come meet all the staff at the Park Chalet beer garden on the Pacific Coast in San Francisco. If you want to join us, be sure to use your event discount (part of the annual EC subscription offering) […]

Raena, an Indonesian startup that helps social media influencers launch their own e-commerce brands, announced today that it has raised $1.82 million in seed funding. The round was led by Beenext, with participation from Beenos, Strive and the personal offices of Shailesh Rao, a partner with TPG Growth, and Sanjay Nath, managing partner of Blume […]