Crunch Hype

Walmart’s investments in software and retail technologies it used to transform its business from a brick-and-mortar to one that combines both in-person and online shopping will now be made available to other retailers for the first time, the company announced today. Through a strategic partnership with Adobe, Walmart will integrate access to Walmart’s Marketplace, as […]

Unsurprisingly, the CEO of the Day program is one of our most popular initiatives. The program gives an employee the reins for 24 hours with an unlimited budget.

Squire is now a 175-person company with a tech platform used by over 2,000 shops across three continents.

It’s hard to argue that any technology company has had a greater impact in the past decade than BioNTech, the mRNA-based therapeutics pioneer behind the world’s most widely-used COVID-19 vaccine. Developed in record time in partnership with Pfizer, thanks to an existing partnership to work on immunization for the common flu, BioNTech’s mRNA inoculation is […]

While the rise of the Delta variant is extending the company’s work-from-home policy through October 18, it’s not entirely clear what happens after that date.

Fisker is investing $10 million in private-investment-in-public equity (PIPE) funding for the merger of Allego and special purpose acquisition company Spartan Acquisition Corp III.

Like Microsoft and Apple in the wake of their after-hours earnings reports, Shopify shares are having a muted reaction to the better-than-expected results.

In the minutes before its quarterly earnings call this morning, Spotify played advertisements for its Originals & Exclusives, like the true crime show “Deathbed Confessions,” and the sex and relationships podcast “Call Her Daddy,” which Spotify recently acquired in a deal worth $60 million. Sure, it’s kind of hilarious to hear a recording of host […]

Anomaly detection is one of the more difficult and underserved operational areas in the asset-servicing sector of financial institutions.

Single-use plastic containers make up a huge amount of the world’s waste, but so far no one has come up with a good way to replace them that’s also easy for consumers and cost-effective. Algramo may have cracked this nut with a combination of reusable containers and distribution points that both makes and saves money, […]

What’s big enough, bold enough and influential enough to inspire more than 10,000 people around the world to carve out three days from their intensely busy schedules? If you said TechCrunch Disrupt 2021, the grand matriarch of startup tech conferences, well friend, you’d be right on the money. And speaking of money, you have just […]

We know how much you love a good startup pitch-off. Who doesn’t? It combines the thrill of live, high-stakes entertainment with learning about the hottest new thing. Plus, you get to hear feedback from some of the smartest folks in the industry, thus learning how to absolutely crush it at your next pitch meeting with […]

In the user interface concept Google debuted today, developers are now able to see how this feature will look to the end user.

Duolingo, a consumer edtech company, is now more valuable per revenue dollar than the median public enterprise SaaS business.

The startup gives teams a way to streamline the commission process and avoid inaccurate budgets, payouts, and 'unhappy sales reps due to poor sales commission planning, reporting and administration.'

Twitter this morning will launch a pilot in the U.S. aimed at testing the potential for e-commerce on its platform. The company is introducing a new “Shop Module” that offers brands, businesses and other retailers the ability to showcase their products to Twitter users directly on the business’ profile. Users will then be able to […]

If you parked your car in one of the thousands of parking spots across Calgary, there’s a good chance you paid the Calgary Parking Authority for the privilege. But soon you might be hearing from the authority after a recent security lapse exposed the personal information of vehicle owners. The parking authority oversees about 14% […]

Elon Musk mused that Tesla's batteries may eventually be two-thirds iron-based and one-third nickel-based across its products. 'And this is actually good because there’s plenty of iron in the world.'

When I arrived in the U.S., I applied to countless IT jobs, from customer service to computer repair. Every company rejected me before they even gave me the chance to show what I could do.

Things are changing in China, and the regulatory landscape of tech work in the country won't be the same from here on out.

Jason Saltzman is a serial entrepreneur. He first cofounded SeamlessDocs and then went on to found The Alley, a coworking space based out of New York City. Following Alley’s acquisition by Verizon, Saltzman left to build something new and became fascinated with the debt consolidation and relief space. That’s how Relief, cofounded by Saltzman, Bryan […]

As I write this, I have no fewer than five recently reviewed earbuds sitting on the desk in front of me. And you know what? They’re all pretty good. Some are better than others, of course — that’s why they invented gadget reviews. But as far as consumer electronics go, the category seemed to mature […]

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For our Wednesday show this week, Natasha and Alex Chris had prior Equity guest Phil Libin back for a chat. Libin was first on our show a while back to chat about his startup studio. But since then, he’s been […]

The cohort aims to tackle wide-ranging music industry issues. Some have already laid out commercialization plans, while others came together for the program and haven’t thought that far down the road.

Voice-based and other personal assistant apps — which use natural language and hefty AI engines in the backend to source information to address your various questions, do your e-commerce bidding, or control one electronic device or another in your home — have been around for years, but too often they have come up short when […]

The company's post-funding valuation is $3.7 billion, according to a source familiar with the investment round.

Noetic Cyber, a cloud-based continuous cyber asset management and controls platform, has launched from stealth with a Series A funding round of $15 million led by Energy Impact Partners. The round was also backed by Noetic’s existing investors, TenEleven Ventures and GlassWing Ventures, and brings the total amount of funds raised by the startup to […]

Spot is tackling affordable healthcare with a digital, on-demand injury insurance product that can be as-is or as a compliment to traditional health insurance.

European customer engagement platform Dixa has raised a Series C funding round of $105 million, led by growth equity investor General Atlantic. Existing investors Notion Capital, Project A, and Seed Capital also participated. In February last year, it raised $36 million in Series B funding, led by Notion Capital, with support from existing investors Project […]

The company's digital therapy platform works to measure and improve someone’s ability to walk after they have experienced a neurologic injury or disease.

Algolia has raised a $150 million Series D funding round at a post-money valuation of $2.25 billion. Compared to the Series C round from October 2019, the company’s valuation has more than quadrupled. It means that Algolia is now a unicorn with a valuation above $1 billion. The company is best known for its search-as-a-service […]

Four high-profile Indian entrepreneurs who are among those who kickstarted India’s SaaS journey, building and helping startups scale and win customers globally and also backed about 100 such firms, are ready for their next phase of participation in the country’s startup ecosystem. The group — Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks, Manav Garg of Eka Corporation, Shubham […]

TechCrunch caught up with Contentful's CEO, Steve Sloan (previously of Twilio and Bessemer), and its comms connect, Brian Spittler (previously of Podium), to dig more into its products.

When it comes to software to help IT manage workers’ devices wherever they happen to be, enterprises have long been spoiled for choice — a situation that has come in especially handy in the last 18 months, when many offices globally have gone remote and people have logged into their systems from home. But the […]

Class, a virtual classroom that integrates exclusively with Zoom, announced today that it has raised $105 million in a financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund II. The 10-month old startup has now raised a total of $146 million in known venture funding to date, which eclipses the amount of capital raised by founder Michael Chasen’s […]

The company's Shelf Life project aims to remedy the inventory-management issues in Africa's retail pharmacies.

The tyranny of the Excel spreadsheet continues, and especially in rostering staff. Nowhere is this more acutely felt in today’s COVID-pressured hospital wards, which are now depleted not just by the disease but by staff burnout from patchy-over or under-scheduling of staff hours. Two doctors realized this and decided to create a startup. Patchwork Health […]

The company's business boomed amid the pandemic. In January 2020, it had two corporate clients. By December of the same year, it had around 70.

Gupshup, a business messaging platform that began its journey in India 15 years ago, surprised many when it raised $100 million in April this year, roughly 10 years after its last financing round, and attained the coveted unicorn status. Now just three months later, the San Francisco-headquartered startup has secured even more capital from high-profile […]

Something very interesting is going on with supply chains, and has been for a while. But it’s clear the pandemic has accelerated the trend. Tech startups are once again cutting out the middle man, but this time at the supply chain level. The opportunity is to replace supply chains with platforms – it’s the ‘platformization […]

Alex Lim, a British-born VC based in the Bay Area who invested in Hopin, UiPath, Discord, and many other unicorns has decided to up sticks and leave Sand Hill Road behind for Blossom Capital in London. Blossom is fast making a name for itself both in Europe and internationally, having invested in breakout hits like […]

An online marketplace for automobiles has become the latest Indian startup to attain the coveted unicorn status. Gurgaon-headquartered Droom said on Wednesday it is raising up to $200 million in what it described as a pre-IPO growth funding round. The new investment, part of which has been secured, valued the seven-year-old startup at $1.2 billion, […]

Julaya enables companies to streamline their accounting and improve their operational efficiency by digitizing payments to workers and suppliers instead of relying on cash.

In Bangladesh, students often rely on after school learning centers for study help or test preparation, but many of the best ones are concentrated in major cities. Edtech startup Shikho was created to make supplementary education more accessible and affordable. The company announced today it has closed a $1.3 million seed round co-led by returning […]

For fleet managers, managing shipping crew changes across different countries is an elaborate process even in the best of times—and now is definitely not the best of times. Greywing, a Y Combinator-backed platform for automating maritime operations, launched a new solution today that it describes as an industry-first. Called Crew Change, it is used to […]

You may well recognize Cassie as the basis of Agility Robotics’ delivery bot, Digit. If you’ve been following the tech’s progression at all, however, you no doubt know that it started life as the ostrich-inspired Cassie. The robot is all legs and not much else. In addition to fueling Agility’s commercial ambitions, the robot has […]

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Another excellent quarter for Apple, as the company posted $81.4 billion in revenue. That’s a 36% year-over-year jump for the company, besting Wall Street estimates of $73.3 billion by a considerable margin. “Our record June quarter operating performance included new revenue records in each of our geographic segments, double-digit growth in each of our product […]

Today after the bell amidst a deluge of major technology company earnings reports, Alphabet reported its own second-quarter performance.