Crunch Hype

One of the world’s biggest video game companies is reeling after a state discrimination and sexual harassment suit kicked off a firestorm of controversy within the company. California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard last week, alleging that the company fostered a “breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” Following a […]

In a four-part series, Managing Editor Danny Crichton tells the story of RapidSOS, the company that processes more than half of all 911 calls made each year in the U.S.

Microsoft shares fell after the news, perhaps due to its results missing so-called whisper numbers; that it has traded at or near all-time highs recently puts the 3% after-hours drop into context.

Twitter’s recent acquisition spree continues today as the company announces it has acqui-hired the team from news aggregator and summary app Brief. The startup from former Google engineers launched last year to offer a subscription-based news summary app that aimed to tackle many of the problems with today’s news cycle, including information overload, burnout, media […]

Apple is responding to user complaints and feedback about the controversial changes to the Safari mobile browser with today’s launch of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 beta 4. The new Safari design first introduced at WWDC had moved the tab bar (URL bar) to the bottom of the screen — a fairly radical change for […]

Yes Virginia, there are advantages to exhibiting in (the sold-out) Startup Alley at TC Disrupt 2021. Out of all the early-stage startups ready to exhibit on September 21-23, Team TechCrunch hand-picked 50 to form the Startup Alley+ cohort. Startup Alley+ is a VIP experience designed to help founders grow their business and increase their opportunities […]

Consumer satisfaction hinges on more than the amount of time it takes to move an order from an app to the customer’s door.

When Anada Lakra and Ilya Usorov first moved to the United States, they struggled to find their voices. They both knew and understood English, but when it came time to speak up, their accents became a hurdle. Usorov, for example, watched his Russian-born parents struggle to advocate for themselves, which limited work opportunities. While Lakra, […]

Deeper trust was our goal when we first thought of buying common stock. It wasn’t about winning the incremental deal or somehow "out-marketing" our competitors.

Monte Carlo’s Barr Moses joins the data panel at TC Sessions: SaaS. See you there! As the clock ticks down on TechCrunch’s upcoming SaaS-focused event, we’re excited to announce that Monte Carlo co-founder and CEO Barr Moses will join us. Specifically, the startup exec will be joining our data-focused panel. What does Monte Carlo do? […]

Startups across Africa have never had more access to capital than they do right now.

Haven’t you heard that Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app? Today, Instagram announced that users can now upload 60-second videos on Reels, the platform’s TikTok competitor. This update also adds functionality for a captions sticker on Reels, which transcribes audio to text. Instagram previously teased this sticker for Reels when they added it to […]

The NBA’s Chicago Bulls launched its first-ever NFTs –– including digital artwork of NBA championship rings –– by launching an online store on Shopify.

Following last fall’s debut of Google TV, the new user interface for Chromecast devices, Google is today giving its Google TV companion app for Android a makeover. The updated version of the mobile app for Google TV includes an updated user interface, expanded set recommendations, and more TV and movies to watch. The app in […]

Apple News on Monday announced a collaboration with NBCUniversal to develop exclusive daily recaps and audio briefings, event schedules and medal counts to help fans keep tabs on the games.

Numbers can take on profound cultural significance, but few numbers have quite the resonance as 911, the emergency number for the United States. Few want to dial it, but when they must, it works.

RapidSOS' story is one of a mission, a community, a team and a dream that every emergency should have the best chance to be resolved as positively as possible.

For the founders of RapidSOS, improving the quality of emergency response by adding useful data, like location, to 911 calls was an inspiring objective, and one that garnered widespread support.

One of the most challenging aspects of leading a startup is the seeming impossibility of building partnerships and executing business development. Large companies are sclerotic and bureaucratic, taking eons in terms of startup years to make decisions that for them are small, but for a new company, can be life itself. Every startup ultimately needs […]

When it comes to user-interface design, 911 is about as good as it gets. It’s the “most recognized number in the United States,” Steve Souder, a prominent 911 leader, points out.

After announcing that threads were on the way earlier this year and teasing the feature on Twitter, Discord is now introducing the long-requested way to make conversations in bustling servers more comprehensible. Starting today, any server with “community” features enabled will be able to transform messages into threaded conversations, across mobile and desktop. Threads are […]

Sony has launched its first vlogging-specific mirrorless camera, the ZV-E10, that borrows a number of features from ZV-1 compact vlogging model.

TikTok announced this morning it’s expanding its TikTok LIVE platform which today allows creators livestream to fans, while also responding to viewer comments and questions, and accept virtual gifts. Now, the LIVE experience will include a number of new features for creators to make it more competitive with competing platforms, like Instagram Live, including the […]

Edtech investors are increasingly going global, but regulatory crackdowns in China, which instructed K-12 tutoring startups to go non-profit, have led to a chill among check-writers in the country.

Bubble enables anyone — coder or not — to begin building modern web applications using a click-and-drag interface that can connect data sources and other software together in one fluid interface.

It’s the latest in a succession of secretive tests Joby's been conducting, all part of its goal to achieve certification with the Federal Aviation Administration and start commercial operations.

It’s been just over five months since Carl Pei first told the world about Nothing. Perhaps it’s just the way time moves these days or maybe it’s the fact that the company has trickled out information in the intervening months. Whatever the case, it feels like we’ve been waiting on today’s full Ear (1) reveal […]

The latest financing brings Fireblocks’ total raised since its 2018 inception to $489 million. The valuation boost correlates with its increase in customers and ARR this year.

The previously bootstrapped 1Password raised its first round of external capital in 2019, a $200 million Series A led by Accel that represented the VC firm’s largest single investment in its 35 years.

Blameless’ platform provides the context, guardrails and automated workflows so engineering teams are unified in the way they communicate and interact while building their software systems.

Early in the pandemic, Nick Gerard, Steven Layne, and Samantha Safer Valentine had a hit on their hands. In the era before Zoom fatigue set in, the trio launched Mainstream Live, a website and newsletter that curated live virtual events across platforms and gave people text-based reminders to check them out. “We started with the […]

Pinterest today is increasing its investment in the creator community by introducing new tools that will allow creators to make money from their content. Now, creators will be able to tag products in their Idea Pins — a video-first feature the company first launched this spring — to make their content “shoppable.” They’ll also now […]

As it gears up to expand access to younger users, Instagram this morning announced a series of updates designed to make its app a safer place for online teens. The company says it will now default users to private accounts at sign-up if they’re under the age of 16 — or under 18 in certain […]

Wiliot — the IoT startup that has developed a new kind of processor that is ultra thin and light and runs on ambient power but possesses all the power of a “computer” — has picked up a huge round of growth funding on the back of strong interest in its technology, and a strategy aimed […]

iAngels, the private investment platform founded and helmed by Mor Assia and Shelly Hod Moyal, has today announced the close of its first institutional fund. The firm has raised $55.5 million, which was anchored by the European Investment Fund, which put in $25 million. This brings iAngels’ total assets under management to $300 million. Until […]

In May of last year, Covariant announced that it had raised a $40 million Series B. It was a healthy sum of money for the young company, bringing its total funding up to $67 million. Just a little over a year later, the Berkeley-based AI startup is adding another $80 million to its coffers, riding […]

Tencent’s WeChat said on Tuesday it is temporarily suspending registration of new users in China as it works to comply with “relevant laws and regulations,” the latest Chinese firm to face regulatory scrutiny in the world’s largest internet market. In a social media post, Tencent said it is “upgrading” its security technology to align with […]

In between A/B testing, customizing targeted ads and formatting for different digital platforms, some design teams are tasked with campaigns that include thousands of images, videos and other visual content. Based in Bangalore, Rocketium automates much of the process, allowing teams to scale-up campaigns while reducing their workload. The company announced it has raised $3.2 […]

HappyFresh, the on-demand grocery app based in Indonesia, announced today it has raised a $65 million Series D. The round was led by Naver Financial Corporation and Gafina B.V., with participation from STIC, LB and Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore. It also included returning investors Mirae-Asset Naver Asia Growth Fund and Z Venture Capital. The […]

Despite South Africa's high card and mobile penetration rates of over 70%, the country's SMEs still struggle to accept cards. Yoco's portable card machines proved masterful in solving this problem.

Onto has raised $175 million in a combined equity and debt Series B round, capital the U.K.-based electric vehicle subscription startup plans to use to expand within the country as well as move into new markets. This latest round brings Onto’s total funding to $245 million. Swedish VC Alfvén & Didrikson is leading the round […]

Many have tried to do away with it, but email refuses to die… although in the process it might be (figuratively speaking) killing some of us with the workload it brings on to triage and use it. A startup called Sedna has built a system to help with that — specifically for enterprise and other […]

After Element acquired Gitter last year to bring in more users and features into its own decentralized, Matrix-based messaging app, the startup is announcing some funding to invest in its growth. Element has picked up $30 million in a Series B round of funding. Some of the funding will be used to expand its technology […]

With Microsoft now being an investor in OpenAI the field now more open for new insurgents into the open-source AI arena. Now a German company hopes to take on the next AI mantle and produce something akin to the success of the GPT-3 AI model. German AI startup Aleph Alpha has now raised €23 million […]

When it comes to health issues like menopause, fertility, pregnancy, and even early parenthood, the data tells us that people typically turn to search engines and social media for advice to ask about symptoms or concerns they have. They tend not to go to a medical practitioner, in the first instance. The suggestion, therefore, is […]

Online abuse, disinformation, fraud and other malicious content is growing and getting more complex to track. Today, a startup called ActiveFence, which has quietly built a tech platform to suss out threats as they are being formed and planned, to make it easier for trust and safety teams to combat them on platforms, is coming […]

As of next week, Lime's vehicles will be included as a travel option in tandem with public transit for either all or part of a multimodal journey on the Israeli app.

Indian social media platform ShareChat said on Tuesday it has raised an additional $145 million and is now valued at nearly $3 billion, less than three months after it secured $502 million at a valuation of $2.1 billion. Temasek and Moore Strategic Ventures led the new tranche of investment while Mirae-Naver Asia Growth fund participated in […]

Freight forwarders often keep track of rates on spreadsheets they email to customers, but the pandemic has made that difficult because prices are constantly fluctuating. Freightify, a startup that refers to itself as the “Shopify for maritime freight,” provides white-label rate management and e-booking tools that freight forwarders can use to set up online stores, […]

Nium’s new round adds fuel to a fire shared by a number of companies all going after a global B2B payments market valued at $120 trillion annually.