Crunch Hype

On July 10, just one short month from now, more than 1,000 of the best and brightest minds in mobility will converge in San Jose, Calif. for TC Sessions: Mobility 2019. This day-long conference is dedicated to exploring the current state of mobile technology and building the future of moving people and things from point […]

Amazon this morning announced the launch of Amazon Credit Builder, a new secured credit card offered in partnership with Synchrony Bank. As the name implies, the card is aimed at those who are looking to build their credit history — either to recover from bad credit or to establish new credit. Like other credit products […]

NASA’s trip to the Moon’s surface in July 1969 was preceded by a lot of preparatory missions – including Apollo 10, which involved a mock mission with everything but the actual landing. Astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Carman flew a lunar module nicknamed ‘Snoopy’ by the agency nearly all the way to the Moon during […]

This is one of those ‘I’m not surprised but I am slightly terrified’ moments in tech development: Enterprise smart glasses company Vuzix announced Monday that it has developed new “fully autonomous” face recognition software in partnership with software developer NNTC. The new solution will work with Vuzix’s Blade smart glasses, which debuted at CES earlier […]

It takes a lot of trust to allow a company to come in and install a mystery box on their network to monitor for threats. It’s like inviting in a security guard to sit in your living room to make sure nobody breaks in. Yet that’s exactly what Darktrace does. (The box, not the security […]

Last week it was Xbox body spray. Today it’s a Razer energy drink. E3 is officially upon us, and it’s time for all of the shamless product tie-ins. Though before you go passing judgement on Respawn, note that this is “no ordinary beverage.” No, in a world of of entirely too many energy drinks, this […]

There’s some new consolidation in the mobile event technology space this morning, with news that the meetings, events and hospitality technology provider Cvent has acquired San Francisco-based mobile event app maker DoubleDutch. The deal includes both DoubleDutch’s mobile event app technology as well as the team, the company said in announcing the deal on Monday. […]

Ever since Google acquired Waze back in 2013, features from each have been slowly making their way back and forth between it and Google Maps – and today Waze gets a big upgrade with Google Assistant integration, which means you can use the smart voice companion within the app. Google Assistant in Waze will provide […]

You’ve been meaning to apply to the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt San Francisco 2019, right? Whether you need more time due to procrastinating, shillyshallying or your propensity for last-minute decision making (hey, we don’t judge), we’re offering you a reprieve. Yup, we’re extending the application deadline for one week. The extended application deadline expires on […]

Here’s an interesting by-product the news today that Salesforce would be acquiring Tableau for $15.7 billion: the company is going to make Seattle, Washington (home of Tableau) the official second headquarters of San Francisco-based Salesforce, putting the company directly in the face of tech giants and Salesforce frenemies Microsoft and Amazon. “An HQ2, if you […]

Low code and no code are the latest industry buzzwords, but if vendors can truly abstract away the complexity of difficult tasks like building machine learning models, it could help mainstream technologies that are currently out of reach of most business users. That’s precisely what Microsoft is aiming to do with its latest Power Platform […]

The 2019 Audi Q8 is the shape of the future. It’s beautiful as it successfully merges the look of a sports sedan with the shape of an SUV. It has flowing lines, crisp angles and just the right look on and off the road. Inside, it’s comfortable though a bit smaller than the name suggests. […]

Vectra, a seven-year old company that helps customers detect intrusions at the network level, whether in the cloud or on premises, announced a $100 million Series E funding round today led by TCV. Existing investors including Khosla Ventures and Accel also participated in the round, which brings the total raised to over $200 million, according […]

On the heels of Google buying analytics startup Looker last week for $2.6 billion, Salesforce today announced a huge piece of news in a bid to step up its own work in data visualization and (more generally) tools to help enterprises make sense of the sea of data that they use and amass: Salesforce is […]

Splash Financial, a Cleveland-based startup that has partnered with the Pentagon Federal Credit Union to refinance student loans, has raised $4.3 million in a round of venture financing. The round was led by CUNA Mutual Group, a PenFed partner, and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, the corporate investment arm of Northwestern Mutual. As student loan debt […]

The The Europas Awards for European Tech Startups is coming, and today it releases its final shortlist after an intense round of public voting and judges’ delioberations. The awards will be held on 27 June 2019, in London, U.K. and TechCrunch is once more the exclusive media sponsor of the awards, alongside new “tech, culture […]

For financial services firms looking to enter Europe, Luxembourg has historically been a popular anchoring point for its political and economic stability as well as a favorable regulatory environment. Another bucketload of capital is coming to the country after Chinese fintech startup Pingpong announced to invest more than €100 million ($113 million) in Luxembourg in […]

End-to-end encrypted messaging app and service Wire announced a partnership with accounting and consulting company EY. Essentially, Wire is providing an on-premise version of its messaging service so that EY can control the servers and use it for their communication needs. Both companies announced the deal a few weeks ago, and I talked with Wire […]

Spacemaker, a Norway-based startup that’s created AI software to help property developers and architects make better design decisions, has picked up $25 million in Series A funding. The round is jointly led by Atomico and Northzone, with participation from investors in property and construction tech including Danish property developer NREP, Nordic property developer OBOS, and […]

Aurora, the autonomous vehicle technology startup backed by Sequoia Capital and Amazon, has struck a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to develop self-driving commercial vehicles. The partnership will focus on integrating Aurora’s technology into FCA’s line of Ram Truck commercial vehicles, a portfolio that includes cargo vans and trucks. The deal could extend to FCA’s […]

E3 may not officially start until Tuesday, but the announcements are coming fast a furious. A few short hours after Microsoft previewed its streaming service and next get console, Bethesda took to the stage a few blocks a way, with footage from new Elder Scroll and Doom titles, along with a lot more Fallout 76 […]

Tonight’s Bethesda E3 press conference was all about free additions. In fact, the company actually took to the stage to apologize for Fallout 76’s rocky launch. The publisher quickly added that it’s continued to improve on the title since late last year, listening to player feedback and adding all sorts of additional content. That includes […]

Trailers. You love them, Microsoft’s got them. According to the company, there were a ridiculous 60 games trotted out on stage at today’s big E3 kickoff. Looks like the Xbox got a little extra love at the event since Sony’s MIA this year. Along with more information on its streaming service Project XCloud a sneak […]

Among the more eagerly anticipated titles of this year’s E3, Elden Ring leaked out just a few days ago. The forthcoming action role-playing title was created by George R.R. Martin, fresh off the end of his wildly popular HBO series, Game of Thrones. The game made its debut as part of Microsoft’s big E3 kickoff […]

Microsoft is working to create its most powerful Xbox yet as it gears up for the next wave of gaming console hardware. Xbox shared some details on its next hardware at E3 and it sounds appropriately next-gen. The company teased some huge factoids in a teaser about what it’s calling “Project Scarlett.” The upcoming console […]

Big news out of today’s Microsoft press conference. A few days after Google finally revealed some long awaited details about its Stadia offering, Microsoft just gave us a lot more info on its competitor, Project xCloud. Announced back in October, the game streaming service is designed to offer a hardware agnostic gaming experience. Unlike Google’s […]

As it did last year, Microsoft used its Xbox E3 keynote to announce its moves in bulking up its in-house gaming content. At its press conference, the company’s Xbox Game Studios head announced that Microsoft had acquired SF-based Double Fine Productions, a game creator that’s been around since 2000 and was founded by LucasArts’s Tim […]

Update 1:38pm PT: At its E3 conference, Xbox announced that the service will also be integrating Xbox Game Pass for PC as well. Xbox wants the future of the gaming business to lean heavily on subscription services. The company’s Game Pass service has let users download games from a pool of dozens of titles, now […]

I’ve long thought that much of the world can be explained by feedback loops. Why are small companies nimbler than large ones? Why are private companies generally more efficient than governments? Primarily because in each case, the former has a better feedback loop. When faced with a baffling question — such as, “why do online […]

Voting machine maker ES&S has said it “will no longer sell” paperless voting machines as the primary device for casting ballots in a jurisdiction. ES&S chief executive Tom Burt confirmed the news in an op-ed. TechCrunch understands the decision was made around the time that four senior Democratic lawmakers demanded to know why ES&S, and […]

Although the meat of Apple’s accessibility news from WWDC has been covered, there still are other items announced that have relevancy to accessibility as well. Here, then, are some thoughts on Apple’s less-headlining announcements that I believe are most interesting from a disability point of view. Accessibility goes above the fold One of the tidbits […]

This year’s E3 is already off to an interesting start. Sony’s nowhere to be seen, and Nintendo, per usual, has opted to go online only. That leaves Microsoft as the only member of the big three with its own, honest to goodness press conference. The company’s got a big opportunity here, and we’re hoping for […]

Update: The beta is live today. Ahead of the Xbox E3 keynote this afternoon, Microsoft has dropped the pricing for their Xbox Game Pass plan which gives PC users access to a library of top games. The Service will be launching at a very reasonable $4.99 per month (though they note that’s an “introductory price,” […]

Recent headlines describe a world that might never see a Vision Fund II. Would it matter?

“Always Be My Maybe” — a new film starring and co-written by Ali Wong and Randall Park — continues Netflix’s streak of solid romantic comedies. That said, anyone expecting it to match Wong’s delightfully dirty stand-up (showcased in the Netflix specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”) might be disappointed. Instead, “Always Be My Maybe” […]

Hey, weekend readers. This is Week-in-Review where I get hopped up on caffeine and give a heavy amount of analysis on one story while scouring the rest of the hundreds of stories that emerged on TechCrunch this week to surface my favorites for your reading pleasure. Last week, I talked about the Apple device that […]

Welcome back to the transcribed edition of the wildly popular TechCrunch podcast, Equity. This week Kate Clark and Alex Wilhelm convened in the new studio to discuss the biggest venture capital news of the week. There was a lot of news to get to so they started with some quick hits about Thumbtack, Bird, Scoot, […]

Unraveling the “Secrets of Sand Hill Road” and the VC thought process, with Andreessen Horowitz’s Scott Kupor Our Silicon Valley editor Connie Loizos hosted an Extra Crunch live conference call with Andreessen Horowitz GP Scott Kupor, who manages all ops for the firm and was formerly head of the National Venture Capital Association. He just […]

What’s on your to-do list in the next 48 hours? Move “launch my awesome early-stage startup to the world” to the top of the list and apply to compete in the Startup Battlefield at Disrupt San Francisco 2019 on October 2-4 in front of 10,000 live attendees and tens of thousands online. Your opportunity to compete head-to-head against […]

Unity Technologies, the multibillion-dollar gaming engine, is facing a lawsuit from its former VP of global talent acquisition, Anne Evans, who accuses CEO John Riccitiello of sexual harassment. The sexual harassment allegedly took many forms — ranging from making sexist jokes to propositioning her and other employees for sex, to making references to his erect […]

What are startup investors doing vis-à-vis the pizza industry?

In this week's newsletter: Bird gets acquisitive, Stripe puts on its VC hat and Thumbtack looks for new cash.

Hotstar, India’s largest video streaming service with more than 300 million users, disabled support for Apple’s Safari web browser on Friday to mitigate a security flaw that allowed unauthorized usage of its platform, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The incident comes at a time when the streaming service — operated by Star […]

Financial troubles have forced Maker Media, the company behind crafting publication MAKE: magazine as well as the science and art festival Maker Faire, to lay off its entire staff of 22 and pause all operations. TechCrunch was tipped off to Maker Media’s unfortunate situation which was then confirmed by the company’s founder and CEO Dale […]

E3 doesn’t technically start until Tuesday, but the leaks are already arriving fast and furious. Now that winter has come from HBO’s Game of Thrones, creator George R.R. Martin’s got several other projects in the works, including, reportedly, a new video game. Welp. Looks like everything is leaking before E3. Elden Ring is probably next […]

It was a brilliant idea. It allowed Sequoia to keep tabs on entrepreneurs — and nascent technologies — not yet in its universe. It cemented the firm’s ties to the founders who were already in its family. Not last, it grew Sequoia’s already considerable influence in Silicon Valley. Fast forward, and the ripple effects of […]

Of all of the WWDC announcements this week, Sidecar got me the most excited. I’m on the road a lot these days, and apps like Duet and Luna have been lifesavers. They’ve afforded me the ability to carry around a reasonably sized laptop, with an optional second screen in the form of the iPad. Both […]

Lyft is suing the city of San Francisco, claiming that the city is violating its 10-year contract with Lyft that would give the company exclusive rights to operate bike-share programs. San Francisco, however, says the contract does not apply to dockless bike-share, but only station-based bike-share. In its lawsuit, Lyft is seeking a preliminary injunction […]

A year after Walmart’s personal shopping service JetBlack launched in New York, the retailer reports two-thirds of customers engage with the service on a weekly basis, and spend an average of $1,500 per month on JetBlack purchases. To be clear, that doesn’t mean the customers are only buying products from Walmart or its subsidiaries like […]

Uber’s chief operating officer Barney Harford and chief marketing officer Rebecca Messina are stepping down as part of an organizational shakeup put into motion just a month after the ride-hailing company went public. CNBC first reported the departures. The departures, which CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained in an email to employees, were prompted by his decision […]