Crunch Hype

SoftBank Vision Fund has its pedal to the metal in more ways than one. On stage at the Milken Institute Global Conference yesterday, the CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisors, Rajeev Misra, reportedly disclosed plans to double the size of the investment arm from 400 employees to 800 employees over the next 18 to 24 months. […]

Rappi, an on-demand delivery startup, is raising $1 billion from the Japanese telecom giant.

YouTube wants to have half of the featured videos in its trending tab come from streams originating on the company’s own site going forward, according to the latest quarterly letter from chief executive Susan Wojcicki. The letter, directed to YouTube’s users, is meant to help ease concerns the site’s biggest stars have over copyright challenges, […]

The AR industry can avoid the creepy aspects of today’s data collection methods without hindering innovation.

USV is expanding its partnership to manage the new funds.

We’ve known for a while now that Apple was going to be putting more of an emphasis on services. As the technical leaps from one iPhone/iPad/Mac generation to the next become less dramatic, product revenue has started to shrink; in response, the company is focusing on driving forward on things like the App Store, iCloud, […]

Slack has filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC in preparation for its direct listing. One interesting data set that usually comes out of these S-1s is the company’s actual fundraising history. Slack has raised eight main rounds (series A-H), and 15 rounds total when including individual tranches, since it incorporated on February 25, […]

Spot.IM announced today that it has raised $25 million in Series D funding. We’ve written about the company’s commenting platform before, but CEO Nadav Shoval said it’s now building a broader “community platform.” That means going beyond commenting and moderation to also include community pages and other ways to highlight and monetize user-generated content. The […]

Today’s big story for Apple revenue was once again focused on services. That’s likely to be the tale for the foreseeable future, as the company continues to pump billions into product offerings like Apple TV+. As predicted, hardware was more of a mixed bag for the company. The iPad, a bright spot in an otherwise […]

Apple released earnings for its fiscal second quarter today, reporting revenue of $58 billion, a decline of 5% from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.46, down 10%. International sales accounted for 61% of the quarter’s revenue. The market apparently approves. Apple’s shares have jumped $10 apiece since the earnings were […]

Google’s parent company Alphabet announced that two board members, Eric Schmidt and Diane Greene, will not be seeking re-election when their terms expire on June 19. Schmidt has been on the company’s board since 2001, and also served as Google’s CEO for a decade, until April 2011. He then became the company’s executive chairman, before […]

FireEye, one of the largest and most prominent security companies on the market, reported its fiscal first quarter earnings after the bell Tuesday. The cybersecurity giant reported first quarter loss of $78.3 million, or 38 cents a share, on revenues of $210 million (statement). FireEye reported a loss of 3 cents per share on an […]

Jude Gomila, who previously sold his mobile advertising company Heyzap to RNTS Media, is taking on a new challenge — building a “knowledge base” that can fill in Wikipedia’s blind spots, particularly when it comes to emerging technologies and startups. While Gomila is officially launching Golden today, it’s already full of content about things like […]

Oculus is getting serious about monetizing VR for enterprise. The company has previously sold specific business versions of the headsets, but now they’re adding a pricey annual device-management subscription. Oculus Go for business starts at $599 (64 GB) and the enterprise Oculus Quest starts at $999 (128 GB). These fees include the first year of […]

Facebook today released a new SDK that allows mobile app developers to integrate WhatsApp verification into Account Kit for iOS and Android. This will allow developers to build apps where users can opt to receive their verification codes through the WhatsApp app installed on their phone instead of through SMS. Today, many apps give users […]

Google employees are staging a sit-in tomorrow to protest the alleged retaliation at the hands of managers toward employees. The plan is to stage the sit-in tomorrow at 11 a.m. “From being told to go on sick leave when you’re not sick, to having your reports taken away, we’re sick of retaliation,” Google employees tweeted […]

Hackers gained access to technology giant Citrix’s networks six months before they were discovered, the company has confirmed. In a letter to California’s attorney general, the virtualization and security software maker said the hackers had “intermittent access” to its internal network from October 13, 2018 until March 8, 2019, two days after the FBI alerted […]

One can easily wonder why anyone would want to allow someone complete 24-hour access to their location, especially the type who text “On my way!” before they’ve even stepped foot into the shower.

The monetization hose is on full blast at Instagram now, and today at F8, Facebook unveiled one of the latest developments on that front. The company said that creators will now be able to tag items to sell them directly to people viewing their posts and Stories. For now, this will work only on items […]

The intelligence community’s annual transparency report revealed a spike in the number of warrantless searches of Americans’ data in 2018. The data, published Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), revealed a 28 percent rise in the number of targeted search terms used to query massive databases of collected Americans’ communications. […]

Valve is throwing a little bit of a “screw you” to Oculus this morning, announcing the specs of their high-end VR headset the Valve Index, just before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced some minor updates to the Rift. The Valve Index is a high-end headset with few compromises. It’s $999 for the whole system but […]

At its F8 developer conference, Facebook today announced that it is launching its Portal video chat hardware internationally by bringing it to Canada and a select number of European countries, too. This roll-out will begin in June in Canada, with Europe following this Fall. In the U.S., Portal sells for $199 and $349, depending on […]

Aperture was a great application for editing photos back in the day, but it hasn't been supported by Apple for years. You can, however, still run it on the latest Macs, should you need to. But that won't be the case for long, the company has announced.

Facebook’s social graph is aging, full of long-lost acquaintances and hometown friends you don’t care much about seeing in the News Feed any more. But Facebook is now testing a pivot away from its core identity of connecting you with existing friends so it can revitalize the social graph and keep people coming back. Facebook’s […]

On game streaming platforms today, there’s really only one way to earn status within a creator’s community: you have to become a subscriber. Microsoft’s game streaming service Mixer is today aiming to offering a third path to status through loyalty and participation. In doing so, it hopes to better differentiate itself from larger rivals like […]

Facebook built Dating to be privacy-safe, hoping to avoid the awkwardness of friends or family checking out your romance profile. But now Facebook has found a way to let you silently express your affection for a friend without them knowing unless they reciprocate. Facebook announced today at its F8 conference that Dating is opening in […]

Glovo, the Spain-headquartered on-demand delivery app that has similarities to Postmates in the U.S., has raised $169 million (€150m) in Series D funding. Lakestar led the round alongside Drake, owner of global pizza franchise Papa John’s. Idinvest Partners and Korelya Capital also participated, bringing total raised to approximately $322 million. The company last raised funding […]

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. Cozmo maker Anki is shutting its doors No one ever said consumer robots were easy. But Anki’s actually made a pretty […]

GM will make a full-size electric pickup truck as part of an “all-electric future” that will include a complete range of EVs, CEO Mary Barra said during the automaker’s quarterly earnings call Tuesday. GM reported Tuesday higher-than-expected profit in the first quarter, a result fueled by cost cutting and sales of its more expensive trucks […]

Social media giants, including Facebook -owned Instagram, have agreed to financially contribute to UK charities to fund them making recommendations that the government hopes will speed up decisions about removing content that promotes suicide/self-harm or eating disorders on their platforms. The development follows the latest intervention by health secretary Matt Hancock, who met with representatives […]

The Working Assembly began as a side hustle. Jolene Delisle and Lawrence O’Toole juggled full-time jobs while collaborating on projects for startup clients, and they eventually realized there was an opportunity to help companies with branding, marketing, and advertising. In the past four years, TWA has grown from a team of two to a team […]

Millennials are opting out of marriage and kids and instead opting for pet ownership, opening the door for pet-centric businesses to grow. Small Door is one such company. The startup has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to rethink veterinary services from the ground up. The funding was led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Primary […]

Oof. This isn’t the sort of thing you want to see when you’re rounding the corner of your crowdfunding campaign: There are long shots and then there’s coming up with $15,000 of your $1.2 million goal. The Indiegogo page for the Energizer Power Max P18K Pop understandably focused on the viral sensation the ridiculously beefy […]

Nonprofit organization Creative Commons is today publicly launching its search engine after more than two years of beta testing. The new service is designed to offer an easy way to search the commons’ archive of free content available in the public domain, which is available to use under Creative Commons licenses. At launch, this includes […]

Twitch has an account hacking problem. After the breach of popular browser game Town of Salem in January, some 7.8 million stolen passwords quickly became the weakest link not only for the game but gamers’ other accounts. The passwords were stored using a long-deprecated scrambling algorithm, making them easily cracked. It didn’t take long for […]

Out-of-network ATM fees. Monthly service fees. Card replacement fees. Foreign exchange fees. Wire transfer fees. Overdraft fees. Check fees. Fees, fees, fees, fees, fees. Oh and interest, of course. Banking used to be built on a simple economic premise: tuck money away from customers into deposit accounts that pay interest, and then lend that money […]

Fabletics, the digital-first activewear brand founded by Kate Hudson, Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler, has recently opened up a physical store in Soho as part of its 2019 expansion plans. The company has plans to open up 12 new permanent retail stores over the course of this year alongside the Soho pop up shop, all […]

YouTube today announced a new partnership with the MLB which will allow the site to exclusively live stream 13 MLB games to both YouTube and YouTube TV during the second half of the regular baseball season. While YouTube TV had previously partnered with MLB — it’s currently serving as the presenting partner for the World […]

Ford is now part of Amazon’s free in-car delivery service, the latest automaker to partner with the ecommerce and logistics giant. Amazon will bring its Key by Amazon In-Car delivery service to eligible Ford and Lincoln vehicles. The service will initially launch in 50 U.S. metro areas, according to Lorin Kennedy, who leads the FordPass […]

It’s been 28 years since Sonic the Hedgehog first arrived on home gaming consoles. In some senses, a feature film is long overdue. But if history has taught us anything, that might be for the best. Take Sonic’s semi-contemporary, Mario, who was given the large screen treatment two years after Sonic debuted on Sega’s consoles. […]

Facebook’s yearly developer conference kicks off today. The keynote starts at 1PM / 10AM with opening remarks from Facebook’s chief Mark Zuckerberg. As in past years, the event will last several hours and feature updates from various Facebook departments. This year’s event comes as Facebook is attempting an ambitious transition to a privacy-focused messaging platform. […]

While San Francisco only allows Skip and Scoot to operate as part of the city’s shared electric scooter pilot program, Bird has found a way to claim some market share. Bird has obtained a business permit to introduce monthly personal rentals in San Francisco. The program enables people to rent a scooter for $24.99 a […]

Three years after Russian hackers targeted and breached the email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, nearly all of the upcoming 2020 presidential candidates are still lagging in email security. New data out by Agari confirms just one presidential hopeful — Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren — uses domain-based message authentication, reporting, and conformance policy — […]

NEA has led the round for Divvy, a business expense and budgeting platform.

From today, Uber has added public transport to its app in London, incorporating real-time information on the city’s Underground, Overground, train and bus network, as well as other trams, shuttle, river boat and the DLR’s driverless trains. Last summer the ride-hailing giant was granted a provisional 15-month license to operate in the U.K. capital — […]

Asia Pacific grocery delivery startup Honestbee has confirmed it is suspending business in half of the eight markets it operates in and laying off 10 percent of its 1,000 staff. The cost-cutting appears to be part of belt-tightening ahead of a planned new injection of funding, TechCrunch has come to learn. According to a statement […]

Garmin announced today that it will be adding menstrual cycle tracking to its line of trackers and smartwatches. The new feature gives users the ability to log symptoms, track cycles and offers up additional context by way of Garmin Connect, the company’s mobile app. The addition follows a similar feature instituted by Fitbit, roughly this […]

Companies are on the hunt for ways to reduce the time and money it costs their employees to perform repetitive tasks, so today a startup that has built a business to capitalize on this is announcing a huge round of funding to double down on the opportunity. UiPath — a robotic process automation startup originally […]

Nigeria based startup Tizeti, an internet service provider, today launched WifiCall.ng—an internet voice-calling platform for individuals and businesses. WifiCall is a VoIP—or Voice over Internet Protocol—subscription service that allows unlimited calls to any phone number, even if that number isn’t registered on WifiCall’s network. Tizeti will offer the product in Nigeria for now, with plans […]

Vault Platform, a London-based startup that has built software to “re-imagine” workplace misconduct reporting, has raised $4.2 million in seed funding. Leading the round is Kindred Capital, with participation from Angular Ventures, System.One, Jane VC, and ex-Mosaic Ventures Partner Mike Chalfen. Founded in 2018 by Neta Meidav and Rotem Hayoun-Meidav, Vault is attempting to create […]