Crunch Hype

Beats took its time getting untethered. The last addition to the Powerbeats line arrived in late 2016, right around the same time as the original AirPods. The product shared Apple’s W1 chip, further cementing its place as part of the company, with instant iOS syncing. But the products were once again yolked together with a […]

Startups are but one species in a complex regulatory and public policy ecosystem. This ecosystem is larger and more powerfully dynamic than many founders appreciate, with distinct yet overlapping laws at the federal, state and local/city levels, all set against a vast array of public and private interests. Where startup founders see opportunity for disruption […]

This guest post is a part of our latest initiative to demystify design and find the best brand designers and agencies in the world who work with early-stage companies.

Bumble is the latest digital brand to try to extend its reach through a print publication. The dating app maker today announced the launch of Bumble Mag, a lifestyle publication it produced in partnership with Hearst that offers stories and advice about dating, careers, friendship and more to Bumble’s over 50 million users. On the […]

Snap is unlocking a new revenue stream while giving you something to do in between chats and Stories. Today Snapchat debuts its Snap Games platform that lets you play real-time, multiplayer games while texting and talking with your friends. The platform is based off Snap’s secret late-2017 acquisition of PrettyGreat, an Australian game studio with […]

Snapchat’s found an answer to the revenue problem stemming from its halted growth: it will show its ads in other apps with the launch of Snapchat Ad Kit and the Snapchat Audience Network. And rather than watching as other apps spin up their own knock-off versions of its camera and Stories, it will let apps […]

Point and shoot? No, point and interact. Snapchat can now help with your homework. The app’s camera is becoming the foundation of an augmented reality developer platform known as “Scan”. Snap today announced partnerships with Photomath to add the ability to solve math problems, and Giphy for detecting objects which then spawn related GIFs on […]

Beresheet, Israel's privately funded, engineered, and launched mission to the Moon's surface, has successfully entered lunar orbit after a month and a half in transit. The craft will now adjust its orbit in preparation for landing on April 11.

Political ads on social networks have become a lot more complicated in France after the French parliament passed the so-called “fake news law” in late 2018. But the French government didn’t expect Twitter to refuse an ad telling you to register to vote for the European election in May. Among other things, the fake news […]

In a tweet today, MacKenzie Bezos noted that her 26 year marriage to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been formally dissolved. She added that she will be giving the executive all interest in the Bezos-owned Washington Post and privatized space company, Blue Origin. The deal also finds MacKenzie giving her ex 75 percent of their […]

Tesla is adding 2048 and Atari’s Super Breakout to the list of games that drivers and passengers can play on the company’s dashboard display. The company added Atari games to its slate of apps and services last August via a software update. At the time, the initial slate of games included Missile Command, Asteroids, Lunar Lander, […]

A live action version of the anime series “Cowboy Bebop” has been in and out of development for years, but it looks like Netflix is actually going to make it a reality. The streaming service announced last fall that it would be producing a live action “Cowboy Bebop” series. Today, it revealed some key casting: […]

Captain Marvel has crossed the $1 billion mark in worldwide ticket sales, according to a report in Variety. It’s the seventh movie based on Marvel Comics’ intellectual property to hit that milestone, indicating that Disney may be the house that Mickey Mouse built, Marvel’s comic empire is adding a few more stories. Captain Marvel’s success also […]

“We’re breaking beta from alpha. That doesn’t exist anywhere. We’re literally saying, ‘Only pay us for alpha and define beta. Nobody has done that.” That’s an energized quote from legendary Wall Streeter Peter Kraus. For those not familiar with the lingo, I’ll translate: Kraus’s new company Aperture, which has just launched a new mutual fund […]

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. Apple’s HomePod gets a $50 price cut Announced in mid-2017 and released in early 2018, the Siri-powered product brought a very […]

Over a year after WhatsApp officially introduced its app for business customers to its first markets, the previously Android-only WhatsApp Business app is today launching on the iPhone. According to the Facebook-owned company, WhatsApp Business has been adopted by millions of businesses worldwide since its debut, but one of its customers’ most frequent requests was […]

Pi Charging is changing course and changing names. It’ll now be known as Spansive. As Pi, the company had been working on a cone-shaped wireless charger that would sit on a desk and allow the user to charge devices placed within about 12 inches in any direction. It would require a case to work with […]

Viva la revolution! And by that we mean the tech revolution taking place in mobility and transportation. If you’re an early-stage startup founder in either field, don’t miss your chance to demo your company in front of top influencers at TC Sessions: Mobility 2019. It’s a prime opportunity to showcase your tech startup in front […]

Amazon is officially joining the race to create a network of satellites in low earth orbit that will provide high-speed terrestrial internet services. The company has filed its first papers with the U.S. government for approval to launch a network of 3,236 satellites through a subsidiary called Kuiper Systems LLC, according to a report in GeekWire. […]

More changes are coming to Pandora, following the $3.5 billion acquisition by SiriusXM last year. The company today launched a new station called Pandora NOW, powered by Pandora listener data, which is available across both Pandora and SiriusXM. On Pandora, the new experience will appear as an interactive station and playlist, while SiriusXM subscribers will […]

Tonal is today announcing its series C financing that it hopes will allow the company to bring its at-home gym to even more homes. The funding round shows investors’ excitement around the new generation of personal exercise equipment that combines on-demand training with smart features. Tonal, like Peloton, offer features previously unavailable outside of gyms […]

Fresh from closing a notable investment from Airbnb, India’s OYO has expanded its footprint into Japan. The move comes through a joint venture with investor SoftBank — which led OYO’s $1 billion round last year through its Vision Fund — which will cover hotel-based accommodation and home rentals. Financial details around the joint venture were […]

Alexa is moving into healthcare. Following a trial of Amazon’s smart speakers in patients’ rooms at Cedars-Sinai, the company this morning announced an invite-only program allowing select developers to create and launch HIPAA-compliant healthcare skills for Alexa. The skills allow consumers to ask the virtual assistant for help with things like booking an appointment, accessing […]

We have two great deep dives on the future of scooters and the future of media. Thanks to the many of you who joined our live conference call today with Kate Clark and Kirsten Korosec, where we talked all things Lyft today. If you weren’t able to join us, we will be publishing the transcript […]

French startup OpenClassrooms is announcing a new partnership for a masters-level online program. Students who enroll in this program will access a fully online program about artificial intelligence. Eventually, future graduates will join companies — Microsoft will likely hire some of them. If you aren’t familiar with OpenClassrooms, the company first started with basic massive […]

The return of Palm has been a strange one. It’s the small device no one knew they needed — and to be honest, probably didn’t. When I first showed it to some coworkers, they were actually pretty psyched. If nothing else, the 3.3-inch in device was an interesting one. The design was nice, too — […]

Global money mover Western Union is commonly a target for fintech companies, but the firm is teaming up with a startup to help increase its presence in the world’s third-most lucrative remittance market: the Philippines. Coins, the Manila-based fintech startup that was recently acquired by $10 billion ride-hailing company Go-Jek, said today that it will […]

Farmers markets have become a staple presence in many US cities, where there is a steady supply of smaller, often organic farmers and other food producers wanting a more direct channel to sell their goods, and a steady demand from foody types who like having the option of bypassing bigger grocery stores to amble around […]

The HomePod got a healthy little price drop today, bringing Apple’s premium smart speaker down to $299. Announced in mid-2017 and released in early-2018, the Siri-powered product brought a very Apple approach to the category dominated by Amazon and Google, with premium sound and design at a very premium price of $349. The $50 price […]

Reliance Jio, the telecom operator that has revolutionized India with its generous data plans, has its eye on the next generation of internet users with its latest acquisition. The company said today that it has bought a majority stake in Haptik, a startup that develops ‘conversational’ platforms and virtual assistants, in a deal worth $100 […]

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced today it will suspend collaborations, including research projects and funding, with Huawei Technologies and ZTE, two Chinese tech companies fighting with the U.S. government over alleged sanction violations. In a public letter titled “New review process for ‘elevated-risk’ international proposals,” MIT vice president for research Maria T. Zuber wrote […]

Tencent, Asia’s largest tech firm, is raising $6 billion after the Hong Kong-listed firm announced a new note sale today. Tencent last tapped the markets when it raised $5 billion in January 2018. This time around, it is offering a five-tranche bond that is almost in line with reports earlier this week, which speculated that […]

Zaver, a Swedish fintech that has built a payments platform to facilitate peer-to-peer trades and more, has picked up just over $1.2 million in seed funding. Backing the burgeoning startup are VC firms Inventure and Inbox Capital, as well as a number of relatively well-established angel investors. They include Joen Bonnier (partner at Atomico), Tom […]

Less than a decade ago IPOs, acquisitions, and global expansion by African startups were more possibility than reality. March saw all three from the continent’s tech scene. Pan-African e-commerce company Jumia filed for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, per SEC documents and confirmation from chief executive Sacha Poignonnec. In an updated filing, […]

Nauta Capital, the pan-European VC that invests in “capital-efficient” B2B software companies and consumer tech, has announced the closing of a new €55 million “sidecar” fund dedicated to backing its existing later-stage portfolio companies. The VC firm, with offices in London, Barcelona and Munich, typically invests in early-stage technology startups from late seed and at Series A. […]

Last month, it became widely known that MySpace has lost much of the user data uploaded to it before 2016, including potentially million of music tracks from between 2003 to 2015. This is a significant loss for people who may not have used the site anymore, but took for granted that it would remain an […]

If it feels like your Amazon search results have been overwhelmed with promotions for their private-label brands, like Amazon Basics, Mama Bear or Daily Ritual, that may be changing. As lawmakers pay more attention to the most powerful tech companies, Amazon has begun quietly removing some of the more obvious promotions, including banner ads, for […]

SpaceX has completed the first tethered jump for its Starship prototyped, Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet Wednesday evening. Called the Starhopper because it’s making limited hops to test the landing capabilities of the Starship vehicle, the tethered jump represents the first firing of a rocket engine at the company’s Boca Chica launch site. The […]

When it comes to representing yourself on social media, who you actually portray yourself as has always been a bit of a caricature. That thinking has always made it a little interesting to examine how a company like Facebook approaches avatar design for services like their VR avatar system. Oculus Avatars have undergone a number […]

Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan Motor chairman who was released on $9 million bail last month following three earlier indictments for financial wrongdoing, was arrested today on new charges by Tokyo prosecutors. Japanese public broadcaster NHK first reported the news that Ghosn was brought in for questioning. Ghosn released a statement following his arrest on […]

Toyota said Wednesday it will give royalty-free access to its nearly 24,000 patents related to electrification technology and systems through 2030 in a move that aims to encourage rival automakers to adopt the low-emissions and fuel-saving technology. Collectively the patents represent core technologies that can be applied to the development of various types of electrified […]

Ruhnn, a company that enables influencers to sell through e-commerce and is plotting to change the face of China’s fashion industry, has raised $125 million after it listed on the Nasdaq on Wednesday. The company sold 10 million American Depositary Shares at $12.5 a pop, the midpoint of its expected range. In an earlier filing […]

We live in the subscription streaming era of media. Across film, TV, music, and audiobooks, subscription streaming platforms now shape the market. Gaming and podcasting could be next. Where are the startup opportunities in this shift, and in the next shift that will occur? I sat down with Pär-Jörgen “PJ” Pärson, a partner at European […]

Cora, which sells organic tampons and pads, has raised $7.5 million. It's the latest in a long series of deals in the femtech space.

The days when you could simply grow a basil plant from a seed by placing it on your windowsill and watering it regularly are gone — there's no point now that machine learning-optimized hydroponic "cyber-agriculture" has produced a superior plant with more robust flavors. The future of pesto is here.

Cities all over the world have seen an influx of two-wheeled, electric kick scooters on the road over the last couple of years. Scooters from the likes of Bird, Lime, Spin, Uber’s JUMP, Lyft and others are all trying to own the first and the last mile. The first mile is often understood as the […]

We profiled HyperSciences in February, when the team had just successfully completed a launch milestone for a small business grant with NASA. The last time we checked in, the hypersonic drilling company had raised about $5 million as part of an untraditional Reg A offering. By the end of March, HyperSciences rounded out its first […]

AirPods are far and away the leader in the world of fully wireless earbuds. New numbers out this week give Apple’s headphones a commanding 60 percent of the market, and a second-gen release is likely to help the company maintain its top position. But Apple’s got a lot of competition these days, like a solid […]

Security researchers have found hundreds of millions of Facebook user records sitting on an inadvertently public storage server. The two batches of user records were collected and exposed from two third-party companies, according to researchers at security firm UpGuard, who found the data. In the researchers’ write-up, Mexico-based digital media company Cultura Colectiva left more […]