Crunch Hype

As healthcare moves toward genetically tailored treatments, one of the biggest hurdles to truly personalized medicine is the lack of fast, low-cost genetic testing. And few people are more familiar with the problems of today’s genetic diagnostics tools than Kalim Mir, the 52-year-old founder of XGenomes, who has spent his entire professional career studying the […]

Rising consumer interest in alternative proteins and meat replacements has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to companies trying to grow or replace beef or chicken, but few companies have turned their attention to developing seafood alternatives. Now Shiok Meats is looking to change that. The company has raised pre-seed financing from investors like AIM […]

In the aftermath of the tragic mosque massacre that claimed 49 lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, tech companies scrambled to purge their platforms of promotional materials that the shooter left behind. As most of the internet is now unfortunately aware, the event was broadcast live on Facebook, making it one of the most horrific incidents […]

Mital Makadia’s legal career began on the East Coast, with Big Law firms, but she moved into early-stage startup work with long-time Silicon Valley boutique Grellas Shah nearly a decade ago. She’ll work with companies on a range of usual startup issues, but she and the firm also focus on individual founder representation (when it […]

Mital Makadia Contributor Mital is a partner at Grellas Shah, focusing on representing tech startups and startup founders. She provides counsel on a variety of corporate and transactional matters and negotiates and structures equity financings, M&A transactions, and commercial and intellectual property transactions for her clients. When startup founders review a VC term sheet, they […]

Buttons or plates (like the one above) that automatically open doors can do a lot to make a building more accessible, but they aren’t always a perfect solution. For wheelchair users with limited upper body movement, the buttons can be tough to hit. Other times, the button is installed poorly — too high, too low, […]

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke has revealed he was a member of a notorious decades-old hacking group. The former congressman was a member of the Texas-based hacker group, the Cult of the Dead Cow, known for inspiring early hacktivism in the internet age and building exploits and hacks for Microsoft Windows. The group used the […]

Cookie-cutter corporate housing turns people into worker drones. When an employee needs to move to a new city for a few months, they’re either stuck in bland, giant apartment complexes or Airbnbs meant for shorter stays. But Zeus lets any homeowner get paid to host white-collar transient labor. Through its managed ownership model, Zeus takes […]

Chris McCoy Contributor Chris McCoy is the chief executive of Footprint and the creator of Storecoin. More posts by this contributor Yesterday’s “plastics” are today’s crypto tokens We’re reaching the endgame of an inevitable showdown between big tech and regulators with a ley battleground around consumer data. In many ways, the fact that things have […]

Yet another San Francisco-based company looks to be going public imminently. PagerDuty, an 8.5-year-old startup that sends a wide range of companies information about their technology, just filed its S-1, a public disclosure about its IPOs plans. PagerDuty, which helps companies quickly respond to IT incidents, as well as increasingly tries to anticipate them, had […]

In a rare turn, director James Gunn is once again heading up up the third installment of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy series. Gunn, who directed the previous two films, was fired over the summer when offensive tweets dating from between 2008 and 2011 resurfaced after being promoted by right-wing personalities like Jack Posobiec and […]

In addition to testing out a new format for conversations within a prototype app called twttr and other features like a “Hide Tweet” button, Twitter today confirmed it’s also developing a feature that would allow users to subscribe to individual conversations taking place on its platform. The new option was first spotted by Jane Manchun […]

Open-source infrastructure and application delivery vendor Suse — the company behind one of the oldest Linux distributions — today announced that it is once again an independent company. The company today finalized its $2.5 billion acquisition by growth investor EQT from Micro Focus, which itself had acquired it back in 2014. Few companies have changed […]

A former judge and family law educator has teamed up with tech entrepreneurs to launch an app they hope will help divorced parents better manage their co-parenting disputes, communications, shared calendar and other decisions within a single platform. The app, called coParenter, aims to be more comprehensive than its competitors, while also leveraging a combination […]

Noble.AI, an SF/French AI company that claims to accelerate decision making in R&D, has raised a new round of funding from Solvay Ventures, the VC arm of a large chemical company, Solvay SA. Although the round was undisclosed, TechCrunch understands it to be a second seed round, and we know the company has closed a […]

Like all good things must, early-bird pricing for tickets to TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics + AI comes to an end today. This is your last chance to save $100 on our day-long gathering of the greatest minds, makers and investors in the robotics and AI communities. Procrastination has a price. Buy your $249 ticket today or […]

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. Videos of shooting tragedy in New Zealand continue resurfacing on social media Earlier today there was a horrendous mass mosque shooting […]

Facebook on Friday announced a new artificial intelligence-powered tool that it says will help the social network detect revenge porn — the nonconsensually shared intimate images that, when posted online, can have devastating consequences for those who appear in the photos. The technology will leverage both AI and machine learning techniques to proactively detect near-nude […]

Next year, the world’s top athletes will compete in the Tokyo Summer Games. Some of Japan’s biggest companies will also happily be using the opportunity to show off their latest technologies — namely a fleet of robotics aimed at helping human spectators navigate around the event. Officials behind the games showcased some of the technologies […]

This is a tragedy that doesn’t deserve a snappy lede, but it is one that needs to be highlighted because tech companies should be held to account. Earlier today there was a horrendous mass mosque shooting in New Zealand that killed 49 people — and because this is 2019, social media was used by the […]

Each week, Extra Crunch members have access to conference calls moderated by the TechCrunch writers you read every day. This week, in addition to Zack Whittaker’s discussion about a complicated university grade-hacking case, Josh Constine reported from Austin where he attended SXSW. While at SXSW, he interviewed the founders of Instagram, Kevin Systrom and Mike […]

Pi Day is apparently New Job day for tech execs and VCs these days. Leaving: Lee Fixel It’s not every day that one of the top VC investors heads out from their shop. TechCrunch’s @cookie aka Connie Loizos has the story: Lee Fixel, the low-flying head of Tiger Global’s private equity business, is leaving at […]

Aura Vision, which is part of the current batch of startups at Y Combinator, helps retailers understand who’s visiting their stores and what they’re doing there. In other words, if you want to see the demographics of who’s visiting the store, or which displays and products are actually prompting customers to linger, or how long […]

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a lot of fun. Connie Lozios took the captain’s chair in San Francisco while I manned the sails, and we had Female Founders Fund’s founder Anu Duggal in the studio to round out our crew. […]

Digital identity startup Passbase has bagged $600k in pre-seed funding led by a group of business angel investors from Alphabet, Stanford, Kleiner Perkins, EY; as well as seed fund investment from Chicago-based Upheaval Investments and Seedcamp. The 2018-founded Silicon Valley-based startup — whose co-founder we chatted to briefly on camera at Disrupt Berlin — is […]

Two days after Spotify announced that it had filed a suit against Apple with the European Commission over anticompetitive practices, Apple today issued its own response of sorts. In a lengthy statement on its site called “Addressing Spotify’s Claims”, Apple walks through and dismantles some of the key parts of Spotify’s accusations about how the App Store […]

Customers can already place an order for the Tesla Model Y, a mid-sized crossover SUV that won’t go into production until 2020. Tesla requires a $2,500 deposit to complete the order for the all-electric vehicle, according to information posted on its website. A disclaimer on the order form states that “production is expected to begin […]

At first glance, it appeared that Tesla Model 3 had a doppelganger. After years of teasers and hints, Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally unveiled the Model Y, a mid-sized all-electric vehicle that is slated to hit the marketplace in fall 2020. The Model Y bears a striking resemblance to Model 3. The vehicle, which will […]

Lee Fixel, the low-flying head of Tiger Global’s private equity business, is leaving at the end of June, the firm announced today in a letter sent to clients and seen by Reuters. Scott Shleifer and Chase Coleman will continue as co-managers of the portfolios Fixel has overseen, with Shleifer taking over as its head, according […]

Augmented reality looked like it was supposed to a ubiquitous success, Apple and Google and Facebook seemed to say so, but things are taking a bit of time to get kicked off so the startups in the space are having to get real weird with it. Adventurous is an augmented reality scavenger hunt geared towards […]

The games we see advertised the most aren't necessarily the best representatives for what has become an incredibly diverse medium. Yearly AAA installments and massive open worlds are all well and good, but simplicity is rarely on display — which makes two recent releases, Ape Out and Baba Is You, all the more delightful.

On Thursday, Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz and Missouri Senator Roy Blunt introduced a bill designed to offer legislative oversight for commercial applications of facial recognition technology. Known as the Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act, the bill would obligate companies to inform consumers about any use of facial recognition and proposes limiting companies from freely sharing […]

The latest Y Combinator-backed startup is targeting the $36 billion contraceptive market.

Tesla has turned to two insiders to manage and oversee the company’s finances. The automaker officially tapped as its next chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn, a longtime employee who has been part of the automaker’s finance team for nine years, according to securities filings posted Thursday. The automaker also appointed Vaibhav Taneja, who led the […]

From entertainment to transportation, technology has upended nearly every major industry -- with one notable exception: real estate.

There was a nice surprise morsel for those following Turtle Beach’s financials this week. In addition to a “record fourth quarter,” the headset maker announced that it has agreed to purchase fellow gaming peripheral company Roccat for $14.8 million in cash. Turtle Beach is best known for creating gaming headsets for a wide range of […]

Electric scooter startup Bird has laid off between four to five percent of its workforce, The Information first reported. That comes out to about 40 people of its ~900-employee workforce. This comes shortly after Lyft laid off up to 50 employees in its bikes and scooters division. “As we establish local service centers and deeper […]

Apple is airing a new ad spot in primetime today. Focused on privacy, the spot is visually cued, with no dialog and a simple tagline: Privacy. That’s iPhone. In a series of humorous vignettes, the message is driven home that sometimes you just want a little privacy. The spot has only one line of text […]

Somewhere out there is a person willing to pay $2,500 for a smartwatch. Surprisingly, that individual has several high-end options from which to choose. And while the Garmin name doesn’t exactly scream luxury, the company does know how to build a solid smartwatch — and these look pretty decent, to boot. Maybe not $2,500 decent, […]

We’re just over a month out from our TC Sessions: Robotics + AI event at UC Berkeley on April 18. We’ve already announced a number of marquee guests for the event, including Marc Raibert, Colin Angle, Melonee Wise and Anthony Levandowski. Today we’ve got another exciting panel to unveil and, as an FYI, our early-bird sale […]

Facebook’s gaming efforts and challenge to Twitch are taking another big leap today, as the social network begins the initial rollout of a dedicated Facebook Gaming tab in the main navigation of Facebook’s app. The goal with the new addition is to help people more easily find games, streamers and gaming groups they follow, as […]

13-year Facebook veteran, Chief Product Officer, and the spirit animal of the social network Chris Cox is departing the company after two years of seeking to do something new. Cox’s exit is part of a big executive reshuffle as Facebook embarks on prioritizing privacy through messaging, groups, Stories, and backend unification of its chat features. […]

Facebook usage has declined for the first time in a decade, while video-centric apps like TikTok are being touted as the future of social media. Entering this redefined playing field comes Firework, a fast-growing social video app whose clever trick is something it calls “reveal videos” — a way for creators to take both horizontal […]

Uber, on the heels of Lyft’s official documentation for its initial public offering, is expected to file its S-1 in April, Reuters reports. Uber, in December, filed confidential paperwork for its IPO. Uber will also reportedly kick off its IPO roadshow next month. As part of its offering, Uber is also expected to reward some […]

French startup Stanley Robotics showed off its self-driving parking robot at Lyon-Saint-Exupéry airport today. While I couldn’t be there in person, the service is going live by the end of March 2019. And here’s what it looks like. The startup has been working on a robot called Stan. These giant robots can literally pick up […]

Chinh Pham got his first degree in genetics, but realized his real interest was the law as it applies to technology. Today, he combines his interests by working with a wide range of startups, including those in the life sciences, medical hardware and other industries where intellectual property defines a company from day one. As […]

Tensions between the U.S. and Huawei show no sign of easing. Last week, the electronics giant announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the government over an “unconstitutional” ban on its products. Meanwhile, earlier this week, the U.S. threatened German intelligence over the country’s use of Huawei 5G products. The company has understandably been […]

Today in a short blog post, Slack announced that it had removed 28 accounts with a “clear affiliation with known hate groups.” Few details were provided about the accounts or how Slack identified them, but we have reached out to the company for more information. The announcement, brief as it is, comes as a surprise. […]

Facebook has only just recovered from one of its worst outages to date, and Gmail and Google Drive also experienced a worldwide outage this week. Now, apparently, it’s Apple’s turn. According to the company’s System Status dashboard, a number of iCloud services are experiencing issues, including iCloud Drive, Mail, Calendar, Notes, Keychain, Reminders, iWork, Photos, […]