Crunch Hype

Whether it’s by flood, fire, or the fury of a storm, climate-related catastrophes are now impacting most cities and towns across the country. As these natural disasters increase in frequency and severity, cities and the businesses that reside in them are mobilizing to understand how best to prepare for the climatological challenges they’re going to […]

I’ve been interviewing a lot of developers lately at my day job as the CTO of a tech consultancy, and I’ve noticed an interesting trend. Many of them seek us out because they want to work remotely. That’s not new. What’s new is that an increasing number of them are already working remotely … pathologically.

Apple sues Qualcomm, Qualcomm sues Apple, Qualcomm sues Apple, Qualcomm sues Apple. For the past two years, the legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm has played out much like this, while the patent cases have greatly inconvenienced Apple at times in certain markets, the royalties suit that Apple filed in January of 2017 has threatened […]

Google today announced an expansion of its educational initiatives with the Chromebook App Hub from Google for Education, due to launch later in 2019. The new resource is designed to offer teachers and other curriculum administrators an easier, more centralized means of finding the appropriate educational tools and apps they can use in the classroom. […]

Office Depot, one of the many big box stores feeling the impact from Amazon’s e-commerce dominance, announced on Monday a significant partnership with Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.com, which will see the companies working together to better serve the needs of U.S. small to medium-sized businesses. The deal includes a co-branded e-commerce site on Alibaba.com, and […]

Your cable nightmare might soon be over. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has unveiled the specifications of USB 4.0, as Engadget reports. And USB 4.0 looks a lot like Thunderbolt 3. While specifications won’t be finalized until later this year, USB 4 should support speeds of 40 Gbps. The USB-IF is using Thunderbolt 3 as […]

MIT’s Cheetah team has built some incredibly impressive electric robots, capable of jumping hurdles and navigating blindly, but in some ways the new Mini Cheetah might be the most impressive to date. The robot weighs a mere 20 pounds and is capable of a wide range of different feats, leading the team to declare it […]

Scytale, a startup that wants to bring identity and access management to application-to-application activities, announced a $5 million Series A round today. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, a return investor that led the company’s previous $3 million round in 2018. Bain Capital Ventures, TechOperators and Work-Bench are also participating in this round. […]

In a move that’s both bold and bizarre, JetBlue is introducing a new contest that will give three winners a year of free flights on the carrier. But entrance to the contest comes at a steep price. Users must delete all of their Instagram photos, post a new photo using a JetBlue template and hope […]

In October, Walmart-owned Sam’s Club opened a test store in Dallas where it planned to trial new technology, including mobile checkout, an Amazon Go-like camera system, in-store navigation, electronic shelf labels and more. This morning, the retailer announced it will now begin testing a revamped Scan & Go service as well, which leverages computer vision […]

Huawei’s already proven that a ban in the world’s second largest smartphone market won’t hamper its rapid success, but the company still won’t go down in the States without a fight. Word is that the consumer electronics giant is planning to unveil a lawsuit against the U.S. government later this week. That news comes via […]

In the U.S., the links between private sector technology and the defense industry are long and well-known. And in the realm of startups, DARPA, has long fostered new technologies such as those around drones. But despite the world-class defense sector in the U.K., historically speaking, it has not reached out quite so overtly to startups. […]

Budget airline AirAsia is getting into the VC game after it unveiled a venture capital fund that aims to invest in startups across the world. The airline today announced Redbeat Capital, a $60 million fund that it says will operate independently and seek deals with startups worldwide in areas such as travel, lifestyle, fintech and […]

It seems that on a regular basis, we hear about massive data breaches or companies sharing highly personal information with third parties without a consumer’s permission or knowledge. The Tide Foundation wants to change that by giving consumers complete control over their personal data on the blockchain by allowing them to manage their own encryption […]

While all eyes are on what Uber Lyft and Didi will do this year as private transportation-on-demand services continue to consolidate, there’s also some interesting moves being played out in the adjacent business of bus and coach services. Today, FlixBus, the German startup backed by Daimler, General Atlantic, Silver Lake and others that has built […]

U.S. ride-hailing giants Lyft and Uber are going public in the U.S. imminently, but over in Southeast Asia, the two largest on-demand companies are still madly fueling up on investment capital. The latest update to that story today saw Go-Jek, the Indonesian ride-hailing firm aiming to go regional in Southeast Asia, announced that it has […]

Security researchers at IBM have found, reported and disclosed 19 vulnerabilities in five popular visitor management systems, which they say can be used to steal data on visitors — or even sneak into sensitive and off-limit areas of office buildings. You’ve probably seen one of these visitor check-in systems before: they’re often found in lobbies […]

Moka, a startup that wants to make talent acquisition a little more data-driven for China-based companies that range from smartphone giant Xiaomi to Burger King’s local business, announced Monday that it has raised a 180 million yuan ($27 million) Series B round of funding. The deal was led by Hillhouse Capital, an investor in top […]

Users are complaining that the phone number Facebook hassled them to use to secure their account with two-factor authentication has also been associated with their user profile — which anyone can use to “look up” their profile. Worse, Facebook doesn’t give you an option to opt-out. Last year, Facebook was forced to admit that after […]

In a rare move, government officials have handed security researchers a seized server believed to be used by North Korean hackers to launch dozens of targeted attacks last year. Known as Operation Sharpshooter, the server was used to deliver a malware campaign targeting governments, telecoms, and defense contractors — first uncovered in December. The hackers sent […]

Well, that didn’t take long. Just three months after raising $50 million in Series A funding, e-scooter rentals startup Voi Technology has added another $30 million to its balance sheet. The new round sees existing investors Vostok New Ventures, Balderton Capital, LocalGlobe and Raine Ventures participate again, alongside new investors Project A and Creandum. The […]

Tesla will pull back the curtains and unveil its Model Y crossover vehicle at an event in Los Angeles on March 14th, according to a tweet from chief executive Elon Musk. Model Y unveil event on March 14 at LA Design Studio — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2019 It’s the fifth new car design […]

Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the investment firm financed by billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Jack Ma that invests in companies developing technologies to decarbonize society, is investing $12.5 million in a geothermal project development company called Baseload Capital. Baseload Capital is a project investment firm that provides capital to develop geothermal energy power plants […]

Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch . This is the fourth edition of our newsletter, a weekly jaunt into the wonderful world of transportation and how we (and our packages) move. This week we chat with Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, dig into Lyft’s S-1, take note […]

Netflix’s “Umbrella Academy” opens in 1989, with 43 women across the world giving unexpected, simultaneous birth. Fast forward 30 years, and seven of those (mostly) super-powered children were adopted by a wealthy benefactor, formed a crimefighting team called The Umbrella Academy, experienced tragedy and went their separate ways. On the latest episode of the Original […]

The 2018 Holiday shopping season was the biggest on record for e-commerce, with nearly $126 billion in online sales. But as e-commerce continues to expand, the demand for warehouse workers is growing faster than the labor supply and creating an increased need for automation. Given its dominance in e-commerce and the massive scale of its business, there’s no surprise […]

Texas startups will soon have two new sources for capital.

If Bloomberg and the New York Times are to be believed, later this year Facebook will introduce a cryptocurrency which will allow WhatsApp users to send money instantly. Yes, that’s right: Facebook. Cryptocurrency. Earthquake! Revolution! The world is tilting on its axis! The end times are cometh! Except – um – what exactly are people […]

The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Denis Pombriant, Michael Markman, Keith Teare, and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Saturday March 2, 2019. Netflix and the mining of social capital, bingewashing and the new prime time, how AOC asks the right questions. Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor @tinagillmor @fradice, @denispombriant, @mickeleh, @kteare, @stevegillmor Liner […]

This year’s Mobile World Congress — the CES for Android device makers — was awash with 5G handsets. The world’s No.1 smartphone seller by marketshare, Samsung, got out ahead with a standalone launch event in San Francisco, showing off two 5G devices, just before fast-following Android rivals popped out their own 5G phones at launch […]

Ever since the rollout of the $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, established VCs have been outdoing each other to raise ever-bigger funds. But let’s not write the epitaph on smaller funds.

Editor’s Note: Technology, startups, entrepreneurship, unicorns, S-1s. Silicon Valley has created an economic engine unlike any other in the world over the past few decades. That success has come with incredible influence over our society, politics, and economy, an influence that is increasingly under the microscope. Our industry has gained outsized power, and now it […]

Granted, this news is maybe a bit too late. Samsung’s already sold out of the free Galaxy Buds it was throwing in with S10 pre-orders. That said, the new Bluetooth earbuds are worth the $129 asking price, especially for Galaxy device owners. As with many fellow S10 reviewers, I’ve been using the Buds for about […]

Meet TechCrunch’s writers at our annual Crunch By Crunch Fest party in Austin, Texas. RSVP here to join us on Sunday March 10th from 1pm to 4pm at the Swan Dive at 615 Red River St @ E.7th st, just 3 blocks from the convention center. Hang out with TechCrunchers and fellow readers, enjoy free […]

SpaceX caught itself a “W” early this morning with a successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with Crew Dragon capsule. Crew Dragon represents SpaceX’s first spacecraft meant to transfer humans to and from the International Space Station. This flight is the final test check for the spacecraft, and will include launch, docking with the […]

In this week's newsletter: Justin Caldbeck battles Jonathan Teo, venture capital flows to mental health and some tips on term sheets.

Hello and welcome back to Equity. Guess what we're talking about today! It's Lyft. You guessed correctly.

Facebook is taking legal action against a cluster of Chinese websites that sell fake accounts, likes and followers both on Facebook itself and on Instagram. The company announced the legal action in a short blog post late Friday afternoon (a move unusual enough to pique our curiosity a little). Of course, the fact that Facebook […]

New Enterprise Associates, the 41-year-old venture firm with offices in Menlo Park; San Francisco; Boston; New York; Chevy Chase, Md.; and Washington, D.C., is raising its biggest fund ever, shows a new SEC filing that shows target of $3.6 billion. The fund, its seventeenth, is just slightly bigger than the $3.3 billion fund the firm […]

Celebrated director Ava DuVernay has released a harrowing first teaser trailer for her highly anticipated Netflix series about the Central Park rape case from the 1980s. The true story of the five African American and Hispanic teens who were wrongfully accused and convicted of the rape of a jogger in Central Park made headlines in […]

It's obviously important to Australians to make sure their koala population is closely tracked — but how can you do so when the suckers live in forests and climb trees all the time? With drones and AI, of course.

The well-funded co-working giant says the cuts were routine. The company plans to add an additional 6,000 employees in 2019.

Another overly niche streaming service is closing up shop. On Friday, Alpha – a geek-friendly streaming service that focused on TV, pop-culture, sci-fi, comics, video games and more – announced it was shutting down. The subscription-based streaming service had been a joint venture between Nerdist and Geek & Sundry, and offered $4.99-per-month access to a […]

Rackspace, the hosted private cloud vendor, let go around 200 workers or 3 percent of its worldwide workforce of 6,600 employees this week. The company says that it’s part of a recalibration where it is trying to find workers who are better suited to their current business approach. A Rackspace spokesperson told TechCrunch that it […]

Last month, Spotify announced that it had paid $340 million for Gimlet and Anchor in a push to make its mark on podcasting. But while it’s encouraging to see media giants throw weight and money behind the medium, the beauty of the format has always been its accessibility. It’s the rare form of entertainment that’s […]

Late last year, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver, Canada over alleged violations of U.S. trade sanctions with Iran. This week, the Canadian government announced it will allow for the executive’s extradition to proceed. Officials in the Department of Justice Canada have issued an Authority to Proceed, a proclamation that officially begins the […]

A report from The Wall St. Journal today claims Amazon is preparing to open a new chain of grocery stores across the U.S. that won’t be associated with Whole Foods. The retailer is expected to open the first of these stores in L.A., possibly by the end of 2019, and has signed leases for at […]

Sam Angus has been a lawyer in Silicon Valley since the 1990s. Today, he represents some of the biggest names in the startup world, from their earliest days through acquisitions and IPOs, and including four acquisitions last year: TSheets, GitHub, Glint and HelloSign. But his startup experience actually goes back to the 1980s, when he […]

After years of development and delays, SpaceX's Crew Dragon is ready to launch into orbit. It's the first commercially built and operated crewed spacecraft ever to do so, and represents in many ways the public-private partnership that could define the future of spaceflight.

In Lyft’s S-1 this morning, the company laid out the potential consequences for converting its drivers from independent contractors to W-2 employees. This, of course, has been an ongoing conversation within the gig economy. Those who work as 1099 contractors can set their own schedules, and decide when, where and how much they want to […]