Crunch Hype

Notoriously secret on one hand, Apple has never been one to shy away from speaking its mind on matters of principle. During this current period of societal tumult, the $1 trillion company has more to answer for than ever. In a new interview with VICE News Tonight on HBO, Apple chief executive Tim Cook talked […]

In what looks like a European first, the London-based early-stage venture capital firm Balderton Capital is announcing it has closed a new $145 million “secondary” fund dedicated to buying equity stakes from early shareholders in European-founded “high growth, scale-up” technology companies. Dubbed “Balderton Liquidity I,” the new fund will invest in European growth-stage companies through […]

Facebook has said it’s found “no evidence” that third-party apps were affected by the data breach it revealed last week. Hackers stole account access tokens on at least 50 million users by exploiting a chain of three vulnerabilities inadvertently introduced by Facebook last year. Another 40 million also may have been affected by the attack. Facebook […]

Want excitement? Here’s something approaching that. Today’s Microsoft October event wasn’t exactly a blockbuster, but product lead Panos Panay did mention that this is the most new Surface products the company has crammed into one event. There was a lot of stuff to get through in the hour or so — though the majority of […]

The web, it turns out, is a fragile place. Companies, governments, educational institutions, individuals and organizations put up and take down sites all the time. The problem is that the web has become a system of record, and when links don’t work because pages no longer exist, the record is incomplete. With the help of […]

In the nine months since Didi acquired the Brazilian ride-hailing startup 99 in a deal that valued the company at a reported $1 billion, the market for mobility and logistics startups in the Latin American region has changed dramatically. The Didi deal was perhaps the first big acquisition for a Latin American startup in recent […]

In an event defined largely by spec bumps to existing product lines, the Surface Headphones were certainly a surprise. For one thing, the company did an admirable job keeping them under wraps, in spite of numerous leaks for just about everything else shown off at the event. For another thing, they’re freaking Surface Headphones. It’s […]

“Right now we’re in this Empire Strikes Back moment,” says Initialized Capital’s Garry Tan, referring to tech giants ruthlessly copying and competing with fresh ideas. “We think the startups represent the Return Of The Jedi.” It’s that willingness to stand up against incumbents and give founders their best shot at disrupting them that’s won Initialized […]

While it looked like all the major news from Microsoft’s Surface event today had already leaked ahead of time, the company still managed to surprise us with the launch of its new noise-canceling headphones and its new Surface All Access plans that offer a monthly installment plan for your Surface purchases, similar to the way […]

Granted, most of today’s big announcements were iterative updates on devices we’ve seen in past years. Even so, Microsoft did sneak one surprise into today’s event. The simply titled Surface Headphones are perhaps the oddest addition to the line of laptop and desktop products. The key to these over-the-ear headphones, however, is clearly Cortana. The […]

A tri-fold automotive renaissance, led by technology, has been playing out over the past few years. Yet vehicles combining all three aspects of this renaissance remain a niche market. It is China that will push this market into overdrive.

One last piece of hardware from today’s Microsoft event. The company issued an update to what is arguably the most compelling member of the Surface family. The company’s innovative iMac competitor, the Surface Studio got a refresh today, as expected. As with the other products announced at today’s event, things look pretty similar on the, […]

Google just introduced a new Android app to better enable people with limited mobility to use their phones. Called Voice Access, the app offers people a hands-free way to use apps, write and edit text and, of course, talk to the Google Assistant. It’s designed to make it easier to control specific functions like clicking […]

Another bit of expected news at today’s big Microsoft event. Here’s the latest version of the Surface Laptop. Once again, not a lot of changes on the outside of the product — which might be for the best. After all, the Laptop is presently my favorite member of the Surface family. Product lead Panos Panay […]

Microsoft today announced that the Windows 10 October 2018 update is now available. The company made the announcement at a small press event in New York, though it’s obviously no surprise that Microsoft decided to roll out the October update in the month that gave it its name. As usual, these rollouts take a while. […]

Surprises? Later, perhaps. But for now, we’re getting pretty much what we expected out of today’s big Surface event — which is to say some refreshing of existing Surface products. First up is the latest version of the long-running Surface Pro. As expected, the device looks pretty much exactly like its predecessor, save for a […]

VW AG has ended its contract with Rupert Stadler, removing the embattled executive as CEO and from the Audi and Volkswagen boards several months after he was arrested for his involvement in the cover-up of diesel emissions cheating at the company. Stadler, who began working at Audi in 1990, is the latest executive at parent company […]

Coinbase may raise up to $500 million at an $8 billion valuation. The cryptocurrency trading platform has also announced two new high-level hires.

David Ulevitch has had some strange dealings with investors over the years. Now, Ulevitch is himself one of them. The founder of OpenDNS, a company that sold to Cisco in 2016, is disclosing today that he has joined the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as its newest general partner. He is the fourth general partner […]

Foursquare has today announced the partial close of a $33 million Series F financing, with $25 million already closed out and another $8 million inbound, according to the blog post. The round was co-led by Simon Ventures and Naver Corp, with participation from Union Square Ventures, an existing investor. Over the past four years, Foursquare […]

With Facebook holding a dominant role in the VR space, one would think that the social networking implications are all taken care of — but for the time being, it actually seems to be one of the best areas for virtual reality startups to get creative and find an audience. VR and AR has the […]

Cratejoy, a startup founded in 2014, helps businesses launch and scale their own subscription box services.

Finding a job can be tricky. And once you find that job, it can be difficult to succeed and excel in it. HireClub wants to help with all of that. HireClub started as a job-posting group on Facebook back in 2011 and has since expanded to a full-fledged business that helps people find jobs, prepare […]

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a trio of researchers whose work in lasers enabled all kinds of new experiments and treatments. Arthur Ashkin is the primary recipient, sharing the prize with Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland; notably, the latter is the first woman to receive the prize (in physics, to […]

Tesla plans to speed up construction of a factory in Shanghai as tariffs, shipping costs and missed incentives continue to drive up the price of the company’s electric vehicles and dampen demand. Trade tensions between the U.S. and China have led to 40 percent tariffs on Tesla vehicles compared to 15 percent duties placed on […]

Google has acquired a small startup that builds tools for businesses looking to automate their customer service or sales workflows. Onward and some of its key employees, including co-founders Rémi Cossart and Pramod Thammaiah, as well as CTO Aaron Podolny, will be joining Google. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The startup gives businesses an AI-powered chat […]

Not even Techstars NYC can avoid the end of summer, where 10 startups are wrapping up their participation in the accelerator’s summer program. This also marks the end of Alex Iskold’s tenure as managing director of the program. He’s certainly going out with a varied groups of startups — these entrepreneurs are working on everything […]

Apple is about to release the public beta version of iOS 12.1. And before everybody freaks out, the company announced that this update will feature new emojis — best feature update ever. In other words, Apple is releasing its own take on Unicode 11.0 emojis. Other devices and major services will soon all support the […]

People procrastinate about buying insurance because it’s such a boring and complicated chore to compare policies. But Cover combines plans from 45 insurance companies into a single marketplace so it’s easy to find the best one for your car, home, rental, business, personal property, pets, jewelry and more. Now Cover is building powerful onboarding tricks […]

We’ve finalized the Vancouver micro meetup for this Thursday. We’ll be holding it at Hoot Suite HQ on 5, East 8th Ave at 7pm on October 4. Extra special thanks to the folks at Hoot Suite for helping out. You must RSVP here so we know how many are attending. If you’d like to pitch […]

E-cigarette maker Juul recently received a surprise visit from the Food and Drug Administration, CNBC first reported. Last week, the FDA seized thousands of documents from the startup’s headquarters, TechCrunch has confirmed. The unannounced inspection of the startup’s headquarters on Friday was part of the FDA’s efforts to seek documentation related to Juul’s sales and […]

Walmart is expanding further into apparel with today’s announcement of its plans to acquire the digitally native, women’s plus-size clothing brand ELOQUII for an undisclosed amount. The all-cash deal includes ELOQUII CEO Mariah Chase, her executive team and its 100 employees, who will continue to be based in Long Island City, NY and Columbus, OH. […]

Remember Prepd? The “lunchbox you won’t be ashamed to carry” raised over $1 million on Kickstarter in 2016, and now it is returning with an iPhone 5c-esque sequel that is both cheaper and more colorful. Prepd, in case you missed it, isn’t some kind of IOT, smart, next-gen lunchbox. Rather, it’s an unashamedly premium take on the […]

Uber has brought on Nikki Krishnamurthy, Expedia’s former chief people officer, as one of its own. Krishnamurthy is coming on board as chief people officer to replace Liane Hornsey, who resigned in July following a racial discrimination investigation. According to Reuters, a group of Uber employees of color alleged Hornsey discriminated against Bernard Coleman, Uber’s global […]

One of the the overlooked tidbits in amongst the flurry of Note 9 news was Samsung’s plan to offer an S Pen SDK for developers. The company made good on its promise today, issuing a full break down of the different functionality over here. Of course, all of this is made possible by the fact […]

Apple Business Chat launched earlier this year as a way for consumers to communicate directly with businesses on Apple’s messaging platform. Today the company announced it was expanding the program to add new businesses and support for additional countries. When it launched in January, business partners included Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo. Today’s announcement […]

Facebook is introducing new tools to tackle online bullying, the company announced this morning. Specifically, it’s rolling out a way for people to hide or delete multiple comments at once from the options menu of a post, and is beginning to test new ways to more easily search and block offensive words from showing up […]

What happens when a cast of Oscar contenders like Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed and Michelle Williams are turned loose to chew the scenery of a (seemingly wryly self-aware) B movie? Audiences get “Venom”, the latest bid from Sony Pictures to create its own superhero mega-franchise now that storylines for the studio’s web-slinging centerpiece have merged […]

Facebook today announced the global launch of Premieres, its new interactive video format that allows creators to pre-record a video for fans, then release it during a viewing window they choose, as more of a live event. The move follows YouTube’s introduction of a similar Premieres format just a few months ago. In addition, Facebook […]

Maybe you’ve never heard about Tiny, but chances are, you’ve used its products. Tiny is the company behind the text editors you’ve likely used in WordPress, Marketo, Zendesk, Atlassian and other products. The company is actually the result of the merger of Moxiecode, the two-person team behind the open source TinyMCE editor, and Ephox, the […]

Vital Labs has emerged from stealth with $1 million in funding from True Ventures.

Tesla delivered 83,500 electric vehicles in the third quarter, more than double from the previous period as the company steered by Elon Musk pulled out all the stops to get its newest sedan, the Model 3, to customers. The company delivered 55,840 Model 3 sedans up from 18,440 in the previous quarter, which was in […]

Heed, a startup looking to create new ways for sports leagues and clubs to engage with fans, is announcing that it has raised $35 million led by SoftBank Group International. As laid out for me by CEO Danna Rabin, the company sits at the intersection of sports and IoT — which makes sense, since it was […]

If you’ve ever tried to write something long – a thesis, a book, or a manifesto outlining your disappointment in the modern technocracy and your plan to foment violent revolution – you know that distractions can slow you down or even stop the creative process. That’s why the folks at Astrohaus created the Freewrite, a […]

Hey, did you hear? There’s a big Google event coming up next week. There’s gonna be a big new phone and, no doubt, some additions to the Home line. In the meantime, here’s a mint (officially “Aqua”) Google Home Mini. The new color scheme is arriving on October 29, for the usual $49 price point. […]

Petal, the startup credit card company that’s offering a no-fee credit line to people without a credit history, is now publicly available. Launched earlier this year by co-founders Jason Gross, Andrew Endicott, David Ehrich, and Jack Arenas, Petal has received a $34 million credit facility from Jeffries and Silicon Valley Bank to bring its consumer […]

Security continues to remain top of mind for organizations and consumers, as each day seems to bring another high-profile network breach. One of the faster-growing startups in the space is capitalising on that by raising some significant funding to fuel its growth. Tanium today said that it has raised another $200 million in funding with […]

The education market has long been one of the cornerstones of growth for Apple’s hardware business, and today the company is leveraging its popularity in it, specifically among college-aged students, to build out a newer effort. Today, Apple started to integrate university student ID cards — used to access buildings, pay for food or books, […]

Empires rise and fall, and none more so than business empires. Whole industries that once dominated the planet are just a figment in memory’s eye, while new industries quietly grow into massive behemoths. New York City has certainly seen its share of empires. Today, the city is a global center of finance, real estate, legal […]

Chinese internet giant Tencent is reorganizing its business to place more emphasis on enterprise as it prepares for the future of technology and looks to alleviate the pressure on its under-fire consumer business. The reorg, which Reuters reports is the company’s first shakeup for six years, was announced over the weekend — ahead of a […]