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Welcome to The TechCrunch Podcast! | Darrell Etherington | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | Welcome to the very first episode of The TechCrunch Podcast! Every week, the new TC podcast will dive into the biggest stories in tech, as told by the writers who penned them. We’ve been developing and iterating on the concept for many months now, so we’re thrilled to finally be able to deliver our first ever full epis... |
This Week in Apps: Snapchat policy checkup, more Twitter deal drama, TikTok games | Sarah Perez | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | Welcome back to This Week in Apps, that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the year-end . App Annie says ... |
Everyone is drafting their own startup Black Swan memo | Natasha Mascarenhas | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | “You can often pick up significant market share in an economic downturn by just staying alive,” top startup accelerator Y Combinator The advice was one of ten bullet points in a memo meant to help companies navigate the economic Other stand-out quotes include “plan for the worst” and “no one can predict how bad the ... |
Europe’s deep tech depends on university spinouts | Anna Heim | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the Deep tech has become a hot topic in Europe, with hopes that the region can have an edge over the rest of the world for innovation rooted in fundamental research. One of the key arguments: European countries have great universities and... |
Lightspeed’s Mercedes Bent on why the metaverse isn’t overhyped | Anita Ramaswamy | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | On the podcast this week, we dove into a topic that tends to stir up strong emotions, even from those outside the crypto space — the metaverse. Mercedes Bent, an investor at Lightspeed Venture Partners who focuses on consumer investments in crypto, joined us to unpack this loaded term and explain why she sees its pot... |
Premium streaming subscriptions continue to increase despite Netflix’s downfall | Lauren Forristal | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | If you’ve been following Netflix lately, then you’d know the streamer is on shaky ground at the moment. data reveals that Netflix saw 3.6 million subscription cancellations in the first quarter of 2022, over one million more than the company experienced in Q1 2021 and Q4 2021. This is a significant indicator that Net... |
A weaker economy won’t solve the tech talent crunch overnight | Ron Miller | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | news piles up seemingly , we don’t know what except that change is on the way. Although we are seeing layoffs and at some companies, it doesn’t necessarily mean the talent crunch will immediately abate. There will likely be some lag before we start to see we’ve experienced for the last couple of years begin to ... |
It’s not business as usual (and investors are admitting it) | Natasha Mascarenhas | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | “You can often pick up significant market share in an economic downturn by just staying alive,” top startup accelerator Y Combinator wrote in an internal email to its founders this week. The advice was one of 10 bullet points in a memo meant to help its companies navigate the economic . Other standout quotes include “... |
Fundraise on confidence, Front CEO Mathilde Collin says | Matt Burns | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | and often fundraise from investors. This requires pitching, numbers, stats and a story. And the time has to be correct. The key to timing is easy, according to this CEO: Fundraise when your confidence is high. Each week on , investors and entrepreneurs share lessons learned from personal experiences. And Front CEO an... |
Boeing’s Starliner finally makes it all the way to the ISS | Devin Coldewey | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft has had a rough couple years, but this afternoon it successfully docked with the International Space Station, its first successful mission to orbit. Despite a few hiccups, this launch went more or less as planned, and if the craft can return to Earth safely that will make this a hu... |
All the tech that got our attention at F1 Miami Grand Prix | Jaclyn Trop | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | All eyes are on Miami this weekend as the international glitterati arrives for the city’s inaugural Formula One Grand Prix. The European racing event has attracted American fans in droves, thanks to the of “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” — the successful franchise that’s spurred some of the most captivating rivalries ... |
A brutal week of layoffs | Greg Kumparak | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | Hi friends. In case you missed it last week: I’m , and I’m handling Week in Review now that is off with building their new crypto-focused podcast/newsletter, . I’m supposed to be on vacation today, but I figured it was probably not cool to throw the newsletter to someone else ONE WEEK after taking over, so I po... |
This week in TechCrunch podcasts: The new TC Pod, Chain Reaction, Found, Equity and The TechCrunch Live Podcast | Matt Burns | 2,022 | 5 | 21 | TechCrunch is more than just a site with words. We’re also building a growing stable of podcasts focused on the most critical topics relating to the startup and venture capital worlds. To help you find the right show for your interests, we’ve compiled our audio output from the week. And if you are more into the written... |
This Week in Apps: Fortnite’s back on iOS, TikTok’s new ad product, apps hit NewFronts | Sarah Perez | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | Welcome back to This Week in Apps, that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the year-end . Data.ai (former... |
null | Lauren Simonds | 2,022 | 5 | 26 | null |
The Great Resignation, meet the Great Reset | Natasha Mascarenhas | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | The Great Resignation, the economic trend of people quitting their jobs in pursuit of other opportunities, has been greeted by a harsh reality: the Great Reset. This week, a spate of tech companies – largely those valued above $1 billion from their venture capital investors – announced reductions in their workforce. I ... |
A changing of the guard | Alex Wilhelm | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | When you start a project, it’s easy to get caught up in it. Then time passes and suddenly it’s been a half decade. Equity, a podcast I got to help start when I was wasn’t even working here, is one such project. So, too, is The Exchange. I started writing a daily markets column , back in 2016. The project, then called ... |
Crypto VC Jill Gunter on what it will take to beat Ethereum | Anita Ramaswamy | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | Jill Gunter is no stranger to crypto — she’s seen the market through its ups and downs, conducting research on blockchain protocols, working at multiple crypto startups and , and investing as a crypto VC at Slow Ventures. Gunter first started following the crypto space in 2011, when she was working in the traditional ... |
ESPN+ debuts ‘McEnroe vs. McEnroe’ the first-ever tennis match between a real person and their virtual avatar | Lauren Forristal | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | Premiering on ESPN+, Michelob Ultra, in collaboration with tech and production company , presents “McEnroe vs. McEnroe,” the world’s first tennis match to feature a real person versus a virtual player — both being a version of the entertaining, confrontational tennis player, John McEnroe. In the match, the real McEnro... |
As interest rates rise, startups and VCs are playing a new game | Kyle Wiggers | 2,022 | 5 | 7 | money is now officially behind us: The United States Federal Reserve a key interest rate benchmark by 0.50%, or 50 basis points, this week. Startups have long basked in the sun of effectively zero-cost money. As a result of a historic period of low rates, the comparative attractiveness of investing in bonds and othe... |
Fertility startup Hannah Life Technologies gets $5.15M Pre-Series A | Catherine Shu | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | , a startup for couples trying to conceive, announced today it has raised $5.15 million in pre-Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures. Other investors include Golden Gate Ventures, Anthro Ventures and medical technology entrepreneur Dr. Jack Wang. The funding comes about 18 months after the company raised seed fu... |
BharatPe to claw back founder’s shares, terminate ‘several’ employees | Manish Singh | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | BharatPe says it has initiated actions to claw back co-founder Ashneer Grover’s restricted shares and terminate services of several employees who engaged with sketchy vendors as the Tiger Global-backed fintech startup looks to recover from a strange and tremulous episode early this year. The Noida-headquartered startup... |
Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn is taking public his secret battle with bipolar disorder | Connie Loizos | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Andy Dunn, the co-founder and former CEO of the men’s clothing company , has something new to sell: his life story. It might just save another life. In “ ,” hitting bookshelves tomorrow, Dunn goes public with a secret he managed to hide from the public for decades despite being a high-profile founder for much of the t... |
Eureka Robotics, the team behind the ‘IkeaBot’, picks up $4.25M | Catherine Shu | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Remember the ? The robot went viral for its ability to build Ikea furniture as well (or better) than humans can. The team behind the project went on to found Eureka Robotics, which announced today that it has raised a pre-Series A round of $4.25 million, led by The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (UTEC), , ... |
China’s internet users are paying close attention to the crypto crash | Rita Liao | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | While China , its people remain interested in the ups and downs of the crypto market, not least because many of them have found workarounds and continue to buy and sell all sorts of tokens. Bitcoin’s price continued to crater on Monday after a rough weekend, down more than 50% from its peak of $69,000 in November 2021... |
Arianee raises $21 million to deliver ownership NFTs with physical luxury goods | Romain Dillet | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | has raised a $21 million Series A round (€20 million) in a round led by Tiger Global. The company issues digital ownership and authenticity certificates on behalf of partner brands. For instance, a luxury and fashion brand can replace the authenticity card that you get with your new watch or handbag with a digital cer... |
Seadronix aims to reduce marine accidents at port and sea with AI | Kate Park | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | South Korean startup wants to reduce the issue of marine accidents, 75% of which are caused by human error, according to a . The company just secured a $5.8 million Series A extension to scale its AI-based ship berthing monitoring and navigation systems to help cargo ships navigate safely and assist port operators a... |
Match Group sues Google over ‘monopoly power’ in Android app payments | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | The parent company of dating apps Tinder, Match and OkCupid is suing Google, alleging that the company exerts too much control over payments through its Google Play app marketplace. The , filed Monday in California’s Northern District, accuses the company of deploying “anticompetitive tactics” to maintain a monopoly o... |
Paddle, the company that wants to take on Apple in IAP, raises $200M at a $1.4B valuation to supercharge SaaS payments | Ingrid Lunden | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Software as a service has become the default for how organizations adopt and use apps these days, thanks to advances in cloud computing and networking, and the flexibility of pay-as-you-use models that adapt to the evolving needs of a business. Today, a company called , which has built a large business out of providin... |
Yapily to acquire finAPI in open banking consolidation move | Romain Dillet | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Fintech startup is announcing that it plans to acquire — the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals before it closes. Both companies offer open banking solutions in Europe. With this move, Yapily is consolidating its position in Europe and growing its business in Germany, more specifically. The terms of the... |
Daily Crunch: PayPal Ventures leads $50M Series B for Egyptian fintech Paymob | Christine Hall | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Monday, May 9, is upon us, and today is a day of browser-cache-powered drama in the form of a Wordle word The New York Times decided was too controversial, but still existed for people who hadn’t refreshed their browser in a while. , in ’s piece. Incidentally, DRAMA would be a great word, so there’s that. – and ... |
Modern Fertility co-founder leaves Ro a year after acquisition | Natasha Mascarenhas | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | is leaving healthcare unicorn Ro about a year after her company, built alongside co-founder Carly Leahy, According to an internal e-mail from Ro’s executive team, obtained by TechCrunch, Vechery is leaving her role as president of women’s health of Modern Fertility to pursue her next venture. Effective May 18, she... |
TikTok rolls out new ‘Friends’ tab to more users, replacing the current ‘Discover’ tab | Aisha Malik | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | TikTok is a new “Friends” tab that replaces the “Discover” tab in the bottom menu of the app. The company says the new tab is going to roll out to more people over the coming weeks and that it will allow users on the platform to find content from people they’ve connected with. TikTok did not elaborate on the rollout ... |
Use data from Q5 to boost mobile app growth for the entire year | Vladyslav Strykun | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Wondering how to improve the marketing performance of your mobile app in the spring without experimenting and extra costs? Take advantage of results from the high winter season, also known as Q5. The tremendous amount of data received during the winter holidays can improve your marketing strategy and boost your app gro... |
Max Q: Rocket booster, meet helicopter | Aria Alamalhodaei | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Hello and welcome back to Max Q. In this issue: Rocket Lab achieved a landmark victory in its quest toward full reusability by briefly catching the Electron first stage in mid-air via a helicopter. While the recovery was not without its issues — the helicopter dropped the booster into the ocean shortly after attaching ... |
Bitcoin’s value nears $30,000 mark as Luna Foundation Guard liquidates wallet | Jacquelyn Melinek | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | Bitcoin’s price is down more than 50% from its November 2021 peak and has fallen over 11% today, nearing the $30,000 mark, leaving many investors scrambling to figure out what’s going on. There are two main factors driving pressure on bitcoin prices right now, , senior market analyst at , said to TechCrunch. “As liqu... |
Holoride will give us a look at the in-car VR future arriving now at TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 | Darrell Etherington | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | This year at , we’ll be chatting with Holoride co-founder and CEO Nils Wollny. The company is set to start and Wollny will be able to provide us with more details about that pending launch. Wollny will also be offering more insight into , and developing its own utility token for its virtual experiences. The company... |
Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary talks crypto and why he’s pro stablecoins | Jacquelyn Melinek | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | less than two weeks since began, but we’re still bringing out content from the conference, because, seriously, there was so much good alpha we couldn’t share it. During the conference, I sat down with Kevin O’Leary from “Shark Tank”, who was dressed in a , to discuss the current regulatory situation surrounding t... |
The half-billion-dollar profit swing that led to Better.com’s myriad layoffs | Mary Ann Azevedo | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | from Aurora Acquisition Corp., digital mortgage provider intended to merge with, provides stark details about the latter company’s financial performance. The filing — dated April 24, 2022 — reveals that Better.com swung to a loss of more than $300 million last year, a sharp turnaround from its profitable 2020. The... |
Clearview AI banned from selling its facial recognition software to most US companies | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | A company that gained notoriety for selling access to billions of facial photos, many culled from social media without the knowledge of the individuals depicted, faces major new restrictions to its controversial business model. On Monday, agreed to settle a 2020 lawsuit from the ACLU that accused the company of runni... |
France’s Alven VC launches 6th fund with a hard cap of €350M | Mike Butcher | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | With a heritage that goes back to the fabled times of the year 2000 (since then it has backed 160 European teams) Paris-based early-stage fund has something of a reputation to keep up. After investing in unicorns such as Qonto, Dataiku, Algolia, Stripe and Ankorstore, it now has €2 billion in assets under management.... |
Upway lands $25 million to sell more refurbished electric bikes | Romain Dillet | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | French startup has raised a $25 million Series A round led by Exor Seeds and Sequoia Capital. The company sells secondhand electric bikes that have been refurbished and are ready to roll. In many ways, Upway reminds me of online marketplaces for cars. The startup provides a seamless experience for buyers who want to ... |
Egyptian q-commerce platform Appetito bags Lamma for over $10M | Tage Kene-Okafor | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | null |
South Africa’s Talk360 raises $4M to build single payment platform for Africa | Annie Njanja | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | Many businesses looking to set up pan-African operations are often met with the challenge of establishing payment services that are appropriate for each country they go to. Most of the payment services merchants working in the continent have solutions that are limited to specific regions, meaning that businesses have t... |
The death knell for SPACs? | Connie Loizos | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | It was a tough day for special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, which had already fallen out of favor after roughly 18 months in the limelight. First, Senator Elizabeth Warren announced today that she’s planning a bill that targets the SPAC industry. Called the “ ,” the bill would expand the legal liability of ... |
Rimac raises more than $500M from Porsche, Softbank and Goldman Sachs | Jaclyn Trop | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | Rimac Group said Tuesday it has raised 500 million euro ($536 million), funds that will help the Croatian startup expand beyond its electric hypercar roots and grow into a global EV components supplier — and eventually a publicly traded company. Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs led the Series D investment round... |
Chick-fil-A taps Refraction AI for autonomous delivery pilot | Rebecca Bellan | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | When , its goal was to use robotics to bring down the cost of last-mile delivery. Over the past couple of years, the startup has worked directly with restaurants in its hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan, to offer its bike-lane bound robots as a logistics layer for customers, rather than trying to be another DoorDash or ... |
Precursor Ventures’ first hire just spun out to start her own venture firm | Natasha Mascarenhas | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | , who was the first hire at , a seed and early-stage focused fund that backs first-time founders, is starting her own venture firm. The investor is going from at the firm she joined 6 years ago to the solo-partner behind a new, unnamed firm. The job move may feel like a leap in this environment — as institutionally ... |
Student social good startups collect $100K in T-Mobile competition | Devin Coldewey | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | A diverse collection of students with big ideas will split about a hundred grand in prize money after competing in . Now, $5,000-10,000 may not sound like a lot to companies pulling in tens of millions, but for a kid just starting out, it could be the difference between pursuing and abandoning a passion project. The c... |
Ultima Genomics claims $100 full genome sequencing after stealth $600M raise | Devin Coldewey | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | The appetite for genomic data continues to rise in the field of biotech and pharmaceutical research, but cost is still a factor — even sequencing a full genome now costs as little as $1,000. But with claims of reducing that cost by another order of magnitude to $100, may even further accelerate this economy. Ultima s... |
Daily Crunch: Amazon will sunset Cloud Cam service in December, offers customers free Blink Mini | Haje Jan Kamps | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | null |
Report calls out Apple’s membership in trade groups ‘stalling’ climate efforts | Harri Weber | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | While going to great lengths to promote itself as an environmentally conscious tech firm, Apple joined several industry associations that are “fighting efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” according to a new report from the . As recently as 2020, the company was an active member of several “business groups tha... |
Is data observability recession-proof? | Anna Heim | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | million Series D last week, became in a fast-rising category: data observability, which the startup as “an end-to-end approach to enable teams to deliver more reliable and trustworthy data.” If you are wondering how serious data quality issues are, Monte Carlo CEO Barr Moses has an answer: “Data quality issues s... |
4 ways to make your engineering team more productive | Ammar Bandukwala | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | of your software engineering team has many advantages, prime among them being the ability to make up for problems in other areas. Whether you’re facing budget constraints, having problems sourcing and retaining talent or simply wanting to boost product iteration, focusing on increasing your engineering efficiencies wi... |
Supreme Court pauses controversial Texas social media law | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | Tech companies got their way in Texas on Tuesday. The Supreme Court just a controversial law that allows Texas residents and the attorney general to over their content-moderation decisions. The law, HB 20, prohibits tech platforms from removing or restricting content based on “the viewpoint represented in the user’... |
null | Devin Coldewey | 2,022 | 5 | 9 | null |
Cydia’s antitrust case against Apple is allowed to proceed, judge rules | Sarah Perez | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | A federal antitrust lawsuit over the alternative app store called Cydia has now been given the green light to proceed, after its initial complaint was dismissed. The Cydia app store, which once featured apps and other tweaks that weren’t permitted by Apple’s official App Store policies, is suing Apple over its allege... |
Lionsgate plans to officially announce a Starz spinoff this summer | Lauren Forristal | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer revealed details during an investor call on Thursday, May 26, about the company’s plans to spin off its Starz streaming unit by the end of the summer. He also alluded that there could be more M&A (mergers and acquisitions) for both Lionsgate and Starz if the two were separated. Feltheimer ... |
Artiphon’s delightful Orba handheld synthesizer gets a sequel | Brian Heater | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | I would love to see more companies like Artiphon in the world. Hardware startups with clever ideas and a knack for bringing them to market. Back in November 2020, with the company’s handheld synth/sampler/instrument. It didn’t turn me into Wendy Carlos, but it helped pass a few dark pandemic hours by firing up some m... |
The Jonas Brothers help launch Scriber, a creator subscription company | Amanda Silberling | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | The creator economy is “ ,” and the Jonas Brothers are cashing in. Launching with the help of these former teen heartthrobs, is a creator subscription company geared toward more established figures in entertainment (… like the Jonas Brothers). Joe, Kevin and Nick aren’t just Scriber’s first creators — they also hav... |
This book made me fall in love with electronics all over again | Haje Jan Kamps | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for photography — I’ve been known to take a photo or two in my time — and I have a hell of a weak spot for electronics, to boot. In the upcoming from No Starch Press, authors Windell Oskay, co-founder of , and Eric Schlaepfer, creator of the popular collection of vintage competing Tw... |
Zinc heads toward new $41M tech-for-good fund to back pre-team talent solving big problems | Mike Butcher | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | So-called “tech for good” accelerators addressing such worthy sounding subjects as ESGs and SDGs have appeared in the last few years. Some observers have dismissed these efforts as scalable only to a point. However, the evidence is mounting that they are increasingly attracting some of the world’s best talent, because ... |
HitPay is a one-stop solution for SMEs | Catherine Shu | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | has almost everything SMEs need to run their businesses. In addition to being an online payment gateway, it also offers tools like point-of-sale software with card readers, plugins, payment links and no-code online stores. The Y Combinator alum announced today that it has raised $15.75 million in Series A funding led ... |
Max Q: Mines and metals | Aria Alamalhodaei | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | Hello and welcome back to Max Q. There is SO much news this week, so let’s dive in. In this issue: Although we’ve long understood that asteroids are not simply the rubble of the universe, but potentially profitable stores of precious minerals, humanity has never been able to unlock this value. Y Combinator startup wa... |
Perceptron: Risky teleoperation, Rocket League simulation and zoologist multiplication | Kyle Wiggers | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | Research in the field of machine learning and AI, now a key technology in practically every industry and company, is far too voluminous for anyone to read it all. This column, Perceptron (previously ), aims to collect some of the most relevant recent discoveries and papers — particularly in, but not limited to, artifi... |
Partner sessions at TC Sessions: Climate offer knowledge and insight | Lauren Simonds | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | We’re just about two weeks away from our first foray into climate tech at on June 14 in Berkeley, California — with an online day to follow on June 16. It’s going to be an epic day all around for many reasons — did you know that is one of the featured speakers? Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from and engage wi... |
For remittances, crypto is still a problem looking for a solution | Anna Heim | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | that Andreessen Horowitz is bullish about crypto: Not only does the firm boast that it started to invest in the space , but it also debuted a last week. To understand a16z’s bullishness despite what others have described as a “ ,” its is a good start. Per its disclaimers, the document is not directed to any inves... |
Strong Compute raises $7.8M seed round to speed up ML training pipelines | Frederic Lardinois | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | , a Sydney, Australia-based startup that helps developers remove the bottlenecks in their machine learning training pipelines, today announced that it has raised a $7.8 million seed round. The round includes a total of 30 funds and angels, including the likes of Sequoia Capital India, Blackbird, Folklore and Skip Capit... |
null | Jaclyn Trop | 2,022 | 5 | 31 | null |
SWVL plans to lay off 32% of its team two months after going public | Tage Kene-Okafor | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | Egypt-born and Dubai-headquartered mobility startup is planning to lay off 32% of its workforce it said in a statement today. The company’s LinkedIn profile shows it has over 1,330 employees. Letting go of over 30% of its workforce means that around 400 people will lose their jobs at the mobility company. Tech compan... |
Mintlify taps AI to automatically generate documentation from code | Kyle Wiggers | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | , a startup developing software to automate software documentation tasks, today announced that it raised $2.8 million in a seed round led by by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from TwentyTwo Ventures and Quinn Slack, Sourcegraph’s co-founder. CEO Han Wang says that the proceeds will be put toward product devel... |
One AI raises $8M to curate business-specific NLP models | Kyle Wiggers | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | Whether to power translation to document summarization, enterprises are increasing their investments in natural language processing (NLP) technologies. According to a 2021 from John Snow Labs and Gradient Flow, 60% of tech leaders indicated that their NLP budgets grew by at least 10% compared to 2020, while a third s... |
The Station: EV SPACs face new regulatory speed bump, more on Rivian’s reorg and VW weighs direct sales for Scout brand | Kirsten Korosec | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | Welcome back to The Station, your weekly guide to everything going on in the world of transportation. Many readers of this weekly newsletter are likely enjoying a three-day weekend thanks to the Memorial Day holiday. So, this week I will keep it a wee bit shorter. Before we get started, check out the latest transportat... |
Ayoken raises $1.4M to grow its NFT marketplace for creatives | Annie Njanja | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | Ayoken, an NFT marketplace for creatives, has raised $1.4 million pre-seed funding to enable users grow their revenue streams through digital collectibles. The startup’s marketplace, , will feature digital collectibles from musicians, sports brands and influencers from all over the world. Ayoken founder and CEO, , to... |
South Korea’s OHouse lands $182M to add AR to home improvement app | Kate Park | 2,022 | 5 | 8 | During the worst days of the pandemic, when people were stuck at home and starving for some form of entertainment beyond streaming yet another TV series, many turned to DIY home improvement projects. With the home now a place for work, school and leisure all at once, the DIY home improvement market has grown so signifi... |
Betastore gets $2.5M to solve stockouts, financing challenges for informal retailers in West and Central Africa | Annie Njanja | 2,022 | 5 | 30 | About of household retail in sub-Saharan Africa is delivered through informal channels, which perennially face several challenges like stockouts, leading to an instability in earnings and a lack of attractiveness to financiers. These challenges befall millions of microretailers across the continent, and , a B2B reta... |
Atma wants to make job hunting in Indonesia easier | Catherine Shu | 2,022 | 5 | 8 | , an Indonesian startup that wants to make job hunting less painful, announced today it has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by AC Ventures, with participation from Global Founders Capital. Strategic investors in the round included founders and executives from GoTo Group, Advance Intelligence Group, Ula, Lummo... |
Perceptron: AI bias can arise from annotation instructions | Kyle Wiggers | 2,022 | 5 | 8 | Research in the field of machine learning and AI, now a key technology in practically every industry and company, is far too voluminous for anyone to read it all. This column, Perceptron (previously ), aims to collect some of the most relevant recent discoveries and papers — particularly in, but not limited to, artifi... |
How will tech companies cope with an office-free future? | Ron Miller | 2,022 | 5 | 8 | of , and how do companies function without the structure that working together in the same building has traditionally provided us? That’s a monumental question facing tech companies today as they struggle to define their approach to work in a post-pandemic world. Sure, there have been for some time now, but the con... |
The stock market is down, but these 4 tech companies prove there’s still good news out there | Alex Wilhelm | 2,022 | 5 | 8 | week. After the , way the and a general feeling that the economy is going , it’s easy to think everything sucks. But we’re here to lift your spirits a little, at least to tell you that it’s not bad news. There are companies that are still doing quite well, and we wanted to spotlight four that had strong earning... |
Google-backed neobank Open becomes unicorn with new funding | Manish Singh | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | India has 100 unicorns now. The Bengaluru-headquartered neobank Open entered the coveted club on Monday with a new funding round, it said. The five-year-old startup did not disclose the size of its Series D funding, but a source familiar with the matter said it’s $50 million. The new round, which valued Open at $1 bill... |
The Interchange: Stripe takes a swing at Plaid | Mary Ann Azevedo | 2,022 | 5 | 8 | I joked earlier this week that when I started covering fintech, I expected it to be a fairly dry and low-key beat. Now I laugh at my naïveté. Perhaps the biggest news this week in the fintech world was Stripe’s launch of its new Financial Connections product, which TC’s Ingrid Lunden covered . The product launch in an... |
Sequoia’s Shaun Maguire on competition and conviction in crypto venture — ‘A lot of VCs… are going to pull back’ | Lucas Matney | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | As crypto continues its wild rise, storied venture firm Sequoia is not just competing with the a16z’s of the world but with a rising crop of crypto native venture funds that are seeing their assets balloon and their influence upend the traditional venture hierarchies. In a conversation on TechCrunch’s new web3 podcast ... |
Coinbase taps former Snap India head in emerging markets push | Manish Singh | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | Coinbase has hired Durgesh Kaushik, the former head of Snap India, as the global cryptocurrency exchange looks to expand its reach in emerging markets including India, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed. is joining Coinbase as Senior Director for Market Expansion and is tasked with helping the company with its launc... |
Building a better mobility fintech startup on TechCrunch Live | Matt Burns | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | QED incubated this auto financing company in 2016 and Kevin Bennett became CEO in 2018 and soon after raised its first seed round. It started as MotoRefi, and rebranded in November 2021 to Caribou. But the mission remains: Transforming consumers’ financial relationship with their cars. Since the founding, Bennett has r... |
Getting to the bottom of UiPath’s plunging valuation | Alex Wilhelm | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | ago, was among the in the world. Last February the company raised a massive at a staggering $35 billion valuation. The robotic process automation, or RPA company, was firing on all cylinders. By the time that UiPath of last year, its final private price looked a bit, well, pricey. The company’s early IPO price... |
Researchers fear what a Musk acquisition might mean for Twitter research data | Kyle Wiggers | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | written about Elon Musk’s , an effort which, despite substantial backing from Morgan Stanley and the approval of Twitter’s board, stands on . Reporting and punditry have focused on the of the proposed acquisition, as well as Musk’s potential approaches to and, on a related subject, his understanding of the conce... |
The Interchange: What’s the deal with the one-click checkout space? | Mary Ann Azevedo | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | Bolt , (TechCrunch+ subscription required) (TechCrunch+ subscription required) Affirm Minka Meanwhile, Meanwhile, the biggest retirement (TechCrunch+ subscription required) |
James Murdoch firm invests $600 million in India’s Allen Career Institute | Manish Singh | 2,022 | 5 | 1 | Bodhi Tree is taking a $600 million stake in Allen Career Institute as James Murdoch and former Disney executive Uday Shankar’s investment platform expands its bet on India’s growing edtech market, they said Sunday. The duo said their investment in the 33-year-old education brand, which operates 138 classroom centers i... |
Judge tosses Trump’s lawsuit over his lifetime Twitter ban | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | A federal judge in California dismissed Friday, dimming at least one avenue the former president and prolific tweeter might have used to get back to his platform of choice. Trump’s argument that the social media company and its then-chief executive Jack Dorsey violated his right to free speech failed to convince Judg... |
Crypto’s cops get ready for an uneven war | Lucas Matney | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | Hey everyone, and welcome back to Last week, we chatted a bit about the political isolation of Bitcoin that’s happening as a result of its energy footprint. In the podcast this week, we talked about how the Wikimedia Foundation outlawed crypto donations after accepting them for eight years just because of the energy fo... |
Daily Crunch: Fairly stagnant since April launch, Coinbase NFT sales volume is under $700K | Christine Hall | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | Friday, May 6, is here. The only thing important about that is the “Friday” part – and we are eager and curious to see what this weekend has in store for us, because this week had many of our colleagues using expletives in their reporting, case in point by and describing all of the tech layoffs we’ve seen this we... |
Chingona Ventures lands $52M to fund overlooked founders in massive markets | Connie Loizos | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | , a three-year-old, Chicago-based venture outfit that invests in pre-seed startups, primarily in the Midwest and primarily founded by overlooked individuals who are focused on massive markets, has closed a new fund with $52 million in capital commitments. Limited partners in the new fund include PayPal Ventures, Norwes... |
Need advice on navigating a tough startup market? Start here | Alex Wilhelm | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | The market for startup investment has changed. From the hottest year in startup venture capital history to a period of pessimism, how did we get to where we are today? The following digest of TechCrunch coverage looks to answer that question. We start with a historical run of stories beginning last December, threading ... |
Daniel Ek pumps $50 million into Spotify: ‘I believe our best days are ahead’ | Harri Weber | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek said on Friday that he’s pouring $50 million into the music streaming service, driving its stock price up by more than 3% to a high of $108.98 per share during regular trading hours. The momentary rise, however, is a blip on the radar for Spotify, which has taken a beating this year — in p... |
TechCrunch+ roundup: Psychedelic investor survey, 6 issues VCs look for, hiring on a budget | Walter Thompson | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | Since the pandemic began, the percentage of American workers who have quit their jobs has reached a 20-year high. A Pew Research poll gathered their top three reasons: Companies no longer compete on the basis of salary and benefits. Prospective hires are explicitly looking for environments where they can expand their s... |
Post-pandemic reset leads to wave of layoffs in tech | Amanda Silberling | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | OK, maybe it is . Over the past week, we’ve witnessed an alarming amount of layoffs across the startup ecosystem, from buzzy, big names like Cameo, On Deck and Robinhood, to B2B platforms like Workrise and Thrasio. The common thread between most of these layoffs, according to founders, is that there’s been a shift in ... |
Partner breakout sessions will drop serious knowledge at TC Sessions: Mobility 2022 | Alexandra Ames | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | Brought to you by At Pony.ai, we aim to deliver autonomous mobility everywhere by building safe and reliable autonomous driving technology. Since our founding in 2016 in Fremont, California, we have been pioneering autonomous mobility services that benefit global users in five cities across the U.S. and China. With 6.... |
Ava sets the example for universal live captioning and raises $10M to keep building | Devin Coldewey | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | When we last checked in with AI-powered captioning service , they had just and it was six months into a pandemic that would reshape how we all work together. Eighteen months later they have investors banging on their door following huge growth, and aim to keep showing the tech industry how deaf and hard of hearing p... |
Consumers and data are driving changes in the insurance sector: Where are we headed? | Jason Paau | 2,022 | 5 | 6 | more and enhanced automated experiences in our daily lives is growing, and the insurance sector is no exception. In recent years, a new crop of insurtech startups has embraced this approach to improve efficiency and experience for the customer while better calculating risk for the business. But it has not been an easy... |
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