Deepfake video app Avatarify, which process on-phone, plans digital watermark for videos  

Making deepfake videos used to be hard. Now all you need is a smartphone. Avatarify, a startup that allows people to make deepfake videos directly on their phone rather than in the cloud, is soaring up the app charts after being used by celebrities such as Victoria Beckham. However, the problem with many deepfake videos […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 21:45:56

TikTok funds first episodic public health series 'VIRAL' from NowThis  

TikTok is taking another step toward directly funding publishers’ content with today’s announcement that it’s financially backing the production of media publisher NowThis’ new series, “VIRAL,” which will feature interviews with public health experts and a live Q&A session focused on answering questions about the pandemic. The partnership represents TikTok’s first-ever funding of an episodic […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 21:05:25

Alexa von Tobel outlines how founders should manage personal finances  

Von Tobel outlines steps to stay out of debt, build credit and accumulate wealth to ensure financial peace of mind as you take on the most stressful venture of your life: Starting a company.

what do you think? 2021-04-14 19:56:05

Zeta in talks with SoftBank to raise at over $1 billion valuation  

Banking tech startup Zeta is inching closer to the much sought-after unicorn status as it engages with investors to finalize a new round, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 is in advanced stages of talks to lead a ~$250 million Series D round in the five-year-old startup, the sources […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 19:04:34

Beat the deadline: Apply to compete in Startup Battlefield at TC Disrupt 2021  

Startup Battlefield — the matriarch of all pitch competitions — is the stuff of tech legend. Heck, it even played a role in the HBO show, "Silicon Valley," and its influence touches early-stage startups around the globe. Under no circumstance will you find a bigger, better platform for launching your startup to the world. Battlefield […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 18:58:19

Triller owner gets a new CEO with acquisition of Amplify.AI; also acquires livestreaming service FITE TV  

Would be TikTok competitor Triller, operated by parent company TrillerNet, is gaining a new CEO, the company announced today. The short-form video app said it’s acquiring an A.I.-based customer engagement platform, Amplify.AI, whose co-founder Mahi de Silva will now become TrillerNet’s CEO. Existing CEO Mike Lu will transition to president of TrillerNet and will focus […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 15:45:41

Grocery startup Mercato spilled years of data, but didn't tell its customers  

A security lapse at online grocery delivery startup Mercato exposed tens of thousands of customer orders, TechCrunch has learned. A person with knowledge of the incident told TechCrunch that the incident happened in January after one of the company’s cloud storage buckets, hosted on Amazon’s cloud, was left open and unprotected. The company fixed the […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 15:40:16

Kroger launches its first Ocado-powered 'shed', a massive, robot-filled fulfillment center in Ohio  

After inking a deal to work together almost three years ago, U.S. supermarket chain Kroger and U.K. online grocer Ocado today took the wraps off the first major product of that deal. Kroger has launched a new Ocado-powered customer fulfillment center in Monroe, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati, a gigantic warehouse covering 375,000 square feet and […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 14:15:21

Creatively raises $5M to help creative professionals showcase and find work  

Creatively — a startup that helps designers, photographers, illustrators and other creative professionals showcase their work and find their next job — is announcing that it has raised in $5 million. Founded by Stacey Bendet (founder and CEO of fashion company Alicia + Olivia) and Joe Indriolo (who also serves as Creatively’s chief product officer), […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 13:28:28

PlexTrac raises $10M Series A round for its collaboration-centric security platform  

PlexTrac, a Boise, ID-based security service that aims to provide a unified workflow automation platform for red and blue teams, today announced that it has raised a $10 million Series A funding round led by Noro-Moseley Partners and Madrona Venture Group. StageDot0 ventures also participated in this round, which the company plans to use to […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 13:27:21

Astranis raises $250M at a $1.4B valuation for smaller, cheaper geostationary communications satellites  

Space startup Astranis has raised a $250 million Series C round to provide it with a capital injection to help scale manufacturing of its unique MicroGEO satellites — geostationary communications satellites that are much smaller than the typical massive, expensive spacecraft used in that orbital band to provide communications and connectivity to specific points on […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 13:11:06

Bird, Lime and VeoRide selected for NYC e-scooter pilot  

Lime, Bird and VeoRide have scored coveted permits to New York City’s first e-scooter pilot. The New York City Department of Transportation, which originally released a request for proposals in October for the pilot that was meant to start in early March, made its selections public Wednesday. The three companies are expected to begin operations in […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 12:41:52

Google's FeedBurner moves to a new infrastructure but loses its email subscription service  

Google today announced that it is moving FeedBurner to a new infrastructure but also deprecating its email subscription service. If you’re an internet user of a certain age, chances are you used Google’s FeedBurner to manage the RSS feeds of your personal blogs and early podcasts at some point. During the Web 2.0 era, it […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 12:29:47

Dell is spinning out VMware in a deal expected to generate over $9B for the company  

Dell announced this afternoon that it’s spinning out VMware, a move that has been suspected for some time. Dell acquired VMware as part of the massive $58 billion EMC acquisition (announced as $67 billion) in 2015. The way that the deal works is that Dell plans to offer VMware shareholders a special dividend of between […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 12:28:37

Toyota taps Apex.AI for its autonomous vehicle operating system  

Automakers shifting to all-electric and tech-laden vehicles have discovered that software — and more aptly software that is free of bugs and can be updated wirelessly — has become a consistent speed bump on the road to attracting customers. It is an issue that plagued Volkswagen’s launch of its all-electric VW ID.3, the 2022 Volvo […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 11:40:56

Coinbase opens at $381 per share, valuing the crypto exchange at nearly $100B  

Today shares of Coinbase began to trade after the company executed a direct listing. From a reference price of $250, Coinbase shares opened at $381 today, a change of around 52%. At its open Coinbase was valued at $99.6 billion on a fully diluted basis. As of the time of writing Coinbase has appreciated further […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 11:03:48

Sunday raises $24 million seed round to build a fast restaurant checkout flow  

Meet Sunday, a new startup that is going to attract some headlines as it has raised a $24 million seed round at a $140 million post-money valuation. That's a lot of money for a company that started just a few months ago but that's because Sunday wants to move quickly. Sunday is getting noticed because […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 10:56:35

Gay dating site Manhunt hacked, thousands of accounts stolen  

Manhunt, a gay dating app that claims to have 6 million male members, has confirmed it was hit by a data breach in February after a hacker gained access to the company’s accounts database. In a notice filed with the Washington attorney general’s office, Manhunt said the hacker “gained access to a database that stored […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 10:43:29

Uber hit with default 'robo-firing' ruling after another EU labor rights GDPR challenge  

Labor activists challenging Uber over what they allege are ‘robo-firings’ of drivers in Europe have trumpeted winning a default judgement in the Netherlands — where the Court of Amsterdam ordered the ride-hailing giant to reinstate six drivers who the litigants claim were unfairly terminated “by algorithmic means”. The court also ordered Uber to pay the […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 10:22:33

Large-scale CO2 removal startup Carbo Culture raises $6.2M Seed led by True Ventures  

Carbo Culture — a startup that has scaled an industrial process to create large-scale CO2 removal using woody waste from agriculture and forests — has raised $6.2 million in seed a financing round led by Silicon Valley VC True Ventures. The round was co-led by European early-stage venture firm Cherry Ventures. Swiss climate investor Übermorgen Ventures […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 10:12:43

How Pilot charted a course of not raising too much money  

A few weeks ago, we wrote about fintech Pilot raising a $100 million Series C that doubled the company's valuation to $1.2 billion. Bezos Expeditions — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' personal investment fund — and Whale Rock Capital joined the round, adding $40 million to a $60 million raise led by Sequoia about one month […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 09:39:18

Ford takes aim at Tesla, GM with its new hands-free driving system  

Ford will debut its new hands-free driving feature on the 2021 F-150 pickup truck and certain 2021 Mustang Mach-E models through a software update later this year, technology that the automaker developed to rival similar systems from Tesla and GM. That hands-free capability — which uses cameras, radar sensors and software to provide a combination […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 09:29:18

MIT startup Pickle raises $5.75M for its package-picking robot  

There's no doubt this past year has been a major watershed moment for the robotics industry. Warehouse and logistics have been a particular target for an automation push, as companies have worked to keep the lights on amidst stay at home orders and other labor shortages. MIT spinoff Pickle is one of the latest startups […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 09:17:09

How to pivot your startup, save cash and maintain trust with investors and customers  

"We would go all in on a product and we'd build it and put blood, sweat and tears into it, and then I would kill it, and we'd move on to the next thing."

what do you think? 2021-04-14 07:40:29

Amira Learning raises $11M to put its AI-powered literacy tutor in post-COVID classrooms  

School closures due to the pandemic have interrupted the learning processes of millions of kids, and without individual attention from teachers, reading skills in particular are taking a hit. Amira Learning aims to address this with an app that reads along with students, intelligently correcting errors in real time. Promising pilots and research mean the […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 07:36:32

Instagram's new test lets you choose if you want to hide 'Likes,' Facebook test to follow  

Instagram today will begin a new test around hiding Like counts on users’ posts, following its experiments in this area which first began in 2019. This time, however, Instagram is not enabling or disabling the feature for more users. Instead, it will begin to explore a new option where users get to decide what works […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 06:56:31

Check out the tech leaders joining us on Extra Crunch Live in May  

Extra Crunch Live, our weekly event series that connects founders with tech leaders, is really picking up speed. Recently, we had a conversation with Accel’s Dan Levine and Scale’s Alexandr Wang about how sometimes, unconventional VC deals are the best deals. We’ve also taken a walk through early decks from companies like Poshmark, Steady and […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 05:57:50

Hear how to raise big funding (and use it well) from FirstMark's Rick Heitzmann and Orchard's Court Cunningham  

Orchard, founded in 2017, was relatively early to the proptech industry. The company, originally called Perch, focused on dual-trackers, which are folks who are both buying and selling a home simultaneously. FirstMark Capital led both the Series A and the Series B funding rounds for Orchard, doubling down on the real estate platform. It goes […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 05:40:37

Inside the US' epic first-quarter venture capital results  

We're diving into the data with help from Sarah Kunst of Cleo Capital, Jenny Lefcourt of Freestyle Capital, Iris Choi of Floodgate and Laela Sturdy of CapitalG.

what do you think? 2021-04-14 05:24:49

Vanadium ion battery startup Standard Energy raises $8.9M Series C from SoftBank Ventures Asia  

Standard Energy, a vanadium ion battery developer, announced today it has raised a $8.9 million Series C from SoftBank Ventures Asia. The South Korea-based company says its batteries' advantages over lithium ion include less risk of ignition and the ease of sourcing vanadium. The latter is an important selling point, as electric vehicle makers face […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 05:23:18

Dear Sophie: How can I get an H-1B without the lottery?  

For the past few years, our company has put very promising candidates into the annual H-1B lottery. None of them have been selected. Are there any other ways we can obtain H-1Bs for our team members?

what do you think? 2021-04-14 05:10:47

Messaging app Wire raises $21 million  

Wire, the end-to-end encrypted messaging app and service, has raised a $21 million Series B funding round led by UVC Partners. As the company said a couple of years ago, the company is focusing on the enterprise market more than ever. While Wire started as a consumer app, it never managed to attract hundreds of […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 04:46:38

Amazon's latest Echo Buds are a shameless Apple knock-off  

This is Amazon’s latest hardware product: The redesigned Alexa earbuds. TechCrunch covered the announcement here, where the specs and capabilities are listed. I’m sure they work fine, too, but the case design is a blatant rip-off of Apple’s AirPod Pros. This is just lazy. Amazon has a long history of selling and promoting lookalikes, copycats, […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 04:45:05

Building customer-first relationships in a privacy-first world is critical  

With clarity of vision, privacy can improve business outcomes. Prioritizing consumer trust and transparency is the right thing to do, and it can help the bottom line too.

what do you think? 2021-04-14 03:41:08

China's Xpeng in the race to automate EVs with lidar  

Elon Musk famously said any company relying on lidar is “doomed.” Tesla instead believes automated driving functions are built on visual recognition and is even working to remove the radar. China’s Xpeng begs to differ. Founded in 2014, Xpeng is one of China’s most celebrated electric vehicle startups and went public when it was just […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 03:33:59

Blue Origin launches and lands New Shepard rocket in key prep flight for human passengers  

Blue Origin has launched its New Shepard rocket for the second time this year, and the 15th time overall. The mission profile saw the reusable spacecraft fly to suborbital space, and then return for a parachute-assisted landing at Blue Origin’s launch facility in West Texas. This flight was a little different than its usual missions, […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 03:13:29

Why expensive workout gear is actually cheap  

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For this week’s deep dive Natasha and Alex wanted to dig into the Tonal EC-1, a huge document spread across a number of posts. Our goals were pretty simple: To better understand Tonal’s journey, and also to get into the […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 03:02:38

South Africa's Quro Medical comes out of stealth with $1.1M to expand its hospital-at-home service  

For a continent with such stark inequality, Africa has seen limited innovation to increase access to healthcare and reduce healthcare delivery costs. Over the years, there has been continued investment in traditional care models despite the overwhelming evidence of inefficiency and escalating costs. The pandemic also laid these problems bare, exposing the vulnerabilities of the […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 02:54:28

Vietnam-based healthcare booking app Docosan gets $1M seed funding led by AppWorks  

Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Docosan helps patients avoid long waits by letting them search and book doctors through its app. The company announced today it has raised more than $1 million in seed funding, which is claims is one of the largest seed rounds ever for a Vietnamese healthtech startup. The investment was […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 02:26:21

I can't believe it's not meat! Mycelium meat replacement company aims for summer launch of first products  

Meati, a company turning mycelium (the structural fibers of fungi) into healthier meat replacements for consumers, is prepping for a big summer rollout. Co-founder Tyler Huggins expects to have the first samples of its whole-cut steak and chicken products in select restaurants around the country — along with their first commercial product, a jerky strip. […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 02:23:30

Daily Crunch: Coinbase goes public  

Coinbase makes an impressive public debut, Dell spins out VMware and Ford announces a new hands-free driving system. This is your Daily Crunch for April 14, 2021. The big story: Coinbase goes public Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase went public today via direct listing at an opening price of $381 per share, climbing to nearly $430 before […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 02:04:03

Creator monetization and CRM startup Pico raises $6.5M  

Pico, a New York startup that helps online creators and media companies make money and manage their customer data, announced today that it has launched an upgraded platform and raised $6.5 million in new funding. In a statement, the startup’s co-founder and CEO Nick Chen said Pico helps creators with their two biggest problems — […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 01:58:50

Ireland opens GDPR investigation into Facebook leak  

Facebook’s lead data supervisor in the European Union has opened an investigation into whether the tech giant violated data protection rules vis-a-vis the leak of data reported earlier this month. Here’s the Irish Data Protection Commission’s statement: "The Data Protection Commission (DPC) today launched an own-volition inquiry pursuant to section 110 of the Data Protection […]

what do you think? 2021-04-14 01:04:11

What's fueling hydrogen tech?  

Hydrogen is capturing the attention of governments and private sector players, fueled by new tech, global green energy legislation and post-pandemic "green recovery" schemes.

what do you think? 2021-04-13 20:54:40

5 product lessons to learn before you write a line of code  

To uncover some basic truths about building products, we spoke to three entrepreneurs who have each built more than one company.

what do you think? 2021-04-13 16:17:12

New Quest 2 software brings wireless PC streaming, updated 'office' mode  

After a relatively quiet couple of months from Oculus on the software front, Facebook’s VR unit is sharing some details on new functionality coming to its Quest 2 standalone headset. The features, which include wireless Oculus Link support, “Infinite Office” functionality and upcoming 120hz support will be rolling out in the Quest 2’s upcoming v28 […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 14:40:24

Coinbase sets direct listing reference price at $250/share, valuing the company at as much as $65B  

Coinbase, the American cryptocurrency trading giant, has set a reference price for its direct listing at $250 per share. According to the company’s most recent SEC filing, it has a fully diluted share count of 261.3 million, giving the company a valuation of $65.3 billion. Using a simple share count of 196,760,122 provided in its […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 14:04:17

SambaNova raises $676M at a $5.1B valuation to double down on cloud-based AI software for enterprises  

Artificial intelligence technology holds a huge amount of promise for enterprises — as a tool to process and understand their data more efficiently; as a way to leapfrog into new kinds of services and products; and as a critical stepping stone into whatever the future might hold for their businesses. But the problem for many […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 13:15:22

Deeplite raises $6M seed to deploy ML on edge with fewer compute resources  

One of the issues with deploying a machine learning application is that it tends to be expensive and highly compute intensive.  Deeplite, a startup based in Montreal, wants to change that by providing a way to reduce the overall size of the model, allowing it to run on hardware with far fewer resources. Today, the […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 13:11:09

With a team that helped build the brain behind Alexa, HomeX raises $90M  

HomeX, a home services platform for homeowners and service providers, has raised $90 million in a funding round led by New Mountain Capital. New Mountain Capital, a New York-based investment firm with more than $30 billion in assets under management, was the only institutional investor to put money in this round alongside company executives. The […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 12:58:11

Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 is filling up fast. Apply today.  

Startup Alley — the very name conjures up images of early-stage startups demonstrating game-changing products, platforms and services to thousands of Disrupt attendees and industry influencers. It's where you'll find envelope pushing and boundary breaking going down. If you're busy shoving envelopes and busting down boundaries, don't miss your chance to exhibit in Startup Alley […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 12:26:34

Clubhouse rolls out payments to over 60K creators following initial test  

Clubhouse is rapidly expanding access to payments, its first revenue-generating feature for creators, since its launch into testing earlier this month. At the beginning of April, Clubhouse said it would give a “small test group” of creators the ability to accept payments from their fans and supporters through the social audio app. These donations go […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 12:19:57

1Password acquires SecretHub and launches new enterprise secrets management tool  

1Password, the password management service that competes with the likes of LastPass and BitWarden, today announced a major push beyond the basics of password management and into the infrastructure secrets management space. To do so, the company has acquired secrets management service SecretHub and is now launching its new 1Password Secrets Automation service. 1Password did […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 11:58:26

Apple's next event is April 20  

Apple only dropped info about WWDC two weeks back, but the company just announced another event - this one happening much sooner. After Siri spilled the beans this morning, the company has officially confirmed its next event for April 20. Invites for its “Spring Loaded” event went out just now, sporting what appears to be […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 11:19:03

Daily Crunch: Spotify unveils an in-car entertainment system  

Spotify wants to have a bigger presence in your car, Apple hints at iPad-centric announcements and Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop goes on sale. This is your Daily Crunch for April 13, 2021. The big story: Spotify unveils an in-car entertainment system Spotify’s new device is the oddly (but memorably!) named Car Thing. While there are […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 10:02:45

Bloomscape's Justin Mast explains how he built a thriving garden startup in Detroit  

Justin Mast has a simple reason for starting his plant retail startup Bloomscape in Detroit. "This is home," he told me. "This is where I have a really strong network and I knew I'd be able to find a lot of support." Mast didn't grow up in Detroit proper, but he's from Grand Rapids, Michigan’s […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 09:45:49

Facebook tests video speed dating events with 'Sparked'  

Facebook confirmed it’s testing a video speed-dating app called Sparked, after the app’s website was spotted by The Verge. Unlike dating app giants such as Tinder, Sparked users don’t swipe on people they like or direct message others. Instead, they cycle through a series of short video dates during an event to make connections with […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 09:29:17

With the right tools, predicting startup revenue is possible  

How do you predict earnings when you are still figuring it out? You need to work on making your revenue predictable, repeatable and scalable; and use tools that will help you create projections.

what do you think? 2021-04-13 08:26:18

5 questions about Grab's epic SPAC investor deck  

Grab is going public via a SPAC, so let's talk through key points from the investor deck — we'll discuss growth, segment profitability, aggregate costs and COVID-19.

what do you think? 2021-04-13 07:50:40

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket to deliver an Astrobotic lander and NASA water-hunting rover to the Moon in 2023  

SpaceX is set to send a payload to the Moon in 2023, using its larger (and infrequently used) Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. The mission will fly a lander built by space startup Astrobotic, which itself will be carrying NASA’s VIPER, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (this is the agency that loves torturing language to […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 06:35:37

Temasek and BlackRock form Decarbonization Partners with $600 million to create a zero-emission economy  

The $9 trillion financial management firm Blackrock is collaborating with the $313 billion Singapore investment firm Temasek to back companies developing technologies and services to help create a zero emission economy by 2050. The two mega-investment firms will invest an initial $600 million to launch Decarbonization Partners, and look to raise money from investors committing […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 06:16:59

Risk startup LogicGate confirms data breach  

Risk and compliance startup LogicGate has confirmed a data breach. But unless you’re a customer, you probably didn’t hear about it. An email sent by LogicGate to customers earlier this month said on February 23 an unauthorized third party obtained credentials to its Amazon Web Services-hosted cloud storage servers storing customer backup files for its […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 05:57:08

Pine Labs acquires Southeast Asian startup Fave for $45 million  

Pine Labs said on Tuesday it has acquired Southeast Asian startup Fave in a deal valued at $45 million as the Indian firm looks to strengthen its consumer-focused offerings in the domestic and international markets. Fave helps an offline merchant connect and retain customers by using gift cards and vouchers. The startup allows merchants to accept […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 05:45:17

Reminder: Student, non-profit, and government discounts available for Extra Crunch  

Students, government employees, and members of non-profit organizations can get access to Extra Crunch at a discounted rate of $50/year (plus tax). That's 50% off our annual price point. You'll also be grandfathered in at the discounted price for future years until you cancel.  How to claim the discount: Use a government, non-profit, .edu or […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 05:32:02

Republican antitrust bill would block all Big Tech acquisitions  

There are about to be a lot of antitrust bills taking aim at Big Tech, and here’s one more. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) rolled out a new bill this week that would take some severe measures to rein in Big Tech’s power, blocking mergers and acquisitions outright. The “Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act” would […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 05:21:04

Berlin Brands Group raises $240M to buy and scale up third-party Amazon Marketplace brands  

The race is on for companies building e-commerce empires by rolling up smaller, promising businesses that sell via Amazon and other marketplaces and growing by using some economies of scale to operate them as one. In the latest development, Berlin Brands Group has raised $240 million that it says it will be using to acquire […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 05:06:49

Hatch, a neobank for SMBs, launches with $20M in funding from investors like Kleiner Perkins, Foundation and Plaid's founders  

After his last startup, Framed Data, was acquired by Square, Thomson Nguyen began exploring new ideas. While an entrepreneur-in-residence at Kleiner Perkins, Nguyen interviewed hundreds of small business owners and realized that many pay hundreds of dollars in fees to maintain a business checking account. "Most small businesses are low margin, high cash flow, so […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 04:56:58

Expect an even hotter AI venture capital market in the wake of the Microsoft-Nuance deal  

In light of the Microsoft-Nuance deal, we dug into the AI venture capital market. What's happening on the startup side in the artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) space?

what do you think? 2021-04-13 04:39:21

Grab a group discount and take your team to TC Sessions: Mobility 2021  

Mobility mavens, June 9 will be here before you know it, and that means it's time to get your strategy ducks in a row for TC Sessions: Mobility 2021. You want to make the most of your time at this one-day virtual intensive featuring interactive presentations with the mobility industry's top movers, shakers and startup […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 04:17:39

JXL turns Jira into spreadsheets  

Atlassian’s Jira is an extremely powerful issue tracking and project management tool, but it’s not the world’s most intuitive piece of software either. Spreadsheets, on the other hand, are pretty much the de facto standard for managing virtually anything in a business. It’s maybe no surprise then that there are already a couple of tools […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 04:12:13

Bandwango raises $3.1M to power tourism- and experience-focused deals  

You might think that a startup whose primary customers are tourism bureaus would have had a pretty rough 2020, but CEO Monir Parikh said Bandwango‘s customer base more than doubled in the past year,  growing from 75 to 200. In Parikh’s words, the Murray, Utah-based startup has built a platform called the Destination Experience Engine […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 03:50:29

CMU teaches its snake robot to swim  

The snake robot has been something of an institution in the Carnegie Mellon robotics labs. Every time I visit the school, the biomimetic robot has seemingly learned a new trick. This week, the school announced it has added swimming to the list. Testing actually began last month in one of CMU's pools, with the snake […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 03:07:09

Fortnite-maker Epic completes $1B funding round  

How much is Epic Games worth? Well, we've long ago surpasses the realm of dollar figures regular humans can contextualize. With its latest round, the gamer hits an equity valuation of $28.7 billion. Yes, “b” for “billion.” That's a lot of micro-transactions. Time to start talking metaverse! Best known for the wildly successful battle royale […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 02:42:10

Home gym startup Tempo raises $220M to meet surge in demand for its workout device  

When the pandemic forced everyone to stay at home last year, many gym-goers looked to at-home fitness makers to fill the void for their cardiovascular and strength-training workouts. To help meet that demand, Tempo, the five-year-old fitness startup founded by Moawia Eldeeb and Josh Augustin, closed a $220 million Series C round led by SoftBank. […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 02:16:52

African crypto usage spurs Luno as customers reach 7M  

The crypto industry as a whole has seen a momentous year of growth, heavily spurred on by the entrance of institutional investors adopting bitcoin due to its store of value properties. The 2020 spike bitcoin experienced was also accelerated by its global adoption as the number of global cryptocurrency users surpassed 100 million in Q3 […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 01:58:46

FBI launches operation to remove backdoors from hacked Microsoft Exchange servers  

A court in Houston has authorized an FBI operation to “copy and remove” backdoors from hundreds of Microsoft Exchange email servers in the United States, months after hackers used four previously undiscovered vulnerabilities to attack thousands of networks. The Justice Department announced the operation on Tuesday, which it described as “successful.” In March, Microsoft discovered […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 01:54:26

Grover raises $71M to grow its consumer electronics subscription business  

A startup tapping into the concept of the circular economy, where people don’t buy items outright but pay an incremental amount to use them temporarily, has raised some funding to scale its business in Europe and beyond. Grover, a Berlin-based startup that runs a subscription model where people can rent out consumer electronics like computers, […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 01:37:56

Putting Gdańsk, Wroclaw, Krakow, Poznan on the TechCrunch map — TechCrunch's Cities Survey  

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey European founders and investors in cities outside the larger European capitals. Over the next few weeks, we will ask entrepreneurs in these cities to talk about their ecosystems, in their own words. This is your chance to put Gdańsk, Wroclaw, Krakow and Poznan on the […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 01:33:32

Facebook, Instagram users can now ask 'oversight' panel to review decisions not to remove content  

Facebook’s self-styled ‘Oversight Board’ (FOB) has announced an operational change that looks intended to respond to criticism of the limits of the self-regulatory content-moderation decision review body: It says it’s started accepting requests from users to review decisions to leave content up on Facebook and Instagram. The move expands the FOB’s remit beyond reviewing (and […]

what do you think? 2021-04-13 01:19:26

Battery Resourcers raises $20M to commercialize its operations  

As a greater share of the transportation market becomes electrified, companies have started to grapple with how to dispose of the thousands of tons of used electric vehicle batteries that are expected to come off the roads by the end of the decade. Battery Resourcers proposes a seemingly simple solution: recycle them. But the company […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 21:53:31

Atomico's talent partners share 6 tips for early-stage people ops success  

There are still a number of surefire measures any early-stage company can and should put in place to achieve "people ops" success as they begin scaling.

what do you think? 2021-04-12 21:51:23

Daily Crunch: Microsoft acquires Nuance for $19.7B  

Microsoft makes a big healthcare tech acquisition, Twitter is building a presence in Africa and Apple may be cooking up some new smart home products. This is your Daily Crunch for April 12, 2021. The big story: Microsoft acquires Nuance for $19.7B Microsoft announced this morning that it’s acquiring speech-to-text company Nuance Communications for $19.7 […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 20:07:47

GV partner Terri Burns is joining us to judge the Startup Battlefield  

One of the best parts of TechCrunch Disrupt is the Startup Battlefield competition, and one of the most important pieces of the Startup Battlefield is our lineup of expert judges — they’re the ones the founders are trying to impress. Once the demos and presentations are done, the judges need to think quickly and ask […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 18:38:38

Vietnamese electric motorbike startup Dat Bike raises $2.6M led by Jungle Ventures  

Dat Bike, a Vietnamese startup with ambitions to become the top electric motorbike company in Southeast Asia, has raised $2.6 million in pre-Series A funding led by Jungle Ventures. Made in Vietnam with mostly domestic parts, Dat Bike's selling point is its ability to compete with gas motorbikes in terms of pricing and performance. Its […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 16:56:25

How to choose and deploy industry-specific AI models  

Industry-specific AI models are only going to boom in popularity over the next few years and businesses from across sectors will realize their power in delivering accurate and powerful insights.

what do you think? 2021-04-12 14:58:57

Tiger Global leads $100 million investment in Indian social commerce DealShare  

Tiger Global has invested in DealShare, a startup in India that has built an e-commerce platform for middle- and lower-income groups of consumers, just three months after the Indian firm concluded its previous $21 million Series C funding round. The New York-headquartered firm has led the $100 million Series D round in three-year-old social commerce […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 14:54:37

Tech and auto execs tackle global chip shortage at White House summit  

A collection of tech and auto industry executives met with the White House to discuss solutions for the worldwide chip shortage Monday. CEOs from Google, Intel, HP, Dell, Ford and General Motors attended the virtual summit on semiconductors and resilience in supply chains. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and National […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 14:18:28

Jack Ma's Ant called to end anti-competition in payments  

The details for Ant's overhaul have arrived. Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba controlled by Jack Ma, will become a financial holding company that will bring more regulatory scrutiny over how it lends and generates profits, China’s central bank said on Monday. Ant started as an online payments processor for Alibaba marketplaces and has […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 13:52:27

IonQ now supports IBM's Qiskit quantum development kit  

IonQ, the trapped ion quantum computing company that recently announced that it wants to go public via a SPAC, today announced that it is integrating its quantum computing platform with the open-source Qiskit software development kit. This means Qiskit users can now bring their programs to IonQ’s platform without any major modifications to their code. […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 12:41:52

When wildfires rage close, Perimeter wants to tell you where to go  

Out the window, a fire is raging — and it's moving ever closer. Confusion. Fear. A run for the car. Roads open and then suddenly closed by authorities. Traffic jams. A fire break that stalls the flames and then suddenly the flames jump, changing direction. Everyone has a plan for what to do — a […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 12:35:11

Another milestone for in-space servicing as Northrop Grumman gives aging satellite new life  

Northrop Grumman hit a new milestone in extending the life of active spacecraft as a purpose-built spacecraft, MEV-2, docked with Intelsat’s IS-10-02 satellite to give it another five years of life. It’s a strong demonstration of the possibilities in a growing field of orbital servicing operations. MEV-2 launched in August and matched the orbit of […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 12:26:28

Equity Monday: Microsoft buys Nuance, Uber isn't dead, and Austin has a new unicorn  

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 11:45:25

Hardware is still hard in the Motor City  

"It's a little bit of a messy story," Adam Leeb says with a laugh. The story that landed Astrohaus in Detroit on two separate occasions is a bit tangled, certainly. The hardware startup's cofounder and CEO isn't the sort of hometown cheerleader you often encounter when speaking with executives who've opted to keep their organizations […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 11:45:21

Clim8 raises $8M from 7pc Ventures, launches climate-focused investing app for retail investors  

Ethical investing remains something of a confusing maze, with a great deal of 'greenwashing' going on. A new UK startup is hoping to fix that with the launch of its new app and platform for retail investors. Clim8 Investhas raised $8 million from 7pc Ventures (early backers of Oculus, acquired by Facebook),  British Business Bank […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 11:34:20

Biden's cybersecurity dream team takes shape  

President Biden has named two former National Security Agency veterans to senior government cybersecurity positions, including the first national cyber director. The appointments, announced Monday, land after the discovery of two cyberattacks linked to foreign governments earlier this year — the Russian espionage campaign that planed backdoors in U.S. technology giant SolarWinds’ technology to hack […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 11:24:41

Apple and Google will both attend Senate hearing on app store competition  

After it looked like Apple might no-show, the company has committed to sending a representative to a Senate antitrust hearing on app store competition later this month. Last week, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) put public pressure on the company to attend the hearing, which will be held by the Senate Judiciary […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 10:48:40

Blue Origin will run an 'astronaut rehearsal' during a launch this week to prep for human spaceflight  

Blue Origin is making progress toward its goal of flying human astronauts aboard its spacecraft, with a plan to run an “astronaut rehearsal” during a launch it has planned for Wednesday, April 14. The launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital, reusable rocket will be a key step in verifying the vehicle for paying human […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 10:25:47

Memic raises $96M for its robot-assisted surgery platform  

Memic, a startup developing a robotic-assisted surgical platform that recently received marketing authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, today announced that it has closed a $96 million Series D funding round. The round was led by Peregrine Ventures and Ceros, with participation from OurCrowd and Accelmed. The company plans to use the new […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 09:51:22

Ride-hailing's profitability promise is in its final countdown  

Last month was Uber's best in history in terms of gross sales on its platform. That's good, but not as good as you might think.

what do you think? 2021-04-12 09:30:36

Microsoft goes all in on healthcare with $19.7B Nuance acquisition  

When Microsoft announced it was acquiring Nuance Communications this morning for $19.7 billion, you could be excused for doing a Monday morning double take at the hefty price tag. That’s surely a lot of money for a company on a $1.4 billion run rate, but Microsoft, which has already partnered with the speech-to-text market leader […]

what do you think? 2021-04-12 09:05:24