Earlier today, we talked with Phil Haslett, the cofounder and now chief strategy officer of EquityZen, a 10-year-old, New York-based secondary marketplace that connects accredited buyers with privately held company shares that their owners — including founders, employees, and VCs — are looking to sell. It’s a tough business to be running right now, competing
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To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. There is officially only 8.3% left of the year. You know what that means! Holidays, cheer, and daydreaming about what shenanigans we’ll get ourselves into in 2024. Yes, 2024, because clearly we’re
A new report has shone a light on the impact that European and Israeli unicorns have had on the broader technology ecosystem since the global economic crisis 14 years ago. The report, titled “Europe and Israel’s Startup Founder Factories,” was produced by VC firm Accel with heavy support from startup and VC data platform Dealroom.
Boundary Layer, which was gunning for local air freight, and announced a slew of launch partners earlier this year, today announced a shift in strategy, with some high-performance foiling personal watercraft. Think low-flying SeaDoo, and you’ve got the right idea. The new product is called Valo, and will be able to carry a couple of
Disney announced today the long-awaited third season of “The Mandalorian,” which will debut on March 1 on Disney+. The company had previously said that the third season would debut in February, so fans will have to wait a little longer than expected to see the upcoming season. The third season will take place following the
X1, a consumer fintech startup which recently launched an income-based credit card to the public, has raised an additional $15 million in funding. This round caught our attention for a few reasons. For one, a consumer fintech raising in this environment is a bit counter to the narrative that startups in the space are generally
So much software is dedicated to helping businesses improve interactions online, whether it be aimed at sales, marketing or customer service. But despite the prevalence of the internet and an increase in digital commerce, the fact remains that over 85% of commerce still happens offline in the United States. Enter Rillavoice, a new startup with
Zoe, a startup founded by doctors and researchers out of London and Boston, made its name during the pandemic with a popular — dare we say viral? — self-reporting Covid-19 app. Embraced both by consumers and researchers, it provided early data into how Covid-19 spread and the symptoms associated with the initial infection and its
Content is king for streaming services, and Netflix may be going the extra mile to ensure its content is up to par with subscribers. According to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix’s prerelease screening program will soon enlist tens of thousands of subscribers to preview new movies and shows and provide their feedback. Netflix declined to
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Heeeeeey! Couple of fun things we have in the pipeline at the moment… Did you know we’re looking for you and your expertise for our TechCrunch founder summit? Join us for a
Badili, a Kenya-based smartphone re-commerce startup, has raised $2.1 million pre-seed funding to scale its operations within Africa; one of the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world. The Venture Catalysts, V&R Africa, Grenfell holdings, and SOSV, participated in the round, as did family offices and angel investors from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and India.
The U.K. government has completed a major revision to controversial but populist online safety legislation that’s been in the works for years — and was finally introduced to parliament earlier this year — but has been paused since this summer following turmoil in the governing Conservative Party. In September, new secretary of state for digital, Michelle Donelan,
According to Corning in-house research, “84% of consumers across three of the largest smartphone markets – China, India, and the United States — cite durability as the number one purchasing consideration behind brand itself.” I suspect that things like battery life and camera rank pretty highly, as well, but at the very least, it’s safe
Netflix released nine more mobile games this month, the company announced on Tuesday. The addition of games brings Netflix’s total to over 40 titles, keeping the streamer on track to have more than 50 titles in its mobile games catalog by the end of 2022. Newly added games include Country Friends, the FarmVille clone developed
DeHaat, a startup that offers a wide-range of agricultural services to farmers in India, has raised $60 million in a new funding round as it looks to deepen its penetration in the country and reach break-even profitability within two years. Sofina Ventures and Temasek co-led the Patna and Gurgaon-headquartered startup’s Series E funding, it said,
“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone, I was shocked by what happened this month,” Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and former chief executive of the fallen FTX, said at The New York Times’ annual DealBook summit in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin. One of the biggest questions around this debacle is
The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of carbon emissions worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. While a portion of that is from the energy and materials required to construct buildings, the lion’s share — nearly 90% on an annual basis — comes from their use. Decarbonizing the grid could go a long
European Union regulators have fired another warning shot at Elon Musk over his erratic piloting of Twitter since his takeover last month — saying he has “huge work” ahead if the social media site is to avoid falling foul of major new governance rules for digital services which entered into force earlier this month. Reminder:
Once upon a time, I used to write TechCrunch’s travel gifts roundup. It was a fun story to piece together, and I was more than happy to do the honors — and play around with some fun gadgets in the process. We hit the big red pause button on the roundup during the 2020 holiday
YouTube’s mobile app on iOS devices is currently down for some users. The crashes began on Wednesday afternoon as thousands of iOS users reported the app would close shortly after opening it. Users also reported seeing a message on the app that said, “A serious error occurred.” TechCrunch tried to replicate the problem and experienced
Crypto exchange Kraken today announced it’s letting go of 1,100 staffers. The announcement came from a company blog post and follows similar news from DoorDash that it was also cutting staff. News that Kraken is cutting staff — and therefore costs — is not a surprise, given a generally gloomy macroeconomic climate and even worse climes
Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: My co-founder’s a green
It’s the middle of the holiday season here in the U.S., that magical time between Thanksgiving and Christmas when stores are packed with bodies and porches are piled with packages. All those packages produce a lot of waste — anywhere from 33 million tons to 51 million tons annually, depending on the estimate. A majority
Litigation against Google and its parent entity Alphabet being brought in the U.K. on behalf of thousands of digital publishers — seeking up to £13.6 billion (~$16.3 billion) in damages on their behalf for alleged anti-competitive behavior related to Google’s adtech practices — has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). “The claim alleges
The Kindle turned 15 this month. It’s been a strange ride for Amazon’s first hardware device. CEO Andy Jassy gave the e-reader a rare bit of love in last year’s shareholder letter, noting: Our first foray into devices was the Kindle, released in 2007. It was not the most sophisticated industrial design (it was creamy
Spotify Wrapped 2022 has officially arrived. Though other music services, including Apple Music and YouTube Music, now put together their own year-end retrospectives, Spotify’s personalized and interactive Wrapped experience for its users, creators and podcasters remains the one to beat. The secret to its ongoing success is how it goes beyond simply offering a summary
Plenty of companies that launched during downturns went on to be phenomenally successful. During the Great Depression, Stanford grads David Packard and William Hewlett famously set up shop in a Palo Alto garage. Microsoft was founded as the U.S. was recovering from a years-long oil embargo that hobbled the economy. Slack, Airbnb, Uber and Square
Prismforce, an India-U.S. startup that provides IT and tech services companies with tools to build better talent supply chain, has raised $13.6 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India. IT providers spend a large part of their variable costs on hiring skilled employees. But finding those employees from the ever-growing talent
Over the past 11 years, eFounders has refined the startup studio model in Europe. The company has contributed to the launch of more than 30 different startups, including three unicorns — Spendesk, Aircall and Front. While things seem to be doing well for the startup studio, eFounders is pivoting — sort of. As of today, eFounders
Disney paid $900 million to Major League Baseball (MLB) earlier this month to buy out the league’s remaining 15% stake in the streaming firm BAMTech, according to an SEC filing made public Tuesday. The transaction makes Disney a 100% owner of the streaming company that powers Disney+ and the firm’s other consumer services. The SEC