Last year, Triller triumphantly announced that it would pay out a total of $14 million in cash and equity to Black creators in 2022. It seemed like a smart move, helping the lesser-known short-form video app to compete with TikTok by uplifting underrepresented talent. But The Washington Post recently reported that most of these creators
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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: Which immigration options are
Kimberly Bryant is officially out from Black Girls Code, eight months after being indefinitely suspended from the organization that she founded. In a statement provided to TechCrunch, a Black Girls Code spokesperson writes that it “believes the decision to remove Ms. Bryant as CEO and as a board member is in the best interests of
In the U.S., most electric vehicle owners say that public chargers are easy to use. That is, when they actually work. A new J.D. Power survey finds that, while public charging stations are a tad easier to come by these days, faulty chargers are souring the experience and hampering EV adoption. That’s no good, because
Dodge revealed Wednesday an EV concept that looks — and even sounds — like the gas-powered Charger muscle car that will be discontinued next year. The two-door Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept — the Daytona name a nod to its gas-powered ancestor’s 200 mph NASCAR track milestone — is not just a design exercise, according
As the U.S. and Europe bake in abnormal summer heat, the climate continues to climb up the world’s agenda. With everyone now talking about energy, how commodities are traded is also becoming a talking point. Creating a “nutrition label” so that it would be possible to track the provenance of a commodity — be it
Some parts of China are suffering from record high temperatures in the past few weeks, prompting local governments to halt industrial power use, including those of battery plants. When news reaches the West, it generates fear-mongering headlines like “China heat wave shuts Tesla suppliers” which have likely rattled investors (because Tesla is all we care
Amazon is the next company in line to try to generate engagement from a TikTok-like social feed. The e-commerce giant joins the a laundry list of companies that have had the same idea: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Spotify, Netflix … what’s next, a vertical video feed on the IRS app that tracks
When VCs overlook the U.S. Midwest, it’s not just Chicago they are missing out on. Over time, many cities across the Midwest have been building out bona fide startup ecosystems, as M25’s annual ranking of Midwest startup hubs makes clear. Each year, the Chicago-based VC firm puts together a list of the Midwest’s most active
Sajith Wickramasekara co-founded Benchling to improve laboratory data collection and collaboration. Since its 2012 founding, the company has grown to a valuation of $6.1 billion. Wickramasekara will join TechCrunch Live, along with Benchmark general partner Miles Grimshaw, to discuss its recent acquisition and growth. This TechCrunch Live event opens on August 24 at 11:30 a.m.
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. Hellooo, Crunchy McCrunchface! (What we’re calling the readers of the Daily Crunch is still a work in progress.) Super psyched to share something double-plus-awesome with you: The culmination of months of work
Following Amazon’s $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical, Business Insider reported the company would add mental health services to its portfolio. Although there are skeptics who fear Amazon’s privacy track record in the context of healthcare, some say the company’s moves could be positive for the industry. The tech behemoth originally entered the health sector
South Korean company Naver Z is the brain behind the popular 3D-avatar app Zepeto. Today, the company announced it made a strategic investment in the Danish animation and motion capture company Rokoko. The mocap (motion capture) company has more than 50,000 users all over the world, including some of the biggest names in the biz,
If you’ve heard of Tineco, it’s probably because the 24-year-old company has been making vacuums and hair dryers for a hot minute. The company’s next product is a $339 toaster that connects to your Wi-Fi network and can toast your toast with science and precision, and makes me wonder if there’s any device in our
Netflix’s upcoming ad-supported tier could have a big drawback — besides the fact that your programming will be interrupted by commercials, that is. One of the streaming service’s more useful features, offline viewing, may not be available to members on this low-end tier of the service. This discovery came about when developer Steve Moser found
Multi-asset social investment network and Robinhood competitor eToro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Gatsby — a fintech startup which also aimed to go head to head against Robinhood — for $50 million in a cash and common stock deal. Israel-based eToro told TechCrunch this week that it just received approval from FINRA, the
While the impact of macro market conditions on the global venture ecosystem has dominated headlines and conversations since February, it occurred to me a few weeks ago that I hadn’t heard anything about Israel. No huge layoff perils — but no eye-popping mega-rounds either. Was no news good news? I decided to find out. In
Google Cloud announced this week that it’s shutting down its IoT Core service, giving customers a year to move to a partner to manage their IoT devices. The announcement appeared at the top of the IoT Core web page this week with little fanfare. The company also sent an email to customers announcing the change.
Crowdfunding website Kickstarter sparked fears overnight of a possible security incident after the company sent unsolicited password reset emails to millions of users without prior explanation. The emails, seen by TechCrunch, tells users that Kickstarter is “simplifying its login process” and urges users to “set a new password for your Kickstarter account.” The emails offered
Internet usage continues to skyrocket, with 29.3 billion networked devices projected to be in use by 2023 and the growth rate currently at around 10%. Today, an enterprise startup called DriveNets that’s built a more cost-effective way for service providers and other outsized connectivity users to scale to meet that demand by leveraging software and
When Hyundai acquired Boston Dynamics at the end of 2020, there were plenty of open questions. Chief among them was why we should assume this acquisition would be any different than the past few? The 30-year-old bleeding-edge robotics firm had been an uncomfortable fit for its last two owners, Google and SoftBank, but the Korean
Highbeam, a New York-based neobank built for people building e-commerce brands on marketplaces like Shopify and Amazon, raised $7 million in seed funding to continue developing banking tools that cater to these entrepreneurs’ needs. The one-year-old fintech startup, started by Samir Shergill and Gautam Gupta, provides banking features, access to transparent credit and cash management
American Airlines will buy up to 20 jets from Boom Supersonic, an aircraft maker that aims to commercialize supersonic, and super-fast, flight. Boom’s Overture four-engine jets promise speeds of up to Mach 1.7 over water, which is twice the speed of today’s fastest commercial aircraft — meaning the jet can fly from Miami to London
QuotaBook, a Seoul-based equity management platform, has raised $11 million in funding led by Elefund, with participation from Access Ventures, Hana Securities and South Korean fintech company Viva Republica. Some of its previous backers, including Draper Associates and Capstone Partners, joined the round. The Korean startup, which graduated from Y Combinator (YC)’s Winter 21 batch,
The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday, says that if automakers want their electric vehicles to be eligible for tax credits, they’ll need to have final assembly in North America. The law, which takes effect immediately, ends credits for about 70% of the 72 models that were previously eligible, according
The U.K. water processing industry produces a godawful amount of biogas annually. The gasses are primarily used to generate operational heat and power on-site, or they can be turned into biomethane and injected back into the national gas grid. New research funding is going to see if United Utilities can use Levidian’s Loop system to
Bangalore-based Exponent Energy might have come up with a way to deliver 15-minute rapid charging for electric vehicles. The startup, which just raised a $13 million Series A, relies on a combination of its proprietary battery pack and charging infrastructure to achieve such a feat. Exponent Energy’s business model is geared towards OEMs building commercial
If you ask me, climate tech investor Contrarian Ventures isn’t so contrarian anymore. The five-year-old firm is targeting $100 million for its second seed-stage fund, and it’s doing so smack in the middle of a climate-tech dealmaking boom. So, if anything, it’s trendy. But when the seed-stage VC — a backer of e-bike maker Zoomo
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Analyzing data generated within the enterprise — for example, sales and purchasing data — can lead to insights that improve operations. But some organizations are struggling to process, store and use their vast amounts of data efficiently. According to an IDC survey commissioned by Seagate, organizations collect only 56% of the data available throughout their