The wheels of privacy enforcement are slowly turning against Facebook in Europe — where its lead data protection regulator, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), has taken a key procedural step on a data transfers complaint whose substance dates back almost a decade at this point. The DPC confirmed today that a draft decision on the
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Traba, a jobs board designed to help entry-level workers find available shifts at fulfillment centers and event venues, today announced that it raised $20 million in a Series A round. Khosla led the financing with participation from Founders Fund, General Catalyst, SciFi VC and Atomic, valuing Traba at $120 million post-money. CEO Mike Shebat says
Build stronger brands and reduce reliance on social Simon Wu 7 hours Simon Wu Contributor Simon is a partner with Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm investing across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He focuses on software, fintech, digital health and consumer investments. More posts by this contributor From startups to Starbucks: The
According to the World Bank, Indonesia produces 4.8 million tons of plastic waste each year that is “mismanaged”—meaning it ends up uncollected, chucked into dumpsites or leaked from improperly managed landfills. Octopus wants to reduce that number with a platform that makes it easier to collect back waste products from consumers and recycle it into
As companies adopt new tools to accommodate remote ways of work, it’s becoming tougher for their workforces to keep track of and manage information across internal services. It’s not just the C-suite that’s being challenged — lower-level employees, too, are having to wrestle with employers’ now-sprawling catalogs of apps. According to Statista, the average enterprise
“Frequent” investigations into local units of Chinese firms by Indian authorities “impedes the improvement of business environment” in India and “chills the confidence and willingness” of other foreign nation’s businesses to invest and operate in the South Asian market, China’s embassy in India said in a statement, following raids into Vivo offices earlier this week.
YuLife originally made a name for itself in its home market of the U.K. for its new approach to the provisioning of life insurance: yes, sell a policy that provides financial security to your people in the event of your death; but do so with a focus on improving the policyholder’s current life with wellness
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. Greetings, and happy Wednesday! I had to check the calendar before I said the day because does anyone really know what day it is anymore? Amanda had me cracking up with her
The startup market is global in footprint, varied in focus, diverse in business model and constantly evolving. The venture capital market, meanwhile, is slower to molt, but it’s also changed in the last decade. Startups and their financial backers went a bit nuts last year, raising too much money, often at unsustainable prices. We’re now watching
After a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2019, the Espresso Display is back with version 2 of its USB-C powered, ultraportable second monitor for people who love to get things done while on the road. Darrell tried out a preproduction unit of the original version of the display a couple of years ago, concluding that
Last month, Insider published an explosive report about a former SpaceX flight attendant who accused SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk of propositioning her for sex in 2016 and to whom the company paid $250,000 to keep quiet. Musk immediately labeled the story “a politically motivated hit piece,” while SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell
More antitrust scrutiny for Amazon in Europe: The U.K.’s antitrust watchdog has opened an investigation into Amazon’s marketplace on the same day Germany’s regulator has confirmed it can apply special abuse controls to the e-commerce giant. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the probe will consider — firstly — whether Amazon has a
If you’ve ever searched on YouTube for a review of the latest iPhone or electric car, then you’ve probably encountered Marques Brownlee. Since he started his channel MKBHD as a teenager in 2009, Brownlee has amassed 15.8 million subscribers for his in-depth, yet approachable tech videos. He’s even scored interviews with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg,
From the next big thing to rueful error, the global SPAC market has had a big few years. So-called blank check companies, which take a skeleton corporation public with the aim of later merging with a private entity, can offer a quick path to the world’s stock markets. They can also, as we’ve relearned in
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha and Alex asked: Why is tech full of copycats, and what’s the
Over five years after the release of the Nintendo Switch, fans are salivating for news about a new console, whether that be a rumored Switch Pro or Switch 2. Last night, it seemed almost certain that a new console was on its way. As Twitch streamer Shokio wrote on Twitter, Nintendo had just made YouTube
Marjorie Radlo-Zandi Contributor Marjorie Radlo-Zandi is an entrepreneur, board member, mentor to startups and angel investor who shows early-stage businesses how to build and successfully scale their businesses. More posts by this contributor Does your startup have enough runway? 5 factors to consider Be an entrepreneur who leads with transparency As an entrepreneur, you’ll find
The UK government has tabled an amendment to the Online Safety Bill that could put it on a collision course with end-to-end encryption. It’s proposing to give the incoming Internet regulator, Ofcom, new powers to force messaging platforms and other types of online services to implement content-scanning technologies, even if their platform is strongly encrypted
Nothing, the consumer tech company started by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei and known for its aggressive marketing, unveils a non-fungible token project called Black Dot. Its fans are skeptical. Black Dot is a video clip featuring a rotating, transparent cube with a black dot bouncing off the walls inside and making a crispy, metallic sound.
During the most recent Y Combinator startup batch, Peakflo stood out to TechCrunch. The company’s simple pitch — Bill.com for Southeast Asia — fit neatly into the broader narrative of the world increasingly digitizing its workflows and the generally hot market we’d seen for fintech companies. At the time, we noted that “there are huge
South Korean AI chip developer Rebellions has raised a $22.8 million (30 million KRW) extension to its Series A financing from a strategic investor KT, one of the largest telecom companies in South Korea. Last month, TechCrunch reported on Rebellions closing on $50 million in funding that valued the company at an estimated $283 million. At
Creating and grading tests is one of the most time-consuming tasks teachers need to deal with. In Vietnam, a startup called Azota wants to help with an online software platform that not only helps educators develop and proctor tests, but also automatically grades them using information from Vietnamese teaching materials. The company announced today it
My work in early-stage startups focused on operations, so I used Wikipedia to find the formula for calculating a company’s post-money valuation: PMV = N x P N = number of shares the company has post-investment P = price per share at which the investment was made So, if a company offers a round with
Automotive e-commerce company Autochek has expanded to three new African countries after acquiring CoinAfrique, a classified ad marketplace, nearly two months after the Nigerian startup acquired Moroccan auto marketplace KIFAL Auto, marking its foray into North Africa. Autochek said it will tap CoinAfrique’s regional customer base in Francophone Africa to accelerate its car financing services.
Amazon tried but then ultimately stepped away from building its own cost-intensive Grubhub and DoorDash competitor in the U.S. back in 2019. Now three years on, it’s taking a different approach to tackling the space to build in one more sweetener to encourage more sign-ups to its Prime subscription service. Today, the e-commerce giant and
Over the weekend, Tesla showed off its latest gadget: a solar trailer, featuring extendable panels, a satellite internet terminal and even a lick of matte-black paint. Tesla may have designed the trailer to add some range to electric vehicles—or, to advertise Starlink’s new $25-per-month “portability” feature, which SpaceX announced in May. Whatever it’s for, you
Loft, a Brazilian proptech unicorn, has laid off about 380 employees, or 12% of its workforce, the company announced today. The layoff marks the company’s second round of cuts this year so far. In April, Bloomberg Linea had reported that Loft had cut 159 jobs. That would mean that Loft has let go of nearly 540
Voyantis, a startup developing tools to estimate a customer’s lifetime value, today emerged from stealth with $19 million in seed funding from Target Global, Square Peg, Schusterman Family Investments, Kaedan Capital and Operator Partners. CEO Ido Wiesenberg tells TechCrunch that the funds will be used to expand Voyantis’ product offering and support more use cases
Jordan Kretchmer founded Rapid Robotics with the mission of simplifying robotics for manufacturing by providing out-of-the-box automation solutions. Founded in 2019, the company quickly gained the attention of top VCs, including Bee Partners, which led Rapid Robotics’ seed round and participated in each of the following rounds. Hear Rapid Robotics’ pitch and learn why robotic
Rhode Island leaped ahead in the race to 100% renewable power last week as Governor Dan McKee signed a bill that would mandate the state reach the target by 2033, the most aggressive state target so far. Only Oregon comes close, and it’s shooting for 2040. In some respects, Rhode Island has it easy. With