Both Anchor and Descript have made their names as being among the most significant Podcast creation platforms of recent times, but hoving into the rear-view mirror recently has been Podcastle, an all-in-one platform that can cover off recording, production and publishing, all on the one platform. It’s now raised $7 million in an early-stage funding
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Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently said was “no longer a photo-sharing app,” noting the company was prioritizing a shift into video amid significant competition from TikTok and YouTube. Today, Instagram is taking another step towards its larger goal of making video a more central part of the Instagram experience with news that it will now
Students can get access to TechCrunch+ at a discounted rate of $50/year (plus tax). Here’s how to claim the discount: Use a .edu or university email address and send a message to our customer support team at plus@techcrunch.com. Please let them know that you are seeking the student discount. The team will respond within 24-48
Founders seeking to raise their first round of capital may feel overwhelmed by the prospect. There is definitely plenty of capital out there, but there are also a lot of startups clamoring for it. To help new entrepreneurs figure out this dilemma, we invited three investors to speak at a panel titled, “How to Raise
Global users are experiencing outages on Facebook, including all social networks the company owns, which include Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. When navigating to these websites, a server error will appear — Instagram shows a “5xx server error,” which indicates that this is an issue with Facebook’s servers. Users are also unable to send messages or
As DevOps SaaS platform Esper continues to build out the category and the number of connected devices grows, the company took on another round of funding to stay ahead of demand. Just five months after announcing a $30 million Series B round, the company is back with an even bigger capital infusion — $60 million
Book sales during the pandemic went up, and it seems the amount we are reading did, too. And Inkitt, the startup that operates a free, popular platform of the same name for anyone to write and publish stories — stories that Inkitt then analyses using data science to determine which of them to take
A pair of new e-readers from Kobo iterate on the company’s high-end options, adding Bluetooth audiobook and stylus support to the now familiar asymmetrical design of its larger devices. The Sage and Libra 2 also gain a new charging cover so you only have to plug the device in every few months rather than every
Netflix is today officially launching a new feature for its Android users that will make it easier to find something to watch when you can’t make a decision. The feature, called “Play Something,” is a shuffle mode option that will play another movie or show Netflix believes you may like, based on your interests and
In a world where fintech is so hot right now, and investors are being swept up by their excitement for the space, Chime has managed to ride the wave to near perfection. The company has raised upwards of $2.6 billion, including a fresh $750 million just this year. The startup, playing in the fee-free banking
Informatica filed to go public late last week, some six years after it was taken private by two private equity teams for $5.3 billion. The data-focused company used its passage through the private markets to execute a move to the cloud, work that came to a head in early 2021, when Informatica announced its dive
Facebook’s stock took a dive Monday as the site suffered one of its worst outages of the past decade with services across its entire suite of products going offline while the tech company struggled to even bring its own internal services back online. The stock ended the day down nearly 5%, with Facebook shedding tens
Infrastructure as code (IaC) has been gaining wider adoption among DevOps teams in recent years, but the complexities of data center configuration and management continue to create problems — and opportunities. We surveyed top investors in IaC startups to find out more. Overall, they see a lot of room for growth given all of the
The European Parliament’s lead and shadow rapporteur for a major reboot of the bloc’s digital rulebook have called for an investigation following the Facebook whistleblower leaks. One of the MEPs has also called for incoming EU rules to directly tackle business models that favor “disinformation and violence over factual content”. In a joint statement, the
Pioneered by Snapchat and cloned by Instagram, the “Stories” feature has become a staple for modern-day mobile apps from Google search to Pinterest to streaming apps and more. And while the addition doesn’t work for everyone — LinkedIn and Twitter recently shuttered their Stories features, for example — there’s enough demand for Stories out there
Jun.22 — Miller Tabak Chief Market Strategist Matt Maley and Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald discuss the volatility surrounding cryptocurrencies with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang on “Bloomberg Technology.”
Image Credits: Wasp It seems that a lot of startups are trying to help developers reduce the complexity involved in coding an app. Last week we covered the seed round for RunX, a company that helps developers code back-end cloud resources more quickly. Today, Y Combinator Winter 2021 graduate Wasp announced a $1.5 million seed
Stable, an insurtech aiming to help minimize a businesses’ risk due to volatile commodity prices, today announced it has raised $46.5 million in a Series A round of funding led by Greycroft. Notion Capital, Anthemis, Continental Grain and existing backers Syngenta and Ascot also participated in the financing, which brings the Chicago-based startup’s total raised
Jane Mosbacher Morris started her career in the U.S. Department of State helping women fight terrorism. Now she is helping them find fairly paid work. She recognized that for women to drive change they needed access to resources, so she started studying agriculture and other sectors and become interested in the strategic investment in supply
Jared Spataro has been with Microsoft for more than 15 years now, and he has been part of the transition from an on-prem software company to a SaaS business. Today his official title is corporate vp in charge of the company’s biggest SaaS product, Office 365. Spataro is going to join us on October 27th
Berlin-based climate tech startup, ‘Made of Air‘, has closed a €5 million (~$5.8M) seed funding round, led by Norwegian sustainability-focused family fund, TD Veen. Also participating are Patrick Pichette (former CFO of Google & chairman of the Board of Twitter), EQT Group, Thomas Von Koch (CEO & cofounder of EQT Group), Tuesday Capital, the co-founders
It’s said that you should measure what you value, and for founders, nothing is more valuable than growth. Growth provides revenues, venture capital, prestige and scale — ultimately driving the success of every business. Yet, measuring growth is complex and challenging — and it’s only getting tougher. Changes to attribution in iOS 14 and further
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, with geography that makes it vulnerable to typhoons, floods, volcanos, earthquakes and droughts. While working in IT, Felix Ayque began compiling cyclone reports and sending them as email alerts to communities. His work evolved into environmental intelligence platform Komunidad, which collects data from
If you’re diagnosed with lazy eye — otherwise known as amblyopia — as a child, there are only a few options at your disposal. You can wear an eye patch, you can take eye drops or you can wear corrective lenses. Or, in the future (pending FDA clearance), you could watch TV. That’s the central
Venture capital is a popular source of capital for early-stage startups, but it’s definitely not the only one. Debt is an increasingly popular alternative, as is non-dilutive, revenue-based financing. So, we invited Accel Partner Arun Mathew, Clearco co-founder and president Michele Romanow, and Pipe co-founder and co-CEO Harry Hurst to TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 last week
When LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman first coined the term “blitzscaling,” he kept it simple: It’s a concept that encourages entrepreneurs to prioritize speed over efficiency during a period of uncertainty. Years later, founders are navigating a pandemic, perhaps the most uncertain period of their lives, and Hoffman has a clarification to make.
Web3 is still taking shape, so it is hard to define. At TechCrunch Disrupt, Houseparty founder Ben Rubin emphasized decentralization as Web3’s central feature. In today’s Web 2.0, individuals give money and personal data to network operators in exchange for access to information. “In Web3 there is a possibility — not saying that it’s going
This morning LeadIQ, a startup working in the sales software market, announced that it has closed a $30 million Series B led by Cathay Innovation. Other investors in the transaction include Fresco Capital, Strong Ventures, and Eight Road Ventures. LeadIQ frames its product from the perspective of missed revenue targets at companies, which it claims
New companies face innumerable challenges around fine-tuning their product and constructing the appropriate revenue model. You may be looking ahead to raising some funds and trying to juggle the administrative aspects of running a business, but before all that, the purpose of your company is to sell your solution and generate revenue. But to do
Hello friends and welcome to bonus Equity, the sort of podcast episode where you get even more chat for the same low price of zilch. We are here to ensure a high ROI for your podcasting dollar! To cap the week off, Danny and Alex and Chris got together live on Twitter to chat through the