VAST Data, a startup that has come up with a cost-effective way to deliver flash storage, announced a $100 million Series C investment today on a $1.2 billion valuation, both unusually big numbers for an enterprise startup in Series C territory. Next47, the investment arm of Siemens, led the round with participation from existing investors
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Schools have been closed for the past month in France. That’s why French startup Molotov is leveraging its over-the-top TV service to offer content for children of all ages. In particular, the company has partnered with SchoolMouv, a company that offers videos, exercises and more. Dubbed “Molotov for School”, the new section lets you find
Thermal imaging wearables used in China to detect COVID-19 symptoms could soon be deployed in the U.S. Hangzhou based AI startup Rokid is in talks with several companies to sell its T1 glasses in America, according to Rokid’s U.S. Director Liang Guan. Rokid is among a wave of Chinese companies creating technology to address the
Mobile messaging startup Attentive continues to bring in new funding. The startup raised a $40 million Series B last summer, followed by a $70 million Series C at the beginning of this year. Today it’s announcing that it’s extended the Series C by another $40 million, bringing the total round size to $110 million. CEO
Whenever a platform breaks out, companies emerge to seize on its reach by building their services or products atop it. It happened with Facebook and Twitter and Slack. Now, it’s happening with Zoom, the video conferencing company that took the world by storm earlier this year as the coronavirus sent people around the globe indoors
On-demand mobility, when done successfully, strikes a balance between demand and supply while providing reliable service and making a profit. It’s a sweet spot that can be difficult, if not impossible, to find. Autofleet, a startup that develops fleet optimization software to redirect underused vehicles into ride-hailing and delivery services, wants to solve that mission
TikTok is introducing a new set of parental controls to its platform to users worldwide, including in the U.S. The features, collectively referred to as “Family Pairing,” will allow parents to set controls on Screen Time Management, Restricted Mode and Direct Messages for their teen users. It also will now disable direct messaging for users
Anodot, a startup that helps customers monitor business operations against a set of KPIs, announced a $35 million Series C investment today. Intel Capital led this round with a lot of help. New investors SoftBank Ventures Asia, Samsung NEXT and La Maison also participated along with existing investors Disruptive Technologies L.P., Aleph Venture Capital and
Food-delivery platforms are on the front lines during the coronavirus crisis, with major spikes in demand as communities are confined at home, likely with more time to cook than usual. And while some restaurants have opted to shut down, others have turned to takeout as a lifeline. Yet physical contact between suppliers, couriers and customers
Apple is said to be developing its own competitors to popular over-ear noise-cancelling headphones like those made by Bose and Sony, Bloomberg reports, but with similar technology on board to that used in the AirPod and AirPod Pro lines. These headphones would also include a design with interchangeable parts that would allow some modification with
Media software maker Plex has released two new projects today from its internal R&D group, Plex Labs. One is an updated take on the classic Winamp player it calls Plexamp, and another is a dedicated app for Plex server administration. The projects are meant to appeal largely to Plex power users who take full advantage
In today’s grim economic climate, companies are looking for ways to automate wherever they can. Bridgecrew, an early-stage startup that makes automated cloud security tooling aimed at engineers, announced a $14 million Series A today. Battery Ventures led the round with participation from NFX, the company’s $4 million seed investor. Sorensen Ventures, DNX Ventures, Tectonic
US carrier Verizon* has splashed out to buy veteran B2B videoconferencing platform, BlueJeans Network — shelling out less than $500 million on the acquisition, according to the Wall Street Journal which first reported the news. A Verizon spokeswoman confirmed to TechCrunch that the price-tag is sub-$500M but did not provide a more exact figure. Videoconferencing
On his personal Facebook account, Mark Zuckerberg offered an update on the company’s roadmap for bringing employees back to work in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In the post, he acknowledged that while it might be possible for a small portion of “critical employees” unable to do their work remotely to return sooner, the
NASA and Planet have deemed their pilot partnership a success, and the result is that NASA will extend its contract with Planet to provide the company’s satellite imagery of Earth to all research programs funded by the agency. NASA had signed an initial contract last April with Planet to provide Planet imagery to a team
Verizon makes a move into videoconferencing, Jeff Bezos discusses a plan to test Amazon employees for COVID-19 and Apple is reportedly working on new over-ear headphones. Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 16, 2020. 1. Verizon is buying b2b videoconferencing firm BlueJeans TechCrunch’s parent company is buying veteran videoconferencing platform BlueJeans Network — shelling out less
French ride-hailing company Chauffeur-Privé rebranded to Kapten just last year. At the time, the company had big expansion plans to compete with Uber in Europe across multiple markets. But Kapten is now going to merge with Free Now, another app from the same company — following this move, there will be a restructuring plan. Kapten
Action camera manufacturer GoPro has announced some massive organizational changes at the company. In particular, the company is laying off over 200 employees — it represents a 20% staff reduction. GoPro will shut down some offices altogether. There will be offices in five geographies after the round of layoffs. The company expects to reduce operating expenses
Google is today announcing a series of policy changes aimed at eliminating untrustworthy apps from its Android app marketplace, the Google Play store. The changes are meant to give users more control over how their data is used, tighten subscription policies, and help prevent deceptive apps and media — including those involving deepfakes — from
Food delivery — be it ready-made restaurant meals, groceries, or anything in between — has seen a huge surge of activity in the last few weeks as people have sheltered in place to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus. Today, one of the startups that’s built a business specifically in meal-kits in the
Berlin-based startup Taxfix has raised a $65 million Series C funding round. Index Ventures is leading the round with Neil Rimer joining the board. The company started its fundraising process before the coronavirus process and managed to sign all contracts a few days ago. As the name suggests, Taxfix thinks filing taxes remains broken in
As companies look for better ways to understand how different departments work at a granular level, engineering has traditionally been a black box of siloed data. Pinpoint, an Austin-based startup, has been working on a platform to bring this information into a single view, and today it released a dashboard to help companies understand what’s
Sprout.ai, an insurtech incubated at London’s Imperial College that is applying AI to insurance claims,, has raised $2.5 million in additional seed funding. Leading the round is Amadeus Capital Partners, with participation from Playfair Capital, and Techstars. Founded in 2018, Sprout.ai has developed AI-based software that it says enables insurance claims to be settled within
VSCO, the popular photo editing app and Instagram rival, is the latest company to undergo layoffs attributed to the COVID-19 crisis, which has put a strain on venture-backed startups. According to a report from NPR, which was then confirmed by VSCO co-founder and CEO Joel Flory on LinkedIn, the company is laying off around 30%
Airwallex, a Melbourne-based cross-border financial startup that achieved “unicorn” status last year, announced today that it has raised a $160 million Series D. The round included ANZi Ventures, the investment arm of ANZ Bank, and Salesforce Ventures, along with returning investors DST Global, Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital and Horizons Ventures. Founded in 2015,
Previse, a fintech focused on helping suppliers get faster payment, announced that it has raised $11 million in new funding led by Reefknot Investments and Mastercard. Returning investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Hambro Perks and Augmentum Fintech also participated. Founded in 2016, Previse says it currently processes about 100,000 invoices a day, and its goal is
Houseparty, the popular video chat application acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games in 2019, has seen massive growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With government lockdowns keeping people from being able to visit friends and other loved ones in person, consumer demand for video chat apps has skyrocketed. This has resulted in the video conferencing
While controversy has dogged the $10 billion, decade-long JEDI contract since its earliest days, a report by the DoD’s Inspector General’s Office concluded today that, while there were some funky bits and potential conflicts, overall the contract procurement process was fair and legal and the president did not unduly influence the process in spite of
Some big changes are underway for London-based Medopad, a startup that builds software for medical practitioners to monitor patients remotely based on digital biomarkers — measurable indicators of the progression of illnesses, diseases or overall health that are picked up not with blood samples or in-doctor visits but using apps and wearables. The company is rebranding to
If you find voice assistants frustratingly dumb you’re hardly alone. The much hyped promise of AI-driven vocal convenience very quickly falls through the cracks of robotic pedantry. A smart AI that has to come back again (and sometimes again) to ask for extra input to execute your request can see especially dumb — when, for