To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here. On the one hand, we could be upset that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, but the sun hasn’t come out where Christine lives for several days, so she’s pretty stoked that wherever
Given our general reliance on something called “food” you’d think the issue of pollination — and its general decline — might be higher up the world’s agenda. Over 80% of crops require insect pollination, but growers can no longer rely on the dwindling wild bee population. But it’s a complex problem. Pollinating crops with honey
TikTok today is announcing several changes to its service, including what it claims will be increased enforcement against bad actors as well as tests of new user-facing tools that will force a refresh of the app’s main algorithmic feed, known as the For You feed. The company said the changes are focused on keeping the
Nikola CEO Michael Lohscheller joins Ed Ludlow to discuss the EV maker’s 2023 outlook, supply chain challenges, and the importance of owning its own batteries. ——– Like this video? Subscribe to Bloomberg Technology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrM7B7SL_g1edFOnmj-SDKg Watch the latest full episodes of “Bloomberg Technology” with Emily Chang here: Get the latest in tech from Silicon
Most of the pitch deck teardowns to date (here’s a handy list of the more than 30 we have published so far) have been for institutional funding rounds, typically in the millions or tens, even hundreds of millions of dollars raised. Those are interesting to look at, of course, but I also know that many
61% of SaaS companies used UBP in some form in 2022 Anna Heim 8 hours Usage-based pricing (UBP) is on the rise — 61% of SaaS companies used this model in some form in 2022, VC firm OpenView found out. UBP consists of charging based on how the service or product is consumed, not on
Buy an electric car. Invest in a heat pump. Install an induction stove. They’re all measures that people can take to reduce their daily carbon emissions, and they’re all pretty significant cash outlays. Over the next three decades, as the world lurches toward net zero emissions, expenditures like these will be unavoidable. For many people,
Europe has moved a step closer to having dedicated rules on online political ad targeting and transparency after the European Parliament fixed its negotiating position — paving the way for talks to start between MEPs and Member States to agree a final compromise text that can be passed into pan-EU law. MEPs said they hope
Maybe nothing ever truly dies in Apple land. The Mac Pro went on an indefinite hiatus as the hardware design team regrouped and reengineered. MagSafe appeared to be gone forever, only to be reborn in altered form on MacBooks of recent vintage. Various models and sizes across different lines have been phased out, only to
Hip-hop artist Saweetie is performing exclusively in Roblox for the NFL’s Super Bowl LVII pregame on February 10, the National Football League announced today. The virtual concert will take place at 7:00 pm ET in Warner Music Group’s Rhythm City, a new destination on Roblox that was announced earlier this week. Rhythm City is set
French startup Seyna is slowly building an all-in-one platform for insurance brokers so that they can create, sell and manage insurance products from scratch. And the company is launching a new product called Seyna Claims. As the name suggests, Seyna Claims empowers insurance brokers so that they can handle claims themselves. Seyna is an insurtech
New School Foods said its muscle fiber and scaffolding technology to produce whole-cut fish alternative products is now at a point where it can be demonstrated and a pilot facility built. The company’s first product is a plant-based filet that looks, cooks, tastes and flakes like wild salmon. The announcement comes after the Toronto-based plant-based
‘Astroturfing’ and other non-transparent lobbying tactics used to target digital policymakers in the European Union in recent years — including during a blitz of spending aimed at influencing major new pan-EU rules like the Digital Services Act (DSA) — have inspired a group of MEPs and NGOs to fight back by launching a hotline for
Some of us are fans of dip-n-rip tattoos with very little planning. Who cares? It’s not like tattoos are permanent, right? Others prefer a slightly more measured approach. If you’ve ever gotten a delicate, detailed tattoo, you may have been surprised by how long it takes your tattoo artist to go from doodle to having
Disclo CEO and co-founder Hannah Olson was diagnosed with Lyme disease when she was in college. At the time, she didn’t really see herself as someone with a disability, even though it meant spending hours each day hooked up to an IV. When she entered the workforce, she soon was confronted with the difficulties of
Lex, the hookup and social app that launched in 2019 with a nod to lesbian personal ads from the ’80s, is changing. Only, precisely how much will change is still an open question. Sure, the venture-backed startup behind the queer app gave it a new lick of paint last week, but in refocusing on “friends
After raising $300 million in a round led by SoftBank back in 2021, U.K. neobank Zopa has closed a deal to put more funding in its coffers. The company — which provides consumers with lending services, credit cards and savings accounts and has some 850,000 customers — has raised £75 million (around $93 million), an
The new MacBook Pros are a lot of things, but cheap isn’t one. Performance, it seems, comes at a price. It’s certainly a philosophy Samsung has long subscribed to with its highest-end products. Take the group of laptops it announced alongside the Galaxy S23 at today’s Unpacked event. There are, fittingly, three primary SKUs for
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is now streaming on Disney+, 82 days after it was released in theaters — the longest window between theatrical release and streaming release of any Marvel movie on Disney+. However, the wait may have been worth it since the movie grossed more than $800 million at the box office worldwide and
Oct.21 — Instabase Inc. Chief Executive Officer Anant Bhardwaj and Index Ventures Partner Sarah Cannon discuss Instabase’s business model and the tech IPO landscape with Bloomberg’s Taylor Riggs on “Bloomberg Technology.”
Digs, a Vancouver, Washington-based startup that is developing a collaboration tool for homebuilders and their vendors, is coming out of stealth today and announcing a $7 million seed funding round from Fuse, Flying Fish, Betaworks, Legacy, PSF, GFR, and others. The company was co-founded by Ryan Fink and Ty Frackiewicz. For Fink, this is his second attempt at a home-centric
Atomic AI, which uses machine learning to explore the potential of RNA in drug discovery, raised a $35 million series A round. They have developed a machine learning model that can accurately predict the structure of RNA molecules based on a limited set of data. They have since improved their model and are using it
Risilience, a SaaS-based analytics platform that helps companies assess their climate risk and plan their transition toward net-zero carbon emissions, has raised $26 million in a Series B round of funding. Spun out of the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Risk Studies (CCRS) back in 2021, Risilience says it has already amassed a number of high-profile
In the current environment, Start-ups are having to do a couple of seemingly contradictory things at the same time. Firstly, they have to keep employees (the ones they want to keep, at least) happy. The other is attract new employees in a market where there remains fierce competition for talent. In their armoury to address
Common wisdom in digital photography says that megapixels aren’t everything. They matter to an extent, but smartphone makers have a long history of leaning too heavily on those numbers as a kind of shorthand for camera quality. In other words, they play an important role but need to work in concert with a number of
“If you could open this article sort of Rolling Stone style…” Brennan Lee Mulligan suggests, then without changing his tone, pitches his lede: “In a Corvette, racing down the 5, [podcast producer] Taylor Moore swerves, then bites right into a massive wheel of brie cheese…” It’s what you’d expect from Mulligan, who got his start
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes AI can help usher in “unbelievable abundance,” but he says he wants to ensure that such abundance is shared. Toward that end, Altman has embraced a theory of 19th century political economist Henry George, who in his own lifetime worried about wealth amassing in the hands of the few following
“We think it will be the best place to invest,” said the Tiger Global partner. Manish Singh 10 hours Tiger Global believes India is likely to produce the highest equity returns globally in the future, its partner Scott Shleifer said on an investor call Tuesday, projecting high confidence in the key overseas nation even as
Battery startup Our Next Energy announced this morning that it closed a massive $300 million Series B in an effort to get its $1.6 billion gigafactory up and running. The new round values the company at $1.2 billion post-money, marking a stunning rise for the two-and-a-half-year-old company, which closed a $25 million Series A in
If you’ve ever made an Amazon order with a particular seller because the estimated delivery for the item appears to match when you need it, only to be frustrated when a different (later) delivery estimate appears after you’ve completed the payment process, this action by Poland’s competition and consumer watchdog may be of interest: It’s