Badili, a Kenya-based smartphone re-commerce startup, has raised $2.1 million pre-seed funding to scale its operations within Africa; one of the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world. The Venture Catalysts, V&R Africa, Grenfell holdings, and SOSV, participated in the round, as did family offices and angel investors from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and India.
The U.K. government has completed a major revision to controversial but populist online safety legislation that’s been in the works for years — and was finally introduced to parliament earlier this year — but has been paused since this summer following turmoil in the governing Conservative Party. In September, new secretary of state for digital, Michelle Donelan,
According to Corning in-house research, “84% of consumers across three of the largest smartphone markets – China, India, and the United States — cite durability as the number one purchasing consideration behind brand itself.” I suspect that things like battery life and camera rank pretty highly, as well, but at the very least, it’s safe
Netflix released nine more mobile games this month, the company announced on Tuesday. The addition of games brings Netflix’s total to over 40 titles, keeping the streamer on track to have more than 50 titles in its mobile games catalog by the end of 2022. Newly added games include Country Friends, the FarmVille clone developed
DeHaat, a startup that offers a wide-range of agricultural services to farmers in India, has raised $60 million in a new funding round as it looks to deepen its penetration in the country and reach break-even profitability within two years. Sofina Ventures and Temasek co-led the Patna and Gurgaon-headquartered startup’s Series E funding, it said,
“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone, I was shocked by what happened this month,” Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and former chief executive of the fallen FTX, said at The New York Times’ annual DealBook summit in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin. One of the biggest questions around this debacle is
The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of carbon emissions worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. While a portion of that is from the energy and materials required to construct buildings, the lion’s share — nearly 90% on an annual basis — comes from their use. Decarbonizing the grid could go a long
European Union regulators have fired another warning shot at Elon Musk over his erratic piloting of Twitter since his takeover last month — saying he has “huge work” ahead if the social media site is to avoid falling foul of major new governance rules for digital services which entered into force earlier this month. Reminder:
Once upon a time, I used to write TechCrunch’s travel gifts roundup. It was a fun story to piece together, and I was more than happy to do the honors — and play around with some fun gadgets in the process. We hit the big red pause button on the roundup during the 2020 holiday
YouTube’s mobile app on iOS devices is currently down for some users. The crashes began on Wednesday afternoon as thousands of iOS users reported the app would close shortly after opening it. Users also reported seeing a message on the app that said, “A serious error occurred.” TechCrunch tried to replicate the problem and experienced
Crypto exchange Kraken today announced it’s letting go of 1,100 staffers. The announcement came from a company blog post and follows similar news from DoorDash that it was also cutting staff. News that Kraken is cutting staff — and therefore costs — is not a surprise, given a generally gloomy macroeconomic climate and even worse climes
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: My co-founder’s a green
It’s the middle of the holiday season here in the U.S., that magical time between Thanksgiving and Christmas when stores are packed with bodies and porches are piled with packages. All those packages produce a lot of waste — anywhere from 33 million tons to 51 million tons annually, depending on the estimate. A majority
Litigation against Google and its parent entity Alphabet being brought in the U.K. on behalf of thousands of digital publishers — seeking up to £13.6 billion (~$16.3 billion) in damages on their behalf for alleged anti-competitive behavior related to Google’s adtech practices — has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). “The claim alleges
The Kindle turned 15 this month. It’s been a strange ride for Amazon’s first hardware device. CEO Andy Jassy gave the e-reader a rare bit of love in last year’s shareholder letter, noting: Our first foray into devices was the Kindle, released in 2007. It was not the most sophisticated industrial design (it was creamy
Spotify Wrapped 2022 has officially arrived. Though other music services, including Apple Music and YouTube Music, now put together their own year-end retrospectives, Spotify’s personalized and interactive Wrapped experience for its users, creators and podcasters remains the one to beat. The secret to its ongoing success is how it goes beyond simply offering a summary
Plenty of companies that launched during downturns went on to be phenomenally successful. During the Great Depression, Stanford grads David Packard and William Hewlett famously set up shop in a Palo Alto garage. Microsoft was founded as the U.S. was recovering from a years-long oil embargo that hobbled the economy. Slack, Airbnb, Uber and Square
Prismforce, an India-U.S. startup that provides IT and tech services companies with tools to build better talent supply chain, has raised $13.6 million in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India. IT providers spend a large part of their variable costs on hiring skilled employees. But finding those employees from the ever-growing talent
Over the past 11 years, eFounders has refined the startup studio model in Europe. The company has contributed to the launch of more than 30 different startups, including three unicorns — Spendesk, Aircall and Front. While things seem to be doing well for the startup studio, eFounders is pivoting — sort of. As of today, eFounders
Disney paid $900 million to Major League Baseball (MLB) earlier this month to buy out the league’s remaining 15% stake in the streaming firm BAMTech, according to an SEC filing made public Tuesday. The transaction makes Disney a 100% owner of the streaming company that powers Disney+ and the firm’s other consumer services. The SEC
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ICON, a construction tech company that’s raised more than $400 million in funding, has landed a new contract from NASA to develop new systems to build on the moon and Mars. The $57.2 million contract is a continuation of a previous Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) dual-use contract with the U.S. Air Force, which was
Lyst, the U.K. fashion e-commerce site that last year raised funding at a $700 million valuation, is the latest tech startup to rein in spending by cutting staff. TechCrunch has learned that the company is in the process of laying off 25% of its employees, working out to about 50 people, as part of a
This time two years ago, I changed up my annual gift guide feature’s focus from travel to working from home. After all, very few of us were doing much traveling at the time. I planned to switch back as the world reopened; it’s clear now, however, that for many of us, there is no going
One month after Nintendo debuted its first trailer for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the company has revealed yet another trailer — this time giving fans a first look at Princess Peach and Donkey Kong. In the newest trailer, viewers get to see more of Illumination’s incredible animating skills with Donkey Kong, voiced by Seth
When Covid shut down much of the world down in 2020, it ended up wreaking havoc on the supply chain. Suddenly companies built for just-in-time production couldn’t find parts they needed to build their products. Even as Covid subsided, the supply chain woes continued. Veterans of supply management like the founder of startup Amplio watched,
TechCrunch Early Stage — our premier event designed for budding entrepreneurs and founders at the very start of their startup journey — returns by popular demand on April 20, 2023. And we’re excited to announce that this year, we’re taking it on the road to Boston, Massachusetts. We’re mixing the East Coast vibe with unparalleled
I rented a Tesla during the holiday crush. AMA Tim De Chant 9 hours When I went to book a rental car for Thanksgiving a few months ago, all that Hertz had left at O’Hare International Airport were Teslas. Usually, I end up with something like a Nissan Altima — not an amazing car, but
Dropbox has announced plans to bring end-to-end encryption to its business users, and it’s doing so through acquiring “key assets” from Germany-based cloud security company Boxcryptor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dropbox is well-known for its cloud-based file back-up and sharing services, and while it does offer encryption for files moving between its
Abby started its journey selling 120 or so of its “All-In-One Smart Hydroponic Grow Box” on Kickstarter, with a relatively modest $100,000 raised on the crowdfunding platform. The device promises to help you make growing your favorite plants more or less foolproof, especially if your “favorite plants” are marijuana. In its marketing, the company is