Amazon’s “One” palm scanner payment technology will be launching at over 65 Whole Foods stores in California. This is the biggest rollout to date, with stores in Malibu, Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Cruz receiving the tech that aims to modernize retail shopping. When
Ford said Wednesday it has reached a deal with DTE Energy to power its electricity supply in Michigan with clean energy, a step toward its goal to become carbon neutral by 2050. The automaker’s deal with DTE, Michigan’s largest producer of renewable energy, will add 650 megawatts of new solar energy capacity in the state
Nigel Morris Contributor Nigel Morris is the co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors. More posts by this contributor Ending the mental health stigma in the tech community The uncertain economic landscape of 2022 has left businesses and their founders between a rock and a hard place. Many CEOs can’t afford to simply exist within
Another European market exit looks to be on the cards for UK-based on-demand food delivery startup, Deliveroo, which says it’s consulting on shutting down its service in the Netherlands. The platform’s service footprint currently spans 11 markets — namely: Australia, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and the
Samsung giveth and Samsung taketh away. The latest additions to the Galaxy Watch line present a bit of both. The headline on each side of that equation is the addition of a “Pro” version to the ever-evolving smartwatch lineup and the decision to, once again, drop the Galaxy Watch’s best and most unique feature, the
FullStory, which sells analytics tools for apps and websites, secured $25 million in new equity financing, paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week shows. TechCrunch couldn’t independently confirm the investors and the company hadn’t responded to a request for comment as of press time. But according to Crunchbase, the infusion is
Convertedin, an Egyptian startup that operates a marketing operating system for e-commerce brands, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Saudi Arabia-headquartered Merak Capital. Other participating investors include 500 Global and MSAS. The company, in a statement, said it plans to utilize the funds for strategic hiring and further development of its
In this challenging fundraising environment, more startups than ever are turning to alternative financial solutions such as debt. Despite the negative connotation associated with debt, a startup should not view it as an act of desperation during downturns, as TechCrunch’s Kyle Wiggers and Alex Wilhelm have recently noted. Companies that have high recurring revenue and
Snap on Wednesday launched the paid version of its widely used social media service in India, bringing its exclusive and experimental features offering to the South Asian nation for just 62 cents a month as it looks to supercharge its customer base by attempting to monetize over 100 million users. The launch of the subscription
Manufacturing plants or factories take raw material inputs and add value through a sequence of unit processes before shipping a product. Now, this process must follow a recipe. There are a series of instructions for products such as cars; in those instructions, a list of parameter values, specific temperature for iron melting, specific pressure for
The global problem of an over-abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere is ongoing, and a huge area that needs to be addressed, given the amount pumped out by industry. It’s hoped that if carbon dioxide could be converted at the point of emission, we could deal with the climate crisis a lot faster and create
Snapchat today is rolling out its first set of parental controls, after announcing last October it was developing tools that would allow parents to gain better visibility into how their teens used the social networking app. The update follows the launches of similar parental control features across other apps favored by teens, including Instagram, TikTok
Social media marketing firm Hootsuite says it has slashed its workforce by 30%. “We need to refocus our strategies to drive efficiency, growth and financial sustainability,” CEO Tom Keiser said in a statement sent to TechCrunch. The company offered no specifics on what exactly is changing about the business. It did not disclose the specific
Frederik Mijnhardt Contributor Frederik Mijnhardt is the CEO of Secfi, an equity planning platform for startup executives and employees. More posts by this contributor Late-stage tech companies must do right by their employees: Reassess your 409A valuations Inside Secfi’s 2021 state of stock options equity report Last year was a record 12 months for the
SpaceX just got one step closer to the first orbital test flight of its launch system Starship with the successful static fire test of a prototype Super Heavy booster late Tuesday afternoon. That booster, “Booster 7,” was rolled to the launch pad overnight last Friday. The successful test is a notable milestone for SpaceX, which
For a while, it seemed like BMW had turned a corner with its EV strategy. Its i4 and iX have received stellar reviews, and this spring the company announced an all-electric platform, the Neue Klasse, which it said will underpin EV versions of the 3-series sedan and the X3 crossover starting in 2025. The company
A former Twitter employee suspected of spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia was found guilty, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The employee, U.S. resident Ahmad Abouammo, was also convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, falsifying records and money laundering. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Abouammo worked on media partnerships in
I have limited boating experience, but I do know that being a few degrees off your desired heading can be the difference between enjoying a relaxing dinner with friends and waiting in the dark for a Coast Guard rescue. Similarly, in a down market, SaaS startups that help clients make incremental improvements to cash flow
South Korea’s communication watchdog, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), said Tuesday it will investigate Apple and Google over potential violations of the country’s in-app payment rule. Local media reports noted that the agency will start this investigation on August 16. Apart from Apple and Google, the KCC is also investigating SK Group’s homegrown app store
Bloomberg’s Sonali Basak joins Emily Chang to break down Coinbase’s partnership with BlackRock, how investors reacted to the news, and what that means for the future of the crypto exchange in the industry still weighed down by a bear market.
If blockchain, cryptocurrency, decentralized finance (DeFi) and web3 get your entrepreneurial motor running, do not miss our TC Sessions: Crypto daylong deep dive on November 17 in Miami. We have special launch pricing on passes and exhibitor packages, and you can save a chunk of change. But don’t pussyfoot around — supplies are limited, running
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is making some pretty heavy bets on the healthcare space as it acquired Amcare, which runs high-end children’s and women’s hospitals across China. The buyout cost ByteDance $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. A spokesperson for Xiaohe Health, ByteDance’s healthcare business, confirmed the acquisition but declined to comment on the deal size.
Spotify announced today that it’s launching a new Home experience that includes separate feeds for “Music” and “Podcasts & Shows.” Now, when Spotify users launch the app, they’ll notice two feeds at the top of the home screen. The company says the new Music and Podcasts & Shows feeds will allow users to easily scroll
TechCrunch is bringing our flagship event Disrupt back to the real world this year, which means we’re hard at work on our big October 18-20 shindig. Founders, investors, tech denizens, crypto fans, and the like: We’re making something incredible just for you. And no portion of the event has me more excited than what we
UK health tech startup, Babylon Health is pulling in its horns in its home market, blaming challenging global and macroeconomic conditions for the termination of a couple of multi-year contracts it had inked with two NHS Trusts in England in recent years — including one from the start of 2020 that had been trumpeted as
Stores face new challenges in a world forever changed by the pandemic. Amazon and other tech giants are encroaching on their business. But perhaps more urgently, supply chain snarls haven’t gone away, presenting retailers with a host of inventory issues. In a March Retail Insights survey, seven in 10 (71%) shoppers said they felt that
Accel has led a $2.6 million funding in Produze, an Indian startup that is attempting to help local agri producers sell to international retailers, the latest in a series of bets as investors and entrepreneurs look to bring efficiency to supercharge one of the world’s largest agri producers. “We are helping agri-producers to reliably access
The pandemic prompted countless companies to migrate to the cloud. By 2025, driven partly by the need for digital services, 85% of enterprises will have a cloud-first principle, according to Gartner. But the transition isn’t always easy. In a recent MuleSoft survey, 84% of organizations said that data and app integration challenges were hindering their
Google has launched a website for its Read Along app for encouraging young children to practice reading. The website, which is introduced as a public beta, works with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers on Desktop and Android, with support for iOS and more browsers such as Safari coming soon. The concept of the website is
WhatsApp is introducing a small flurry of privacy-minded tweaks into the messaging app, the company announced on Tuesday. The Meta-owned globally ubiquitous messaging service says the changes aim to give users more control over their experience while introducing “added layers” to protect their private communications. WhatsApp will introduce an option for users to privately use