The new version of Nintendo’s hit Switch console is just different enough to justify itself, but hardly a must-buy for any of the millions who bought the launch version. With a bigger, brighter, and better screen, it’s a good choice for someone buying now who intends to use it mostly as a handheld — but
Spotify’s in-car entertainment system known as just “Car Thing,” launched this spring on an invite-only basis, is now becoming more broadly available. The company announced today Car Thing will become available to U.S. users who want to purchase the $79.99 device. Previously, Spotify had distributed the product for just the cost of shipping during its
Tom Zick Contributor Tom Zick is a researcher in AI ethics at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where she is also a J.D. candidate. She holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and was previously a fellow at Bloomberg Beta and the City of Boston. Founders tend to think responsible
Sitting here waiting for GitLab to actually start trading, I’m still digesting the company’s IPO price. When we first caught up with GitLab’s IPO filing, TechCrunch did a little math magic and decided that it wasn’t unlikely that the company would manage to secure a $10 billion valuation in its debut. At that price point,
Twitter says it’s going to test a new ad format and placement on its platform. On Wednesday, Twitter Revenue Product Lead Bruce Falck said Twitter would begin showing ads on mobile devices inside conversation threads after the first, third, and eighth replies. While the company stopped short of confirming the change would be permanent, it
On the one-year anniversary of Copy.ai’s launch on Twitter, the company, a GPT-3 AI-powered platform that generates copywriting tools for business customers, secured another round of funding. This time, the company brought in an $11 million Series A round, led by Wing Venture Capital, with participation from existing investors Craft Ventures and Sequoia, and new
UK social audio startup Wisdom has launched a new mentorship marketplace that’s described as a mix between Clubhouse and the celebrity-focused courses platform Masterclass. The app lets users log on to find conversations which they can join live (with the chance to ask questions) or listen back to on-demand (streamed talks are automatically saved to
The math is pretty basic. How many satellites are going to go up over the next decade? How many solar panels will they need? And how many are being manufactured that fit the bill? Turns out the answers are: a lot, a hell of a lot, and not nearly enough. That’s where Regher Solar aims
Google announced today it’s changing the way search works on mobile devices, initially in the U.S. Now, when you reach the bottom of a set of search results on your phone, you won’t have to tap to go to the next page. Instead, the next set of results will automatically load so you can continuously
There is an imbalance between demand and supply of general insurance due to the tedious workflow and processes that insurance intermediaries and insurance companies face. Singaporean insurtech company Surer, which automates the workflow and processes via a cloud-based platform, helps insurance intermediaries get rapid access to insurance quotations and insurers to distribute their products more efficiently.
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, the time of the week when we niche down to a single topic. Today? Fashion. Natasha and Danny and Alex got together to dig into the world of fashion resale and rental. It’s no small
Organizations have been using social media monitoring for years to get a better idea of how they are being perceived in the world at large, to pick up on themes or urgent issues relevant to them, and to generally be more responsive in a world that’s predicated on “engagement.” Now a company called Aware, which
In the global race for technical talent, companies are on the hunt for ways to speed up and scale the hiring process to snap up the best candidates before their competitors get to them. Today, a company that has built a solution to help with one aspect of that — the interviewing process — is
SumUp, a European-based competitor to Square, PayPal/iZettle and others that provide mobile-powered card readers and other sales technology to merchants and small businesses, has made an acquisition in the U.S. to dig deeper into that market, and to expand the kinds of services that it provides to customers globally. The company has acquired Fivestars, which
The Luna Display from Astropad is a clever product enabling you to use your iPad as a second display. It was originally launched for Mac only, but Apple launched a competing product, putting the company in jeopardy for a couple of years. Today, it’s available for Windows machines as well, completing Astropad’s pivot to a
Billy Libby Contributor Billy Libby is the CEO and co-founder of Upper90, a $1.5 billion hybrid fund that provides founder-friendly credit and equity to top disruptors in e-commerce and fintech. More capital is flooding into growth equity at earlier stages, and it’s happening faster than ever before. But even with the rampant enthusiasm for pouring
Update: The round in question was $135 million, not $100 million as originally noted. I apologize for the mistake! What do you call AI these days? ML in a suit. ML, or machine learning, is a big market today. That is thanks to modern corporations accreting data like hoarders and data science maturing as a
Instagram today announced the launch of a couple of new tools aimed at addressing the needs of Live creators. Now, creators will be able to build up buzz for their upcoming Live by scheduling it up to 90 days in advance, then share the news across Instagram to alert their fans. It’s also preparing to
Nexla, a company that participated in the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield in New York City in 2017, has been building its data operations startup the old fashioned way. After launching in beta and securing a $3.5 million seed at Battlefield, it has proceeded to build a cash flow positive business. Today with a firm financial foundation
Facebook’s lead data protection regulator in the European Union is inching toward making its first decision on a complaint against Facebook itself. And it looks like it’s a doozy. Privacy campaign not-for-profit noyb today published a draft decision by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) on a complaint made under the EU’s General Data Protection
In a rather surprising move, the makers of the reMarkable line of e-paper tablets have added a subscription service to their latest device that enables several of its more advanced features. All current users are provided a lifetime subscription, and new users get about a year for free, so nothing will change for most, but
It’s no longer Hot Summer anything, sadly, as the seasons change. But perhaps we’re in for Warm IPO Autumn. Rent the Runway, NerdWallet and other companies are setting us up for a busy second half of October. But this week will see the debut of a company worth a multiple of those other venture-backed former
Matik, which has created automated data-driven software for customizing Google Slides or PowerPoint presentations, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Menlo Ventures, BoxGroup and Oceans Ventures also participated in the financing, which brings the San Francisco-based startup’s total raised to just over $23 million since its
Reddit today is introducing a new way to post to its communities with the launch of the on-platform feature called “Predictions.” Spun off of the popular Reddit Polls, Predictions allow users to guess the answers to timely questions like “who will win the game tomorrow?” or “which character will meet their fate in the next
On the heels of Personio raising a big round yesterday, one of its competitors and another big startup in the area of HR has also picked up some fundning. Hibob, a London-based company that targets the mid-market with an all-in-one platform that handles various human resources functions, closed a Series C of $150 million. The
Lunar Ventures, is a a new, technically-oriented VC fund aimed at early-stage DeepTech startups, that is now announcing the closing of its €40M first fund. Lunar was founded in Berlin in 2019 by Dr Elad Verbin, a computer science researcher; Mick Halsband, a CTO and software architect; and Luis Shemtov, a former entrepreneur. The launch
Last year, Spotify decided to embrace podcasts as part of the company’s larger communications strategy with the launch of its behind-the-scenes podcast, “Spotify: For the Record,” which has featured interviews with Spotify execs, employees, and industry experts about music, tech, and podcasting. Today, the company is expanding on its in-house podcasting strategy with the debut
CarDekho, an Indian search and e-commerce platform for new and used cars, has become the latest startup in the world’s second-largest market to reach the unicorn status. The 14-year-old startup said on Wednesday it has raised $250 million — $200 million in equity and $50 million in debt — in its Series E financing round.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) has been making headlines all over the place this year — from Square’s planned acquisition of Afterpay to Affirm going public. Still, Latin America remains an under-penetrated market in the increasingly crowded space. Nelo, a startup founded by former Uber international growth team leads, began offering buy now, pay later
Every popular social media platform has opened up a new type of storytelling to a new generation of users, but TikTok’s impact has perhaps been the swiftest as the short-form video platform’s user base has quickly swelled past 1 billion users and transformed how social media stars are made. FourFront is a media startup that’s