To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. At TechCrunch, we love being a conduit for everything that happens in the startup ecosystem. This year, there’s been a lot of layoffs, and we got to thinking, how can we help … Read more
BMW raised the curtain Tuesday on a high-performance plug-in hybrid SUV meant to lure buyers from the ultra-luxury segment’s Lamborghini Urus and Aston Martin DBX. The BMW XM full-size SUV is the first electrified model from the brand’s race track-ready M badge. Starting just below $160,000, the 644-horsepower crossover also rates as the most powerful … Read more
Ahead of the official relaunch of subscription-based movie ticketing service MoviePass, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against three of its former executives, claiming they lied to investors and the public. The SEC filing targeted former MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth, the former CEO of parent company Helios and Matheson … Read more
Although today’s rocket engines are advanced and powerful, they tend to rely on traditional — and naturally volatile — fuels like hydrazine or liquid oxygen and kerosene. Firehawk Aerospace has a safer and more stable new fuel, new engines, and millions in new funding to take it through the next round of tests to its … Read more
China’s electric vehicle upstart Nio has joined Tesla in sourcing raw materials directly from mines rather than its own battery suppliers as soaring prices of lithium, a critical component of EV batteries, hurt manufacturers’ supply chain stability and bottom lines. Lithium carbonate prices in China hit a record 501,500 yuan/tonne in September, tripling the number … Read more
Tumblr announced a “community labels” feature this week that will make it easier for bloggers to filter out sensitive content that they may not want to see. Now, users can tag posts with labels pertaining to drug and alcohol addiction, violence and sexual content. Tumblr stopped allowing pornography in 2018 after the Tumblr app was temporarily … Read more
Now that the U.S. has finally committed to electrifying cars and trucks, there’s been a lot of handwringing over where they’ll charge. The Biden administration just approved all 50 states’ plans for where to install DC fast chargers, and while those plans will help fill massive infrastructure gaps, those chargers won’t be nearly enough to … Read more
Image Credits: TechCrunch The crypto world has never shied away from making big promises, but as the industry matures and its audience widens, now’s a good time to take a step back and look at how the space is delivering on its vision. Welcome to Chain Reaction, where we unpack and explain the latest in crypto … Read more
Some of the most prominent women in venture capital descended upon Paris this week for the first-ever Women in VC Summit, European edition. The event, organized by investors Sophie Winwood, Ruth Foxe Blader and Clarisse Lam, brought together top minds to discuss creating a more inclusive and equitable venture landscape. The conference was open only to … Read more
Apple’s latest iPadOS 16 developer beta brings Stage Manager to older iPad Pro models, as an M1 chip is no longer required. Stage Manager, which offers easier multitasking and switching between apps, was previously only compatible with the M1-powered iPad Air and the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models released last year. Now, the feature … Read more
If you love a great comeback story, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more dramatic one than Parker Conrad, the former CEO of Zenefits. A legendary Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, Conrad took Zenefits on a meteoric rise to a $4.5 billion valuation just three years after launching the company in 2013. But there is rarely … Read more
YouTube Shorts continues to compete with TikTok by adding loads of new features that are popular on the other app. Today, the Google-owned platform is rolling out a narration voiceover feature on iOS, a tool that is already often used on TikTok. Creators use narration to add commentary on top of already-recorded videos. Such content … Read more
The Ethereum system upgrade known as the Merge was executed about two weeks ago. And while things have been running smoothly, not everyone is impressed by the upgrade. Cardano founder and CEO Charles Hoskinson is among them, telling TechCrunch he didn’t expect Ethereum’s design of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to be “as rough as it is.” Prior … Read more
Netflix announced today it’s introducing a new feature to its games service that will allow its members to create game handles when they’re playing its exclusive titles. TechCrunch had previously reported the feature was in development and had been quietly tested on select titles, including The Breach, Bowling Ballers, Mahjong Solitaire and Heads Up. Now, … Read more
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today proposed new rules to fight back against so-called “robotext” campaigns — the barrages of scam texts sent by malicious actors and large criminal organizations. In a press release, the agency said it would solicit ideas to apply caller ID technologies to text messaging and explore mandating that cell … Read more
Netflix released the official trailer for “The Playlist” today, an upcoming limited series that loosely tells the story of how Spotify was created. The six-episode show will premiere on October 13. “The Playlist” will center around Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek, played by “Vikings” star Edvin Endre and how the company became one of … Read more
During a recent Twitter Space, M13 Partner Anna Barber and I looked back at the dot-com crash in search of lessons operators can use to avoid missteps founders have made in past downturns. In our chat, Barber spoke about how founders can better align with investors and employees while managing uncertainty, the dangers of growing … Read more
Cloudflare, the security, performance, and reliability company that went public three years ago, announced this morning that it will help connect startups that use its serverless computing platform to dozens of venture firms that have collectively offered to invest up to $1.25 billion in the companies out of their own existing funds. It’s a smart, … Read more
Where is the heart of the technology industry? The simple answer is “Silicon Valley,” a term that now generally means the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland area of California. There are other options: The two largest public cloud providers, Microsoft and Amazon, are based in the state of Washington. Europe’s tech scene has been busy in recent … Read more
Meta is making it harder to find the Shop tab on Instagram with its latest test. In the new test, the Shop tab has been removed from the app’s Home Screen and is instead hidden underneath Settings. The Shop tab used to be on the bottom navigation bar. Some users first reported the change on … Read more
Alchemist Accelerator, the enterprise-focused startup incubator, is hosting a Demo Day today for its 31st batch of companies. For many of these companies, it’s the first time they’ve shown their efforts to the world. The accelerator itself, meanwhile, has some news: new leadership. Rachel Chalmers, formerly the head of AlchemistX (a division of Alchemist that … Read more
Another bit of self-reporting from Meta today vis-a-vis internal efforts to identify and shut down political disinformation networks operating on its social platforms (aka “coordinated, inauthentic behavior” — or CIB — as it prefers to term it). Specifically, it’s reported taking down two, separate political disinformation networks — one “small” network originating from China which … Read more
Calendly, the scheduling startup that landed with a splash last year when it raised a huge round out of nowhere at a $3 billion+ valuation, has made a name for itself for tools that are used by more than 10 million people to book appointments, arrange meetings, and plan any event that involves two or … Read more
Space and Time, a decentralized data platform, has raised $20 million in strategic funding to help businesses grow through smart contract technology. “Our mission is to make smart contracts smarter and expand the use cases of business logic through smart contracts,” Nate Holiday, co-founder and CEO of Space and Time, said to TechCrunch. “We see … Read more
Downsizing, layoffs, reducing redundancy — to paraphrase the Bard, this “rose” by any other name simply stinks. If you fall into this category, take heart — when one door closes, another door opens, and on the other side is a free Expo Pass to TechCrunch Disrupt on October 18–20 in San Francisco (a $495 value). … Read more
During a recent Twitter Space, M13 Partner Anna Barber and I looked back at the dot-com crash in search of lessons operators can use to avoid missteps founders have made in past downturns. In our conversation, Barber spoke about how founders can better align with investors and employees while managing uncertainty, the dangers of growing … Read more
WhatsApp has published details of a “critical”-rated security vulnerability affecting its Android app that could allow attackers to remotely plant malware on a victim’s smartphone during a video call. Details of the flaw, tracked as CVE-2022-36934 with an assigned severity rating of 9.8 out of 10, is described by WhatsApp as an integer overflow bug. … Read more
Iliad, the telecom company owned by French billionaire and startup investor Xavier Niel, is launching a payment subsidiary called Stancer. The team has focused on one thing in particular — lowering transaction fees as much as possible. While French retailers, online shops and businesses can use Stancer starting today, Iliad has already been using Stancer for … Read more
It’s widely understood that after machine learning models are deployed in production, the accuracy of the results can deteriorate over time. Arthur.ai launched in 2019 with the goal of helping companies monitor their models to ensure they stayed true to their goals. Since then, the company has also added explainability and bias mitigation to the … Read more
If you’re reading this, you almost certainly have a complicated relationship with screens. Every year that passes, they become larger and increasingly present in our lives. Meanwhile, we continue to embrace the technology all while complaining about the hold it has on our lives. Astrohaus’ products have long occupied the strange nexus of technologies designed … Read more