Walmart readies another $2.5 billion investment in India’s e-commerce and payments

Walmart is preparing to spend over $2.5 billion in India as the retailer doubles down on the opportunities it sees in India’s e-commerce and payments markets even as the firm contends with rising costs amid the market downturns. Walmart spent about $780 million earlier this month to the Indian tax authorities after PhonePe, in which … Read more

Getsafe expands to France starting with home insurance

German insurtech startup Getsafe is adding a fourth market with today’s product launch. In addition to Germany, Austria and the U.K., Getsafe is now going to offer insurance products in France. The company will first offer a home insurance product. Getsafe is trying to disrupt the insurance market with a focus on digital-first insurance products. … Read more

Daily Crunch: ‘Network issue’ causes cloud outage that takes down multiple Microsoft services for 4+ hours

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. Hello, Crunchers! We’re pretty excited about Matt’s TechCrunch Live, where he talks to Cambly about how the company found profits after failing to raise a Series A. Mark your calendar for February … Read more

Tier Mobility and Spin lay off 100 more employees

Around a year ago, Tier Mobility was winning the shared micromobility game. Fueled by its $200 million Series D fundraise in October 2021, the company went on to acquire three other micromobility operators and a computer vision startup, giving it access to e-bikes — a reach that extended beyond Europe and into the U.S. — … Read more

Dell has acquired cloud orchestration startup Cloudify, sources tell us for around $100M

Dell is making an acquisition to beef up its cloud services business, specifically its offerings in DevOps: the company is buying Cloudify, an Israeli startup that has built a platform for cloud orchestration and infrastructure automation. Cloudify’s tools are used by cloud architects and DevOps engineers to manage containers, workloads, and more across hybrid environments. … Read more

Meta will restore Trump’s Facebook account ‘in the coming weeks’

Two years after the company formerly known as Facebook suspended then-President Donald Trump’s account, it’s bringing him back. Meta announced its decision to restore former president Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on Wednesday, adding that it would do so in “the coming weeks.” The company was expected to weigh in some time this month on … Read more

2022 European edtech report: Smaller rounds and fewer deals, but more angel activity

Rhys Spence Contributor Share on Twitter Rhys Spence is head of research at Brighteye Ventures, a European edtech-focused fund. More posts by this contributor Edtech’s honeymoon might be over, but expect a second boom Despite creaky markets, European edtech is showing its resilience During the darkest days of the pandemic, money was no object in … Read more

Google spares three Area 120 R&D projects, including team working on a ‘Gen Z consumer product’

Last week, we learned Google’s in-house R&D group, Area 120, had been severely impacted by the broader Google workforce reduction, impacting teams working on some of Google’s more experimental ideas. However, we understand now that at least three Area 120 projects have been spared from these latest cuts, and will go on to “graduate” to … Read more

Tesla’s energy storage arm caps 2022 with ‘highest level’ of deployments ever

The growth keeps coming for Tesla’s energy storage business. On Wednesday, the automaker said its home and utility-scale battery deployments reached 6.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) during its fiscal 2022, calling it “by far the highest level of deployments we have achieved.” That’s up from about 4 GWh in 2021. For context, the average American home … Read more

A network of knockoff apparel stores exposed 330,000 customer credit cards

If you recently made a purchase from an overseas online store selling knockoff clothes and goods, there’s a chance your credit card number and personal information were exposed. Since January 6, a database containing hundreds of thousands of unencrypted credit card numbers and corresponding cardholders’ information was spilling onto the open web. At the time it … Read more

Critical Role’s second campaign will get its own Amazon animated series

Amazon is deepening its ties to hit Dungeons & Dragons actual play series Critical Role, entering a multiyear deal with the growing role-playing content empire that will see any new adaptations spring up under the Amazon Studios umbrella. The company will also bring Critical Role’s second campaign to life, showcasing the ragtag fantasy group of … Read more

Disney+ advertisers will soon get Hulu’s ad targeting capabilities

Disney Advertising held its annual Tech and Data Showcase today, revealing plans to roll out some of Hulu’s ad targeting capabilities to Disney+. When Disney+ launched its ad-supported tier last month, advertisers couldn’t target ads to specific audiences. By giving Disney+ advertisers access to Hulu’s ad-targeting tools, they can learn a user’s age, gender, and … Read more

Twitter partners with DoubleVerify and IAS on brand safety initiative amid advertiser exits

Amid declining ad revenue and advertiser exits, Twitter announced today that it has teamed up with ad-tech companies DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science (IAS) to tell advertisers if their ad is placed around inappropriate content. The program, available first for U.S.-based advertising campaigns, allows brands to analyze the content adjacent to— primarily tweets above and … Read more

Valiant Hearts mobile game sequel is set to launch on Netflix Games on Jan 31

The mobile game Valiant Hearts: Coming Home by Ubisoft will launch exclusively on Netflix Games on January 31. Previously announced in September 2022, Netflix and Ubisoft announced the official release date of Valiant Hearts: Coming Home yesterday. As part of a recent partnership, this is the first of three mobile games from Netflix and Ubisoft. … Read more

Elon Musk’s Twitter hit with holocaust denial hate speech lawsuit in Germany

Twitter owner and self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist“, Elon Musk, is facing a legal challenge in Germany over how the platform handles antisemitic hate speech. The lawsuit, which was filed yesterday in the Berlin regional court by HateAid, a group that campaigns against hate speech, and the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS), argues that Musk-owned … Read more

Crowdbotics raises $40M to help devs build apps from modular code

Crowdbotics, a software development platform with a library of prebuilt app architectures, today announced that it raised $40 million in a Series B round led by NEA with participation from Homebrew, JSV, Harrison Metal and Cooley. The new cash will be put toward expanding Crowdbotics’ enterprise presence, CEO Anand Kulkarni told TechCrunch in an email … Read more

Dear Sophie: How do I change my L-1B to an H-1B through the lottery?

Sophie Alcorn Contributor Share on Twitter 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: What … Read more

All is fair in love and moderation

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Sarah Oh, the co-founder of T2, a Twitter … Read more