TechCrunch

Automating construction makes plain sense on the face of it. It’s one of the world’s biggest industries. It’s also among the most expensive and, often, dangerous. Certainly it checks off the three Ds (dull, dirty, dangerous) of automation quite plainly. We encountered Kewazo several years back when the Munich-based startup participated in a TC Sessions: … Read more

Temu, a shopping app from Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, is having quite the run as the No. 1 app on the U.S. app stores. The mobile shopping app hit the top spot on the U.S. App Store in September and has continued to hold a highly-ranked position in the months that followed, including as the … Read more

SpaceX is poised to conduct a wet dress rehearsal of the Starship launch system from its Starbase site in southeastern Texas, a major milestone in CEO Elon Musk’s quest to turn long-haul interplanetary transportation from science fiction to reality. It’s the strongest signal yet that Starship’s first orbital flight test could well and truly be … Read more

Today, baby registry and product discovery platform Babylist announced that it has acquired health and wellness tool Expectful for an undisclosed price. The deal, announced today, brings together two companies focused on parental support, now helping people navigate everything from eco-friendly diapers to mental wellness around fertility. The overlap, however, is in more than the mission. … Read more

Cowboy Ventures, the now-10-year-old, Bay Area-based seed-stage focused fund founded by renowned investor Aileen Lee, has closed on two new funds totaling $260 million in capital commitments. The outfit garnered $140 million in commitments for its fourth flagship fund and another $120 million for its first opportunity-type fund (its “Mustang Fund”). The amount is more … Read more

The same day Microsoft invested billions in OpenAI, McKinsey snatched up an enterprise-focused AI firm, Iguazio, for a relative steal. The consulting giant reportedly paid around $50 million for Iguazio, a Tel Aviv-based company offering an MLOps platform for large-scale businesses — “MLOps” referring to a set of tools to deploy and maintain machine learning … Read more

Welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Natasha is back in the Bay, after five weeks away, so some could say, San Francisco is back. Big tech: Real quick, you should know that Elliott Management took a multi-billion stake in Salesforce, while … Read more

TechCrunch Live is entering its third season, and I’m thrilled to be leading the events again this year. The first event is on February 1, 2023, and will feature a timely discussion on what to do if your company can’t raise a Series A. We have Cambly’s Sameer Shariff and Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel speaking at … Read more

Meta is expanding its partnership with the NBA and WNBA to offer more than 50 live games in VR on Meta Quest, the company announced on Monday. The Meta Quest is the official headset of the NBA, as the company signed a deal with the league back in 2020. The company will deliver a package … Read more

You have a great idea for a startup, and you’re working hard to build, launch and scale. But, and stay with us here, is your idea truly good? According to James Currier — founding partner of NFX, a VC firm by and for entrepreneurs — good ideas have patterns, and 90% of the ideas he … Read more

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has fined home services marketplace HomeAdvisor up to $7.2 million for its use of deceptive and misleading tactics in selling home improvement project leads to service providers, including small businesses operating in the gig economy. The fine is the first gig work-related penalty following the FTC’s fall 2022 announcement that … Read more

Meta announced today that it has started gradually expanding testing default end-to-end encryption for Messenger. The messaging service is also bringing some of its standard features to end-to-end encrypted chats, including chat themes, custom chat emojis and reactions, group profile photos, link previews and active status. Over the next few months, millions of users around … Read more

Fintech-turned-HR outfit Deel reached $295 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by the end of 2022, the company’s co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz shared today. That’s up 417.5% from $57 million in ARR achieved at the end of 2021. The massive jump in ARR is impressive by normal standards but particularly so considering the challenging … Read more

Coverdash, providing small businesses, e-commerce merchants and gig-economy workers with insurance, launched its product in all 50 states after closing over $2.5 million in seed capital. The round was led by Bling Capital, with participation from investors, including AXIS Digital Ventures, Tokio Marine Future Fund (in affiliation with World Innovation Lab), Expansion VC and Cameron … Read more

With over 875 million users across over 200 countries, LinkedIn is a household name in the world of professional networking. But as the platform grew, it shifted some focus to becoming another source of consuming and producing content. Now a young startup wants to disrupt that. Peerlist aims to fill this gap by providing a space … Read more

Bumble is putting the phrase “Netflix and Chill?” to the test with the launch of a weekly in-app Netflix-themed question game called “Netflix Nights In” that asks users questions about a popular Netflix show. Users can play against their match to see who can answer all the questions correctly. According to a recent Bumble survey, … Read more

It’s been a tumultuous time at Salesforce recently, and it’s not getting any quieter soon. The Wall Street Journal reported last night that the company now needs to deal with activist investor Elliott Management. Elliott confirmed that it has taken a multibillion stake in Salesforce, and shared this comment from Jesse Cohn, managing partner at … Read more

Microsoft today announced that it’s extending its partnership with OpenAI, the startup behind art- and text-generating AI systems like ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and GPT-3, with a “multi-year, multi-billion-dollar” investment. OpenAI says that the infusion of new capital — the exact amount of which wasn’t disclosed — will be used to continue its independent research and … Read more

Apple’s latest silicon innovations shine in the Mac Mini. The tiny desktop computer is the latest Apple computer fitted with the M2 chipset. For $599, buyers can opt for the M2 or spend $1299 for the impressive M2 Pro, which features unique benefits. For the last several days, my M1 Mac Mini sat on the … Read more

Everyone is excited for Final Fantasy XVI, but in an age of endless sequels the fresh and original action RPG Forspoken has gamers hoping that a fun new franchise is being minted. Unfortunately, Square-Enix’s risky bet doesn’t quite pay off: it’s an ambitious but disjointed experience that feels for all the world like none of … Read more

The M2 Air is as close as Apple has ever come to the perfect MacBook. It’s a kind of platonic ideal for the category, and the culmination of key updates to the product line, including the arrival (and upgrade) of Apple silicon and the company’s acceptance that some things (bad keyboards, Touch Bar) simply weren’t … Read more

Veteran tech giant PayPal is facing an antitrust investigation in Germany — where the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has announced it’s looking into its rules on surcharges. The regulator is concerned that restrictions PayPal imposes on merchants could be harming competitors and inflating costs for consumers by restricting price competition. Clauses in PayPal’s terms the … Read more

India’s central bank has directed SBM Bank India to stop all outward remittance transactions in a blow to the bank and many of its fintech partners that offer services allowing users to invest in foreign services. The Reserve Bank of India said in a brief statement Monday that it has ordered SBM Bank India to … Read more

Music streaming service Spotify has announced that it will be conducting a round of layoffs that will impact around 6% of its global workforce. In its most recent earnings release, the company said that there were 9,808 full-time employees working for Spotify. Today’s move will impact around 600 employees. “Like many other leaders, I hoped … Read more

Luis Rubén Chávez, founder and CEO of Zenfi, says consumer finance in Mexico and across Latin America “is basically broken.” “Achieving basic financial health in Mexico for around 50 to 60 million people is really hard,” he told TechCrunch. “Two out of three Mexicans have a subprime credit score with basically no tools to improve.” … Read more

Eugene Y. Mar Contributor Share on Twitter Eugene Y. Mar is a partner with Farella Braun + Martel LLP in San Francisco, leading the firm’s Technology Industry Group. Thomas J. Pardini Contributor Thomas J. Pardini is a senior associate with Farella Braun + Martel LLP in San Francisco, representing clients in intellectual property litigation. Tech … Read more

Twitter’s crowd-sourced fact-checking program, Community Notes, is now open to contributors in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Twitter said over the weekend that it was expanding the contributor base by 10% per week by onboarding new individuals to the program. The social media company has also promised to include people from other countries. … Read more