TechCrunch

The teenage market for apps is a tough nut to crack and stay relevant in. Just ask Snapchat. Equally, teens are going through a stage in life where almost every social interaction seems to carry portent of some kind of other. This would explain in part why apps like SendIt, NGL, and Nocapp (some are … Read more

Oro, an open source ecommerce platform co-created by Magento’s cofounder and former CTO, today announced it has raised $13 million in a strategic growth round of funding. Founded in 2012, Los Angeles-based Oro’s platform constitutes a range of applications, including OroCommerce, its flagship B2B ecommerce platform for building storefronts and marketplaces; OroMarketplace, an end-to-end management … Read more

In recent years, working for, or banking with, a traditional financial institution was decidedly uncool. Far cooler was working for or banking with one of the many fintech startups that seemed to thumb their nose at stodgy bank brands. Then the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates, stocks tanked, and a lot of fintech outfits that … Read more

A day after launching an annual Twitter Blue subscription, the social media company made the paid plan available for purchase for Android users today. Users will have to pay $11 per month if they buy the Twitter Blue plan through Android. The pricing is the same as what users on iOS have to pay, but … Read more

PhonePe’s valuation has surged to $12 billion in a new funding round as it the Indian fintech giant readies its life without parent firm Flipkart. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup said it has raised $350 million and anticipates raising up to another $650 million as part of the round. General Atlantic led the first tranche of the … Read more

Shein, the fast fashion behemoth that has swept across the world, is raising a significant down round as the startup world braces for a funding crunch. The e-commerce platform known for jaw-dropping outfit prices and savvy TikTok marketing is seeking $3 billion at a valuation of $64 billion, down from the $100 billion price tag … Read more

Here’s a fashion rental startup with a twist: London, UK-based Curated Loop — which soft-launched a high end fashion rental marketplace last week after bootstrapping to launch an MVP — is sourcing statement pieces from independent designers’ sample stock to style itself as an edgier alternative to more conventional rivals. Its approach means items available … Read more

The question of whether Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a fraud or is just too careless with his words took center stage in a San Francisco court room Wednesday. Under the microscope was Musk’s notorious 2018 tweet that stated funding was “secured” to take Tesla private at a potential value of $420 per share. In a … Read more

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. Helloooo, Crunchers! The heavy goods train of tech news keeps on rollin’ down (and sometimes off) the tracks. Apropos tracks, we’ve been a little besotted with this absolutely magnificent music video of … Read more

Founded by Ece Kural and Furkan Bayraktar, Scrintal is a visual note-taking and collaboration tool. The Sweden-based company’s product combines visual canvases with documentation to help professionals and teams go from idea to presentable work on the same screen — think Miro meets Notion meets a slew of other tools companies use to keep their knowledge … Read more

Federal regulators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that three Amazon warehouse facilities had violated legislation designed to require employers to provide safe working environments. Investigations found that Amazon workers are at high risk for back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), especially in warehouse environments that prioritize speed over safety. “While … Read more

In a heartwarming callback to the absurdly low-stakes controversies of the Obama era, the State Department is making extremely small waves by officially retiring the old workhorse Times New Roman font from official communications. It will be succeeded by Calibri, a font best known now for being publicly retired in 2021. Really though, there is … Read more

Predicting spending is a tricky business, especially in a period of economic uncertainty. Perhaps that’s why both IDC and Gartner have cut their fall predictions in the new year with Gartner now predicting modest 2.2% growth for 2023 with IDC a bit more optimistic at 4.4%. In the fall, Gartner was predicting a far more … Read more

Ditching HomePod was a strange choice. At the time, Apple told us, “HomePod mini has been a hit since its debut last fall, offering customers amazing sound, an intelligent assistant, and smart home control all for just $99. We are focusing our efforts on HomePod mini.” While the smart home hasn’t panned out precisely the … Read more

Last year, U.S. startups with all-women teams received 1.9% (or around $4.5 billion) out of around the $238.3 billion in venture capital allocated, according to the latest PitchBook data. That percentage is a notable drop from the 2.4% all-women teams raised in 2021. The decline was expected, given the economic climate of last year: the … Read more

Ethereum’s shift from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS) in September 2022 increased interest in staking across a number of parties — including institutions. The success of the Merge propelled Ethereum from “a smart contract platform lagging behind” into “something that was doing things right,” Diogo Mónica, co-founder and president of Anchorage Digital, a crypto bank … Read more

PureTerra, a venture firm that aims to fund “disruptive water technologies,” is pumping millions into Membrion so the Seattle startup can mass-produce its wastewater treatment tech. Membrion claims its ceramic membranes can filter out problematic heavy metals (not the genre, but toxic stuff like lead, arsenic and lithium) for around a twelfth of the cost of … Read more

Wallapop, a peer-to-peer marketplace based out of Barcelona that made a splash at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic with consumers who were looking for more localized, less wasteful, and more eco-friendly routes for buying and selling items, has raised more money to continue its expansion in Europe. The company has picked up €81 million … Read more

Wikipedia, one of the world’s top 10 most visited websites, and a resource used by billions every month, is getting its first makeover on the desktop in over a decade. The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the Wikipedia project, announced today the launch of an updated interface aimed at making the site more accessible and easier … Read more

Understanding the biodiversity of forests is crucial to their conservation or restoration. Collecting “external DNA” left behind by animals is a good way to find out what lives there without having to spot them or even be there at the same time — and this drone from Swiss researchers makes taking samples from tree limbs … Read more

Sequoia Capital, a storied venture capital firm, announced today that it has raised $195 million for its fifth, dedicated seed fund. The vehicle will be used to back founders across the United States and Europe, as well as follow-on funding rounds for companies spinning out of the firm’s accelerator program, Arc. The new fund comes … Read more

The past few years have been a rollercoaster for the startup world’s herd of unicorns. Two years ago, we saw a record number of companies cross the $1 billion valuation milestone. But that momentum slowed to a trickle last year, and this year’s market conditions look likely to reverse course to a point that we … Read more

In a press conference on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it has arrested Anatoly Legkodymov, founder of crypto exchange Bitzlato, for allegedly processing over $700 million of illicit funds. “Overnight, the Department worked with key partners here and abroad to disrupt Bitzlato, the China-based money laundering engine that fueled a high-tech axis … Read more

That nagging deja vu feeling kept creeping in earlier this month during CES 2023 in Las Vegas. At every turn, in the newly constructed West Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and even amid the crowded startup grinder at Eureka Park, was a company pitching lidar sensor technology. That might not have been so … Read more

Email marketing and newsletter giant Mailchimp says it was hacked and that dozens of customers’ data was exposed. It’s the second time the company was hacked in the past six months. Worse, this breach appears to be almost identical to a previous incident. Mailchimp said in an unattributed blog post that its security team detected … Read more

“Rebel Moon,” Netflix’s highly anticipated space fantasy epic, is coming to the streamer on December 22, 2023, the company announced today, alongside a sizzle reel of over a dozen titles that are also arriving on the streamer this year. The sizzle reel shows a first look at the sci-fi adventure film, giving viewers a glimpse … Read more

As the crypto developer ecosystem expands, major ecosystems outside of the top two cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin and Ethereum — are growing, according to a new report. About 72% of monthly active developers (devs) are working on blockchains that are not part of the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, according to the 2022 Electric Capital Developer Report, … Read more

Decodable, the well-funded real-time data engineering and stream processing platform based, in part, on the Apache Flink open-source project, is launching a major update today that aims to make the service more attractive to large enterprises. In addition to expanding its library of connectors to enable data ingestion from more sources and a new enterprise … Read more

Open source password management platform Bitwarden has made its first known acquisition, snapping up a fledgling Sweden-based startup called Passwordless.dev, which specializes in helping developers integrate passwordless authentication technology into their software. The news comes shortly after 1Password and LastPass rival Bitwarden announced its first outside funding since its inception in 2015, securing $100 million … Read more

YouTube TV announced today that it’s rolling out updates to its Live Guide and Library. The updated Live Guide, which offers a more traditional grid showing what’s on now and what’s upcoming, has already reached some users, offering both a new design and recommendations of what to watch. Meanwhile, updates to the Library will roll … Read more