TechCrunch

Steve Case, the cofounder of America Online, the investment firm Revolution, and its offshoot seed-stage arm Rise of the Rest, has a new book out called Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream. In it, Case argues that Covid was a “shake the globe” moment for entrepreneurship, … Read more

When it comes to advice, tech loves standardization. Startups are often told that there are certain metrics to hit, deadlines to meet, timetables to measure themselves against. Examples abound: Here’s the ideal amount of money to raise at your Series A round; here’s how many employees you should have before hiring this executive; here’s what … Read more

When founders are laying off staff and cutting costs to face the downturn, it may seem like odd timing to tell startups to take their product as seriously as ever. In a recession, do users really care about product experience? Yes, says Mighty Capital, whose portfolio includes companies such as Airbnb and Amplitude. The San … Read more

Last month, Grammy-winning artists Timbaland and Swizz Beatz sued TikTok competitor Triller for $28 million. Triller acquired their livestream event series Verzuz last year, but the two musicians alleged that the social app had missed several large payments, prompting them to file a lawsuit. Now, Triller has settled with Timbaland and Swizz Beatz, but the … Read more

Instagram is rolling out the ability for users to upload longer uninterrupted Stories, the social network confirmed to TechCrunch on Friday. Now, when you post a Story that’s under 60 seconds in length, it won’t be broken up into segments. The company began testing the change with select users late last year, and has now … Read more

Joanna McFarland got the idea for HopSkipDrive in 2014 because she needed a solution to a problem that many working parents like herself face: How do you consistently get your kids where they need to be on time? The idea was sparked at a birthday party she attended with one of her children. The topic … Read more

Byju’s has cleared all its dues to Blackstone by paying $234 million it owed the global investment giant for the $1 billion acquisition of Aakash, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, addressing one of the criticisms levelled against the Indian edtech giant in recent months. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, valued at $22 billion, had … Read more

Marc Benioff and company certainly know how to put on a show. In fact, Benioff has been putting on Dreamforce customer spectacles since 2003 — that is, until the pandemic came along and put the whole shebang online for a couple of years. With the Salesforce event back live and in person this week, just … Read more

General Motors is partnering with a Canadian battery recycler to produce new batteries from recovered battery materials, as it aims to scale EV production in North America amid supply shortages and rising costs. The automaker invested through its GM Ventures arm in a Series A financing round for Lithion Recycling, a developer of advanced battery … Read more

Whether you’re bullish or bearish, web3-native or web3-naive, you have to admit nothing remains the same for long in the growing blockchain, crypto, NFT and web3 universe. And the entirety of the rapidly evolving space is under increasing scrutiny — both public and regulatory. This constant change, combined with plenty of controversy, are just two … Read more

John Zic Contributor Share on Twitter John Zic is a partner and founding team member at EQUIAM. He spends most of his time wrestling with fragmented and imperfect private market data in a never-ending effort to derive market-beating investment signals. Shachi Shah Contributor Shachi Shah is director of business operations at EQUIAM. She is passionate … Read more

This column is fascinated by Latin America, a region of the world rich in history, culture and, recently, a massive boom in technology company formation and financing. The period of rapidly accreting venture capital activity, however, is slowing. Fast. The declines in capital availability, as far as TechCrunch can see, will not prove lethal. However, … Read more

Volkswagen is partnering with a Belgian network operator to integrate electric vehicles into the power grid, as more EVs take to the road amid rising energy costs. Volkswagen’s charging unit Elli and re.alto, a startup owned by Brussels-based Elia, signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday to collaborate on ways to integrate EVs into the … Read more

TikTok is rolling out its comment dislike button globally to all users, the company announced on Friday. The short-form video app started testing the dislike button in April as a way for users to identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate. If you click the dislike button on a comment, the dislike won’t be … Read more

Ford broke ground Friday at its $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex in Tennessee, the epicenter for its future electric vehicles and a key milestone toward its goal to sell 2 million EVs annually by late 2026. BlueOval City is slated to begin building advanced batteries for future Ford and Lincoln EVs in 2025, including the … Read more

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Coming to hang with us at Disrupt, where Equity is kicking off the entire event? Use code ‘EQUITY’ to save 15% on your tickets. Hell yeah, and see you there! Alex, Natasha and Mary Ann jumped on … Read more

Battery life has long been the Apple Watch’s biggest drawback. The issue only became more pronounced when the company went all-in on sleep-tracking with watchOS 7 in 2020. Rather than increasing the mAh on the hardware, Apple presented a workaround: an alert that pops up if the user dips below a certain percentage before bed … Read more

Tesla couldn’t get a judge to dismiss a case alleging racial bias at the automaker’s Fremont factory last month, so the automaker is now countersuing the agency responsible instead. The luxury electric vehicle maker on Thursday filed a complaint in state court in Alameda County saying the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) adopted “underground regulations” … Read more

Days ahead of the Italian general election, the country’s privacy watchdog has sent Facebook’s parent (Meta) an urgent request for information, asking the social media giant to clarify measures it’s taking around Sunday’s election. The risk of election interference via social media continues to be a major concern for regulators after years of rising awareness … Read more

The U.K. government has announced plans to make it easier for telecoms operators to access telegraph poles on private land, representing part of a broader push to bring high-speed broadband to all corners of the country. The announcement was made as part of the U.K.’s so-called “mini budget,” which was partly set up to address … Read more

Serial Kenyan tech entrepreneur Mike Macharia has spent the last two decades helping enterprises like East Africa’s biggest telco Safaricom to create infrastructure that bolsters their growth. His firm, Seven Seas Technologies, has previously worked with governments too — having been involved in the initial implementation of the decentralized service delivery hubs – Huduma Centres, … Read more

More than half of the population in Southeast Asia is under 30, making it a coveted market for novel technologies. Unsurprisingly, several countries in the region, like Singapore and Vietnam, have some of the world’s highest crypto adoption rates. While Indonesia isn’t the most crypto active in the region — total crypto value received was … Read more

Apple TV+’s original programming has received a major boost with the company landing a deal with “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan. Apple signed a two-season deal for his new project — dubbed as a grounded drama —that will be unrelated to two hit series. Deadline, which first reported the development, noted … Read more