SoundHound — maker of the voice AI technology used by Mercedes-Benz, Deutsche Telecom, Snap and Mastercard and more — has laid off about 10% of its workforce amid ongoing economic turmoil across global markets. The Santa Clara-headquartered company — which went public via a SPAC in April of this year — announced the decision to … Read more
Sam Bankman-Fried said on Thursday that he will be winding down the trading firm Alameda Research and is attempting to raise liquidity for the troubled FTX International exchange, as he scrambles to keep the world’s second largest crypto exchange alive after a bailout deal with Binance failed earlier this week. Bankman-Fried said in a series … Read more
As a part of its Advanced Manufacturing Fund, Apple will invest $450 million in satellite network and ground stations to power Emergency SOS, its service for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro lineups that uses satellite to route emergency calls, the company announced today. The majority of the funding will go to Globalstar, the … Read more
Crypto is not having a good week, as Bitcoin crashed to under $17,000 — its lowest level in two years. The stock market continues to post declines as layoffs abound. Meanwhile, inflation recently reached a 40-year high. For those looking for a safe place to park their cash and actually earn a decent amount of … Read more
There are a lot of changes afoot for SpringTime Ventures as it looks to deploy its freshly closed second fund. For one, the Denver-based firm is pivoting away from its original focus on its home state of Colorado, despite being the only local fund in two of the state’s 10 unicorn companies. It’s also now … Read more
Over a third of food ends up wasted across the globe, with 6% of that occurring in the Latin America and Caribbean regions. Among that waste, the majority of it, around 70%, occurs prior to the consumer stage. This is where Perfekto believes its subscription box of imperfect food can help. Launched in 2021, the … Read more
Roku announced today that the home screen menu will now include a new “Sports” tab that gives sports fans instant access to sports events, upcoming events and on-demand sports-related content. The feature on the Roku Home Screen has already begun to roll out to some users and will be gradually added to all Roku devices … Read more
With the explosive adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps, the average company now has more than 100 SaaS apps to manage — leading to data being siloed across countless different systems. That makes analysis challenging. To wit, according to Forrester, between 60% and 73% of all data within an enterprise goes unused for analytics. Ideally, analysts … Read more
A startup that wants to democratize data in the enterprise? That may sound awfully familiar, but Directus, which is announcing a $7 million Series A round led by True Ventures today, is taking a different approach to most of its competitors by combining traditional developer tools with a no-code approach to offer a highly flexible … Read more
More than 10 days after taking over Twitter, Elon Musk addressed the company’s employees for the first time in a series of emails. He talked about ending remote work and making the fight against spam a priority. According to a report from Bloomberg, the new CEO asked workers to be ready for “difficult times ahead.” … Read more
Amagi, which offers cloud broadcast and targeted advertising software to scores of media and entertainment giants, has raised a large new funding round as it looks to expand its tech offerings and invest in AI-powered personalization stack. General Atlantic led a new round of over $100 million, which included about $20 million in secondary buybacks, … Read more
When people think about the cloud computing industry, three names come to mind — Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. And yet, smaller cloud companies are still doing well. OVHcloud, a French company that has been around since 1999, is one of them. Of course, cloud computing wasn’t even a thing in 1999. … Read more
Amazon has mastered the concept of subscriptions in e-commerce. Prime-based memberships, and the ability to set up recurring purchases for everyday items, have been central to how it drums up repeat business, tapping shoppers looking for discounts and more convenience. The concept has caught on fast with other retailers, and as one indication of that, … Read more
The motto over at Twitter is clearly a throwback ‘move fast and break things’ at the moment under new ruler Elon Musk, and the latest thing to break is the just-introduced $8 monthly Twitter Blue tier, which includes a shiny ‘verified’ checkmark indistinguishable from the ones that Twitter used to hand out selectively to high-profile … Read more
GitHub is working on a new tool that will allow developers to code with their voice. Announced at the annual GitHub Universe conference yesterday, the experimental feature works in tandem with Copilot, GitHub’s controversial AI-powered pair-programmer that collaborates with software developers by suggesting functions or lines of code — a bit like Gmail’s Smart Compose. Copilot … Read more
Audi and battery recycler Redwood Materials are teaming up to collect end-of-life batteries from cell phones, electric toothbrushes and other lithium-ion-powered devices at participating dealerships nationwide. Beginning November, consumers can deposit their laptops, cell phones, e-bikes, e-scooters, electric toothbrushes, vacuum cleaners, power drills and other rechargeable devices at the dealerships. The recycling bins will be … Read more
Google is rolling out a bunch of updates across platforms making it easier for fans to follow the FIFA World Cup starting November 20. These include a daily highlights video from TV networks, customized notifications, a dedicated section on Google TV, and a multiplayer game. Just like for any sport, you can search with phrases … Read more
Vadym Synegin Contributor Share on Twitter Vadym Synegin is a Ukrainian impact entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor in fintech and crypto projects with more than 15 years’ experience as an entrepreneur in Europe and the UAE. More posts by this contributor 5 reasons why Ukraine’s fintech sector is growing despite war The fintech industry is currently … Read more
Credit card penetration in Egypt is low, with just over 4 million cards used in a population of more than 100 million people. As such, people in the country have little or no access to credit, given the other few options that exist in the market. One of these options, consumer loans, is being explored … Read more
Cleantech startup Airly wants to help communities around the world improve air quality with affordable sensors and software that provides actionable insights. Based in London and Krakow, the startup announced today it has raised $5.5 million. The round was led by firstminute capital and Pi Labs, with participation from returning investors like the Sir Richard … Read more
A change in the iOS 16.1.1 update for Chinese users is turning some heads. Apple is restricting the “Everyone” option in AirDrop to ten minutes on iPhones purchased in mainland China, according to online user reports. That means people can no longer keep their Airdrop on for an unlimited time, including for strangers and contacts. … Read more
The California Department of Motor Vehicles approved an amendment to Waymo’s existing deployment permit Wednesday to include driverless, as well as drivered, operations. Now, Waymo will be able to charge for usage of its autonomous vehicles, which will operate without anyone in the driver’s seat, for services like food and grocery delivery. The upgraded DMV … Read more
Sequoia Capital just marked down to zero the value of its stake in the cryptocurrency exchange FTX — a stake that, as of last week, likely represented among the most sizable unrealized gains in the venture firm’s 50-year history. When Sequoia invested in the Series B round of the Bahamas-based outfit in July 2021, FTX … Read more
When the pandemic slammed into our shores a couple of years ago, many of us were shoo-ed inside, doomed to endless Zoom meetings. At the time, Canon released a beta of its EOS Webcam Utility, and then seemed to pretty much forget about it. Until today. In a ‘geez, Canon, this would have been helpful … Read more
California voters shot down a plan to make electric vehicles more affordable for some residents, dealing a blow to Lyft and the EV industry alike. Proposition 30 would have taxed residents making more than $2 million a year to subsidize electric cars and public charging stations as well as funded wildfire prevention programs. Even with … Read more
Commercial electric vehicle company Canoo entered into an agreement to acquire a vehicle manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City, the company announced Wednesday along with its third-quarter earnings. The news comes a week after Canoo said it would build an EV battery module manufacturing facility in Pryor, Oklahoma. The new facility will be dedicated to producing … Read more
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. Whooo-weee interesting times for crypto land, as Bitcoin crashes down to under $17,000 for the first time in a while. Wild, given that the cryptocurrency was trading at $65,000 or so a … Read more
Electric vehicle maker Rivian affirmed Wednesday that the company is on track to hit its annual production target of 25,000 vehicles despite unpredictable supply chain crunches and component shortages. The startup-turned-public company remained committed to its production goal even as industry-wide challenges, supply chain snarls and macroeconomic forces have conspired this year to keep automakers … Read more
As the crypto market digests the past few days of chaos, venture capitalists see the moment as a warning, but also as an opportunity for the growth of decentralization and maturation of the larger blockchain space. “As venture investors, we take a long-term view on the industry; despite the current market turmoil. We are actively … Read more
Elon Musk’s mercurial leadership and half-baked product plans are already creating fertile ground for confusion on Twitter. We’ve lost count of how many times Musk has changed his mind or offered contradictory claims about what a new paid $8 verification badge would do, but after pushing the feature live, fake accounts are seizing on the … Read more