Amazon is quietly beginning to offer its transportation and logistics network as a service to third-party merchants, businesses and direct-to-consumer brands in India, tapping its large delivery chain to drive revenue in the key overseas market as the e-commerce group attempts to replicate a model it has been testing in the U.S. for several months. … Read more
Stockholm-based startup Atlar raised a $5 million (€5 million) seed round led by Index Ventures. The company has been working on an application programming interface (API) that facilitates bank-to-bank payments for European businesses. In addtion to Index Ventures, La Famiglia VC, Cocoa and various business angels also participated in the round, such as Revolut CFO … Read more
Two months after the U.S. choke off China’s access to two of Nvidia’s high-end microchips, the American semiconductor design giant unveiled a substitute with a reduced processing speed for its second-largest market. The Nvidia A800 graphic processing unit is “another alternative product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for customers in China,” a spokesperson for Nvidia … Read more
As if Elon Musk didn’t have enough on his plate, the world’s richest man is headed to court next week to defend his $56 billion Tesla pay package. Richard Tornetta, a Tesla shareholder who filed suit in 2019 to rescind Musk’s 2018 pay deal, claims the package — “the largest compensation grant in human history” … Read more
Last week at Web Summit, we were asked to interview outgoing Y Combinator President Geoff Ralston about the past, present, and future of the popular accelerator program. We covered a lot of ground during our 20-minute-long chat, including why Ralston — long a partner at YC — decided to leave after assuming the role of … Read more
Ride-hailing company Lyft lost $135.7 million in the third quarter due to the shutdown of autonomous vehicle company Argo AI, in which Lyft had a small stake. Late last month, Argo AI closed its doors as its main backers, Ford and Volkswagen, pulled their investments in order to focus on more near-term goals like advanced … Read more
Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn is increasing its investment in EV startup Lordstown Motors by buying $170 million in common stock and newly created preferred shares. Once the deal is complete, Foxconn will hold all of Lordstown’s outstanding preferred stock and 18.3% of its common stock on a pro-forma basis. Foxconn will also have the right to … Read more
Siri, show me fintech companies, founded in the last two years, that haven’t raised over the past year but have grown headcount by 100% in the same time frame; and can it be founded by Stanford alumni whose Twitter traction has grown by at least 50% in the last six months? This is Harmonic’s vision; … Read more
As the U.S. braces for midterm elections, the first major voting cycle since the violence on January 6, Elon Musk’s intensely chaotic Twitter takeover adds more uncertainty to an already tense time. While other major platforms pull out their dusty playbooks for dealing with viral misinformation, coordinated attacks and misleading claims about election results, Twitter’s … 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. Hello, dear crunchers! We hope you’ve had a peaceful weekend and that you were able to stay clear of social media for a few days. LOL Who are we kidding? We’ve all … Read more
Hello and welcome back to Max Q. TC’s in-person Space event is almost upon us. Will you be there? Learn more about the event here. In this issue: Rocket Lab’s helicopter catch attempt ends in ocean splashdown ispace wants to stake its claim to the moon News from the FCC, Constellr and more Rocket Lab’s … Read more
Research in the field of machine learning and AI, now a key technology in practically every industry and company, is far too voluminous for anyone to read it all. This column, Perceptron, aims to collect some of the most relevant recent discoveries and papers — particularly in, but not limited to, artificial intelligence — and explain … Read more
A few weeks back, TechCrunch caught up with Terry Myerson and others from the Truveta team to chat through an important product update from the company. This publication has covered Truveta for some time now, curious about its objectives as a business that has a strong public-health component, and because Myerson was a longtime Microsoft … Read more
The largest crypto exchange by volume (Binance) and the third largest crypto exchange by volume (FTX) faced off in recent days after Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted that his exchange would slowly withdraw billions of its holdings in FTX’s native token, FTT, “due to recent revelations that have came to light.” But first, let’s … Read more
End-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal is rolling out a new Stories feature to all users on Android and iOS, the company announced on Monday. The official launch comes a few weeks after the company first began beta testing the feature with select users. Signal plans to release its Stories feature on desktop soon. As with … Read more
GIPHY Arts, the Giphy division dedicated to GIF art and artists, launched a free exclusive app on Roku today that allows users in select regions to view GIPHY Clips–30-second original short clips with audio—with their Roku devices. The new “Public Axis” channel is Giphy’s first app for connected TVs and brings short-form video content made … Read more
Evidently, the downturn hasn’t soured investors on the travel industry. Travel booking startup Hopper today announced that it closed a $96 million follow-on investment from Capital One, bringing the company’s total raised to close to $730 million. The fresh cash will be put toward several efforts, CEO and co-founder Frederic Lalonde said in a press … Read more
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: How … Read more
YouTube is expanding the reach of its TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, with today’s announcement that it will begin rolling out Shorts on TV to its global users. The company’s updated smart TV app will now allow users to view the popular vertical videos in an optimized experience that’s designed to feel more consistent with what … Read more
When you think about diversity in the startup ecosystem, one area that could be overlooked is the limited partner pool. These are the folks who contribute to the larger funds or individual investments. They don’t necessarily have the same influence over deals that VCs do, but they are a key piece that provides the cash … Read more
Spinning out of top U.K. universities Cambridge University and UCL, Carbon Re just raised £4.2 million ($4.8 million) in a bid to tackle the gigatonnes of carbon emissions spewing forth from the traditional thorn-in-climate-change-side cement industry. The company says it is building state-of-the-art AI to decarbonize energy-intensive industries. It claims that its “Delta Zero AI” … Read more
We’re less than two weeks away from kicking off TC Sessions: Crypto in Magic City on November 17. Yep, that’s Miami’s official nickname. Who knew? But listen up, crypto fans, because the bit of magic we call our early-bird special is about to perform a disappearing act in less than 24 hours – 11:59pm PST … Read more
Apple is reportedly planning to simplify its “Hey Siri” trigger phrase to just “Siri,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Right now, the quickest way to access Siri is to say “Hey Siri” and then add a command, but Apple is looking to make that process simpler by letting users drop the “Hey” in the trigger … Read more
We’re not ashamed to admit that we get pretty darned giddy when it comes to space technology. It’s out-of-this-world cool. But there’s something else that really gets our pulses pounding, and that’s meeting the early-stage startups that are pushing beyond and reinventing the boundaries of space tech. If — like us — you fit the … Read more
What’s a software company worth? It’s not an idle question, but one that underpins a huge amount of private-market investment and human effort. In 2021, the presumed value of software revenues grew, adding to a longer upcycle that pushed tech companies’ valuations into the stratosphere. Since late 2021, however, a decline in tech valuations in … Read more
The iMerit ML DataOps Summit kicks off tomorrow, November 8. Don’t miss your chance to gather online with more than 2,000 data scientists, engineers and top AI & ML speakers to learn about the latest in dataops solutions, connect and engage with attendees and expand your network. If you haven’t registered yet, here are just … Read more
The European Commission has put forward proposed rules for short term rental platforms focused on boosting transparency and mandatory data-sharing — in what looks like a ‘softly does it’ approach to addressing concerns attached to the rise of vacation rentals on platforms like Airbnb. While P2P vacation rental platforms remain popular options for European citizens … Read more
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday announced that law enforcement seized $3.36 billion of bitcoin from a man who “unlawfully obtained” more than 50,000 bitcoin from darkweb market Silk Road over a decade ago. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that James Zhong of Gainesville, Georgia, pleaded guilty on … 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. Stocks are up around the world, which is a nice thing to wake up to. Crypto prices are down a smidgen, but nothing major There’s FTX-Binance drama afoot, in case that’s your jam. … Read more
What a difference a year makes. If you are looking for proof, go no further than OpenView Venture Partners’ 2022 SaaS benchmarks report, which couldn’t be more different from the 2021 edition. Both reports come from an annual survey of SaaS companies, and with 660 global respondents, the 2022 sample doesn’t look very different from … Read more