TechCrunch

WorkTorch, previously known as QuickHire, announced today the closing of a $2.2 million seed round led by Tenzing Capital. Along with the raise comes the name change, with the goal of encapsulating the business’ focus on employee recruiting and retention. Speaking to TechCrunch, its founders, sisters Deborah Gladney and Angela Muhwezi-Hall said the rebrand was … Read more

Amazon is now offering to replace customers’ discontinued Cloud Cam smart cameras with a new Blink Mini following its decision earlier this year to shut down its Cloud Cam line of products and end support for the device’s associated mobile apps. At the time of the retailer’s May 2022 announcement, Amazon said it would email … Read more

Mastodon, the decentralized social network that’s increasingly being positioned as an alternative to Twitter, has eclipsed 1 million active monthly users. That’s according to CEO and lead developer Eugen Rochko, who revealed the milestone in a post on Monday morning. Germany-based Mastodon has experienced rapid growth since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, with nearly half … Read more

The long hangover from a 2020 state-sponsored compromise still isn’t over for SolarWinds, as the software giant targeted by Russian government hackers has to pony up $26 million to shareholders and face possible enforcement action from the federal government. In a recent 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SolarWinds said it reached … Read more

Unacademy has eliminated 10% of its workforce, or about 350 roles, in its second round of layoffs this year as the Indian edtech warns of harsh economic conditions. In an email to employees on Monday, Unacademy co-founder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal said the startup is cutting jobs across several verticals, many of which it … Read more

John Chambers Contributor Share on Twitter John Chambers is the founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures. Previously, he served as executive chairman and CEO of Cisco. Geopolitical tensions, supply chain challenges, an economic slowdown, an ongoing pandemic and more have meant that companies and people have been impacted in ways that will change how business … Read more

If you’ve ever had to sit through corporate training videos while you feel your will to live slowly ebb out of every pore of your body, a new startup has some good news for you. Describing itself as “the TikTok of workplace learning,” 5Mins recently raised a round of funding in a bid to introduce … Read more

The U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre has launched a new program that will continually scan every internet-connected device hosted in the United Kingdom for vulnerabilities to help the government respond to zero-day threats. The NCSC, part of the Government Communications Headquarters that acts as the U.K.’s public-facing technical authority for cyber threats, says it launched … Read more

African e-commerce giant Jumia has made a change in management as co-founders Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec step down effective today as co-CEOs, according to a statement seen by TechCrunch. The two founders, who until today shared the chief executive role, have been at the helm of Africa’s only publicly traded company for over a … Read more

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said today that the company is refining its search to show users’ charges inclusive of fees like cleaning fees. The company will roll out this feature through a toggle next month and will also prioritize the total charges (before taxes) for your trip in search instead of the nightly price. Chesky … Read more

Unity‘s proposed merger with IronSource has formally concluded, with the two companies coming together to create an end-to-end platform for developers to build and monetize games. Unity, which is best known for its eponymous general purpose game engine, and IronSource, an adtech company that serves developers with tools for integrating ads, cross-channel marketing, and more, first … Read more

Ouster and Velodyne, two lidar companies, have agreed to a merger in an all-stock transaction, the companies said Monday. Both Ouster and Velodyne will maintain a 50% stake in the new company, according to the agreement that was signed on November 4. The merger comes as many in the industry, including autonomous vehicle technology company … Read more

Twitter is reaching out to some employees to come back after it engaged in a mass layoff last week, according to multiple reports. The company’s new owner Elon Musk laid off 3,700 people from Twitter — almost half of its staff — after he completed the takeover. A Bloomberg report cited sources saying that the … Read more

Amazon has introduced a new price tier for Prime Video in India, making the on-demand video streaming service even more affordable as it races to win more customers in the South Asian market where it competes with giants including Disney’s Hotstar and Netflix. The e-commerce group is offering the yearly subscription to Prime Video Mobile … Read more

Apple warned investors and customers on Sunday that it expects to ship fewer iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max units as the world’s most valuable tech firm grapples with the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in China. The company said it continues to see strong demand for the pro models of the new iPhone 14 … Read more

Twitter is reportedly delaying the rollout of verification check marks to subscribers as the social network attempts to steer clear of possible impact to Tuesday’s midterm elections. The Elon Musk-owned social media company had planned to rollout the revamped version of its subscription service, Twitter Blue, on Monday. The firm started testing the new features … Read more

Netflix is bringing the Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales game to its platform with new gameplay based on the content from Season 4 of the show. Users will be able to play as new characters features in Season 4 in this no-ads game as the company continues its push toward gaming. Users have to solve puzzles … Read more

Cloudflare, the internet infrastructure and security company, reported earnings on Thursday, reaching a significant milestone. With almost $254 million in revenue, the company is on a run rate of over $1 billion for the first time. Revenue, which was up 47% over the previous year, also beat the street’s estimate of $250.6 million. That win … Read more

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. … Read more

Twitter may extend its subscription service to India in “less than a month,” its owner and chief executive Elon Musk said, offering a glimpse at just how aggressively he plans to roll out Twitter Blue to the larger world. Twitter launched Twitter Blue in four markets — US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — last … Read more

Hey, all — welcome back to Week in Review, the newsletter where we sum up the most read TechCrunch stories from the past week. And oof, what a week it was. Want this newsletter in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Signed up? Let’s just dive right in. most read Mass layoffs at Twitter: … Read more