Ford and Volkswagen are trying to squeeze any remaining value out of Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle startup the two automakers invested billons in before abruptly shutting it down last week. One of the primary items on the block: Argo Lidar, an 80-person team and the lidar tech they developed, according to sources familiar with … Read more
Bitcoin prices have continued to hold near $20,000 this past week, but some miners are crumbling as spiking energy prices and historically low hash prices cut into profits. Even though bitcoin’s price has been down for a while and has fallen about 56% year to date, the dominoes just began to fall for Bitcoin miners. … Read more
Samsara Eco, an Australian startup that uses enzyme-based technology to break down plastic into its core molecules, announced today it has raised $54 million AUD (about $34.7 million USD) in Series A funding. The company is planning to build its first plastic recycling facility in Melbourne later this year, with the target of full-scale production … Read more
After much uncertainty around Twitter Blue’s revamp, Elon Musk laid out the company’s approach. He said that the new paid plan will cost $8 per month — something that he mentioned in a reply to Stephen King’s tweet. Plus, the price will be adjusted according to purchasing power parity of the country, hinting towards a … Read more
Google Hangouts, a text, video and voice chat app built into Gmail, is finally being shut down today. As announced earlier this year, Google is switching Hangouts users over to Google Chat, the company’s Slack-like instant messaging app for businesses. Starting today, November 1, the Google Hangouts web app is no longer available. This was … Read more
TechCrunch has a long history of partnering with great companies that are not only subject-matter experts, but committed to supporting early-stage startups, too. While this is our first official conference dedicated to the space, TC Sessions: Crypto — November 17 in Miami — is no exception to our great partners rule. Whether it’s blockchain-, crypto-, … Read more
As director of Techstars’ startup pipeline, Saba Karim spends much of his time touting the ways entrepreneurs can benefit by joining an accelerator. But is it the right choice for every founder? After he posted a thread on Twitter offering several rationales explaining why some should definitely avoid them, I invited him to adapt it … Read more
Lending giant Upstart has laid off about 140 employees — or 7% of its total workforce — who help process loan applications, sources told TechCrunch. The cloud-based AI lending platform notified its affected employees about the layoff on Tuesday. Upstart had about 2,000 employees, according to the company, which confirmed the layoffs. “Given the challenging … Read more
Metrist, a startup that helps IT teams stay on top of outages among the many cloud services they use to run their own applications, today announced that it has raised a $5.5 million seed round from the likes of Heavybit, Morado Ventures, as well as PagerDuty co-founder Alex Solomon and StatusPage co-founders Scott and Steve … Read more
Twitter’s Chief Consumer Officer Sarah Personette has left the company, she wrote in a Twitter thread Tuesday morning. Personette, who was in charge of Twitter’s ad sales business, said that she resigned on Friday, and her work access was officially cut off by Tuesday. The day before her resignation, Musk fired four key executives immediately … Read more
If you’ve worked at large tech companies, you’ve probably seen that a bunch of groups show up, whether officially or unofficially. Google calls ’em Employee Resource Groups (ERG), Facebook has its internal version of Facebook with groups, and other orgs have systems that range from listservs that have been running since the 1990s, to internal … Read more
Galileo, a startup launching a platform for AI model development, today announced that it raised $18 million in a Series A round led by Battery Ventures with participation from The Factory, Walden Catalyst, FPV Ventures, Kaggle co-founder Anthony Goldbloom and other angel investors. The new cash brings the company’s total raised to $23.1 million and … Read more
What’s better: growing quickly or making lots of money? The answer, in startup terms, is both. But because there is a natural tension between growth (which usually comes with incremental costs, often in advance of new revenues) and profitability (allowing revenue to further extend its coverage of operating costs), most startups lean more on the … Read more
Even when a chill venture wind blows, you’ll find daring entrepreneurs forging ahead, and we’re here to highlight the outstanding early-stage startups in the world of blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFT and web3. You’ll find them exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami, and what better way to check them out than to … Read more
YouTube is bringing more streaming services to its platform in the U.S. with a new feature, “Primetime Channels,” allowing consumers to subscribe and watch content from over 30 services within the YouTube app. The company has signed up with streaming partners like Paramount+, Showtime, Epix, Starz, AMC+ and more. The new feature is in YouTube’s … Read more
In over a decade of investing in startups, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has only once offered to fund a founder on the spot. That founder was Josh Fabian, CEO of Metafy, a video game coaching platform. “We were able to just engage and talk like humans, and Josh told us his story in a very … Read more
Google is rolling out new shopping features that are designed to help you get a better deal on products directly from Search. The search giant is making it easier to find promos and coupons by introducing a new promotion badge in Search that will be displayed when a coupon is available for a specific product. … Read more
It’s public knowledge now that one of the first things Elon Musk is concentrating on after taking over Twitter is revamping the Twitter Blue program. While a lot of attention has been around a potential verification feature being included in the paid program, the company is also removing some of the existing features like publisher … Read more
Ralph Lauren, a storied brand known for its preppy, traditionally East Coast designs, is not exactly the first retailer that might come to mind when one thinks of tech or the metaverse. Perhaps then, that is why the company decided to shake things up and foray into the virtual world, announcing yesterday a partnership with … Read more
The adoption of the fifth generation (5G) mobile network in regions like North America, Gulf Cooperation Council and Western Europe has been relatively slow, but its uptake is expected to reach over 80% by 2027 against the backdrop of increasing 5G smartphone use. On the other hand, in Africa, where 5G adoption is slowest in … Read more
Andrew Leahey Contributor Share on Twitter Andrew Leahey is a solo tax, finance and technology attorney in New Jersey. Research and development (R&D) tax breaks are a set of tax incentives intended to attract firms with high research expenditures to the United States. They’ve existed for going on 70 years, but the Tax Cuts and … Read more
The Internet of Things in the healthcare sector is booming. A typical hospital has hundreds of connected devices, from implantables, wearables, monitors, workflow, imaging, and patient data systems. But while these devices are helping healthcare providers to automate workflows and reduce the risk of error, common security vulnerabilities found in these devices are also endangering … Read more
Waymo is expanding its robotaxi service in downtown Phoenix to include pickups and drop-offs at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. This is the first time a U.S. robotaxi operator has launched paid trips to and from an airport, which will be an essential use case for autonomous vehicle companies looking to scale. Airport rides make up … Read more
SpaceX has launched its Falcon Heavy rocket on a mission for the U.S. Space Force. This is the fourth ever launch of the company’s heavy payload launch vehicle, which first flew in 2018. Today’s launch also marks SpaceX’s 50th in 2022. The payload for today’s launch includes two U.S. space force satellites, including one used … Read more
Amazon today announced a new benefit for its Prime members which could lure some subscribers away from other music services, like Apple Music or Spotify. The company said it will now offer Prime subscribers a full music catalog with 100 million songs, instead of the previously more limited selection of just 2 million songs, and … Read more
London-based private equity firm Cinven has announced plans to acquire online tax preparation software provider TaxAct in an all-cash deal worth around $720 million. TaxAct offers a range of online tax tools and products, targeting individuals, small businesses, and professional tax preparers. The company’s history can be dated back nearly 25 years, when it was … Read more
Retirement plans are usually made by people who feel they can actually quit their jobs at a certain age and have enough money to maintain their lifestyle. But what about those who don’t? Several fintech startups are tackling this problem, including Retirable, which believes that retirement planning should be just as easy to get even … Read more
Fringe, an HR tech startup enabling companies to offer customizable perks and benefits to employees, today announced that it raised $17 million in a funding round led by Origin Ventures and Felton Group. CEO Jordan Peace says that the proceeds will be put toward growing the team from 72 employees to more than 100 by … Read more
Confirming earlier reports that Disney+ would soon expand into e-commerce, the streamer today announced the launch of a new test that will allow Disney+ subscribers to shop exclusive merchandise from brands including Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Animation Studios, National Geographic, and Pixar directly from the detail pages of select movies, series and shorts on the … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission has accused U.S. education technology giant Chegg of “careless” cybersecurity practices that led to the exposure of sensitive information about tens of millions of its customers and employees. In a legal complaint filed on Monday, the FTC accuses Chegg — which provides digital and physical textbook rentals and online tutoring — … Read more