Tesla is said to be facing a criminal investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice facing claims made by the company regarding its “Autopilot” capabilities, Reuters reports, citing “three people familiar with the matter.” The inquiry was launched last year per the sources and was initiated following over a dozen accidents involving the active … Read more
Amazon has quietly mothballed its pledge to stop supporting politicians who refused to certify the 2020 election. The company, like many, said it would suspend donations to those who participated in “the unacceptable attempt to undermine a legitimate democratic process.” 21 months later, however, it has changed its tune — just in time for midterms. … Read more
Shortly after changing his bio to “Chief Twit,” Elon Musk posted a video of himself walking into Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!” he wrote. The video depicted him walking into the office holding a sink, referencing a years-old, stale meme, as is par for the course with him. … Read more
Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle startup that burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment, is shutting down — its parts being absorbed into its two main backers: Ford and VW, according to people familiar with the matter. During an all-hands meeting Wednesday, Argo AI employees were told that some people … Read more
It’s been four years to the day since Microsoft closed its acquisition of GitHub, which at the time was mostly a code repository. Today’s GitHub looks quite a bit different, now that it added CI/CD tools with GitHub Actions and Codespaces as an online editor and compute platform, as well as various security tools and … Read more
Elon Musk’s on-again off-again plan to buy Twitter is on track to culminate in the billionaire taking control of the company this week. Musk is expected to close the deal by Friday, October 28, putting him officially in charge of one of the most prominent social networks in the world. Musk reportedly informed bankers of … Read more
While ClimateTech may be all the rage right now – and for good reasons – new VC Paris-based firm Satgana (which means “a good company” in Sanskrit) is hoping its take on the subject will gain traction. It’s now completed the first closing of a target €30m fund to back startups in areas such as … Read more
If you are a believer in the endless concentration of corporate power, the work of major tech companies to extend their reach into all areas of the digital economy must bring you joy. If you are more in favor of upstart companies attacking and bringing to heel incumbent wealth by the (figurative) sword, it’s probably … Read more
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: the best thing on the internet (sort of hyperbole, but not really) is soon to return to a web browser and/or mobile app near you! An absurdist baseball simulator with an explosively creative fan base, Blaseball has been on hiatus for over a year. The team behind Blaseball, … Read more
It’s year five, or maybe ten, of “drones are going to revolutionize transport” and so far, we’ve got very little to show for it. Maybe it’s time to put these foolish ambitions to rest and focus on where this technology could actually do some good, rather than pad out a billionaire’s bottom line or let … Read more
Zillow has laid off about 300 employees as it is shifting focus towards technology-related positions in the company, TechCrunch has learned from sources and confirmed with the company over e-mail. The Seattle-headquartered online real estate marketplace informed its impacted employees about the decision on Tuesday. Shortly after receiving the communication, the impacted employees had to … Read more
It takes a lot of people to bring a tech conference to life, and we’re looking for a few amazing volunteers to support our events team and help make TC Sessions: Crypto an awesome experience for our attendees. If you’re amazing, crypto curious, a DeFi die-hard, big on blockchain, wild about web3, interested in event … 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
Meta won’t be quaking at the size of the penalty it’s just been handed by Turkey’s competition authority, which announced a 346.72 million lira sanction today. The circa $18.6M fine pales in comparison to a number of recent stings hitting it from European regulators. Such as the $267M fine for WhatsApp in the European Union … Read more
Software supply chain quickly became a hot topic in the last few years, especially as the number of high-profile attacks increased and the White House got involved. Sigstore, an open source project supported by the likes of Google, GitHub, Chainguard and RedHat, has become somewhat of a standard for signing, verifying and protecting software projects … Read more
Did you know that Google isn’t the top search engine in South Korea? It’s not even a close second. Most Koreans actually prefer Naver for various reasons, and they like it so much that the search engine holds about 56% of the market, per Statista. Google is catching up, but it currently only has about … Read more
Seems like there’s little room for surprises left in the industry, these days — and not just because of all the leaks. Like Google with its Pixel line, Nothing has moved away from the standard model of revealing products in one fell swoop. Instead, it’s taken to shaping its own news cycle through slow, official … Read more
A massive cache of leaked data reveals the inner workings of a stalkerware operation that is spying on hundreds of thousands of people around the world, including Americans. The leaked data includes call logs, text messages, granular location data and other personal device data of unsuspecting victims whose Android phones and tablets were compromised by … Read more
Meet Evy, a French startup that is working on extended warranties and product protection insurance. The company raised a $6.5 million seed round (€6.5 million) from Sequoia, La Famiglia VC, Global Founders Capital and several business angels. Evy wants to bring an AppleCare experience to other brands and retailers. Essentially, the startup wants to create … Read more
“When I hire someone, I make two promises. And I ask for two promises in return,” said Paul English — currently the co-founder of Boston Venture Studio but perhaps best known as the co-founder and CTO of travel platform Kayak. “I promise them that they will have the most fun they’ve had at any job.” What … 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. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha is bringing one of her favorite Disrupt panels to your … Read more
Over the last decade or so, content management systems have evolved from monolithic systems managed by IT to a set of services made available to developers through an API. The more modern approach separates the presentation layer on the front end from the management on the back end. Today, Acquia, the company behind the open … Read more
Asset management firm Stone Ridge has launched a startup accelerator, In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf), that will be dedicated to growing Bitcoin-focused applications, the team exclusively told TechCrunch. The program will bring four cohorts per year, each consisting of about eight to 12 teams, or about 30 to 50 founders, to New York City from around … Read more
Google, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines help you find information from the web. But it’s hard to find documents, messages, meetings, and emails from your own accounts. You need to go to different applications to find things that might be related to one project. A Y-Combinator-backed app called Needl is helping users with that. Needl … Read more
Crowded, a free banking app targeting member-based nonprofit organizations, like fraternities, sororities and booster clubs, closed on $6 million to continue developing its suite of banking and member management tools. Organizations often open banking accounts at nearby institutions, while some groups, like fraternities, sororities and on-campus clubs, are required to bank through their student activities, … Read more
Duolingo is launching its math app to the public, and months after a beta version joined the app store. The math app, named Duolingo Math, is the first subject expansion that Duolingo has made beyond its original roots of language learning and literacy. And yes, it has punny notifications and nudges from Duo, infamous owl-turned … Read more
Matt Van Itallie Contributor Share on Twitter Matt Van Itallie is the founder and CEO of Sema, which provides codebase analytics for M&A. More posts by this contributor 8 questions to answer before your startup faces technical due diligence Previously, the author offered a detailed overview of the technical due diligence (TDD) process investors conduct … Read more
OTI Lumionics, an eye-catching startup out of Canada that has been working on display materials for device makers to create uninterrupted, full-view displays on their devices without the need for “notches” or cut-outs to account for camera technology — and whose name has been connected with Apple as a key supplier for a future notch-free … Read more
Unito, a startup offering a service to bring together disparate software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms — for example, Jira and Trello — today announced it raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by CDPQ’s Equity 253 fund with participation from Rainfall Ventures, Investissement Québec, Bessemer Venture Partners, Tom Williams and Mistral Venture Partners. The … Read more
The widespread adoption of flexible work has increased the challenge of managing access to physical, commercial buildings, given the dynamic nature of hybrid workspaces. With today’s staffers coming and going to the office on unpredictable timetables, it can be tough to keep track of which have access to rooms and office resources. In a recent … Read more