TechCrunch

I cannot feasibly write a new post on TechCrunch dot com every time a new Pokémon is announced. I did skip over Bellibolt, the electric frog Pokémon that generates power from its big belly. But you know what’s even better than the partner Pokémon of a VTuber gym leader? Greavard. So here we are, writing … Read more

Nothing today announced the upcoming launch of a brick-and-mortar retail store in London’s Soho district. The store will, of course, carry Nothing. In a less literal sense, one wonders precisely what the store will carry, give that the hardware startup has officially launched two products, with a third being revealed soon. GM Ryan Latham says … Read more

Bilt Rewards, which works with some of the country’s largest multifamily owners and operators to create loyalty programs and a co-branded credit card for property renters, entered unicorn status after securing $150 million in a growth round led by Left Lane Capital. We previously covered Bilt a year ago when the company raised $60 million … Read more

The Hive ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the recent cyberattack on Tata Power, a leading Indian energy company, and has started leaking stolen employee data. Tata Power, which serves more than 12 million customers through its distributors, confirmed on October 14 that it had been hit by a cyberattack that impacted some of its … Read more

Bolt, which is mostly known for its one-click checkout experience, now has a new virtual Shopper Assistant so that retailers can more easily turn guest shoppers into account-holding customers. Company CEO Maju Kuruvilla told TechCrunch that rather than dealing with pop-ups or other disconnected methods of obtaining a customer’s email address, retailers, like its customer … Read more

Amazon announced that it will now allow customers to make payments through Venmo on its platform. The company said this option will be available to select customers starting today and will roll out to all U.S-based users on the Amazon site and mobile app by Black Friday next month. To pay through Venmo, users will … Read more

Emergency response services have had a big boost of data thanks to advances in connected technology, with watches that can detect when their wearers are falling down and are experiencing trauma, cars that can pinpoint where their drivers are located, and home systems that can transmit important data about fires when you cannot just a … Read more

Stock image giant Shutterstock has announced a major push into AI generated imagery today in partnership with OpenAI, expanding on a strategic tie-up the pair announced last year. The partnership between Shutterstock and OpenAI will see the latter’s DALL-E 2 image-generating AI system integrating with Shutterstock content and made available to Shutterstock users worldwide — … Read more

India’s antitrust watchdog has hit Google with $113 million fine for abusing the dominant position of its app store, the second such penalty on the Android-maker in just as many weeks in the key overseas market. The Competition Commission of India, which opened the investigation in late 2020, said mandating developers to use Google’s own … Read more

A ruling on whether or not Meta has a case to answer in Kenya will be made early next year, following legal submissions tabled today by attorneys representing the social media giant and plaintiff Daniel Motaung. Motaung, a South African national is suing Meta and its main content moderation sub-contractor in Africa, Sama, for forced … Read more

Apple rolled out software updates — iOS 16.1, iPad OS 16.1, and macOS Ventura — to all users on Monday. It also introduced new App Store rules that limit features unlocked through NFTs and mandates apps to use Apple’s payment method to purchase “boosts” for posts on social media. NFTs The company said apps are … Read more

Station F, the iconic startup campus in Paris, is revamping its Founders Program completely to turn it into an acceleration program. Founders who decide to join the accelerator will get many different benefits. They’ll also have to hand out a 1% equity stake to Station F. “We are changing the flagship program of Station F. … Read more

Sequoia India is in advanced stages of deliberations to invest over $50 million in K12 Techno Services, a startup that offers a range of services to education institutions and also runs its own chain of schools, doubling down on a firm that it first backed over a decade ago, two sources familiar with the matter … Read more

54gene co-founder and chief executive officer Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong has stepped down from his executive role, the African genomics company confirmed to TechCrunch today. The three-year-old company has appointed General Counsel Teresia L. Bost as interim CEO. She will be supported by Chief Operating Officer Delali Attipoe, the company said. Ene-Obong, on the other hand, … Read more

What’s going on with demand for plant-based meat? If you take a look at Barcelona-based Heura the picture seems rosy — with the alt-protein startup claiming “non-stop” momentum and a near doubling of revenue from sales of its faux chicken, beef and pork products in the first half of 2022. Mid-year, the 2017-founded startup reports … Read more

It’s been a little over a month since Launch House, a buzzy venture-backed founder’s club backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and Day One Ventures, publicly faced numerous allegations of harassment and assault. In response to the allegations first surfaced by the news publication Vox, the startup claimed that it would undergo an independent, … Read more

Apex Space, a startup that aims to transform satellite bus manufacturing, emerged from stealth Monday with a $7.5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The Los Angeles-based company has set its sights on the satellite bus — the part of the spacecraft that hosts the payload — which it says is the “new bottleneck” … Read more

With some 3,000 satellites in orbit, the Starlink constellation is easily the largest in history and of course presents an immense opportunity for global connectivity. But its signals could also be analyzed and used as an alternative to traditional GPS, a new paper claims, with or without SpaceX’s blessing. Todd Humphreys and his team at … Read more

Cerebral is laying off 20% of its staff, citing an ongoing push for efficiency at the digital health unicorn. A spokesperson for Cerebral confirmed the layoffs to TechCrunch but did not share the specific number of employees affected. According to the WSJ, which first reported the news, and Insider, some 400 people will lose their … Read more

Everybody’s talking so much about cost optimization and extending runways that startups across the board are looking at every little expense as they seek ways to navigate the downturn. But some costs are better left untouched simply because the work involved may not be worth the payoff. According to several investors we surveyed recently, cloud … Read more