SoftBank, the largest backer of Oyo, has cut the Indian hotel chain startup’s valuation to $2.7 billion despite its claims of improved finances in recent months, a person familiar with the matter said. The Japanese conglomerate, which had slashed its internal valuation of Oyo to $3.4 billion earlier, further slashed the valuation of Oyo by … Read more
South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said on Thursday that it had found additional unusual foreign exchange transactions of $680 million, which brings the total amount of “abnormal” transfers to approximately $7.2 billion since June. The authorities confirmed that most dubious foreign money remittances involved crypto-related activities because the transactions were transferred from cryptocurrency exchanges to … Read more
Seoul Robotics has taken a divergent path on the road to commercializing autonomous vehicles. Instead of developing and embedding the entire self-driving system, including sensors into a vehicle, Seoul is turning to surrounding infrastructure to do some of the heavy lifting. And its contrarian approach has attracted a new group of investors and $25 million … Read more
India has proposed to regulate internet-based communication services, requiring platforms to obtain a license for operating in the world’s second largest wireless market. The Department of Telecommunications’ new proposal, called Draft Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022, seeks to consolidate and update three old rules — Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933, and The … Read more
As antitrust regulators around the world dial up scrutiny of platform power, Mozilla has published a piece of research digging into the at times subtle yet always insidious ways operating systems exert influence to keep consumers locked to using their own-brand browsers rather than seeking out and switching to independent options — while simultaneously warning … Read more
Alibaba is known for its sprawling e-commerce empire, but like Amazon, cloud service has been a big driver of its revenues in recent years. The Chinese cloud giant is ready to double down on its overseas reach and announced today a $1 billion investment in a “global partner ecosystem upgrade.” Alibaba Cloud is now the … Read more
It was back in 2019 that we reported on Visionaries Club, a new, Berlin-based, European VC focusing on B2B, founded by Sebastian Pollok and Robert Lacher. At the time, Visionaries Club had launched two new €40M micro funds for seed and growth-stage B2B. Pollok was previously a VC at e.ventures in San Francisco and also … Read more
Companies are facing hundreds of millions of dollars in fines these days for failing to comply with data protection and data privacy rules, and that’s driving wave of organizations, and their users, to get more serious about data protection. One of the byproducts of that has been the emergence of new technology to meet that increase … Read more
Code review is a key step during the software development process — it’s when people check a program by viewing and reading parts of the source code. But despite its importance, not all developers are pleased with the way traditional code reviews work. For example, a Microsoft study found that the outcomes of code reviews … Read more
Keeping up with tax compliance for cryptocurrency can be tricky, especially since many laws are new (or haven’t been written yet). That’s why Binocs was founded. Users integrate their exchanges and wallets, and Binocs provides a tax report and other accounting details. The startup announced today that it has raised $4 million to expand in … Read more
French startup Bump has signed a multi-year financing partnership with DIF Capital Partners in order to roll out more charging stations for electric vehicles and double down on growth in general. It is an equity and quasi-equity $180 million deal that will be progressively unlocked from 2022 to 2030. Yesterday, ZePlug also announced a significant … Read more
After an appeals court struck down key portions of a state law designed to prevent social media companies from freely making content moderation decisions, Florida wants the Supreme Court to weigh in. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a petition Wednesday asking the highest court in the land to wade into the issue after two … Read more
Rocket Lab is a U.S.-based company, but until now the bulk of its activities have been conducted in New Zealand. While the company has been public about its plans to expand to both hemispheres for a while, executives released a slew of updates on Wednesday detailing their goal to make the U.S. home to even … 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. Due to excessively poor judgment, today’s Christine and Haje show is brought to you by Haje and Christine. Meanwhile, mark your calendar for September 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT when … Read more
Micromobility company Bird is boosting its president, Shane Torchiana, to CEO status in a “long-planned” shakeup that sees founding chief executive Travis VanderZanden further stripped of power. Bird’s board also announced two other appointments: Former Archer Aviation chief financial officer Ben Lu has joined as Bird’s new CFO, taking over the role from Yibo Ling, … Read more
Kitty Hawk, the electric aviation startup founded and led by the “godfather of self-driving cars” Sebastian Thrun and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, is shutting down. The company said in a tweet and on a post in LinkedIn that it was winding down operations. “We have made the decision to wind down Kittyhawk. We’re … Read more
Making sneakers is a dirty business; one that’s heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Shoe companies have experimented with various ways to reduce their footprints, from uppers made of recycled plastic to midsoles made of foam derived from sugarcane. Now, there’s a new approach — upcycling. Materials startup Novoloop and running-shoe manufacturer On will announce a … Read more
Things I learned on TikTok: The hole in a pasta spoon is one serving of spaghetti. What to do when a debt collector comes knocking. How to hot wire a Kia using a USB cord and a screwdriver. Oh yes, you read that right. A trending TikTok challenge publicizing a technique for stealing certain makes … Read more
It’s about time that we learn the difference between what’s a viral trend, and what’s just one person posting a meme that goes viral. For the sake of humanity, let’s count our lucky stars: NyQuil chicken is not a real threat to public health. But this week, the FDA issued a warning about what the … Read more
Gen Z’s favorite social app BeReal experienced a lengthy outage today, which the company only acknowledged with a brief — and fairly vague — tweet, stating: “yup, we’re on it.” In recent months, the Paris-based app maker has seen its photo-sharing service climb to the top of the App Store, ousting competitors like Facebook, Instagram … Read more
Jason Sudeikis’ character from the hit Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” will make an appearance in EA Sports’ upcoming video game, FIFA 23. Ted Lasso will be playable as a manager along with the show’s fictional football club AFC Richmond. EA (Electronic Arts) announced the news today alongside a trailer showing everyone’s “favorite mustachioed manager,” … Read more
Netflix announced today that it’s adding a new title to its gaming roster that is based on its popular show “Nailed It!” The game, which is called Nailed It! Baking Bash, will launch on October 4, a day before Season 7 of the bake-off competition show debuts on October 5. The game was developed by … Read more
Matt Blumberg Contributor Share on Twitter Matt Blumberg is the co-founder and CEO of Bolster. He is also the co-author of Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors, and the author of Startup CEO, Startup CXO and the Startup CEO blog. Was anyone else as appalled as I … Read more
Arbor Ventures, funder of fintech and shopping startups like installment loan company Tabby and Amazon brand factory Heyday, has locked down $193 million towards its largest fund to date, TechCrunch has learned. The Singapore-based VC focuses on early-stage financial tech startups, but it operates with a pretty expansive view of what constitutes fintech; its portfolio … Read more
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, known as “CZ” in the crypto world, said governments across the globe are making slow but “positive” progress toward regulating cryptocurrency. “On the regulatory side, I think we’re seeing a lot of progress in the positive direction for regulatory framework,” Zhao said in a video call aired live on stage at … Read more
The competition to create ever smaller, ever better robots is a fierce one, and Cornell University is out front now with a set of bots small enough to sit on a human hair, but that can move on their own using nothing but light as a power source. Now, you may remember a similarly small … Read more
Peacock, Comcast’s NBCUniversal-owned streamer, announced its first original adult animation series today. It’s about time the streaming service invested in the genre, as adult animation shows continue to do well for competitors Netflix and Hulu. Peacock’s upcoming animated comedy series, “In the Know,” will star “Beavis and Butt-Head” creator Mike Judge and “Silicon Valley” star … Read more
Xpeng launched the G9 Flagship SUV, the fourth production vehicle in its lineup that will set a “new benchmark” for automated driving technology in passenger vehicles, the Chinese electric vehicle startup said Wednesday. The automaker says the G9 will come with an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) that eventually will cover both city and highway … Read more
IndieBio (part of SOSV) is a biotech investor and accelerator that has started shifting more and more toward climate tech in recent years. The current cohort is batch 13, for fall 2022, and we’ve taken a closer look at the five that stood out the most. IndieBio tells us that this batch is going big … Read more
Between the climate crisis and global pandemics, we’re living in remarkably fraught times. Undaunted by the magnitude of the challenges, Silicon Valley has been hard at work seeking to mitigate the threats, extend help to the overlooked, and prepare for a new kind of future. Some of the most promising and cutting-edge advancements in climate … Read more