NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell revealed in a CNBC interview that Peacock added more than 2 million paid subscribers in the third quarter, bringing the total to over 15 million. The recent growth shows the streaming service is recovering from its slowdown at the end of the second quarter when Peacock stalled at 13 million paid … Read more
Hardware hobbyists wanting to get their hands on some juicy single-board Raspberry Pi kit to power low-cost electronics projects have been having a frustrating time for more than a year now, as pandemic-triggered global supply chain disruption continues squeezing reseller inventory. Go try and buy Pi and you can’t miss how official reseller websites everywhere … Read more
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was the fastest growing crypto market in 2022, according to a new report by Chainalysis. Users in the region transacted $566 billion in cryptocurrency between July 2021 and June 2022, up 48% from a year earlier, the report found. In comparison, crypto transactions rose 40% in Latin America, … Read more
Walmart is holding a “Rollbacks and More” sale event from October 10 to 13 to counter Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale. Last week, Amazon announced that it’s holding a Prime Day-like sales event on October 11 and 12, marking the first time that the online retail giant will host two sales events exclusively for Prime … Read more
When the economy tightens and the cost of driving new initiatives cramps growth and profitability, sometimes you just need to overhaul your strategy. Case in point, when ride-hail giant Lyft sold its self-driving unit to Toyota’s Woven Planet, it cut $100 million of annualized non-GAAP operating expenses on a net basis. Free from the cost … Read more
Neeva, an ad-free search engine launched last year by a former engineer and executive best known for spearheading Google’s advertising tech business, is about to land in Europe. The Mountain View, California-based company officially launched a subscription-only search engine in its domestic U.S. market in June last year, later going on to add a free … Read more
With all the plastic and paper covering the things we buy, more and more consumers are seeking out companies that operate more sustainably. EcoCart has built an infrastructure for e-commerce companies and works with them to make that shopping experience more transparent and sustainable. Here’s how it works: The three-year-old software company performs product life … Read more
News that well-known technology denizen Elon Musk intends to move forward with his proposed and accepted bid to purchase social media company Twitter was surprise news this week; Musk had fought in court against having to close the deal, arguing various issues with the company to avoid paying $54.20 per share for the former startup darling. … Read more
Amazon announced yesterday that Fire TV users in the U.S. can now watch thousands of hours of free, ad-supported content across sports news, cooking and travel, as well as movie and TV trailers from IMDb. No downloads, fees or subscriptions are required to watch the videos. The new free content can be found in three … Read more
Mobileye, Intel’s automated driving division, filed Friday for what is expected to be the year’s largest IPO, but its success is far from guaranteed. The Israeli company, acquired by Intel five years ago for $15.3 billion, touts a broad vision: An autonomous future “where congestion is seen only in history books.” But its S-1 filing … Read more
Just over a year after its debut, Amazon is discontinuing its interactive, video-calling device for kids and families, the Amazon Glow. First introduced at Amazon’s annual hardware event last year, the device promised a unique way for kids to use technology when on video calls with other family members. Instead of using only a screen, … Read more
CommonSpirit, the second-largest nonprofit hospital chain in the U.S., has confirmed a cybersecurity incident that is disrupting medical services across the country. In a brief statement, Chicago-based CommonSpirit said the “IT security issue” is impacting some of CommonSpirit’s facilities and some patient appointments have been rescheduled as a result. “CommonSpirit Health is managing an IT … Read more
Months after Sendy laid-off 10% of its workforce, the Kenyan logistics startup is at it again after sending more staff home, while announcing the decision to wind-down its Supply service. Sendy confirmed to TechCrunch that discontinuing the supply service affected 20% of its staff, which is about 54 employees – the latest casualties of the … Read more
Facebook is rolling out new ways for users to customize their feed, the social network announced on Wednesday. Beginning today, you will start to see new “Show more” or “Show less” buttons on posts from the people and communities that you’re connected to or on posts that are recommended to you. Facebook is also going … 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, Alex asked: How are platforms responding to the new creator … Read more
In the United States, much of commerce relies on moving goods on trucks to market. The way it works is a manufacturer calls a shipping broker with instructions like ‘I need to get a load of beer to Dallas by Friday.’ They agree on a price and the broker finds a trucker to deliver the … 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: Is … Read more
Spotify this morning announced it’s acquiring Dublin, Ireland-based content moderation tech company Kinzen, which had been working in partnership with the streamer since 2020. Deal terms were not disclosed. At Spotify, Kinzen’s technology will be put to use to help the company better moderate podcasts and other audio using a combination of machine learning and … Read more
If you’ve been swimming in the toasty waters of high-end pour-over kettles, you’ve no doubt come across Fellow, and its Stagg EKG kettle. The company uses power-pulsing technology to keep the water temperature at a very precise level, which has attracted a number of award-winning baristas to use their products: It turns out that 204ºF … Read more
GraphQL company Apollo today announced the launch of GraphOS, a new end-to-end platform that is meant to help businesses build, connect and scale what the company calls “supergraphs.” For Apollo, these supergraphs have recently been a major focus. The basic idea here is to allow businesses to integrate data from a wide variety of sources … Read more
Chelsea Goddard Contributor Share on Twitter Chelsea Goddard is an early-stage investor based in San Francisco excited about the future of software and space technology. Over the last few years, cloud computing has grown more expensive than ever. Initially drawn to the promise of cutting costs on infrastructure spend, companies far and wide flocked to … Read more
A former Canadian government employee has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in a ransomware scheme that netted him more than $21 million. Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, a 34-year-old from Quebec, was sentenced in a Florida court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to charges related to his involvement in the prolific Netwalker ransomware-as-a-service … Read more
Do Kwon refuted claims that his crypto accounts had been frozen after media reports said South Korean prosecutors had escalated against the entrepreneur whose blockchain collapsed and wiped investors’ $40 billion earlier this year. Korean media outlet News1 reported on Wednesday that prosecutors had frozen $39.6 million of crypto assets tied to the Terraform Labs … Read more
Today, Google announced its new cloud region in South Africa, the African nation which is now home to the major global cloud providers on the continent. For Google, this move is part of its broader commitment to invest $1 billion to support “digital transformation” across Africa over the next five years. The commitment, when dissected, … Read more
From Edward Snowden’s government surveillance revelations through the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal and Twitter’s recent security pitfalls, whistleblowers have been the driving force behind some of the biggest news stories of recent years. But whistleblowing isn’t always about insiders shining a light on shady practices in governments or billion-dollar tech companies. Oftentimes, … Read more
French startup Gourmey just raised a Series A funding round led by Earlybird Venture Capital. In total, the company banked $48 million (€48 million). The company has been working on cultivated meat, and more specifically lab-grown foie gras. It is part of a new wave of companies that want to turn cell-cultured meat products into … Read more
IriusRisk, a threat modeling platform, today announced that it raised $29 million in a Series B funding round led by Paladin Capital Group with participation from BrightPixel Capital, SwanLab Venture Factory, 360 Capital and Inveready. In a conversation with TechCrunch, CEO Stephen de Vries said that the proceeds will be put toward growing IriusRisk’s U.S. … Read more
Party Round wants you to know that the party isn’t over. In fact, it just rebranded, put the music just a little bit lower, and finally put out some appetizers. After a certain point, don’t we all get peckish? Party Round announced today that it has rebranded to Capital to underscore its product expansion. Now, … Read more
The White House this morning unveiled what it’s colloquially calling an “AI Bill of Rights,” which aims to establish tenets around the ways AI algorithms should be deployed as well as guardrails on their applications. In five bullet points crafted with feedback from the public, companies like Microsoft and Palantir and human rights and AI … Read more
China has joined a handful of countries in banning flavored vapes to combat underage use of nicotine. Starting October 1, e-cigarette companies are only allowed to sell tobacco-flavored vapes in the country, an effort by the government to “standardize” the production, sales and consumption of the novel tobacco product. China’s e-cigarette makers had a short-lived … Read more