MarketingMuses

 Tryb Group, a Singapore-based organization focused on fintech services in Southeast Asia, has landed a $30 million investment from Makara Capital. The investment comes from Makara’s $770 million joint fund with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), which is focused on finding valuable IP in the tech and startup space. TechCrunch understands that Tryb is talking to a… Read More

Apple is preparing to launch Business Chat, Fiverr acquires And Co and The European Union hits Qualcomm with a $1.23 billion fine. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

 Reddit has finally joined other major web properties in adding two-factor authentication for all users. It’s been available for mods and some testers for a while, but this is the first time the vast multitudes of redditors will have access to it. Read More

 At roughly 17 years old, DN Capital is one of Europe’s oldest venture capital firms, albeit one that, by its own admission, has retained its scrappy roots and a certain kind of reputation to go with it. The VC hasn’t gone without success either, most recently seeing portfolio company Shazam exit to Apple in a reported $400 million deal, apt timing for the announcement of DN… Read More

 Call him the ultimate hodler. After being one of the first musicians to accept Bitcoin all the way back in 2014, Rapper 50 Cent (a.k.a. Curtis Jackson) appears to have accumulated a small fortune in the volatile digital currency. As TMZ first reported, and the man himself seems to have confirmed, 50 Cent left his Bitcoin sales untouched until rediscovering them some time recently. At the time,… Read More

 While unemployment in the U.S. hit a 17 year low and the stock market keeps humming along, there’s a lingering sense that all is still not well in U.S. labor markets. Most jobs require a college degree these days, a proposition that’s becoming increasingly unaffordable even if it is attainable. Many students who graduate are saddled with so much debt that not even a decent salaried… Read More

 Logan Paul, the YouTuber who sparked a public backlash three weeks ago after posting a video in Japan’s ‘suicide forest’, has returned to the platform. In his first post back, he published a video focused on suicide and self-harm prevention. Paul first found himself in trouble when, in early January, he posted a video titled “We found a dead body in the Japanese… Read More

 One of Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s top lieutenants Tom Conrad will leave Snapchat, and the whole tech industry, in March. Coming roughly two years after he joined the company as VP of Product, a source tipped off TechCrunch to Conrad’s impending departure, which Snap now confirms to us. Snap’s director of growth Jacob Andreou who reported to Conrad will step into his role at… Read More

 On Wednesday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) revealed that it has filed a lawsuit against the creators of My Big Coin, an alleged cryptocurrency scam that took naive investors for $6 million. The case, filed on January 16 and unsealed today, charges Randall Crater, Mark Gillespie and My Big Coin Pay, Inc. with commodity fraud and misappropriation of funds raised for a… Read More

 When it comes to interior decorating, some people could use a little professional advice. But it’s not cheap, with the average designer charging over $5,000. Havenly, a Denver-based startup, thinks it can change that. Its platform pairs consumers with stylists offering virtual guidance. After gaining early traction since it launched in 2014, the startup is raising a $12.5 million Series… Read More

 Alphabet, the company you probably still wrongly refer to as “Google,” today announced the launch of Chronicle, new cybersecurity company that aims to give companies a better chance at detecting and fighting off hackers. Chronicle is graduating out of Alphabet’s X moonshot group and is now a stand-alone company under the Alphabet umbrella, just like Google. Stephen Gillett,… Read More

 Google loves it a good puzzle. Each year the company tucks the first details about its annual Google I/O conference behind a puzzle or three, and this year is no different. Whereas last year’s riddle was a math-heavy logic puzzle, this year’s setup is more of an escape room. It has the user click their way through a series of rooms found on Google’s Mountain View campus… Read More

 SpaceX has successfully test fired its Falcon Heavy rocket – but this is just the prelude to the big show. The static test fire performed today is a necessary step prior to an actual test launch, firing up all 27 of the rocket’s big Merlin engines prior to trying to do the same but actually following through with a proper take-off. The test fire, completed at the SpaceX Cape… Read More

 Meet Setapp, the Spotify of Mac apps. If you pay $9.99 per month, you can download and use more than a hundred Mac apps without spending another cent. All those apps are usually paid apps, but Setapp wants to change the model. Setapp was founded by MacPaw, an independent Mac development company based in Ukraine. While they have been developing their own apps for almost ten years,… Read More

 Every inch of the Mavic Air is a testament to thoughtful engineering. Before handing off a review unit, a DJI rep takes us through the process of getting up and running. He flips open the smartphone docking arms from the bottom of the remote, revealing two hidden replacement joysticks nestled inside. Read More

 Caterina Fake and Jyri Engeström have much in common beyond the home and family they share. Each has started — and sold — two companies. Fake famously cofounded the photo sharing site Flickr, which sold to Yahoo, before cofounding Hunch, which sold to eBay. Engeström cofounded Jaiku, a mobile social network that sold to Google, before cofounding Ditto, a mobile local… Read More

 Tigera, a San Francisco-based startup that helps businesses connect and secure their container-based applications, today announced that it has raised an additional $10 million in a funding round led by Madrona Venture Group, with participation from New England Associates (NEA) and Wing Venture Capital. Madrona managing partner Soma Somasegar will join the company’s board of directors.… Read More

 In what amounts to faint praise for the strength physical book NPD reported that print book sales rose 1.9 percent in 2017, less than the 3 percent growth posted in 2013-2016. NPD tracks book sales in the US. They write: “Returning from the huge sales of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ in 2016, and the rise of adult coloring books, last year’s book sales growth was… Read More

 The way Facebook processes what the world writes is about to get a bit more cosmopolitan. As Facebook’s scope continues to grow globally, the way it rolls out features has been complicated by the fact that there are more than 100 languages currently supported on the site. When it comes to building text boxes that users can type status updates into, this isn’t that difficult of a… Read More

 It sounds like a natural fit: Fiverr, an online marketplace where businesses can hire freelancers, is acquiring And Co, a New York City startup building online tools that freelancers can use manage their client relationships. What’s surprising is the new price that Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman plans to charge for And Co’s software — absolutely free. Kaufman explained that many… Read More

 Microsoft’s and its partners’ engineers use the telemetry data from Windows 10 to diagnose crashes, learn about its users hardware configurations and more. It’s on by default and while Microsoft tells you that it collects this data and gives you a choice between basic (the default setting) and “full” diagnostics, it never allowed you to actually see exactly what… Read More

 I’m so ready for these huge robots to fight these huge monsters. I’m ready for John Boyega to pilot his mech to victory over the interdimensional invaders. I’m ready for bright colors, cartoonish levels of destruction and loud sounds. Pacific Rim Uprising isn’t out in theaters until March 23, however, so I do indeed have to wait even though I’m ready now. Just… Read More

 On Tuesday, March 13, some of the most well-regarded venture capitalists on the West Coast will converge in L.A. to hear pitches from women-led startups.  The day is part of a growing series of events that was originally spearheaded by investor Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures, who along with her women friends in venture, wanted to work more closely with the far larger — and growing… Read More

 Apple is preparing to roll out a new feature in iMessage that will allow consumers to chat directly with businesses through Apple’s messaging platform. The feature, called Business Chat, was announced last year at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, and will debut this spring with launch partners including Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo. The feature will… Read More

 It’s probably little consolation for Pebble devotes who’ve slowly watched the hardware startup sink into oblivion, but Fitbit’s offering up a good will gesture by extending support for the smartwatch’s ecosystem for another six months. Those who’ve been clutching onto their crowdfunded wearable for dear life will be able to keep the product up and running through… Read More

 Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has said major privacy changes are coming to the platform later this year, as it prepares to comply with the European Union’s incoming data protection regulation. Read More

 Here Technologies, the mapping company that counts a consortium of car makers, Intel and others among its shareholder/owners, today announced a move that underscores the company’s intention to add more than just data to enhance its outdoor navigation business. The company has acquired Micello, a startup that offers a database of indoor maps and provides a platform for businesses to… Read More

 There’s another big financing round led by Softbank’s mammoth vision fund today, with the firm this time pouring $865 million into a construction startup called Katerra that’s a one-stop shop for getting a building up off the ground. Katerra is creating a full-stack provider for, well, buildings. The company runs the process of getting a building up and people inside it from… Read More

 The cord cutting trend is having an outsized impact on subscription video apps’ revenue, it seems. According to a new market analysis from Sensor Tower, U.S. consumer spending in the top 10 subscription video on demand apps grew 77 percent last year, to reach approximately $781 million across the App Store and Google Play. The growth was particularly noticeable in the fourth quarter of… Read More

 Mo’Nique, legendary comedian and Academy Award winner, is calling out Netflix for allegedly offering her $500,000 for a stand-up comedy special while offering millions to Amy Schumer, Dave Chapelle, and Chris Rock. In a tweet, Mo’Nique called for a boycott of Netflix on the grounds of color and gender bias: #BOYCOTT NETFLIX FIR COLOR BIAS AND GENDER BIAS. PLEASE STAND WITH ME. I… Read More

 Front is raising a $66 million Series B round led by Sequoia with DFJ and existing investors also participating. There are now 2,500 companies using Front to manage shared inboxes and collaborate. The startup now wants to go one step further and become the definitive email product. “I decided that I wanted to raise money, I scheduled 11 partner meetings over a single week,”… Read More

 After getting its start in theme parks and event centers in Southern California, Appetize, the developer of point of sale technologies for big stadiums and college campuses, has raised $20 million to expand. The new capital came from Shamrock Capital Advisors, which had served as the financial manager for the Walt Disney family for years, with additional support coming from Silicon Valley… Read More

 Mophie’s been a solid, consistent maker of external batteries and backup power sources, but its new Powerstation AC just might top them all. The large, 22,000 mAh powerhouse has ample output options – including a crucial one that most backup batteries lack: a standard AC plug, just like you’d find in a wall in your home. The Powerstation AC also has a 30W USB-C port with… Read More

 AWS has purchased Sqrrl, a Cambridge, Massachusetts security startup with roots in the NSA. The company helps analyze a variety of sources to track and understand security threats quickly using machine learning. The announcement appeared on the Sqrrl home page in note from company CEO Mark Terenzoni. “We’re thrilled to share that Sqrrl has been acquired by Amazon. We will be… Read More

 Apple announced a new health effort as part of iOS 11.3. The new Health Records section in the Health app lets you gather and view all your medical records. The company is partnering with hospitals and clinics. Apple released the first beta version of iOS 11.3 today. While the new version of iOS is going to remain in beta testing for a couple of months, it should be available as a free download… Read More

 As part of its broader, long-term strategy to appeal to content producers by offering them more exposure, media software maker Plex today is unveiling its new VR experience, Plex VR. The addition will allow Plex users to not only watch videos in VR, but also co-watch with friends – a social component to media consumption that a number of companies, including, recently, Facebook and… Read More

 Fleet, a startup focused on making international logistics less onerous for small companies, announced that it has raised a Series A of $10 million. The round was led by Lufthansa Cargo, the German airline’s air cargo subsidiary, with participation from new and returning investors Hunt Technology, UPS, UP2398 and 1517 Fund. Read More

 More big news out of Apple this morning. The company’s offering up a preview of what’s to come in the latest version of its mobile operating system. The biggest updates here are coming to power management, its augmented reality platform ARKit, Animoji and the company’s Health app. You can check out a more in-depth preview of ARKit 1.5 over here. The new platform brings… Read More

 Carmudi, a Rocket Internet-backed company that sells cars online in emerging markets, has raised $10 million to develop its business in Southeast Asia after reducing its global footprint. The company was formed in 2013 and, at peak, it grew to cover over 20 markets across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. To support that global push, Carmudi raised $10 million in 2014 and then… Read More

 Apple is rolling out an upgrade to its augmented reality toolbox, ARKit, to developers in a beta version today. ARKit 1.5 adds a few marquee features including one big one: wall detection. Up until this point, ARKit has been focused on offering horizontal plane detection, allowing developers to know where the ‘floor’ is that it can then use to orient or place objects in 3D space.… Read More

 Drones may still be having a tough time dispelling the notion that they’re just expensive toys when it comes to the consumer space, but in the world of commercial applications, the autonomous aircraft are having a much easier time proving their worth. PrecisionHawk, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based startup, has closed a Series D round, nabbing $75M in new capital that will help it seize… Read More

 Businesses are gathering more and more information than they ever have before, whether it’s a manufacturer or a bank, and to Timescale CEO Ajay Kulkarni the existing database software soon won’t provide the horsepower they need. That’s why he and CTO Mike Friedman started Timescale, a new open source time series database software. The idea is that businesses increasingly… Read More

 Nexar, a startup that makes an AI-based dashcam app to monitor road safety, announced today that it has raised a $30 million Series B led by Ibex Ventures. Participants included Alibaba Innovation Ventures (the venture capital investment arm of Alibaba Group), Nationwide Insurance and returning investors Aleph, Mosaic Ventures, Slow Ventures, True Ventures and Tusk Ventures. Read More

 The UK government has announced plans to set up a dedicated national security unit to combat state-led disinformation campaigns — raising questions about how broad its ‘fake news’ bullseye will be. Read More

 Qualcomm’s longstanding dominance in LTE chipsets for smartphones, and specifically with Apple’s iPhone, is getting a major hit today. The European Commission today announced that it would be fining the company €997 million, or $1.23 billion, for abusing its market position between 2011 and 2016, related to its relationship with Apple. The figure works out to 4.9 percent of… Read More

 A new startup in Indonesia wants to car owners in Southeast Asia’s country sell their vehicle with more security and reliability. BeliMobilGue — meaning ‘Buy My Car’ — was quietly started last year as a joint venture from Berlin-based Frontier Car Group and Intudo Ventures. It acts as a middleman between Indonesia’s car dealers and consumers who want to… Read More

 TeacherGaming, a new startup from the team behind MinecraftEdu, a company that helped teachers use Minecraft in the classroom that was subsequently acquired by Microsoft, has picked up $1.6 million in seed funding. Read More

 Transportation-on-demand startups betting on growth by honing in on specific market segments continue to play strong with both investors and customers looking for alternatives to traditional taxis and Uber. Today, Blacklane, a Berlin-based business that offers limousines and other high-end cars for airport and other medium-length journeys, is announcing that it has raised a significant round… Read More

 Google continues to increase its presence in China after it joined Sequoia China and Tencent in a $15 million investment for XtalPi, a U.S.-China biotech firm that uses artificial intelligence and computing to accelerate the development of new drugs. The search giant remains blocked in China, but that hasn’t stopped it from making a series of moves in recent months. It is opening an… Read More

 Facebook has a new executive coming on to unify its research efforts in the field of artificial intelligence. Former IBM exec Jérôme Pesenti will be taking the lead at Facebook’s AI research (FAIR) arm, Quartz reports. Yann LeCun, who previously held the lead role, will be shifting to a more research-focused role where he will continue to drive the scientific agenda of FAIR in his… Read More

DJI unveils the new Mavic Air, Twitter COO Anthony Noto resigns and Apple HomePod starts shipping February 9th. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

 Nike just announced their first shoe with an all-foam sole powered by a new foam technology called React. The shoe is called the Nike Epic React Flyknit and is a running shoe, which will release on February 22nd. The bottom is a solid piece of foam with a knitted upper, making it lightweight for running. But looking beyond this shoe the technology is likely the start of a new generation of… Read More

 Denuvo’s anti-piracy tech has been divisive in the gaming world, with some complaining that it restricts their gaming habits or prevents modding — but few will dispute that it has been unusually successful in its main goal of preventing piracy. Successful enough, anyway, to be picked up by Irdeto, a broader digital security concern. Read More

 All-time great science fiction and fantasy writer Ursula Le Guin died Monday. She was 88 years old. Le Guin didn’t always enjoy being called a science fiction writer, and she received acclaim far beyond the genre — she won National Book Awards, published stories in The New Yorker and saw her work collected by the Library of America. Read More

 While the U.S. is just gearing up to the idea of CRISPRing its first humans, China seems to be benefitting from the “move fast and break things”…or cut them with the CRISPR scissors motto. As the Wall Street Journal reports, China has already gene-edited 86 people using CRISPR-Cas9 since 2015. Unhindered by rules and regulations like the ones we have in America to prevent… Read More

 Facebook has confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s acquired…Confirm.io. The startup offered an API that let other companies quickly verify someone’s government issued identification card like a driver’s license was authentic. The Boston-based startup will shut down as both its team and technology are rolled into Facebook, where it could help users who are locked out of… Read More

 GoDaddy is acquiring Main Street Hub, an Austin-based social media marketing platform. The deal is for $125M in cash plus up to $50M in potential future earn outs, and is expected to close late in Q2 2018. Founded in 2010 Main Street Hub has raised a total of $93M in debt and equity financing from Silicon Valley Bank, Vista Equity Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and other investors. For… Read More

 It’s clear that the days of esports being merely a spectator sport are numbered, as soon users won’t just be sitting and watching the story unfold on a computer screen, they’ll be immersed in it. What challenges will this immersion create when it comes to protecting one’s intellectual property rights to the contents of a game and the innovative technologies involved,… Read More

 Last week, software developer and researcher Abraham Masri shared details of a bug that would allow others to freeze your iPhone with little more than a quick text message. Apple has just pushed out iOS 11.2.5, which patches that issue back up. This bug, the likes of which are often referred to as a “text bomb”, had a would-be attacker send a URL via text message. When the… Read More

 A wise person once said, “don’t upgrade to the latest OS X until it’s been patched a few times. And even then, sometimes it isn’t really worth it.” These words have inspired many to stay on older versions of the OS, though lately that meant remaining vulnerable to Meltdown while those on the latest version were protected. Fortunately Apple has brought old OSes… Read More

 Payments platform Stripe will stop supporting bitcoin in April, citing the cryptocurrency’s volatility and long transaction times, among other things. It’s a logical decision, but one likely to anger the easily provoked crypto-crowd. Read More

Today, Tradeshift, a procure-to-pay supply chain management platform for SMBs and enterprise, announced Tradeshift Frontiers.  Frontiers is an innovation lab and incubator that will focus on transforming supply chains through emerging technologies such as distributed ledgers, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things. “The use cases we’re working through Frontiers cover… Read More

 Cambassy is a new app that lets you share the favorite things about your town, city, or country. You can think of it as a sort of breadcrumb travelogue that you leave behind for others to find and lets you include phots, tips, and comments about your favorite locations. Created by Khalid Twaim and Omar Rabea, the company one a pitch-off in Oman and showed their early versions at Disrupt in Berlin. Read More

 Boutique Android phone makers didn’t have a good 2017, but RED aims to reverse that trend with its high-end Hydrogen handset, which founder Jim Jannard talks up in a recent post on the company’s forums. The chunky, unique device will ship in the summer, but those who have pre-ordered will be able to test out its “4-view” display in April. Read More

 Apple hasn’t been been particularly transparent about the iPhone X’s numbers, in part because it’s a bit of a tricky new model. For starters, it’s a $999 phone. It’s also positioned against another premium iPhone model — which got a healthy jump-start on the pricier model. Read More

 To no parent’s surprise, too much smartphone use makes teens unhappy. So says a new study from San Diego State University, which pulled data from over one million 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders in the U.S. showing teens who spent more time on social media, gaming, texting and video-chatting on their phones were not as happy as those who played sports, went outside and interacted with… Read More

 France Digitale presented its roadmap for the upcoming 12 months. France Digitale is an association that acts as a lobbying organization when it comes to defending the interests of the startup community in France. And the organization had a couple of new things to announce. Rachel Delacour first introduced the event. She is now co-president with Jean-David Chamboredon. Today, the association… Read More

 While crypto may be obvious to us overlords of digital media, awareness of all facets of cryptocurrency still belongs to a small – but growing – minority. In a large scale survey by SurveyMonkey and the Global Blockchain Business Council, 5,000 responded to an extensive poll about the popularity and use of cryptocurrency. Some interesting findings? First, only 5 percent of people… Read More

 Google teamed up with Xprize to sponsor an audacious literal race to the Moon, but sadly the competition will end with no one taking home the grand prize of $30 million. Xprize and Google realized after discussing progress with its five finalist teams that none will be able to make a Moon launch in time for the deadline of the competition, and so the 10-year journey ends somewhat… Read More

 Facebook says it’s on a mission to de-bloat its Messenger app this year. At the same time, TechCrunch has discovered, the data-mining giant is running tests on its desktop platform to inject the Messenger “contact pages” of businesses directly into your chat sidebar. Read More

 If you want to learn how to build flying cars, then your options in terms of getting an education are kind of limited. Enter Udacity, the online education platform founded by Google self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun. It’s now accepting applications for its Flying Car Nanodegree program, which it announced last year along with a new Introduction to Self-Driving engineering course.… Read More

 Beijing-based stationless bike-sharing startup Ofo is crying foul at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency over its decision to have an exclusive pilot program with startup JUMP. Earlier this month, JUMP obtained an exclusive permit with the SFMTA  to launch 250 dockless, electric bikes in San Francisco. Now, Ofo is asking the SFMTA to consider reopening the permit process and… Read More

 The clock is running out on your chance to compete in the very first TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Dubai hosted by Area 2071 in January 2019. The application window closes on January 25th, 2018 at 9 p.m. PST. That means you have just 48 hours left to get the job done.  Apply today. Startup Battlefield Dubai takes a different approach than our previous competitions. Let’s review,… Read More

 First, don’t call it “Vine Two”. Details are starting to emerge about v2, the forthcoming video app built to replace Vine by its former co-founder Dom Hofmann. TechCrunch has learned that v2 has begun reaching out to former Viners and social media star managers in hopes of establishing ties with some top content creators to get feedback and fuel the app’s eventual… Read More

 Uber has hired Bo Young Lee, the former global diversity and inclusion leader of insurance company Marsh LLC, to be its first-ever chief diversity. Lee will begin in March, Recode first reported. This means Uber’s global head of diversity and inclusion, Bernard Coleman, will now be reporting to her. “As I was interviewing for this role, it became very clear that Uber is taking… Read More

 Google’s Play store now features audiobooks. There is a good chance that you only think of the Play store as Google’s app store for Android, but it has long features support for movies, TV shows, magazines and ebooks, too. The new audiobooks feature is launching in 45 countries and nine languages. The addition of audiobooks feels like a natural progression, but I was actually… Read More

 The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s most unassumingly named tech venture, has presented a plan to build a 6.5 mile tunnel between Hawthorne (where SpaceX HQ is located) and West Los Angeles, undercutting Culver City in between to link the two. Boring Co. executives presented the plan to the Culver City city council on Monday night, trying to sell the local regulators on the idea of a… Read More

 Amazon and Netflix both got some good news in this morning’s Oscar nominations. Mudbound, a Netflix original that tells the story of two families (one black, one white) farming on the Mississippi Delta, got four nominations — including best supporting actress (Mary J. Blige), best adapted screenplay (Dee Rees and Virgil Williams) and best original song (“Mighty River”).… Read More

 DJI hasn’t done a great job keeping its drones under wraps. As with the last couple of devices, the Mavic Air leaked out just ahead of today’s official unveiling. The drone is more or less what we expected, falling somewhere between the Mavic Pro and Spark and rounding out the company’s current line of consumer-focused quadcopters. DJI says it “went back to the… Read More

 Elon Musk’s new Tesla compensation package is the CEO equivalent of putting your money where your mouth is: He’ll only be paid out if he manages to raise the value of Tesla as a company to certain milestones, kind of like Kickstarter project stretch goals on a grand scale. Per the New York Times, Musk’s compensation will start at zero, and will increase based on… Read More

 David Barber, the storied owner of the Blue Hill restaurant, farm, and hospitality consulting mecca (a favorite of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama), has long been an angel investor in startup companies. Individually, he’s backed companies like Sweetgreen, the fast casual farm-to-table restaurant chain, that share Blue Hill’s focus on sustainable products and… Read More

 Twitter COO Anthony Noto has left the company, Twitter announced Tuesday. Noto’s leaving because he accepted a CEO role elsewhere, according to the release. Just last week, the WSJ reported that Noto was mulling the top executive job at finance startup SoFi, and indeed SoFi confirmed today that he’s joining effective March 1. Developing… Read More

 There’s no getting around the fact that Snapchat has a user growth problem, so it’s smart that the company is making it easier for people who like and use Snapchat to share content they find within beyond the app itself. Today, Snap is launching the ability to share some public Stories via links that then display the Story selected on Snapchat.com. Stories eligible for sharing… Read More

 It’s been about a year since Atlassian acquired Trello and the company has stayed true to its word and continues to invest heavily in the product. Today, Trello is launching a new directory for its add-ons — or ‘Power-Ups‘ in Trello lingo — that shows both the continued investment in the service and that’s also indicative of how the Atlassian ecosystem in… Read More

 A startup called Bolt wants to give e-commerce retailers a better shot at competing with Amazon. Operating in stealth for a year, the payments platform has grown to 100 online merchants who are now in various phases of roll out with its end-to-end solution for managing customer checkout, payment processing, and fraud detection. The company was officially founded in 2014, with an initial focus… Read More

 When we heard from Sumo Logic last June, the company was announcing a $75 million Series F. Today, they announced they were acquiring FactorChain, a security startup that has raised $3.6 million. The companies would not disclose the purchase price, but indicated the acquisition closed at the end of Q4 and all 12 FactorChain employees have joined Sumo Logic, including CEO Dave Frampton and CTO… Read More

 Adobe is launching an update to Photoshop CC today that includes a number of new features, including better support for high density monitors and the Microsoft dial for Windows users. But the highlight of the release is the new Select Subject tool that uses Adobe’s Sensei AI platform to make selecting objects as simple as a click. Selecting objects in an image typically takes a bit of… Read More

 Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was speaking to Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait today at the new outlet’s event #TheYearAhead event, and he shared some more information about Uber’s plans around autonomy, and autonomous ride-hailing service rollout. “True autonomy for every single use case, is some ways away,” Khosrowshahi began, acknowledging that the problem is… Read More

 Apple is finally shipping the HomePod. The device will ship on February 9, seven months after its announcement at WWDC 2017. It will cost $349 and limited at launch to the US, UK and Australian markets. The news come from Apple who is touting HomePod’s Siri integration, saying its voice assistant is able to “send a message, set a timer, play a podcast, check the news, sports,… Read More

 Rainforest QA, an on-demand software QA service, announced a $25 million Series B investment today. Silicon Valley Bank, Bessemer Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Capital, Rincon Ventures and Initialized Capital all participated in the round. Today’s investment brings the total raised to over $42 million, according to the company. The startup, which got its start in the Summer 2012 Y… Read More

Big data systems tend to be large, complex and often hard to troubleshoot. In the world of databases, web and mobile stacks, application performance management services like AppDynamics and New Relic help ops teams keep tabs on their system. In the big data world, Unravel Data is one of the few APM players to focus solely on the complete big data stack from ingestion to analysis. Read More

 As we inch ever closer to GDPR in May, companies doing business in Europe need to start getting a grip on the sensitive private data they have. The trouble is that as companies move their data into data lakes, massive big data stores, it becomes more difficult to find data in a particular category. Clairvoyant, an Arizona company is releasing a tool called Kogni that could help. Chandra… Read More

 There are three exciting developments that I do expect to transpire within the next 12-18 months.The first major rollouts of autonomous fleets; the development of new mapping and LIDAR technology; and, finally, the development of communities dedicated to autonomous driving in cities and private campuses.  Read More

 Element.AI — which last year raised $102 million from the likes of Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia and more to build an incubator-meets-consultancy to work with multiple businesses as they launch new services and systems based on artificial intelligence — is entering the next phase of its growth this week. The Canadian startup — co-founded by Jean-François Gagné, Nicolas… Read More

 Aspect Ventures has finalized its second fund. The team led by Jennifer Fonstad and Theresia Gouw has closed $181 million, up from $150 million it raised at its inception three years ago.  An SEC filing last year alerted us that the team was fundraising, but now it’s officially official. Aspect is also adding Melinda Gates and Cisco to its roster of LPs. The team is “looking… Read More

 Some major product news from veteran anti-tracking search engine DuckDuckGo: Today it’s launched revamped mobile apps and browser extensions that bake in a tracker blocker for third party sites, and include a suite of other privacy features intended to help users keep surfing privately as they navigate around the web. Read More

 Japanese bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange BitFlyer has expanded into Europe after it landed a payment license to operate across the EU. Data from Coinmarketcap.com shows that BitFlyer is the world’s 14th largest exchange based on volume, with more than $294 million trading in the last 24 hours at the time of writing. Bitcoin is the dominant choice for BitFlyer users, having account… Read More

 SmartHR, a startup helping Japanese employers run HR and staffing smarter — because that’s of course its name — has raised a JPY 1.5 billion ($13.3 million) Series B round led by 500 Startups Japan. The startup is perhaps comparable to the likes of Zenefits and Gusto in the U.S. — it aims to drag Japanese HR departments into today’s digital era. “In Japan… Read More