Tech In Asia, the Singapore-based media and events startup, has closed $6.6 million in fresh funding. The lead investor is a name that may not…
digital marketing
Last chance to get your tickets for TechCrunch China in Shanghai November 27-28
TechCrunch is excited to be returning to China this month! Fresh from the success of our first event in Shenzhen in June, we’ll be back in…
Southeast Asia’s aCommerce lands $65M led by KRR-backed Emerald Media
Southeast Asia-based aCommerce, a startup that helps brands get into e-commerce and digital media in the fast-growing region, has pulled in $65 million in new…
Alibaba invests $2.9B in hypermarket operator Sun Art to continue its offline retail push
Alibaba is continuing its expansion into offline retail after the Chinese e-commerce giant bought up more than one-third of one of Chinese most prolific operators…
Media startup Cheddar launches its TV channel in Europe with Molotov
Business news network Cheddar has been partnering with social media platforms and OTT services in the U.S. And Cheddar is now looking at international markets.…
Fintech startup Glint de-cloaks to offer a multi-currency account and card that supports spending gold
London-based Glint has been pretty stealthy about what it planned to offer, despite several funding rounds and a vague description that it wanted to a…
Pact Coffee founder steps down from CEO role as London startup looks to B2B for growth
Pact Coffee, the U.K. subscription service that delivers freshly roasted “specialty coffee” to your door, has seen a change of leadership as the company plans…
Authorities serve Apple a warrant for Texas shooter’s iPhone
Two weeks ago today, 26 people were killed by a gunman at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Two phones were discovered at the…
Nuraphones’ custom profiles bring out new detail in familiar songs
I promised myself I wouldn’t read any work email (I failed), wouldn’t tweet (failed) and wouldn’t bring along any homework — I failed there too,…
17 STEM-focused gifts to inspire kids to learn coding and love robotics
This year’s STEM gift guide reflects the boom in ‘educational’ techie toys — featuring programmable and controllable robots of all stripes and shapes, as well…
100 cryptocurrencies described in four words or less
This list describes cryptocurrencies. Each gets four words. There are many. Some are landmarks. Some are scams. Hopefully this provides orientation. Read More
Ello Again…
The social networking platform splashed onto the tech scene promoting itself as an ad-free rival to Facebook. Soon millions of people (including yours truly) signed…
The battle for control of data could be just starting
Companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon happily take our data in exchange for convenience, lower prices or free services, but individuals and businesses are beginning…
A decade of Amazon Kindle
Ten years ago this week, Amazon released the first Kindle. It was big and clunky and kind of ugly, with an awkward physical keyboard and…
Cultural accumulation vs. cultural decay
Don’t worry; I’m not getting all moralistic on you here. When I talk about cultural decay I’m talking about something I think we need more…
Zego picks up £6M Series A led by Balderton for its gig economy worker insurance
Zego, the London-based startup that appears to have spotted a gaping insurance hole in the so-called gig economy, has raised £6 million in Series A…
Silicon Valley could be the next hotspot for SEC whistleblowers
In recent years, the SEC has had greater success policing wrongdoing due in large part to the implementation of its whistleblower program. But the whistleblowers’ crosshairs…
HBCU.vc trains students become venture capitalists
There are very few black and Latinx investors, with only 2 percent of investment team members at VC firms identifying as black and just 1…
Tap tap tap
We are now walking through a media desert. While access to content is astronomically high, the content that we read is dead, lifeless, and derivative.…
Gillmor Gang: Dream On
The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Esteban Kolsky, Kevin Marks, Denis Pombriant, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Sunday, November 12, 2017. G3: Safe Sex —…
GoCater spins out from La Belle Assiette to build a corporate catering marketplace
GoCater is a marketplace with hundreds of catering companies accessible from a single platform. It makes it much easier to organize events in your company.…
Canadian grocery chain orders 25 Tesla electric Semi trucks
Tesla’s Semi is off to a promising start, despite there being no official pricing information available yet: In addition to a Walmart pilot, Canadian grocery…
Crunch Report | Twitter tests a new tweetstorm feature and Tesla unveils a semi truck
Today’s Stories Apple pushes back on the release of the Homepod Twitter tests a new tweetstorm feature Tesla unveils a new semi truck Walmart will…
Code2040 raises $5.6 million from The Knight Foundation and others
Code2040, founded by Laura Weidman Powers and Tristan Walker, recently raised $5.6 million to advance its diversity and inclusion efforts in technology. The latest funding…
15 awesome gifts for your awesome Mom and Dad
Welcome to the 2017 TechCrunch Holiday Gift Guide! We check out a lot of really cool stuff here at TechCrunch, so we figured we ought…
Germany bans smartwatches for kids over spying concerns
Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) issued a blanket ban on smartwatches aimed at children this week — and asked parents who’d already purchased such a…
Identity solutions business SailPoint up 9% following IPO
SailPoint, the enterprise identity solutions business, went up 9% in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange Friday. The company raised $240 million after…
Stitch Fix up just 1% on first day of trading, after reducing size of IPO
Stitch Fix went up just 1% on its first day of trading. After pricing at $15, the company closed at $15.15. It’s also below the opening…
Shasta Ventures promotes three to partner
Shasta Ventures is promoting three of its principals to partner. Nikhil Basu Trivedi, Jacob Mullins and Nitin Chopra have all made it to this coveted…
Black Friday’s best tech bets
Thanksgiving is all about family, friends and gratefulness. The following day, on the other hand, is dedicated to rampant consumerism and generally attempting to not…
YouTube terminates exploitive ‘kids’ channel ToyFreaks, says it’s tightening its child endangerment policies
Following consumer outrage over YouTube’s handling of disturbing videos aimed at children on its network, the company has now banned one of the more controversial…
Artland is a social art market that connects galleries and buyers
Danish startup Artland is building a social marketplace for the art world and its key players: Galleries and professional collectors, while also hoping an app-based approach…
Media startup Axios raises another $20 million
There’s a glimpse of hope in new media as Axios just raised $20 million less than a year after its launch, the Wall Street Journal…
MoviePass drops pricing to under $7 per month, if you opt for the annual plan
MoviePass, the subscription service that lets consumers pay a monthly fee to see unlimited movies in theaters across the U.S., is slashing its prices yet…
Walmart plans to pilot test the new Tesla Semi
Walmart says that it intends to be among the first companies to pilot Tesla’s new all-electric Semi heavy-duty truck. The retailer told CNBC that it’s…
Apple pushes HomePod release to early 2018
So much for the holiday rush. Apple announced this morning that its premium HomePod smart speaker won’t be making the company’s initial December ship date.…
Food delivery upstart Deliveroo adds another $98M to its latest round, now at $480M
The food-delivery on demand space continues to heat up in Europe. Today, Deliveroo, the London-based startup that just weeks ago announced a Series F of…
Stitch Fix gets a pop in its first day of trading
Stitch Fix revised where it would price its IPO lower last night ahead of trading, and it looks like it helped approach the right sweet…
Deliv to power same-day grocery delivery for Walmart in San Jose
Walmart is further expanding into same-day delivery with the help of its existing delivery partner, Deliv. The companies today announced they will now be working…
Watch Tesla’s new Roadster show off its record-breaking speed
Tesla has delivered the ultimate fan car – a revamped version of its original Roadster, with crazy fast acceleration of 0 to 60 mph in…
Spotify acquires online music studio Soundtrap as it goes after creators
Spotify has made another acquisition as it continues to build out the services it offers to artists beyond basic streaming. It has acquired online music…
Equity podcast: Musical.ly, Bumble, SendGrid and not Uber
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week, the crew — Katie Roof and Alex Wilhelm —…
‘Justice League’ looks ugly and rushed, but I liked it anyway
Justice League, the DC cinematic universe’s answer to The Avengers, is finally here. It comes at the end of a terrific year for superhero movies.…
Why now is the time to join Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin
(Hint: Free stuff) TechCrunch Disrupt is coming to Arena Berlin on 4-5 December, and and we’re looking for a few more rockstar startups to be…
Hours before launch, EA strips micro-transactions from ‘Star Wars: Battlefront II’
Just hours before the full launch of Battlefront II, Electronic Arts has announced that they’re removing in-game micro-transactions entirely from the title for the time…
Romain-Jerome builds a Batman watch that tells you your time is up, bat
Watchmaker Romain-Jerome has announced a new Batman-themed watch that looks like something Bruce Wayne would wear to the club. The watch, which is based on…
Tortuga Logic raises $2 million to build chip-level security systems
Tortuga Logic has raised $2 million in seed funding from Eclipse Ventures to help in their effort to maintain chip-level system security. Based in Palo…
Tesla Semi has the technical capability to convoy today
Tesla founder Elon Musk revealed at the Tesla Semi unveil that the truck can work in a convoy mode, with a three-truck convoy beating not…
Tesla unveils the new Roadster
Tesla has unveiled a new Roadster, the new version of its original sports car. It’s the fastest production car ever made, according to Elon Musk,…
The Tesla Semi tackles this classic truck safety problem using tech
Tesla’s Semi is an all-electric semi truck, which itself is a major feat, but its powertrain isn’t the only technological innovation that the automaker is…
Here’s what it’s like to sit in the new Tesla Semi
Tesla’s truck is a departure from more traditional diesel powered equivalents in a number of ways, but it might be most starkly different when it…
This is Tesla’s big new all-electric truck – the Tesla Semi
It boasts a considerable charge capacity, and has a very aesthetically distinct look, as you can see, which will obviously help it stand out from…
Crunch Report | The tech companies helping to educate the public on fake news and how to get free Postmates Unlimited
Today’s Stories These tech companies want to get rid of fake news Say goodbye forever to Facebook app invites Apple is giving out free Postmates…
Stitch Fix set to raise $120M from downsized IPO
There’s been plenty of appetite for Stitch Fix’s upcoming NASDAQ listing, but concern around disappointing listings from Snap and Blue Apron may explain why the…
Seizing partnership opportunities in emerging markets
Partnering beyond your borders — something many of the world’s leading multi-sided businesses and online marketplaces already engage in — is becoming a low-friction way…
They turned ‘Rampage’ into a movie (and here’s the first trailer)
Remember Rampage? It was a classic Midway arcade game (perhaps the greatest arcade game) where you got to bash cities to rubble while playing as…
Coinbase’s Custody service wants to store bitcoin for institutional investors
Safely investing in and storing digital currency isn’t exactly easy, especially if you’re a large institutional firm. So to help Coinbase just announced that they’re…
Meural raises $5 million and brings Canvas to over 100 stores
Digital art technology company Meural has raised a $5 million Series A round of funding, led by Corigin Ventures and with participation from Netgear, Resolute…
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. acquires AR 3D imaging startup Outward for $112M
Furniture and kitchenware giant Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSI) is acquiring augmented reality startup Outward in an all-cash deal for $112 million. The furniture mega-brand, which operates stores…
Apple’s new ad shows how iPads are going to replace laptops
Apple has released a brand new ad for the iPad Pro. It features a young girl and a rose gold iPad Pro running iOS 11.…
FCC reportedly planning vote that could kill net neutrality next month
The Federal Communications Commission will drive a stake through its own net neutrality rules roughly this time next month, if Chairman Ajit Pai gets his…
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is a parkour master
Parkour! That’s what we should all be devoting our combined robotics expertise towards. There’s no nobler human pursuit, so of course we should create a…
Apple VP of diversity and inclusion Denise Young Smith is leaving
Apple’s first-ever vice president of diversity and inclusion, Denise Young Smith, is leaving Apple at the end of this year, TechCrunch has learned. Smith, who…
HTC’s VR object tracker is launching in December for $99.99
HTC’s Vive Tracker allows objects to be tracked in VR. It utilizes the same weird shape configuration that is at the top of the HTC…
Watch every panel from Startup Battlefield Australia 2017
On November 16, TechCrunch and Elevacao hosted Startup Battlefield Australia in Sydney. The pitch-off competition featured startups from all over Australia and New Zealand. Top-notch investors and founders…
Apple releases iOS 11.1.2 to fix iPhone X cold weather issue
Apple has made iOS 11.1.2 available, the second minor point release it’s put out in as many weeks. This one is specifically designed to address…
Trello goes to Japan as it pushes for global growth under Atlassian
Trello today announced that it is launching operations in Japan next year as part of its overall global growth strategy. When Atlassian bought Trello earlier…
Mashable reportedly selling to Ziff Davis for about $50 million
Tech site Mashable is being sold to publishing giant Ziff Davis, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The website, which focuses…
Facebook kills App Invites, the native app Like button and other dev features
It’s been a while since my Facebook notifications feed was filled to the brim with invites to play FarmVille, but I’ve been reminded every so…
Twitter confirms it’s testing a tweetstorm feature
Twitter confirms it’s testing a feature that allows users to more easily create “tweetstorms” – those series of connected tweets that have grown to be…
NerdWallet lays off 11 percent of staff due to missing profitability goals
Personal finance startup NerdWallet seems to be on the struggle bus, having just laid off 53 people today (about 11 percent of its workforce) due…
Facebook launches Creator app for influencers to build video communities
Facebook wants to turn mindless, passive video consumption into “time well spent”, and now it’s giving social media stars a powerful tool to foster communities…
Apple is giving away free Postmates Unlimited subscriptions
If you use Apple Pay to sign up for Postmates Unlimited, you’ll be able to get free deliveries on orders over $20 and no peak…
Voting machine makers explain what they do (and don’t do) to make sure no one hacks the vote
As the House and Senate continue to examine the wave of disinformation around the 2016 presidential election, concerns around the security of voting systems examine…
Google announces AMP update that will discourage ‘teaser pages’
Publishers have a lot of mixed feeling about AMP (accelerated mobile pages), but it’s pretty safe to day that consumers enjoy web pages that load…
Imgur’s favorite folders turn 250M meme lords into curators
Either you’re one of 250 million monthly Imgurians, or you probably have no idea what Imgur is. But those who are part of the addictive…
Toyota Mobility Foundation launches $4M prize for mobility tech targeting lower-limb paralysis
Toyota Mobility Foundation, a charity set up by Toyota in 2014 to help bring about “a truly mobile society,” has launched a $4 million competition…
Google’s chatbot analytics platform Chatbase launches to public
At Google I/O this year, Google quietly introduced a new chatbot analytics platform called Chatbase, a project developed within the company’s internal R&D incubator, Area…
Airbnb acquires ad tech startup AdBasis
It looks like accessibility isn’t the only thing that Airbnb wants to upgrade on its platform. On the same day that Airbnb announced that it…
The OnePlus 5T is another solid $500 handset
OnePlus’s strategy appears to be paying off. Don’t worry about being the first with a technology — that’s a fool’s errand when you’re competing against…
Kabbage gets $200M from Credit Suisse to expand its AI-based business loans
After picking up $250 million in equity funding from Softbank earlier this year, the small business loans and finance company Kabbage — which uses only algorithms…
Google launches a paid enterprise edition of its Dialogflow chatbot builder
Google today announced the beta launch of its enterprise edition of Dialogflow, its tool for building chatbots and other conversational applications. In addition, Dialogflow (both…
Virgin Hyperloop One lines up two preliminary studies in India
Hyperloop One, which is now Virgin Hyperloop One thanks to strong backing from billionaire Richard Branson, has signed a couple of new memorandums of understanding…
U.S. Department of Defense books a test flight with Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne
The U.S. Department of Defense has booked a prototype flight on Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne to demonstrate the capabilities of the company’s Low Earth Orbit launch…
Latest round of Verizon layoffs at Oath affects <4% of staff globally
Verizon has initiated another round of layoffs as a result of its acquisition of Yahoo and subsequent combining of the company with its existing business…
NBC will live stream a record 1,800 hours of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games
NBC will live stream the 2018 Olympic Winter Games from PyeongChang, South Korea, the company announced today. Its coverage will include 1,800 hours of games –…
Lyft acquihires the Kamcord team for engineering talent
Ride hailing provider Lyft has brought in 12 members of the Kamcord team, essentially acquiring its engineering talent, though not any of the broadcast live…
Trocafone raises $15 million to expand its used electronics marketplace in emerging markets
Trocafone, the online marketplace for used electronics, has raised $15 million in new financing to expand its reach beyond Brazil and Argentina into other emerging…
Physera raises $2.8M to streamline physical therapy
If you’ve ever ended up with an injury, you’ve probably gone through an overly long process to eventually end up in a physical therapist’s office:…
Airbnb buys ‘Airbnb for disabled people’ startup Accomable in accessibility upgrade
Airbnb, the accommodation and travel startup that is now valued at $31 billion, is today announcing an acquisition that points to how it wants to…
OnePlus adds a six-inch screen and face unlock for the 5T
OnePlus has carved out a nice niche for itself over the past couple of years. The company’s never been too preoccupied with the rush toward…
Kairos’ $25M venture fund will invest in ideas that help the middle class
Kairos, the organization for young entrepreneurs founded in 2008 as Kairos Society, has lifted the veil on its first venture fund that it teased earlier…
Revising the results of last year’s study, Posit Science still effectively combats dementia
Revising the results of their headline-grabbing, decade-long study, researchers from top universities still believe that a brain training exercise from app developer Posit Science can…
Instagram Stories adds no-frills photo-only posting from mobile web
Instagram really wants the developing world on Stories. They won’t be able to use Instagram’s augmented reality masks or share videos, but starting today mobile…
PayPal to sell $6 billion in consumer loans to Synchrony Financial
PayPal announced today it has agreed to sell $5.8 billion in consumer credit receivables to Synchrony Financial, in an expanded relationship between the companies. The…
MegaBots says it will shut down if it can’t reach its next crowdfunding goal
It took a while, but last month the latest iteration of MegaBots’ giant fighting robot finally did battle with a 6.5-ton machine from Japan’s Suidobashi…
Watch SpaceX launch the mysterious ‘Zuma’ spacecraft
SpaceX will be launching a Falcon 9 with a special payload aboard today, with a two-hour long launch window opening up at 8 PM EST…
Facebook, Google and others join The Trust Project, an effort to increase transparency around online news
“Fake news” and other misinformation, online propaganda, and satirical content people believe is true have filled the web via search engines and social media, and have…
New Venzee tool brings data transformation and validation to your blockchain project
If the blockchain is going to be an immutable record, you need to start with clean data. The question is, how do you get clean…
Shopify now offers merchants built-in, cheaper UPS shipping
Shopify has teamed up with UPS to provide merchants on its platform with special rates normally only available to bigger business customers, and direct Shopify…
Segment has a plan to help companies comply with GDPR data privacy requests
Segment is a startup that helps companies collect customer data from a variety of siloed sources and place that data in a single usable record. Today,…
Hands-on with Microsoft’s high-end Surface Book 2
Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 is the most powerful mobile Surface device yet. It easily blows away the Surface Pro, Surface Laptop and, of course, the…
Veteran VCs Trae Vassallo and Neil Sequeira attract $151 million to their new firm, Defy Partners
They’re back. After staying heads down for the past year, Trae Vassallo and Neil Sequeira, two longtime venture capitalists whose individual brands are well-known to…
Where and why venture capitalists invest close to home
Public market investors have the luxury of being able to make, invest and move their money anywhere they’d like. But the same isn’t true for…
Hitlist lands on Android to help you find bargain travel deals
Hitlist, an app that serves up bargain-priced flights and travels deals, has finally winged its way to Android after years on iOS and the web. The…
Inboard Technology raises $8 million to be the Tesla of electric skateboards
If you’re a company working on an electric skateboard that’s already raised nearly $500,000 on Kickstarter and slayed the Shark Tank sharks what do you do for…
Tencent reportedly invests $150M in cinema ticketing startup Maoyan
Tencent announced another impressive quarter of financials yesterday, but the Chinese internet giant — which is creeping towards a $500 billion market cap — made…
Pip is a retro games console for kids to learn coding
Another UK startup is using Pi electronics as the foundation for an edtech business idea, and Kickstarter to try to crowdfund their product: A learn-to-code…
Pixelz raises $7 million for outsourced photography post-production
PIxelz, a Danish provider of post-production photographic software and services, has raised $7 million to build out its business in Europe. Read More
Changes to our Developer Offerings via Facebook Developers Blog
We’re continuously evaluating how to best serve our developer community. To support this effort, we recently reviewed our product offerings to ensure our resources are focused on building and enhancing the solutions that create the most value for developers.
China’s third-largest bike sharing service, which raised $90M, is reportedly closing down
Bike-sharing, the year’s hottest startup trend in China and beyond, looks like it is about to see the biggest casualty of its cut-throat competition. Bluegogo,…
China’s Baidu just announced the strangest smart speakers
Chinese internet Baidu is widely-credited for being one of the first to dive deep into artificial intelligence, hiring Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng (who has since…
Algorithmia now helps businesses manage and deploy their machine learning models
Algorithmia started out as an online marketplace for — can you guess it? — algorithms. Many of these algorithms that developers offered on the service…
HealthMatch wins TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Australia
TechCrunch is proud to announce HealthMatch is the winner of the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Australia and FluroSat is the runner up. A panel of expert…
Duolingo can now help you learn Chinese
Earlier this year, Duolingo launched its Japanese course, which marked the first time the popular language learning service offered support for an Asian language. Since…
Twitter removes verified checkmarks from several white supremacists’ profiles
A few hours after announcing a review of its verification program, Twitter began revoking the verified status of some accounts. White supremacists Richard Spencer and…
Crunch Report | This Black Friday could be the biggest ever for mobile and we found a new planet
Today’s Stories This Black Friday could be the biggest ever for mobile shopping Amazon blames the postal service for Amazon Fresh delivery issues Scientists found…
Forever 21 tells customers that some credit card numbers may have been stolen
This week, the clothing retailer Forever 21 disclosed to customers that it was hacked earlier in 2017. While the company has not yet offered many…
What to expect from Tesla’s big electric truck reveal
Tesla is set to take the lid off its electric truck tomorrow for the first time, after months of teasing the big rig. CEO Elon…
Google Maps got a redesign
Google Maps is getting an upgrade. The company said in a blog post that it has updated driving, navigation, transit and explore maps to better…
Scientists found a new Earth-sized planet nearby… and it might be habitable
Forget Mars, scientists have discovered a new Earth-sized, possibly habitable, planet just 11 light years away. Known as Ross 128b, the newly discovered planet orbits…
Twitter to revoke verification for some accounts as part of overhaul
Twitter says that it’s making progress on its plan to review its authentication system, which it’s conducting in the wake of backlash against the social…
Watch Startup Battlefield Australia live right here
Here we are in Sydney, Australia, hosting our signature Startup Battlefield competition. We have an amazing lineup of speakers who all share a ton of knowledge and…
Procter & Gamble just bought this venture-backed deodorant startup for $100 million cash
Native Deodorant, a San Francisco-based natural deodorant brand, just sold to Procter & Gamble for $100 million cash. Native, which positioned itself as an online distributor…
A disappointing debut for Google’s Pixel Buds
Pixel Buds are a valiant effort to stand out while embracing a trend adopted by just about every name in the field, resulting in a…
Tesla opens two largest Supercharger stations and a customer lounge
Tesla has opened new Supercharger stations in California, the largest its built to date. These are a new kind of Supercharger for the automaker, with…
Email marketer SendGrid up 13% following IPO
Marketing email company SendGrid had a decent first day on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. After pricing shares at $16, the company closed at…