TechCrunch Industry News

Nestle takes a big swig of Yfood in a deal that values the meal replacement startup at $469M

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yfood, one of the direct-to-consumer food tech startups that has emerged over the last decade around the concept of meal replacement drinks, is bulkin...

Cranium launches out of KPMG’s venture studio to tackle AI security

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Several years ago, Jonathan Dambrot, a partner at KPMG, was helping customers deploy and develop AI systems when he started to notice certain gaps in ...

FBI seizes Genesis Market, a notorious hacker marketplace for stolen logins

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized Genesis Market, a notorious hacker marketplace used to acquire compromised credentials and digital browser f...

Dozer exits stealth to help any developer build real-time data apps ‘in minutes’

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Data has emerged as one of the world’s greatest resources, underpinning everything from video-recommendation engines and digital banking, to the bur...

Zealy is an achievement system for web3 communities

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Meet Zealy, a French startup that you may already know under the name Crew3.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nintendo and mobile games company DeNA launch Nintendo Systems

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Back in November, Nintendo and app developer DeNA announced its joint venture company called Nintendo Systems, which is meant to help reinforce Ninten...

Rivian sticks to 2023 production goal for EVs despite quarterly dip

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

EV automaker Rivian said Monday it produced 9,395 vehicles at its factory in Normal, Illinois in the first quarter, lower than the previous period but...

Read’s AI-powered summary feature squeezes a meeting into a two-minute clip

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Summarization is one of the common use cases of different AI models. Multiple tools have come up with a summarization of articles, PDFs, videos, and t...

Italy orders ChatGPT blocked citing data protection concerns

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two days after an open letter called for a moratorium on more powerful generative AI models being developed so regulators can catch up with the likes ...

P97 fills up its tank with $40M to fuel its gas station mobile commerce services

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The rising prices for gas continue to be a headache and stress for a lot of people around the world, but it underscores something more besides the cos...

Roku announces a second set of layoffs impacting 200 employees

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roku is the latest tech company to announce a second round of layoffs with today’s news that it’s letting go of 6% of its workforce, or around 200...

Hygraph raises $30M to scale out a new, federated approach to managing digital content

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Digital content and how we consume it continue to endlessly evolve, and with that, so too does the tech that helps manage all of it behind the scenes....

Google to roll out new extreme heat alerts in Search soon

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Google is introducing new extreme heat alerts in Search that are designed to surface information to help people stay safe during heat waves, the compa...

Turntable LIVE (née tt.fm) raises $7M ahead of public launch

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Turntable wars were one of the more fascinating stories to emerge in 2021 startup land (though I suspect those involved might dispute the matter)....

Amazon opens its low-bandwidth, long-range Sidewalk network to developers

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Back in 2019, Amazon announced Sidewalk, its low-bandwidth, long-range wireless network that uses the 900 MHz spectrum to connect Internet of Things (...

Apple acquired a startup using AI to compress videos

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple has quietly acquired a Mountain View-based startup, WaveOne, that was developing AI algorithms for compressing video. Learn more about your ad c...

France bans recreational apps like TikTok on government devices

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

France is the latest country that is taking steps to ban TikTok from government-managed devices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...

Huupe, a ‘smart’ basketball hoop startup, raises its game with $11M

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Basketball can be played just about anywhere and by anyone in the U.S. and now many other parts of the world, thanks to a confluence of factors that l...

Ford to build next-gen EV truck at $5.6B factory in 2025

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ford said Friday that its $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex outside of Memphis, Tennessee will include a truck plant capable of producing 500,000 ele...

DoorDash is adding three new retail partners and updating its shopping features

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

DoorDash is adding three new retail partners and updating its shopping features, the company announced on Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. ...

Ford expects EV business unit to lose $3B this year, hit profitability in 2026

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Any question of what business sector is — and is not — profitable at Ford is no longer a mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastc...

CodiumAI is using generative AI to help developers build code logic tests automatically

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over his two decades of experience in the tech industry, CodiumAI co-founder and CEO Itmar Friedman has personally experienced the pain of building te...

Ubisoft’s new AI tool automatically generates dialogue for non-playable game characters

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ubisoft, the developer behind popular games like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, announced that it’s using an AI “Ghostwriter” tool to write dia...

IPRally, a patent search engine powered by explainable AI, raises $10.8M

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

IPRally, a Finnish startup building a knowledge graph-based patent search engine, has raised €10 million ($10.8 million) in a Series A round of fund...

Ferrari says ransomware attack exposed customers’ personal data

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Italian supercar manufacturer Ferrari has confirmed it was hit by a ransomware attack that exposed customers’ personal information. Learn more about...

Foiled again: Candela raises another $20M to set course for the future of ferries

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Swedish company Candela will launch its 30-passenger commercial hydrofoil shuttle, the P-12, this summer — the vessel it believes will change the co...

Microsoft banks on regulations to build a mobile games store

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple and Google have had a stronghold on mobile app distribution through their app store. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...

FCC proposes satellite-to-phone rules to eliminate ‘no signal’ once and for all

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The FCC has officially proposed, and voted unanimously to move forward with, a framework under which satellites can communicate directly with smartpho...

Google warns users to take action to protect against remotely exploitable flaws in popular Android phones

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Google’s security research unit is sounding the alarm on a set of vulnerabilities it found in certain Samsung chips included in dozens of Android mo...

MLOps platform Seldon raises £20M Series B to improve the productions of AI models

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The rise of ChatGPT has fuelled growth in the public awareness of AI, as well as the growing discourse around AI ethics. Learn more about your ad c...

The Climate Choice wants to make supply chain emissions more visible and more green

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The World Economic Forum says that so-called ‘Scope 3 emissions,’ – or CO2 in supply chains  – can make up as much as 90% of a company’s ...

Waze is making it easier for EV owners to find compatible charging points

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Google-owned mapping app Waze is adding a new feature that seeks to help EV owners find a compatible charger en route. Learn more about your ad choice...

Torch is building solar-powered outdoor sensors to spot wildfires early

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Nest Protect is the single best piece of smart home hardware I’ve ever purchased. Not everything in your home would benefit from being connected...

Firefox extends its anti-tracking protection to Android

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Firefox announced today that its Total Cookie Protection (TCP) feature that protects users from trackers is now available on Android. Learn more about...

Google goes all-in on bringing AI to Workspace

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Google and Microsoft are locked in a head-to-head competition to bring as much generative AI to their productivity services as possible. Only days ahe...

Founder of troubled crypto asset unicorn Babel launches new DeFi project, stablecoin

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Flex Yang, the former CEO and founder of Babel Finance, is leading efforts to restructure the now embattled crypto asset unicorn while introducing a n...

Naspers shuts down Foundry, its $100M fund focused on South African startups

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Naspers, Africa’s most valuable tech company by market capitalization, has winded down the operations of its R1.4 billion (≈$100 million) Sout...

PeopleGrove security lapse exposed users’ personal information

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

PeopleGrove confirmed Thursday that it’s investigating after a security lapse exposed users’ personal information online. Learn more about your ad...

Apple could reportedly release a HomePod with a display

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple could be working on a new HomePod device that would feature a built-in display for 2024. Learn more about you...

Wing likens its drone ‘delivery network’ to rideshare

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Drone delivery is one of those ideas that’s been sold as “the next big thing” forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

Crypto-friendly bank Silvergate to wind down after FTX blow-up

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Silvergate Capital Corporation, the holding company of crypto-focused Silvergate Bank, announced Wednesday its intent to wind down operations and volu...

Forethought aims to build more accurate chatbots with constrained generative AI models

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Forethought has been building chatbots since 2017 with increasing levels of sophistication, intelligence and automation. Learn more about your ad choi...

With Project Clover, TikTok touts new EU data privacy and security efforts

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

TikTok is doubling down on its European charm offensive today as it looks to counter a rising tide of political discontent with the popular short-form...

Online food delivery platforms in Kenya under probe

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The competition regulator in Kenya is probing the conduct of online food delivery and groceries platforms to inform its suggestions on regulatory and ...

Tensor raises $3M for Solana-focused NFT trading platform

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tensor, a Solana-centric NFT trading platform, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Placeholder, the team exclusively shared with TechCrunch. ...

Police arrest suspected members of prolific DoppelPaymer ransomware gang

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An international law enforcement operation has led to the arrests of suspected core members of the prolific DoppelPaymer ransomware operation. Learn m...

Tesla slashes prices for Model S and Model Y in US

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla has cut the prices of its Model S sedan and Model X SUV in the U.S., according to the company’s website. This is the second time this year tha...

Twitter Blue expands to more than 20 countries

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter’s paid plan Twitter Blue is now available to more than 20 new countries in Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

Secret Service and ICE conducted warrantless stingray surveillance, says watchdog

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A government watchdog has found that the Secret Service and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit repeatedly failed to obtain the correc...

Renovate is building robots to install roof shingles

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roofing isn’t a glamorous job. In fact, one could reasonably argue that it checks off the classic three Ds of automation — dull, dirty and dangero...

Big Tech on notice as regulators in Africa group to investigate their market conduct

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Several competition watchdogs in Africa plan to collectively interrogate the market conduct of global digital firms, putting big techs like Google and...

VW’s software unit Cariad launches app store to bring Spotify, Tiktok and hundreds more to vehicles

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dozens of apps including Spotify, Amazon Music, Tiktok and gaming hubs Vector Unit and FRVR are headed to VW Group brands, beginning with Audi thanks ...

TikTok rolls out new screen time controls, adds new default settings for teens and expands Family Pairing

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

TikTok announced today that it’s introducing new well-being features for teens, families and its broader community. Learn more about your ad choices...

OnePlus’ first foldable will arrive in the second half of the year

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The OnePlus that was founded in 2013 was a cautious company, deliberate in its release schedule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...

Meta says it is experimenting with AI-powered chat on WhatsApp and Messenger

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

No company is immune from the generative AI wave, and everybody wants in. Meta is the latest entrant in testing AI-powered tools for its products. Lea...

CollX raises $5.5M to scan and evaluate value of trading cards

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Card collectors often dispute how much their cards are worth. New Jersey-based CollX provides a free iOS and Android app to card enthusiasts that allo...

Planet Computers hits the desktop with a line of touchscreen Linux computers

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Planet Computers turned heads when it arrived on the scene almost exactly five years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...

Sono Motors has killed off its Sion EV in a pivot to solar tech business

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sono Motors is ending its long-awaited electric car program and instead pivoting to a business that aims to sell its solar vehicle technology to other...

DOJ suit could represent significant stumbling block for $20B Adobe-Figma deal

25 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The DOJ is reportedly getting ready to file suit to block the $20 billion Adobe-Figma deal announced last year on the grounds it is anti-competitive. ...

NBA Top Shot creator to face lawsuit around securities status

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dapper Labs, the company behind many popular NFT collectible projects, will face a lawsuit accusing it of selling unregistered securities. Learn more ...

Spotify is testing playlists that could be unlocked by NFT holders

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Unlocking exclusive access has been a long-held promise of a lot of NFT-based communities. And now, Spotify is helping some of them realize that claim...

Google Cloud partners with Tezos blockchain to bring web3 technology to its customers

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Google Cloud has partnered with the Tezos Foundation to grow its web3 application development and provide new services for its customers, the companie...

Amazon Fire TV devices can now directly stream audio to Cochlear hearing implants

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon teamed up with hearing implant company Cochlear to launch Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) support to compatible Cochlear devices, the c...

Kempus wants to be the ultimate app for sharing college hacks

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Remember poring over reviews on Rate My Professors to find out which prof is good-looking and who gives easy As? Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Agtech startup Green Labs is the latest Korean startup to lay off employees

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Green Labs, a South Korean agtech startup that raised $140 million (170 billion won) Series C in January last year, is cutting a significant number of...

Quell’s gamified home fitness tech drums up $10M

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Home fitness had a huge moment at the outset of the pandemic — and understandably so. People were stuck at home, gyms closed and suddenly workout op...

Japan’s central bank to pilot digital currency starting in April

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Japan is joining a growing list of countries exploring the possibility of adopting a digital currency, with country’s central bank, the Bank of Japa...

Binance-backed web3 gaming startup Unagi gets funding to expand fantasy sports platform

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Web3 gaming company Unagi today announced a €4.7 million ($5 million) seed round of funding, as the French startup prepares to expand its NFT fantas...

Autonomous cargo drone airline Dronamics reveals it’s raised $40M, pre-Series A

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Autonomous aircraft have long been thought of as having the most potential, though not in the realm of glitzy people-carrying drones so much as the mo...

Former Amazon, Starbucks exec launches Yelp-like platform to review and discover NFTs

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Amid signs of life in the NFT market, an NFT-focused startup, Thred, launched today to help users discover new collections. Learn more about your ad c...

Micro-EV subscription startup Dance pulls in another €12M from existing investors

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Micro-EV subscription startup Dance, which launched in 2020, has raised an additional €12 million in an equity and debt round led by existing invest...

Sequoia-backed Bento wants be more than a link-in-bio tool for creators

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are as many link-in-bio tools available for creators as the number of links they typically display on their pages. Learn more about your ad choi...

Google rolls out new features to make in-app browsers better on Android

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In-app browsers are usually not the best way to consume content in an app. In fact, Android developers have been using the Chrome custom tabs featu...

Monad Labs raises $19M to grow its smart contract platform and improve the Ethereum space

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Monad Labs, the team supporting the Monad blockchain, has raised $19 million in seed funding led by Dragonfly Capital, it exclusively told TechCrunch....

Joby flies towards 2025 commercial launch with final assembly of eVTOL

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company Joby Aviation has taken another step on its path to start a commercial air taxi service by 2025....

Two-year-old Zeekr raises $750M at $13B valuation

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At a time when venture capital funding is slowing in China, EV is one of the few sectors that are still keeping investors excited. Learn more about yo...

Dockhunt is a new way to discover Mac apps by looking at other people’s docks

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

App Store might suggest you a useful app from time to time, but you can’t rely on that to discover new apps. P Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Otonomo, the mobility data business valued at $1.4B in 2021 SPAC IPO, acquired by Urgent.ly as market cap dips to $70M

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Otonomo, connected automotive company that has seen its stock price plummet since going public in 2021, has announced that it is coming together with ...

Reddit says hackers accessed internal data following employee phishing attack

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Reddit has confirmed hackers accessed internal documents and source code following a “highly-targeted” phishing attack. Learn more about your ad c...

DJI’s Mini 2 SE ultraportable drone takes to the skies

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a couple of years since DJI first launched its Mavic Mini, and last year it brought the Mini 3 Pro. It’s utterly confusing why the current dr...

DoorDash introduces new safety features for riders including reduced notifications

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Delivery company DoorDash is introducing new features for riders including reduced notifications, a request for customers to not text them while they ...

IBM acquires GraphQL startup StepZen to step up its game in API management

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

GraphQL, developed internally at Facebook to help developers with API management before getting rolled out as an open-source query language in 2015, h...

Russian ‘WhisperGate’ hackers are using new data-stealing malware to target Ukraine

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Security researchers say they have recently observed a Russian hacking crew, who were behind the destructive WhisperGate malware cyberattacks, targeti...

Zenly co-founder returns with new social app company, Amo

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, Snap shut down Zenly, a popular social mapping app it acquired for over $200 million in 2017, despite the fact that Zenly still had 40 mill...

WhatsApp lets users put voice notes as status updates

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

WhatsApp Status, the feature that was introduced in 2017 as the company’s take on Snapchat Stories, has received a number of updates to make it more...

More job cuts loom as Sendy changes course in Nigeria

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In October last year, Sendy, a Kenyan logistics scale-up, wound up its supplies service, which enabled retailers to purchase FMCGs directly from manuf...

Simple HealthKit is taking on health equity with at-home diagnostics, treatment

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Simple HealthKit provides at-home and in-clinic diagnostics, performs its own testing and telehealth services and works with pharmacy partners for tre...

Hackers exploiting two-year-old VMware flaw to launch large-scale ransomware campaign

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cyber-criminals are actively exploiting a two-year-old VMware vulnerability as part of a ransomware campaign targeting thousands of organizations worl...

Apple says it now has 935 million paid subscriptions

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple had a rare quarter where it missed its revenue target due to problems in the supply chain and manufacturing. Learn more about your ad choices. V...

As the bee population declines, this startup secures $8M to apply AI and EVs to pollination

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Given our general reliance on something called “food” you’d think the issue of pollination – and its general decline – might be higher up th...

Twitter to end free access to its API

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter will discontinue offering free access to the Twitter API starting February 9 and will make a paid version available, the Elon Musk-owned micro...

Snapchat now has more than 2 million paid subscribers

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Snapchat has more than 2 million paid subscribers on its Snapchat+ program, the company said during its latest earnings report. Learn more about your ...

Twitter discontinues CoTweets, says will debut text attachments next week

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter announced Tuesday that it is discontinuing CoTweeting, a feature that let two users co-author a tweet. The company said that the feature will ...

Identity management platform Saviynt secures $205M in debt, appoints new CEO

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Showing that there’s real investor enthusiasm for identity management platforms, Saviynt, which enables companies to secure apps, data and infrastru...

Groupon cuts another 500 employees in the second round of layoffs

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Groupon has laid off another 500 employees in a measure to cut costs, the company said in an SEC filing last week. Learn more about your ad choices. V...

Eazy Digital helps Southeast Asia’s small insurers digitize their operations

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Founded by two insurance industry veterans, Eazy Digital wants to give small insurance companies in Southeast Asia the same advantage as their larger ...

NASA’s ‘Mega Moon Rocket’ aced first flight and is ready for crewed Artemis II launch

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The enormous Space Launch System passed its first test with flying colors, NASA’s preliminary analysis concludes, and the rocket and Orion capsule a...

Hands on with Walmart’s new (but buggy) ‘Text to Shop’ feature

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Walmart recently introduced a new way to shop: via text. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chrome for Android now lets you lock your incognito session

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chrome is rolling out an update for Android users that lets them lock their incognito sessions with a password code or biometric info when they exit t...

Hawk AI, an anti-money laundering and fraud prevention platform for banks, raises $17M

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hawk AI, a German company developing anti-money laundering (AML) and tangential fraud prevention smarts for financial institutions, has raised $17 mil...