TechCrunch Industry News

Blockchain bridge Wormhole confirms that exploiter stole $320 million worth of crypto assets

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Wormhole, a popular cryptocurrency platform that offers bridges between multiple blockchains, announced on Twitter that it noticed an exploit. Learn m...

Travel booking app Hopper upgrades its valuation to $5B on secondary sale

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hopper, the mobile travel booking startup and app that lets users book flights, hotels, cars, and — most recently — short-term home rentals a la A...

SpaceX reveals $500 monthly ‘Premium’ Starlink service with speeds up to 500 Mbps

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

SpaceX has a new tier for its Starlink satellite internet service with higher performance but pricing that might make your eyes water, called Starlink...

GM’s Chevy Silverado EV already has 110,000 reservations

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

General Motors said it has secured more than 110,000 reservations for its new all-electric Chevrolet Silverado, which includes reservations from more ...

Tesla recalls Full Self Driving feature that lets cars roll through stop signs

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tesla is issuing an over-the-air update to recall a "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) beta feature that allowed cars to roll through stop signs, which appeare...

Superpedestrian gets $125M to expand tech that corrects unsafe scooter riding

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Shared e-scooter company Superpedestrian is gearing up to deploy its Pedestrian Defense safety system at scale, a feature that allows the company’s ...

AllSpice thinks hardware developers lack their own ‘GitHub,’ so it is building one

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The idea behind the company was to get engineers back to spending the majority of their time designing and building hardware products. Learn more abou...

Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young, pulls her music from Spotify over vaccine misinformation

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Spotify’s Joe Rogan headache is about to get a lot worse. Earlier this week, musician Neil Young announced that he would pull his music from the str...

Google will let legacy G Suite users migrate to free Google accounts

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this month, Google announced that it would kill free Google Workspace accounts that were using the G Suite legacy free edition. As spotted by ...

Amazon must pay $2M and end program after price-fixing investigation by Washington AG

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon must pay $2.25 million and permanently shut down a previously suspended sales program, following an investigation and lawsuit by the Attorney G...

Compound aims to be a one-stop-shop for tech employees to manage their finances

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jordan Gonen and Jacob Schein had both worked in the tech industry for a few years when they realized they lacked a clear understanding of their own f...

Apple will reportedly allow iPhones to accept contactless payments

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Small businesses might soon be able to accept payments using their iPhones without extra hardware. Apple could start rolling out the feature through a...

Paack pulls in a $225M Series D led by SoftBank to scale its E-commerce delivery platform

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

By now, many of us are familiar with the warehouse robots which populate those vast spaces occupied by the likes of Amazon and others. In particular, ...

FTC fines online shop $4M for hiding reviews below 4 stars

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We all know online reviews must be taken with a grain of salt, but generally you’d like to think that a product with a 4.5-star average is better th...

Twitter’s experimental ‘Flock’ feature will let you share tweets with your closest friends

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter is still working on a feature that will give you a way to blast tweets that can only be seen by the friends you choose first revealed in July ...

Starship Technologies picks up €50M from the EU’s investment arm to expand its fleet of autonomous delivery robots

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Starship Technologies, one of the bigger names in the world of autonomous delivery robots — those little caboose-like, boxy delivery vehicles that s...

Ola Electric valued at $5 billion in new funding

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ola Electric said on Monday it has raised $200 million in a new financing round even as the Indian ride-hailing giant’s spin off struggles to delive...

FarmRaise aims to become a financial services giant, starting with farm grants

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You have to start somewhere. So when Jayce Hafner and Sami Tellatin bonded as Stanford MBA classmates over their shared belief that making U.S. farms ...

Peloton CEO acknowledges corrective actions, denies ‘halting all production’ of bikes and treadmills

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of the company’s upcoming earnings, Peloton CEO John Foley took a break from a “quiet period” to address a number of reports related to po...

Netflix had its lowest year of subscriber growth since 2015

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Despite producing global hits like “Squid Game” in 2021, Netflix’s fourth quarter returns show the streaming giant struggling to maintain a lead...

Clench your jaw to skip a track: That’s the magic of Wisear

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

By adding some electrodes and some electronics to your earbuds, Wisear can make your music experience a lot more hands-free than before. Learn more ab...

French robotic exoskeleton maker Wandercraft eyes US expansion courtesy of a $45M Series C

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Wandercraft was founded in 2012, with the vision of improving mobility of wheelchair users. The company’s solution comes by way of exoskeletons, whi...

Wrangle secures $2M to automate company workflows

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The company’s no-code software can automate any kind of process: employee onboarding, contract approvals, help tickets or any other recurring work. ...

Harness releases open version of continuous delivery product with access to source code

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Harness, a startup from AppDynamics founder Jyoti Bansal, has been building a platform of developer tools over the last five years. In 2020, the compa...

Castiron serves up a $6M seed round to support ‘food artisans’

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic hasn’t been easy for anyone, but the food service industry has been hit particularly hard. More than 90,000 restaurants and bars have c...

Wayve raises $200M Series B led by Eclipse for its AI for autonomous delivery vehicles

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

British autonomous vehicle startup Wayve has raised a $200 million Series B funding round from investors to scale its technology and expand its partne...

Animoca, Galaxy Interactive and Polygon back gaming firm nCore in web3 push

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

nCore Games has raised $10 million in a new financing round as the top Indian gaming firm gears up to launch web3 offerings, its top executives said M...

InFlow, a science-based app for ADHD, raises $2.3M Seed led by Hoxton Ventures

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms can include anxiety, chronic boredom, impulsiveness, trouble concentrating, controlling anger...

EVage raises $28M to be a driving force in India’s commercial EV revolution

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A congruence of factors in India — notably, climate change policies, fuel costs and skyrocketing demand for e-commerce — has set up ideal conditio...

Google’s loss to Sonos settles it: Big Tech has an IP piracy problem

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Simply put, Big Tech benefits from stealing IP. The legal costs and potential damages, if ever issued after years of litigation, are paltry by compari...

Swell takes in $20M to develop more adaptable headless commerce infrastructure

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Starting an e-commerce business is large marketplaces can be an easy process, but what the team at Swell began to notice was that the model could only...

Seel secures $17M round to infuse AI in customer product returns

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Merchants can add “return assurance” to an order, if it is returned in the next 30 days, Seel, instead of the merchant, will pay for the refund. L...

Newcomer aggregator Ecommerce Brands snags $40M in equity, debt to deploy eCaaS model

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ecommerce Brands aims to differentiate itself from the crowded aggregator space by being the technology force for DTC brands to scale while operators ...

BigPanda gets its horn after securing $190M in fresh capital

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The company’s technology transforms huge volumes of IT data into actionable insight and automates incident management so IT operations teams can be ...

Roku adds a new ‘Live TV Zone’ to its homescreen

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roku is furthering its investment in its Live TV platform with today’s introduction of a new “Live TV Zone” that will roll out to the main, left...

GoStudent Raises $340M Series D funding round as it pushes into international markets

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Fresh from raising a $244 million Series C (that valued the company then $1.7 billion) back in June, K12 online tutoring marketplace GoStudent has now...

GM finally agrees California can set vehicle emissions rules as it preps to scale EVs

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In what appears to be a politically and economically savvy move by General Motors, the automaker said Sunday it recognized California’s authority un...

Ankorstore reaches $2 billion valuation two years after launching its wholesale marketplace

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

French startup Ankorstore has raised a $283 million Series C funding round (€250 million). Founded in November 2019, it took Ankorstore around two y...

Apple Fitness+ introduces new ‘Collections’ feature and ‘Time to Run’ series

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Apple Fitness+ is introducing a new “Collections” feature along with a new “Time to Run” series starting on January 10th. Collections are a cu...

At CES 2022, metaverses metaversed the metaverse

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the lead up to CES, I wrote a piece reflecting on top tech of CES 2012. It was an interesting exercise for a number of reasons — not the least of...

Mosqitter’s machine murders mosquitos with much mirth

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After ridiculing one mosquito-fighting product, I figured it’d be only right to highlight another piece of buzz-reducing tech that was showing off i...

Canada’s Assent Compliance lands $350M from Vista Equity for supply chain data management

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Never before has the importance of a smooth-flowing supply chain been as clear as it has been in the COVID-19 pandemic era. For manufacturers in parti...

BMW wants to turn your car into a rolling cinema

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After fitting some of its cars with comfy lounge chairs at CES 2020, BMW today unveiled the next step in its in-car entertainment story. Learn more ab...

Stellantis to transform Chrysler into an all-electric brand by 2028

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chrysler, the 96-year-old brand owned by Stellantis that is best known today for its minivans, will become an all-electric brand by 2028. Learn more a...

Labrador set to deliver a robotic helping hand to homes in 2023

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Back at CES 2020, Labrador Systems co-founder/CEO Mike Dooley told me, “I think there are fewer fake robots [at the show] this year.” Learn more a...

Liquid Death lands $75 million more in funding, including to roll out flavored water

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Liquid Death, a water brand that began life in 2018 with a funny video to first test the concept, has grown deadly serious about its growth prospects....

Samsung’s 2022 Smart TVs to support cloud gaming, video chat and even NFTs

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of the official start of CES, Samsung today revealed its vision for its next generation of smart TVs that will include everything from cloud-bas...

Twitter bans Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s personal account over COVID-19 misinformation

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) “for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation...

Let’s talk CES 2022 trends

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I spent a chunk of yesterday morning rediscovering the big trends of CES 2012. It’s a strange experience, examining so much technology that feels —...

Apple puts Foxconn India plant on probation after protests over food and accommodation conditions

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Apple has put the southern India factory of Foxconn on probation following protests from workers over subpar food and accommodation conditions, a conc...

The best tech of CES 2012

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Consumer electronics are a bad metric for gauging the passage of time. And, frankly, Consumer Electronics Shows are considerably worse. Learn more abo...

Fiverr rolls out new Pinterest-like personalized discovery feature

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Freelance marketplace Fiverr is rolling out an interactive Pinterest-like mobile experience aimed at enabling users to engage with a constantly update...

Waymo partners with Geely to make electric AVs for ride hail in the US

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving technology arm, is partnering with Chinese automaker Geely to build an all-electric, self-driving ride-hailing ...

Europe’s antitrust policy shouldn’t ignore China

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The TechCrunch Global Affairs Project examines the increasingly intertwined relationship between the tech sector and global politics. Learn more about...

More companies bow out of in-person CES presence

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The last few days have been fairly quiet, so far as CES is concerned — no doubt owing to the holiday. The last major dropout came from Microsoft, wh...

Movano targets an H2 2022 launch for its fitness ring

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

My first in-person experience with a fitness ring was back at CES 2017. Four years later, one wonders if they might be having a moment at next week’...

Naren Gupta, co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners, passes away

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Naren Gupta, a venture capitalist who co-founded Nexus Venture Partners to help cement Indian SaaS startups’ position to the world, died on Saturday...

TikTok moderator sues over mental trauma caused by graphic videos

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a proposed class-action lawsuit, TikTok moderator Candie Frazier said that she has screened videos showing violence, school shootings, fatal falls ...

Despite scrapped IPO, Babbel sees fast growth for its language learning service

24 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Berlin-based language learning service Babbel was supposed to IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange in late September. Learn more about your ad choices....

FDA authorizes Pfizer’s Covid antiviral pill for people 12 and older

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The FDA has issued an emergency authorization for Pfizer's antiviral pill, making it the first oral method for treating mild to moderate cases of COVI...

Dealroom raises €6M Series A for its startup data, market intelligence service

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

European startup and venture capital data company Dealroom has raised a €6 million Series A, it told TechCrunch. The company’s new capital comes n...

Via files confidentially to go public

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On-demand shuttle service and software company Via has confidentially filed to go public, the company said in a statement. Learn more about your ad ch...

The long haul of Microsoft’s China localization

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, when LinkedIn began asking for Chinese users’ phone numbers, it was clear that the professional social network would have to follow a diffe...

AI chip maker Kneron raises $25M for autonomous driving push

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

AI chips, which are semiconductors designed to accelerate machine learning, have many applications. One of the promising use cases, according to Alber...

Line to launch NFT service LineNext next year

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Japan-based messaging app Line Corporation, which is wholly owned by Z Holdings, will launch NFT service next year via its new organization LineNext t...

Security flaws found in a popular guest Wi-Fi system used in hundreds of hotels

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A security researcher says an internet gateway, used by hundreds of hotels to offer and manage their guest Wi-Fi networks, has vulnerabilities that co...

Fuzey takes in $4.5M to charge up its management tools for service-based businesses

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The company's tools digitize for small businesses what was traditionally done manually and on paper, like invoices. Learn more about your ad choices. ...

Spotify acquires podcast tech company Whooshkaa which turns radio broadcasts into on-demand audio

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Spotify is continuing its investments in podcasts with today’s news that’s it’s acquired another podcast technology company, Whooshkaa, an Austr...

Silverflow nabs $17M for its updated, cloud-based take on payments processing technology

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to online payments, the front end of the system has seen a massive amount of disruption in the last several years, with companies like S...

Amazon to lower its cut of Alexa skill developer revenue starting in 2022

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amazon is joining other tech giants by lowering its cut of developer revenue generated by voice apps, known as Alexa skills, which run on Amazon’s s...

Papaya raises $50M to give you a way to pay bills via its mobile app

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Paying bills is hardly a fun thing. So I think it’s safe to say that any technology that can make the process easier is welcome by all. Learn more a...

Six more women sue Tesla over workplace sexual harassment

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of Jessica Barraza’s lawsuit last month, six more current and former female employees have come forward to accuse Tesla of fostering ...

Mesh Payments racks up $50M to help corporate users manage spend and payments

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Now that the world appears to have settled longer-term into working in a significantly more distributed way in the wake of Covid-19, companies are get...

The race is on to patch Log4Shell, the bug that’s breaking the internet

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Security teams around the globe are scrambling to fix Log4Shell, a critical security flaw in Log4j, an open source logging software that’s found pra...

Mozilla expects to generate more than $500M in revenue this year

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Mozilla Foundation today released its financial report for 2020. As usual, this gives us a good picture of the organization’s financial health f...

Volvo had some R&D data stolen in security breach

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Volvo Cars is investigating a cybersecurity breach and theft of a limited amount of the company’s research and development data. The data breach was...

Coinbase Ventures backs cross-chain infra Router Protocol

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A startup that has built a decentralized exchange as well as a cross-chain infrastructure to facilitate communication across layer 1 and layer 2 block...

Meta’s Horizon Worlds is available in the US and Canada for 18+ users

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The company formerly known as Facebook is taking a step toward its goal to transport us to the metaverse. Now, Horizon Worlds — the Second Life or M...

Collective helps freelancers work together as a team

09 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Meet Collective, a French startup that wants to redefine what it means to work as a freelancer in development, product design, digital marketing, data...

Chainguard lands $5M to help companies secure their software supply chains

09 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

By late last year, the alarm bells were just starting to ring. Researchers discovered that Russian spies had months earlier burrowed deep into the net...

Arch nabs $5.5M to aggregate private market data for investors

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

More capital has been raised in the private markets than the public markets for over a decade, and this staggering growth has shown no signs of slowin...

Netflix’s gaming service adds three more titles globally on iOS and Android

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, Netflix’s new gaming service became globally available across both iOS and Android with a debut lineup that included two “Strang...

Chinese Amazon aggregator Nebula Brands raises $50M led by L Catterton

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

2021 has been a rosy year for China-based Amazon vendors looking for exits. Roll-ups, or brand aggregators, have been flooding China’s export-orient...

Toyota will build its first US battery plant in North Carolina

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Toyota Motor will build its first battery factory in the U.S. in North Carolina, the company and state officials confirmed Monday, as more automakers ...

VCs eye investment in Polygon

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A number of investors including Sequoia Capital India and Steadview Capital are in talks to back Polygon, which operates a framework for buildin...

New Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal begins restructuring as two execs step down

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this week, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his role. He appointed CTO Parag Agrawal as new CEO, effective immediately...

Porsche invests in German startup aiming to be a one-stop shop for carbon neutral homes

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Porsche’s venture arm has taken a minority stake in 1Komma5, a five-month-old German startup aiming to offer households everything needed for a carb...

GM delays production of new Chevy Bolt EVs until end of January

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

General Motors will continue to delay production of new Chevrolet Bolt EVs at the company’s Orion assembly plant in Michigan “through the week of ...

Bounce’s first electric scooter features swappable battery, costs less than $500

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bangalore-based Bounce on Thursday priced its first electric scooter at as low as 36,000 Indian rupees ($480), considerably undercutting the heavily-b...

Attack surface management startup CyCognito raises $100M Series C on $800M valuation

02 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As companies look for ways to prevent cyber attacks, one strategy is to be proactive and find vulnerabilities that could lead to a breach in an approa...

Fresh from a $10M round, Plan A launches SaaS tool for ESG reporting aimed at startups/VCs

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With key ESG reporting regulations such as the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) covering more than 75 percent of E...

Irish eSports giant’s new startup bets big on rugby in bid for US market share

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A fantasy sports exchange founded by Irish betting veteran Paddy Power is bringing NFT-enabled live trading to rugby fans in a bid to expand globally....

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will talk Section 230 reform with Congress this week

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will go before Congress again this week, this time offering her unique perspective on the company’s moderation...

Thought Machine closes $200M for its cloud native banking SaaS and becomes a unicorn

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Thought Machine, a 2014 (Xoogler) founded startup that sells cloud-based b2b banking services, has closed a $200 million Series C round and announced ...

Paris asks scooter sharing services to restrict speed to 10km/h

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Riding a scooter in Paris will soon feel incredibly… slow. The City of Paris has announced that scooter sharing services should restrict the maximum...

Perfeggt brings in first capital to shell out plant-based egg alternative

26 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Worldwide, over 1.3 trillion eggs are produced annually, and Perfeggt co-founders believe this market is largely untapped and has room to grow with pl...

On legal demands and press freedoms

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In August 2020, two FBI agents were standing on my doorstep, unannounced, wanting to ask me questions about a TechCrunch story we had published the ye...

India’s Blume Ventures raises $105 million in the first close of its fourth fund

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Blume Ventures said on Wednesday it has raised $105 million in the first close of its fourth fund, less than two years after finalizing its previous f...

Polestar is bringing its electric Precept sedan to market in 2024 with a new name

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Polestar Precept sedan — the concept vehicle turned production project — has a new name and an official launch date. Learn more about your ad ...

Roku customers report streaming issues after 10.5 update

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A number of Roku customers are experiencing problems with their Roku TVs following the Roku OS 10.5 update. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...