TechCrunch is getting ready to celebrate some of the most compelling startups and innovations of 2016 at the 10th Annual Crunchies Awards. Will you be joining us? The Crunchies are just one short week away, and if you want to party in style for the cheapest possible price at the event best described as the Oscars of Tech, the time to act is now. Today is the last day to save 10 percent on… Read More
The American Civil Liberties Union will learn how to turn the $24 million it raised over the weekend into growth and progress with help from top Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator. The ACLU will be part of the winter batch of companies in YC, where it will receive mentorship, a network of powerful connections in tech, and a chance to present itself to investors on Demo Day. Y… Read More
Zenefits today said it would be introducing new pricing tiers in an effort to simplify them, as well as add new tools for HR managers to ensure that employees are getting their documents in and they are compliant with regulations. The new tools — and pricing — are another way that Zenefits is trying to differentiate itself as an all-in-one platform for managing employee records… Read More
Qvivr, a Silicon Valley-based FinTech startup originally known for building the SWYP programmable credit card, has raised $5M in Series A funding. The funding was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from a large multinational Asian bank. The startup was founded in 2014 and originally launched with a pre-order campaign for a hardware product that would let users program all of their… Read More
Juniper Square is a new web-based service for commercial real estate investment managers and the individual investors they work with. The service, which the company worked on for the last two years and trialed with major firms like Beacon Capital, The Reliant Group, and Cortland Partners, is now generally available. The idea behind Juniper Square is to give the investment managers an easier,… Read More
To be great at poker you gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to core dump. That’s only part of the technique a new AI system created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon used to beat four of the “world’s best professional poker players” – Dong Kim, Jimmy Chou, Daniel McAulay and Jason Les. The AI played the… Read More
We’ve kicked off 2017 with a surprise acquisition of what was planned to be the first big IPO of the year — Cisco snapping up AppDynamics for $3.7 billion, just days before its public listing — and what many believe will be an IPO filing for Snapchat’s parent Snap. But in contrast, it appears that 2016 represented a shift less frothy times. CB Insights has published… Read More
Radish is officially launching its mobile apps for reading bite-sized chunks of serialized fiction — and it’s announcing that it has raised $3 million in seed funding. This isn’t the first startup to experiment with new ways to deliver fiction via e-readers and mobile devices. In fact, I wrote about one of them in my very first piece for TechCrunch five years ago. But… Read More
SoundHound has been around for 10 years and, before today, had raised around $40 million in financing as its worked to build a massive conversational AI platform. But today, the company is adding an even more cash to that pile, nearly doubling the amount that it’s already raised with a $75 million round including strategic investors like NVIDIA and Samsung Catalyst Fund, among others. Read More
Seedcamp, an early backer of TransferWise, has sold part of its stake in the London-based money transfer startup, in a Secondary dealing that may well represent one of the best European seed exits in recent years that wasn’t an acquisition or IPO. Read More
It’s time to actually make the world a better place. Silicon Valley was birthed from an existential threat to the world. Nazi radar defense technology was decimating the Allied air forces. But American engineers heeded the call, and in a Harvard lab led by Stanford professor Fredrick Terman, invented radar jammers that helped win the war. Terman brought the engineering talent back to… Read More
Reactions to President Trump’s Executive Order placing a three-month ban on entry to the U.S. from seven majority Muslim countries have been rippling out across the Atlantic over the past 48 hours — with figures from the UK tech industry adding their voices to a general chorus of dismay. Read More
Good enough and convenient. That’s proved a winning strategy for Instagram’s clone, according to a dozen analytics providers, social media celebrities, and talent managers who told TechCrunch they’ve seen a decline in Snapchat Stories usage since Instagram Stories launched on August 2nd. Read More
Dropbox today released Smart Sync, its tool that allows users to access files stored online in Dropbox accounts automatically on a desktop without having the file stored locally. Previously dubbed Dropbox Infinite, Smart Sync gives businesses a way to share and access files without needing to have massive ones stored on their desktop. The idea is that businesses regularly deal with piles… Read More
Square partnered with Apple for a promotion when customers use Apple Pay. Starting today, Square merchants won’t pay any processing fee for the first $12,000 in Apple Pay transactions — that represents around $350 in fees. In addition to this promotion, sellers can also get a free marketing kit with Apple Pay stickers and training materials to tell employees how Apple Pay works. Read More
The world’s first coffee shop opened in Constantinople in 1555. But Cafe X, opening today, wants to give the world a twist on the centuries old barista model, opting instead to have a large robotic arm craft your caffeinated potions. Founder Henry Hu noticed that baristas spent a majority of their time moving cups around while making espresso drinks. So, much like anyone’s… Read More
There’s a field full of flower delivery services to choose from these days from the old school 1-800-flowers and FTD to startups popping up over the last few years like BloomThat, Farmgirl Flowers, UrbanStems and The Bouqs. That last one just raised $24 million in Series C financing, bringing the total now to $43 million. The Bouqs doesn’t quite roll off the tongue but that fresh… Read More
Tech executives are offering to match donations to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) following the enactment of an executive order banning entry to refugees and visa holders from seven countries. As multiple executives and CEOs of technology companies have come out in opposition of what’s essentially being called an immigration ban, some have chosen to do so by offering to… Read More
Health tech investments have been red hot the last few years, but Rob Coppedge, the CEO of Echo Health Ventures says while the industry isn’t going to pop, it is a slowly deflating bubble. Echo Health is the recent creation of Cambia Health and Mosaic Health, the investment arm of Blue Cross Blue Shield and has a long-term strategy in the health investment space. Coppedge has been in… Read More
If we can find a way to automate listening itself, we would be able to more intelligently monitor our world and its machines day and night. We could predict the failure of engines, rail infrastructure, oil drills and power plants in real time — notifying humans the moment of an acoustical anomaly. This has the potential to save lives, but despite advances in machine learning, we… Read More
We love to Tweet. We love to share. It appears to be a strategy for change but it isn’t. And we have to accept that. These are strange times. We are able to reach millions with a single Medium post but each day a new post supplants the last. Today’s impassioned jeremiad – like this one – is tomorrow’s digital fish wrapper. A CEO can Tweet something noble today and… Read More
Snap — the makers of Snapchat — had confidentially filed for its IPO late last year, but it looks like we’ll be getting a look at the inner guts of the company’s financials and workings as early as late next week. The company will file publicly for its initial public offering late next week, according to a new report from Kara Swisher over at Recode. This is yet… Read More
Dating app Hinge recently pivoted from swiping to “stories,” in order to help people find real relationships. That focus on authenticity, however, seems to stand in contrast to a project the company has been testing: Audrey, a personal assistant who will message your matches for you and schedule your dates. Audrey’s existence was first spotted by Business Insider, which… Read More
When Donald Trump won the election, many in Silicon Valley were flummoxed: “How could a bigoted billionaire with no government experience and a twitchy Twitter trigger finger win the U.S. presidential election?” It’s quite simple: Trump won precisely because Silicon Valley is so disconnected from the Rust Belt. Read More
UberEATS, Uber’s on-demand food delivery service, is launching a breakfast offering in London, as it continues to compete with the likes of Deliveroo and Amazon, and ‘buy and deliver anything’ services such as Jinn and Quiqup. 