Huge companies in fast-changing, technology-intensive businesses buy startups. After all, they have the money and need fresh entrepreneurial talent to tap new markets and stay abreast of disruption. That’s the collective wisdom about M&A in venture capital and startup circles. It’s also how the venture business survives. But what if the common wisdom isn’t true? Read More
The Rose City isn’t happy with Uber… again. After the company failed to turn over details on its deeply sketchy “Greyball” software by Portland’s deadline, the city may seek to compel Uber to hand it over with a subpoena. Those intentions, reported by the Oregonian, were articulated by Portland Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the city’s Bureau… Read More
Yik Yak cofounders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington published a farewell note to users on Friday, announcing they would shut down their once-popular anonymous social network this week. The app allowed people to connect with other users within a certain radius, and was widely marketed in and used on college campuses. According to an SEC filing issued on April 16th, Square, has agreed to… Read More
VR theaters and arcades like Virtualities are starting to pop up in warehouses and other empty spaces around the U.S., including Burningham’s startup, located in what used to be a Hot Topic on the second floor of the Gateway Mall on Salt Lake City’s west side. The mall was built specifically to show off the fine dining and retail offerings of Utah as the world came to visit during… Read More
Deep Sentinel, a home security startup, today announced that it had closed a $7.4 million Series A led by Shasta Ventures with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Lux Capital and UP2398. Founded by serial entrepreneur David Selinger, Deep Sentinel is betting that its emphasis on user experience can provide needed differentiation in the crowded space. Over tea in the… Read More
Plug and Play is launching a new accelerator based in Paris. This time, the company is partnering with French bank BNP Paribas and focusing on fintech startups. The first batch of startups has just been picked. Plug and Play has launched multiple accelerators with a different business model than most accelerators. Instead of taking some equity in exchange of what you get from the… Read More
Rollout.io, a company that had developed technology that allowed mobile app developers to update their apps without having to go through the App Store approval process, is now entering a new business after Apple cracked down on apps using its software. Today, the former TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield finalist has transitioned to a new product that allows developers to selectively roll out… Read More
Welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the narrative. Homebrew’s own Hunter Walk joined us for this episode along with co-hosts Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and myself. This week has been a delightful clown car of technology earnings, so we dove into Twitter’s surprisingly strong report that drove its share… Read More
At Disrupt NY in May, we’re launching the Founder Spotlight, where startup founders will be able to tell the human story behind their company. We’ve already revealed a handful of those companies, and today we’re excited to tell you about the rest of them. Bowery Farming Bowery Farming is a startup looking to change the way we grow food. With the global population growing,… Read More
An early player in drone-tech, 3D Robotics Inc., announced that it has raised $53 million in a Series D round of funding on Thursday, including new equity funding and conversion of debt equity. Atlantic Bridge led the round joined by Autodesk Forge Fund, True Ventures, Foundry Group, Mayfield and other undisclosed investors, according to the company statement. The company didn’t break… Read More
OpenGov, a Redwood City, Ca., company whose software helps local governments keep transparent financial records, has been picking up speed in a variety of ways, and cofounder and CEO Zac Bookman traces some of that momentum to the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president. “We had the best Q1 in company history. It’s typically a quiet quarter, and we blew the top off”… Read More
Luxe started as a company that promised to make parking in busy cities less awful with an app that summoned blue-jacketed, scooter-carrying valets to your location to whisk away your car until you needed it back. It seems they’re pivoting away from that initial vision. Read More
Naming companies is a daunting task, as anyone who does it for a living can attest. “It’s difficult to criticize a name,” says S.B. Master, a Berkeley, Ca.-based founder who has launched two naming companies in her career. “From choosing a name, to getting a team to agree to it, to clearing that name from a trademark and URL and social media standpoint — it’s… Read More
Aol founder and noted venture capitalist Steve Case is coming to Disrupt NY this May and there’s plenty to talk about. Since leaving AOL in 2005, Case has invested in startups in smaller markets and the last few years he’s traveled the country, exploring and highlighting budding startup scenes outside of Silicon Valley. There are challenges and barriers to overcome in these markets.… Read More
Ozobot, a golf-ball sized toy robot that helps kids learn to code, will be available in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man characters as of this summer. Evollve Inc., which makes the Ozobot, has previously offered character skins from Disney’s Marvel Avengers, including Iron Man and Captain America. The startup’s CEO Nader Hamda said: “We want to inspire kids… Read More
Some big names are making an investment in food stamps — specifically in Propel, a startup that helps food stamp recipients manage their benefits. Propel is announcing that it has raised $4 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Omidyar Network, Kevin Durant’s The Durant Company and Max Levchin’s SciFi VC, as well as previous investors Jay Borenstein, WinWin and… Read More
TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics is a couple of months away, and the agenda is filling up. Our one-day event in cooperation with MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) takes place on July 17, and today we’re thrilled to highlight just some of the excitement taking place on stage, in workshops and in exhibits. Tickets are now available for purchase. Read More
Everfi Inc. has raised $190 million in Series D funding to teach students online the life skills and touchy subject matter that they never learned in school. A sampling of courses offered by Everfi range from “Harassment Prevention Training” for the workforce, to “Alcohol EDU” for college students and “Vault Understanding Money” for fourth-, fifth- and… Read More
Today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai released the broad strokes of his plan to abandon consumer protections to the benefit of large corporate players in the telecommunications industry. While major telecom companies are looking forward to Pai’s FCC makeover, the same can’t be said for everyone else in tech. After Pai’s announcement, a group of more than 800 names in tech sent Pai… Read More
Today’s Stories Instagram’s growth speeds up as it hits 700 million users Twitter desperately needed a hit first-quarter and somehow managed to deliver Amazon’s new Echo Look has a built-in camera for style selfies Uber is making it easier to see your rider rating Investor Chris Sacca is retiring from venture capital Credits Written and Hosted by: Anthony Ha Filmed… Read More
We’re healthy enough to IPO but we’re not going to just yet — that was the subtext of an interview that Dropbox CEO Drew Houston had on Bloomberg earlier this afternoon. Houston asserted, for the first time, Dropbox is profitable on an EBITDA basis. EBITDA or Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization is a financial metric typically used to compare businesses. Read More
When Nvidia makes investments in AI startup, it’s probably a good idea to sit up and take note: The GPU maker has essentially enabled modern AI in many ways, and so it’s probably seen the gamut of potential applications of its technology over the years, and should know better than most what’s likely to work out and what isn’t. Six new companies have garnered not only… Read More
Genetic engineering startup Synthego makes synthetic ribonucleic acid (RNA), an important genetic component found in all living cells and also used in CRISPR Cas9, a technology enabling scientists to rip out unwanted genetic code with scissor-like precision. The company was founded four years ago by brothers Paul and Michael Dabrowski. The two left SpaceX where they both worked as rocket… Read More
As industries go, agriculture represents one of the worst environmental offenders, according to research by the United Nations Environment Programme. Farms need tending around the clock. So besides all the fertilizers, pesticides and water they use, farms also burn a lot of fossil fuels and money to keep the lights on, tractors rolling and refrigerators humming. Now one major agricultural… Read More
Huddly, a Norway-based startup that sells a camera targeting remote company meetings (or huddles) and is building out what it describes as a “computer-vision” platform to help managers glean better data from those meetings, has raised $10 million in Series B funding. It brings total raised to $20 million, not including a $3 million research grant. Read More
Zero-fee stock trading app Robinhood has joined the unicorn club thanks to reaching 2 million users and 17% month-over-month growth of its revenue-driving Robinhood Gold subscription product. The startup confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s raised a $110 million Series C at a $1.3 billion valuation led by DST Global, with participation by existing investors NEA, Index Ventures and Ribbit… Read More
