Star Wars has had a strange smartphone history. The franchise was a no brainer for the Motorola Droid — Verizon actually had to license the name from Lucasfilm, so it follows that a few R2-D2 handsets followed over the years. More recently, Sharp, of all companies, scored the rights in time for Rogue One. With The Last Jedi a mere weeks away, it’s OnePlus’s time to shine, with… Read More
Consciously or not, founders’ attitudes toward money play an enormous role in how they run their startups. These attitudes shape whether to bet on a new line of business, how much to charge a customer, how to handle investor capital, even how to talk to employees about pay. Not to mention the biggest decision of all: when (or if) to sell. Read More
Code.org, the non-profit organization that aims to increase access to computer science education, has raised $12 million in philanthropic funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Infosys Foundation USA and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The announcement came as part of a Computer Science Education Week kickoff event in San Mateo. Meanwhile, eight states, 76 school districts and 102… Read More
Last month Qualcomm rejected a $70 per share acquisition offer from Broadcom — but the rival chipmaker isn’t stepping away. Today it’s announced it’s nominated a slate of eleven directors for Qualcomm’s board. Read More
Thanks to technology, making an audio recording of a meeting is a trivially easy task these days. While speech to text services can help tackle the tedium of transcription. But this just invites a slew of new problems… Read More
It took Barbara Timm-Brock one near-death experience and three career changes to bring her to the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin to launch eTrack Tech. Timm-Brock wants to make sure that equipment functions properly so that employees are safer and industrial companies can save money on one of their biggest expenses — the equipment they use. Read More
Leveraging some “mind boggling math” introduced as an update onto the Ethereum blockchain only a few months ago, QEDit is launching its product on our Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin. The company, which takes its name from the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum (which was what would have been demonstrated) relies on the principle of zero knowledge proofs to… Read More
Automakers are laying the groundwork for a future in which electric cars are omnipresent – and at least as common a sight on roadways as traditional gas-powered vehicles. Last month, a group of car OEMs including Ford, BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen Group created a new joint-venture called ‘Ionity’ to build out a charing network, starting with a series of fast-charging stations… Read More
A Mumbai-based startup called ftcash is helping small businesses in India move beyond cash. In some cases, it’s also providing loans to fund their operations. Co-founder Vaibhav Lodha, who demonstrated ftcash on-stage today at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield, said he first got the idea from his newspaper vendor, who complained that none of his customers seemed to have the cash at… Read More
For the first time, Facebook is opening up to children under age 13 with a privacy-focused app designed to neutralize child predator threats that plague youth-focused competitors like Snapchat. Rolling out today on iOS in the US, “Messenger Kids” lets parents download the app on their child’s phone or tablet, create a profile for them, and approve friends and family who they… Read More
Onefootball founder and CEO Lucas von Cranach, whose popular football app now has 25 million fans in 200 countries around the world, confirmed on stage today at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin 2017 that his company has raised more funding — including both an unreported Series B and C round. This would bring the startup’s total raise to date to over the $20 million publicly reported.… Read More
Bradley Tusk has long been known in political circles, including for managing the third campaign of former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. He went on to make his mark his in Silicon Valley by answering a call six years ago from former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who recognized he’d have regulatory battles to wage and enlisted Tusk as Uber’s first outside consultant to aid… Read More
Wandelbots has accomplished a lot for a startup that was founded officially only two weeks ago – the German company focuses on solving a key problem in robotics, using wearable technology and over two years of experience researching and designing adaptive software systems. So what does Wandelbots actually do? Its first product is a sensor-laden suit that a person can wear to… Read More
Banking giant J.P Morgan Chase is taking another step into tapping fintech startups not just for investment, but for growing its business more directly. The company has officially closed its acquisition of WePay, the payments startup that powers payments for crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe and competes with the likes of Stripe to provide payments infrastructure to any business that… Read More
Ever get stuck for that perfect gag-line on a photo of your friends? You want to turn even an ordinary photo into an internet meme, but maybe you just can’t think of that hilarious caption? Well, now you too can outsource your creative brain to the coming Artificial Intelligence overlords. Yes, indeed there is an app for that. Now Prisma — the photo-editing application that utilizes… Read More
Cars these days are basically computers with wheels, and as with other computers, you’ll probably want to make a few changes to protect against cyberthreats. Trillium, presenting today at Disrupt Berlin’s Startup Battlefield, is looking to be the security solution for in-car computer systems, adding extra encryption, intrusion detection, and other firewall-like features. Read More
Watching video playback of a game’s key moments is an important part of coaching — but according to the team at AISpotter, it can also be tedious and time-consuming. That’s why they’re working to automate the process.
AISpotter took the stage today in Berlin as part of TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield. CEO Anri Kivimäki explained that sports teams are already… Read More
Notch creators Eszter Ozsvald and Stepan Boltalin have been working on their project since 2013 and are finally ready to unveil their final product on the Disrupt Berlin stage. The company, which received funding through SOSVentures and Hax Accelerator, allows users to scan their bodies in motion, allowing for powerful analytics on golf swings, gymnastics, routines and everyday activities.… Read More
What if you could play with landmarks instead of just touring them? Nexto is turning audio guides into games to make sightseeing more interactive. Launching today as part of TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin‘s Battlefield competition, Nexto is partnering with tourist destinations to help them attract more visitors and earn more money to fund culture. “We wanted to make heritage more… Read More
The traditional pregnancy test hasn’t seen any innovation in over 30 years, with the exception of adding a digital component. Lia Diagnostics, launching today at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin, wants to change that. The Lia pregnancy test will be the first-ever flushable test to hit the market, offering a more sustainable, disposable, convenient and private way for women to find out if… Read More
