Amazon’s expansion into private label fashion continues with the launch of a handful of new sportswear brands, reports Bloomberg, citing data from L2 researchers. The additions, which include brands called Goodsport, Rebel Canyon, and Peak Velocity, will allow Amazon to challenge some of the biggest names in activewear, including Nike, Lululemon, Under Armour, and others. In addition,… Read More
When a company is looking for a candidate for an open role, the hiring manager is probably going to rattle off a bunch of qualifications that they’re looking for to a recruiter — and Kanjun Qiu says recruiters will probably just run with that when the manager’s requirements might not actually be so rigid. It’s that intent from the manager — the idea that the… Read More
Ride-sharing provider Lyft is going bicoastal with its first ever permanent office in New York, which will house not only sales and marketing, but also engineering staff – including those working on autonomous vehicle tech, as well as Lyft’s marketplace product and its infrastructure efforts. The NYC office is located in Chelsea, and can play host to over 80 employees across… Read More
Airbnb continues to be an ecosystem in its own right, with a number of startups building a business by making the lives of hosts easier and potentially more lucrative. One such company is London-based Hostmaker, an upmarket Airbnb management service, which today is announcing $15 million in Series B funding. Read More
A quick update on the James Comey Twitter situation: The former FBI Director yesterday switched his Twitter handle over to his name. He now owns the @Comey Twitter handle, which is verified. Comey confirmed the new handle, saying he’s glad to be a part of the Twitterverse: Here’s my new handle. Glad to be part of the Twitterverse. Grateful to Reinhold for the cover these last… Read More
Tencent’s China Literature, an Amazon-like e-book business, is continuing the trend of Asian tech IPOs after it announced its public listing in Hong Kong will raise $1.06 billion on Wednesday. The company set the price for its 151,371,800 share offering at HK$55, the top end of its range, and it could sell an additional 22.7 million through a greenshoe option with underwriters. The… Read More
In his 2015 State of the Union, President Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative — a massive research project designed to gain more insight into how we live with and treat various diseases. Last year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) changed the initiative’s name to the warmer, fuzzier, All of Us, and opened enrollment in hopes of achieving its goal of gaining… Read More
Any day now, the Department of Justice will announce whether the AT&T-Time Warner mega-merger will be permitted. And anyone with a cell phone, a cable subscription, or an internet connection has a huge stake in this decision. Read More
Tesla is moving to turn around its output challenges with the Model 3, with a new acquisition reported by Bloomberg of a supplier whose focus is on automating production. The automaker acquired Perbix, a supplier it’s been working with for the past few years, with the deal coming to light just after Tesla addressed its production difficulties with the Model 3 on its most recent… Read More
Intuit, the company behind products like QuickBooks and TurboTax, is getting into the small business lending space. With QuickBooks Capital, QuickBooks users can now get access to small business loans up to about $35,000 for up to six months right from inside their bookkeeping software. It’s worth stressing that Intuit is lending its own money here. This is not some kind of referral… Read More
As malicious groups continue to become more sophisticated in their hacking techniques, cybersecurity efforts are attempting to expand in their reach, and that is leading to some consolidation in the field. Today, cybersecurity firm Proofpoint — which provides SaaS products to protect businesses’ email, social media and other services — announced that it would pay $100 million… Read More
The billionaire-backed corporation, which has raised over $1.7 billion from Virgin Group, SoftBank, Coca Cola, Bharti Group, Qualcomm and Airbus; just announced an exclusive $190 million contract with Echostar subsidiary Hughes Network Systems to provide some of the terrestrial infrastructure necessary to distribute its internet services. Read More
Shape Security is a company you may never heard of, yet it’s been around for five years and its founders include former Googlers and DoD officials. Their products provide the primary line of defense for applications at some of the top companies the world and they’ve raised $106 M. Today, the company released Blackfish, a product that could help blunt the impact of stolen… Read More
TechCrunch Disrupt is coming to Arena Berlin on 4-5 December, and and we’re looking for rockstar startups to be a part of Startup Alley. If you’ve never been to a Disrupt before, Startup Alley is where hundreds of early-stage companies (who have raised less than $2.5m and are less than 2 years old) showcase their talent and technology to attendees, investors and members of the… Read More
We’re approaching one year since Amazon expanded its Prime video service to over 200 countries internationally, and today the company is doubling down on that global audience with the introduction of a ‘Basic Edition’ of its popular Fire TV Stick that ships to over 100 countries. The company unveiled a much-improved third-generation version of the product in September, adding… Read More
Tencent is making progress on its own autonomous driving system, according to Bloomberg. The report says that Tencent, one of China’s largest tech firms and the maker of WeChat, already has a prototype and is testing the system internally. Read More
French carmaker Renault has developed technology that enables self-driving cars to avoid obstacles in emergency situations at up to the same speeds as professional test drivers. TechCrunch had the chance to see it in action a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty impressive. During the demo, I tried to avoid the obstacles at just 23 mph and ended up driving over a cone. Meanwhile, the car… Read More
Sherpa Capital co-founder Shervin Pishevar has filed a lawsuit against Definers Public Affairs, a Republican opposition research firm that he believes is being paid to spread rumors about him.
The Uber investor and Hyperloop One co-founder is accusing former Mitt Romney presidential campaign manager Matthew Rhoades and his business partner, Joseph Pounder, of aiming to convince reporters of… Read More
One of Southeast Asia’s lesser-known startups has come out from under the radar today after ShopBack, a cash back-focused e-commerce service, announced it has raised $25 million. Founded in 2014, the Singapore-based startup helps users shop ‘smarter’ using a selection of curated deals and cash back offers through partner merchants across six countries in Southeast Asia… Read More
Mojiworks, the U.K. startup building games for messaging apps, has raised £2.1 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Balderton Capital, with participation from previous backers Lifeline Ventures and Sunstone Capital, and will be used by the company to increase headcount as it double-downs on developing multiple titles for Facebook Messenger. Read More
