Taxi-hailing service Maramoja started as an Uber for Africa, but has since taken a different spin on it. “I came out here to start basically Uber for Africa,” Maramoja CEO Jason Eisen told me. “The idea was bring some technology to the Nairobi tech scene, which was blossoming, but nothing was happening in transportation.” Since then, Uber, with its billions of dollars… Read More
Esports are showing no sign of slowing down, as the segment continues to grow. Today, EA and FIFA announced their intentions to replicate one of the world’s greatest athletic events in the world of gaming, introducing FIFA eWorld Cup 2018. From November 2017 to July 2018, there will be a series of qualifying tournaments where players can compete for their spot in the tournament. There… Read More
Demand for the iPhone X has been “off the charts,” according to Apple, which led to the new device selling out in a matter of minutes. Well, that and the limited quantities available at launch. Because of the scarcity of the hotly anticipated device, sellers have been scalping their pre-order confirmations on eBay, hoping to cash in on consumer demand. Read More
Augmented reality money-raiser Magic Leap is still hard at work on that first product, but they’re also continuing to get some pretty notable names to back up their vision. This time they’re adding the co-founder of Lucasfilm’s ILMxLAB immersive visual effects studio: John Gaeta has joined the Florida-based AR startup as SVP of creative strategy. Read More
Thanks to the creation of ever more powerful GPUs deep machine learning and neural networks are poised to change almost every aspect of society — from the jobs we pursue and the cars we drive to the diagnosis we receive when we go to the doctor. Read More
So, we’re midway through earnings season, and as you’ve probably seen, we’ve covered a majority of the big companies that have reported thus far. There are plenty more that have reported, and there are still more to come, but these are the periods that generally have the most impact on the best public barometer of a company’s success: its stock price. Read More
ForeScout Technologies saw its shares spike 16 percent during intraday trading after going public on Friday. After pricing at the top of the range at $22 per share, the stock was hovering above $25 midday. The Internet of Things security company also increased the size of its IPO and raised about $116 million after selling 5.3 million shares. Read More
Billionaire investor Peter Thiel doesn’t like investing in trends, he’s fond of saying. It’s a mantra he repeated this week at the Future Investment Initiative, an investment forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he took the stage with journalist Maria Bartiromo. Asked about where he’s investing, he noted that he’s looking outside of Silicon Valley. Read More
In response to concerns that Russia used Facebook ads in an attempt to influence last year’s presidential election, the social network has said it will increase transparency by allowing anyone to see any ad run by any organization. Now it’s releasing a few more details about its plans, like the fact that the new transparency features are expected to go live next month. Read More
Former Apple intern Christian Selig says he wasn’t happy with the selection of iOS apps for browsing Reddit, so he decided to build his own. The developer this week launched his own Reddit client called Apollo, which offers a beautifully designed browsing experience for either iPhone or iPad, as well as customizable gestures, a media viewer and more. Read More
WhatsApp has finally got your back when you send a message to the wrong person or group. The Facebook-owned messaging app is rolling out a feature that will finally let its 1 billion-plus users delete a message for all people within a conversation. Right now, the app’s delete feature is fairly useless as it only removes a message for the person who sent it. Read More
Apple has been making gadgets for decades. And as one of the world’s favorite consumer electronics makers, the company has also made plenty of cases and sleeves to protect those gadgets, most notably for the iPhone and iPad. But Apple has never made its own laptop/MacBook sleeve, until today. While many hit up the Apple website today for the launch of iPhone X pre-orders, they may not… Read More
Any automation evangelist will tell you that the goal of industrial robotics is to replace work that’s “dull, dirty and dangerous.” As someone who’s worked a fair number of retail gigs, I can tell you that inventory falls squarely into the first category. Walmart employees likely won’t miss out on that bit as the mega-retailer begins rolling out shelf-scanning robots. Read More
Halloween is just around the corner, and while there’s a lot to be said for partying or trick-or-treating, the best way to celebrate is by watching as many horror movies as you can. On this week’s Original Content podcast, Anthony Ha and guest host Brian Heater make their recommendations for new and classic horror movies that you can catch right now on streaming services. Read More
U.S. iPhone users will spend an average of $88 per year on paid apps and in-app purchases by 2020, according to a new forecast out this week from Sensor Tower. The firm found that the dollar amount spent on apps and in-app purchases is continuing to increase, year-over-year. iPhone users spent an average of $63 this year, up 33 percent over 2016. Read More
Continuing a tradition that began with the incubation and launch of Funny or Die (alongside Sequoia Capital and Will Ferrell’s Gary Sanchez Productions), one of Hollywood’s top agencies is partnering with a group of Canadian investors to finance a new venture studio, Creative Labs, with $12.5 million. Read More
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and myself — Alex Wilhelm — took it back to our roots with a show with just us hosts. Which worked out great as we had a lot to unpack. Tech! It never stops. This time ’round we had an earnings… Read More
Move over America, India is now the world’s second largest smartphone market. That’s according to a new report from Canalys which claims smartphone shipments in India crossed the 40 million mark for the first time in Q3 2017 courtesy of 23 percent annual growth. That means that India has overtaken the U.S. on sales with only China ahead of it. Given the huge gulf in populations… Read More
The Russian government officially slammed Twitter’s decision to ban Sputnik and Russia Today from its advertising products. The Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova has posted a statement on Twitter and Facebook. Zakharova goes one step further and attacks the U.S. government directly. According to her, this has become… Read More
Singapore-based startup Carousell is in the money this week after it closed a Series C round of between $70-$80 million, two sources with knowledge of the deal told TechCrunch. Started by three graduates from the National University of Singapore in 2012, Carousell operates a mobile-first listings service for second-hand goods and services in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Prior to this… Read More
