NYX Cosmetics describes itself as a “digital-first” brand, eschewing traditional ad buys in favor of customer selfies it shares on social media. That strategy has paid off: though NYX is often described as a “cult beauty brand,” the LA-based company joined the big leagues in 2014 when it was acquired by L’Oreal for a reported $500M. Now NYX is releasing its own… Read More
Over $10 billion is wasted every year due to fraudulent e-commerce charges and that number is growing. This is not only costly and time-consuming for the businesses, but also the credit card companies and customers. But now there are several startups including Signifyd that believe they can use technology to cut down on some of this fraud before it occurs. Another is CashShield, which has… Read More
Lindy Fishburne has spent most of the last six years heading up Breakout Labs, a program that’s underwritten by Peter Thiel and that in 2011 began offering nascent science-focused startups funding with no strings attached. Little wonder that Fishburne decided it might make sense to enlist her Breakout Labs colleagues and create a more traditional venture fund that can support some of… Read More
The SEC appears to have taken very thoughtful action on two crypto projects to date. Nay-sayers are predicting the end, while proponents of crypto dismiss the actions. Here’s a quick analysis of what is actually happening. Read More
After what were likely several months of very one-sided board meetings, Hampton Creek has filled the empty seats that chief executive Josh Tetrick may have been talking to. No longer monologuing, Tetrick has added an assortment of impressive-seeming new directors to the company’s board and announced the company’s acquisition of patents related to lab grown meat. Without addressing… Read More
The promise of self-driving cars is to create a world where anyone, anywhere can summon a car and travel safely to their destination, at close to zero cost. Companies creating autonomous taxi fleets have a unique opportunity to define and lead this shift toward virtually free and ubiquitous transportation. Read More
Facebook automatically generates categories advertisers can target, such as “jogger” and “activist,” based on what it observes in users’ profiles. Usually that’s not a problem, but ProPublica found that Facebook had generated anti-Semitic categories such as “Jew Hater” and “Hitler did nothing wrong,” which could be targeted for… Read More
Geoffrey Hinton is one the most famous researchers in the field of artificial intelligence. His work helped kick off the world of deep learning we see today. So it was a bit hilarious to learn in a Reddit AMA hosted by the Google Brain Team that Hinton was briefly a Google intern in 2012. Read More
Yes, you should be able to charge your new iPhone X or iPhone 8 at Starbucks. Apple announced earlier this week that its new iPhones will include support for wireless charging through the Qi standard. But as far as charging in Starbucks is concerned, there seemed to be a catch: Starbucks’ charging pads from Powermat support a different standard, PMA. This is a solvable problem, according… Read More
The Cassini-Huygens mission launched from Cape Canaveral on October 15, 1997, and tomorrow, just a month shy of 20 years later, one of the most prolific purveyors of beautiful planetary science crashes into Saturn in a bittersweet “Grand Finale.” With its fuel nearly exhausted, this is its final and most dramatic experiment. Read More
Silicon Valley venture firm Social Capital just completed the first step in its mission to take startups public without an IPO. The team has listed something called a special purchase acquisition company, known as a SPAC. More common outside of the tech industry, these blank-check companies are specifically designed to buy private companies and bring them public without going through the… Read More
While plenty of smartphone features have been sunsetted on the way to thinner profiles and sexier bezels, none have garnered the ire of consumers quite as much as the removal of the aged and distinguished 3.5mm headphone jack.
Apple was early to axe the port, and while Andy Rubin’s Essential followed suit, a lot of consumers took issue with the move. Essential seems to be taking those… Read More
The medical school in Ponce, Puerto Rico seems like an unlikely place to start a revolution in education. While it may look unassuming, with its campus bordered by empty lots, low slung buildings, auto body shops and the freeway, Ponce Health Sciences University is ground zero for an experiment in education that could radically transform the way medicine is taught. It’s there, a few… Read More
Costanoa Ventures has raised a $175 million fund, the third fund for the Palo Alto-based venture firm. With a focus on enterprise technology, Costanoa Ventures typically invests at seed stage and Series A. The new fund brings the total capital for the five-year-old firm to $500 million under management. Read More
TechCrunch is excited to bring you IndieBio Accelerator’s Demo Day today, September 14th at 3:00pm PT. Targeting the biotech industry, the IndieBio Accelerator hosts a four-month program. This batch of 12 companies is especially global, covering the agriculture, bioremediation, regenerative medicine and food industries. Watch them demo here. Read More
We stopped by HAX’s demo day at the San Francisco Mint to check out all the hardware startups in the accelerator’s 10th batch. Many of the startups showcased creative combinations of hardware and software, particularly machine learning, to improve upon legacy services and outdated business models. HAX is known for its expertise in prototyping and manufacturing in China. The… Read More
Healthy, well-aligned teeth shouldn’t just be for the wealthy. Candid, a direct-to-consumer teeth alignment company, aims to make straight teeth more accessible and more affordable than braces and Invisalign. Read More
Kuri’s definitely the most adorable home robot, even if that’s not that hard an honor to claim given the relatively sparse competitive field. But it’s even cuter now, because it can now dance. The debut product from Mayfield Robotics shows off its moves in a brand new video from the company, dancing to a pancake robot song. If you missed it Kuri debuted at CES last year, and… Read More
BlaBlaCar is currently trying to reinvent itself. And it starts with BlaBlaLines, a new ride-sharing service for daily commutes. The company first tested out the new service around Reims and Toulouse. It is now live in the Paris area. BlaBlaCar was first all about long-distance ride sharing. If you’re driving from Paris to London, you can list your ride on BlaBlaCar and get connected… Read More
Hopper, the intelligent travel app that has made finding affordable flights a lot easier, is today rolling out a new feature called Flex Watch, which will send you recommendations about flight deals in a highly personalized manner. Today, most travel booking services only let you adjust your arrival or departure dates by a few days – for example, Kayak lets you search up to three… Read More
