On 19 July we’re hosting the TechCrunch Meetup + Pitch-Off in London, in partnership with Unbound. — and it’s going to be great! Tickets are still available, so grab yours today. You’ll get to see 10 companies pitching and fiercely competing for first place. These startups will have exactly one minute to pitch their product (with no slides) to a panel of local VC… Read More
Trainline’s European service (formerly known as Captain Train) is becoming your one-stop shop for French trains. The company has partnered with SNCF to get real-time data about trains, delays and your current location. You had to use SNCF’s official app before to get this kind of information. If you’ve used Trainline to book a ticket before, you know that the app can alert you… Read More
Just a reminder that PragueCrunch V is tomorrow and it will be be a blast. We’re holding PragueCrunch V tomorrow, July 13, 2017, at Riegrovy Sady Beer Garden. We start at 6pm. You can RSVP here. We’ll have free Kozel and Gambrinus beer all night and traditional Czech pub food for purchase at the venue. Startups will have 90 seconds to pitch without about 90 seconds of questions… Read More
The Ticwatch, a worthy (and more affordable) alternative to the Apple Watch, is back with two new models. You may remember the second-generation Ticwatch from last year. The watch raised over $2 million on Kickstarter and now parent company Mobvoi, which includes Google and VW among its financial backers, has introduced a new model aimed at a younger audience (Ticwatch E) and a sporty… Read More
Revolut has raised a $66 million Series B round with Index Ventures leading the round, and existing investors Balderton Capital and Ribbit Capital also participating. The startup will also run another $5 million crowdfunding campaign in a few weeks. The company has raised $83 million in total. Revolut started as a mobile app that lets you send and receive money in multiple currencies. Over… Read More
Qloo, which bills itself as “the cultural artificial intelligence data platform,” has raised $6.5 million in additional funding from AXA Strategic Ventures and Elton John.
Yes, that’s the Elton John who co-wrote and performed “Tiny Dancer” and “Candle in the Wind.” He’s actually not the first big name to back the New York startup — actor… Read More
Wiz Khalifa’s music video for “See you again” is the new most-viewed video on YouTube, Elon Musk buys back X.com domain name, Toyota launches an AI fund and Facebook tests display ads in Messenger. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Last summer LeEco announced it intended to purchase the U.S.-based TV maker Vizio for $2 billion. The deal fell through in March amid myriad problems surrounding LeEco, including a major cash crunch. Allegedly the deal included a $100 million buyer-termination fee and now Vizio has filed suit in a California court to collect payment. Read More
Daniela Rus’s morning is packed. My arrival appears to come as a bit of a surprise. She considers the situation for a moment before inviting me in. Rus has allowed me to sit in for a packed morning of meetings. It’s a generous gesture, but more to the point, it’s the only way to manage some face time with the head of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence… Read More
According to a new report from The Washington Post, Trump Hotels has been hacked again. The 14 affected properties include Trump Central Park, Trump Chicago, Trump Las Vegas and Trump DC, with most of the hacks occurring between November 2016 and March 2017. Read More
Logitech is expanding its territory in the rapidly growing gaming space with the acquisition of Astro Gaming, a younger company known for their high-quality headsets. The price: a highly respectable $85 million. Read More
Amazon’s decision to deeply discount its voice-powered Echo devices for Prime Day appears to be paying off for the online retailer. Though Prime Day is still underway this afternoon, Amazon has already sold more Echo devices than it did on Prime Day last year, it says. Read More
Co-founder Dan Siroker is stepping down as the CEO of Optimizely. He’s handing the role over to Jay Larson, who was previously CEO at Birst, as well as an executive at Mercury Interactive and Success Factors. Read More
Curious about what exactly has changed on the Tesla Model 3 now that we have our first look at the production vehicle? The original prototype was revealed back in May 2016, and it’s changed a bit since that pre-alpha design was shown off to a crowd at Tesla’s Hawthorne Design Studio. Read More
When we last checked in on Transfix in late 2015, the then two-year-old, 26-person, New York-based transportation startup was determined to use its tech to increasingly match customers needing interstate freight shipping with truck drivers needing to make deliveries. It wanted to cut out wasted travel, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Apparently they have been chugging along. Read More
If you were holding out for one of those super-cute autonomous pods from Google’s early days of researching self-driving vehicles, I have bad news. The autonomous division of the company (Waymo) announced that it is retiring the little white vehicles, known as “Firefly” inside the company. That, for those of us who liked the little gumdrop on wheels, is the bad news. Read More
It’s been pretty obvious for a few months now, but Google has finally admitted that it’s running its own investment fund targeting machine intelligence startups. The fund will go by the name Gradient Ventures and provide capital, resources and education to AI-first startups. Read More
Liquidity is a crucial metric for all marketplaces. But how can we truly evaluate this liquidity? The three keys to answering this question are density, appropriately balanced demand and supply and category concentration. Read More
Twitter has announced that it’s hired a new CFO. Ned Segal is joining the company from Intuit, where he was senior vice president of finance. He also has investment banking experience, having spent 16 years at Goldman Sachs. This could come in handy if Twitter decides to sell themselves. (Just saying!) Read More
In a lawsuit filed today, a small cluster of Twitter users is suing the president for blocking them on the platform. The case, brought forward by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, argues that by blocking the users the Trump administration is in fact suppressing speech. Read More
