DJI is promising “something huge” at this morning’s “Seize the Moment” event in New York City. More than likely, that big thing will come in a small package. The often secretive drone company has apparently been leaking like crazy ahead of today’s big reveal, and we’ve gotten more than few looks at the rumored Spark drone, which is set to make the… Read More
GREE Ventures, the Singapore-based VC firm connected to Japanese games firm GREE, has closed its newest $67 million fund for early stage investments in Asia.
AT-II — the firm’s second fund — sees GREE Ventures spread its focus of deals in Japan and Southeast Asia to cover India for the first time. The fund has so far made 10 investments across Asia, which includes New… Read More
Consumers increasingly are going online to search for insurance, and when they do, PolicyGenius wants to be right there to help them find the right policy. To expand its offerings and support more customers, the company raised a $30 million Series C funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners. Read More
Pinterest is adding another ad to its array of products, now allowing advertisers to publish video advertising that will automatically play in the home feed and search, as it continues to bulk up and woo advertisers with a different pitch from Facebook and Google. Pinterest has had to make the argument to advertisers that its 175 million users behave differently on Pinterest when compared… Read More
As you may have noticed TechCrunch is coming back to Israel with a Meetup + Pitch-off in Tel Aviv because we had a great time last year. The event will be on June 28, at Trask, between 6-10 p.m.
Israel is one of the world’s fastest-growing and most impressive startup ecosystems, and we simply can’t resist coming back. If you feel you have the chops to compete in the Pitch-off… Read More
Apple’s found a fair bit of success with Swift Playgrounds since launching it last year at WWDC. According to the company, the educational program has enlisted some one million users into its ranks. And while the dead simple offering is primarily aimed at youngsters, there’s apparently been a fair bit of interest across demographics. Today’s announcement extends… Read More
Prolific investment firm Naspers is making a push into bitcoin and financial services after it backed Philippines-based startup Coins.ph to the tune of $5 million. Coins is focused on offering financial services for the unbanked in the Philippines and Thailand. It uses the blockchain as its underlying technology to facilitate transfers and remittances. It announced the new funding —… Read More
In partnership with TechCrunch, The Europas Conference & Awards, is a different kind of tech startup event which features smaller breakout sessions on key subjects for startups, as well as main-stage speakers and panels. It’s also very different, in that there’s no “off-limits speaker room” at The Europas, so attendees can mingle easily with VIPs and speakers. What… Read More
Taboola, the startup that works with hundreds of publishers to provide a set of links at the bottom of pages directing readers to more content on the site and elsewhere, has long positioned Facebook as the big competitor. Consumers scanning articles on Facebook, especially on mobile, are less likely to ever visit a publisher’s own site, even more so now with the introduction of… Read More
DocPlanner, the European online booking platform for healthcare appointments, has raised €15 million in Series D funding, just ten months after announcing a larger Series C round of $20 million (~€18m). Leading the round is existing investors Enern Investments, and Target Global, in addition to London-based One Peak Partners. Read More
Emaar Malls missed out on a bid to buy Souq when Amazon picked up the Dubai-based online retailer for about $650 million in March. Now, the retailing giant of the Middle East is making another acquisition to step up its game in e-commerce. Today Rocket Internet — the Berlin-based e-commerce incubator — announced that it has sold 51 percent of Namshi, its Middle Eastern Amazon clone,… Read More
Ikea’s smart light bulbs will answer to voice commands starting this summer. The company announced in a Swedish-language press release that its smart lighting product line, called Trådfri, will work with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri and HomeKit. Read More
Unity Technologies, a 13-year-old, San Francisco-based company that makes development tools for video game creators, has raised $400 million in fresh funding from the private equity firm Silver Lake. A “big chunk” of the round went toward purchasing the shares of longtime employees and earlier investors, CEO John Riccitiello told Bloomberg earlier today, explaining that he thinks… Read More
Founded as an enterprise alternative to accelerator stalwarts like Y Combinator, Alchemist Accelerator has managed to assemble a solid track record in its five years of operation. Going into batch 15, 159 companies have graduated from Alchemist, of which 89 have closed institutional rounds and 15 have been acquired.
The latest batch of 19 companies surely hopes to push those numbers even higher. Read More
Microsoft announces new Surface Pro, Apple and Nokia settle patent dispute, Uber underpaid NYC drivers, Snapchat allows custom stories for friend groups and Pinterest adds dish recognition. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Quiqup, a London-based delivery startup that operates a “shop on your behalf” app similar to Jinn in Europe or Postmates in the U.S., in addition to a growing B2B business, has raised £20 million in Series B funding. Read More
Another high-up person at Uber has left the company. Jim Callaghan, Uber’s general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, recently stepped down. Read More
Alchemist is one of those rare programs that focuses on enterprise startups. These aren’t your parents’ enterprise companies. Pitches today will span products that help businesses with crowdfunding, wearables, sustainable farming and managing meetings with the power of AI. TechCrunch is pleased to bring you Alchemist Accelerator‘s demo day. Read More
The Minibrew is a little keg with a big brain. When we first met the company in 2015 they offered a whiff of high tech to the brewing process, adding a monitored brew vessel and mobile app to the age-old technique of slopping a bunch of wheat, yeast and hops together until something tasty came out. Read More
A newly famous transaction type we need to understand is called the “Initial Coin Offering.” An ICO is akin to an IPO, but in temporal reverse (sort of). Although confusing, it has recently acquired prominence as a favored way to launch a new cryptocurrency. Read More
