We want to see you in New York for Disrupt NY 2017, our annual celebration of all things startup. It’s a great time. You get to meet great founders and VCs and I’d love to meet you personally when I run through the alley with our video team. Hardware is my favorite thing in the world and you’re some of my favorite people. Disrupt runs from May 15-17 and will be held on Pier 36… Read More
Jinen Kamdar has spent more than seven years at Twitter, most recently serving as the director of product for Twitter’s media tools. Now he’s joining an actual media company — namely, BuzzFeed, where he’ll be the new vice president of product. He doesn’t start his new job until Monday, May 15, so he said it’s too early to know exactly what he’ll… Read More
Continuing its massive spending spree in Europe, the global technology and media investment conglomerate, Naspers, has invested €387 million ($421.3 million) in the online food ordering and delivery business Delivery Hero. Read More
Xiaomi is increasing its office retail presence in China as bids to gain ground stolen by rivals in its homeland, and now it is making that very same push in its second largest market, India. The Chinese company, which is valued at $45 billion, suffered a tough time last year as sales growth slowed — Xiaomi, notably, didn’t go public with sales figures for 2016 — but India… Read More
Just because we live in an age of many sensors doesn’t mean we always have the right one for the job. One in particular we’ve been lacking is a radar system that can detect obstacles and aircraft hundreds of meters out, yet fit comfortably on a small drone. The laws of physics, it seemed, prevented it — but Echodyne made it work anyway. Read More
A ransomware attack seemingly based on leaked NSA hacking tools is spreading like wildfire among unpatched Windows systems worldwide. Early reports suggested it was targeted at the UK’s National Health Service, but it’s clear now that the attack is a global one, with thousands of computers apparently affected in Russia alone. Read More
This week, Tesla launched pre-orders for its solar roof tiles, Snap Inc. stumbled through its first earnings report and Apple bought up a small sleep tracking startup. These are a few of the top stories from this week, plus some longer weekend reads. 1. Tesla’s highly anticipated solar roof tiles went up for pre-order. The question everyone seems to be asking though, is how much will… Read More
If your company works with big clients, you might want to be able to predict what’s going to happen with your company’s bank account. YayPay is introducing weather forecasts, but for your unpaid invoices. This way, you know if it’s safe to commit to big projects. YayPay first launched on stage at Disrupt London. The company wants to help accounts receivable teams when it comes… Read More
Facebook is making good on Mark Zuckerberg’s promise to build community by improving admin tools for Facebook Groups. Now Group admins can establish up to three questions for people requesting to join their Group to answer. This lets admins screen potential members to ensure they’re the right fit for the group and will add constructively to the discussion, not just spam or troll… Read More
A year ago, after closing my first startup, I attended one of those conferences that you’re supposed to attend. There were a lot of old friends there, folks who I hadn’t seen in a while, and there was the usual collection of panels and panelists, Power Points and Pellegrino. As I stood in a sun-full room clutching a coffee someone asked me about my first startup. The reaction… Read More
Google Maps has quietly rolled out a new feature that will make it easier for you to see where you need to go when using turn-by-turn navigation: integrated Street View images on the directions screen. While the app has always allowed you to see an overview of the upcoming turns and distance between them, the new feature introduces an option to tap to see the associated Street View imagery… Read More
An apparent cyberattack with the motivation of extortion has hit hospitals across England, taking down systems for appointments. Patients are being turned away unless it’s an emergency. Pictures appearing on Twitter showed screens of NHS computers with ‘ransomware’ images demanding payment of $300 worth of Bitcoin, saying: “Ooops, your files have been encrypted!”… Read More
41 startups graced the stage at 500 Startups’ 20th demo day at the Parc55 hotel in downtown San Francisco. The event came complete with mascots, a summer of love theme and a diverse array of early-stage companies.
This time around, 500 focused in heavily on health startups. A number of the founders demoing presented businesses in the interest of the public good —… Read More
President Trump is reportedly gearing up to introduce a ban on laptops and other large electronic devices on flights between Europe and the U.S., expanding a ban that was initially placed on travelers entering America from selected airports in the Middle East in March. These days it is almost unthinkable to travel without a laptop, iPad or camera when going overseas, and almost everyone… Read More
Apple made news and scored some positive PR earlier this month when the company announced a $1 billion fund aimed at investing in US-based manufacturing. Now it’s ready to announce the first big investment from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund. New York-based Corning Incorporated will be receiving $200 million from the tech giant’s coffers, money that will go toward its… Read More
Guardant Health, a four-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based biotech company that sells blood tests to track and potentially detect cancer, has raised a whopping $360 million from investors, bringing its total funding to $550 million. SoftBank led the round, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, OrbiMed, 8VC, numerous funds and accounts managed by T. Read More
As President Trump continues to degrade our democracy and diminish the freedom of the press, Twitter’s CFO/COO Anthony Noto sees a marketing opportunity. @realDonaldTrump May I suggest questions submitted and answered via Twitter. A perfect record and we distribute to the world not just those with a TV — Anthony Noto (@anthonynoto) May 12, 2017 Trump issued a thinly veiled… Read More
You may have noticed the purple flower reaction has returned to Facebook, allowing you to respond to posts with a “thankful” sentiment instead of a Like. As it turns out, the addition is only one of several features Facebook has planned for this Mother’s Day weekend here in the U.S., and throughout the month where the day is celebrated elsewhere in the world. The purple… Read More
It didn’t make the cut as one of the many announcements to emerge from Microsoft’s Build 2017 event this week, but this morning the company unveiled that Minecraft – the game it acquired a few years ago for $2.5 billion – has now made its way to the Nintendo Switch. The new game will include the same features found in console versions, Microsoft says, including the… Read More
Welcome back to another episode of Equity, TechCrunch’s weekly podcast focused on finding the humor in money. This week, our own Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley and Alex Wilhelm, along with Greylock’s Josh Elman huddled in the SoMa studio right after a certain earnings report. We recorded a day early this week, as a full 66 percent of the core cast had Thursday morning flights.… Read More
