A mobile app that lets users find and book stylish workspaces on-demand, Breather, raised a Series C round of $40 million. The funding brings Breather’s total capital raised to $73 million. Menlo Ventures led the round joined by Valar Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures and Real Ventures. Menlo Ventures’ Managing Director Venky Ganesan told TechCrunch, in an e-mail, that… Read More
If you weren’t anywhere near Shenzhen today, you likely missed some of the stories coming out of Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Engineering Community event (WinHEC). The company used the opportunity to highlight a number of partnerships and plans designed to hasten the next step in Windows evolution. At the top of the list is Project Evo, a collaboration with Intel designed at… Read More
We’re all curious to see whether Light’s crazy 16-lens camera can live up to its own hype, but it looks like we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer for the already-delayed gadget. On the bright side, so to speak, the camera is getting a significant improvement to its many lenses’ apertures. Read More
At the Starbucks Biennial Investor Conference today, the coffee and retail giant revealed some plans for 2017, including new foods comings to its cafes, and features heading to its incredibly popular mobile app. Notably absent among its announcements were any media and entertainment-related plans. In terms of its tech, Starbucks announced artificial intelligence-enabled features will soon… Read More
Smart contact lenses have been the stuff of science fiction for a long time, but as with jetpacks and faster-than-light travel, we’re still waiting on them. Research is ongoing, though, and a project at the University of Ghent shows promise not just in advancing the technology but providing some therapeutic value, as well. Read More
Airbnb looks to be making a key strategy change with regards to its global lobbying efforts. After a failed lawsuit that made the company little progress in the state of New York, Airbnb is rallying behind an age-old political tool — the compromise. Read More
KKR, the global investment firm, is announcing a $711 million close this morning on its KKR Next Generation Technology Growth Fund, which it plans to use to back growth-stage companies in the technology, media and telco industries in North America, Europe and Israel.
It’s a new product for the firm, though you might have seen its name crop up in a good many deals this past year… Read More
Alto’s Adventure is still one of my favorite games to pick up and play on the commute, on the airplane or basically anywhere I have both my iPhone and a few minutes to spare. The endless snowboarding adventure is one part mobile game and one part “in the zone” chill-out experience. But now there’s going to be a follow-up, and it’ll be more than an adventure… Read More
Pebble has had a long, one might say rocky road. As one of the earliest and biggest crowdfunding successes, it showed the potential and perils of hardware startups that were increasingly having to scale from back-of-napkin idea to a global operation almost overnight. Read More
The commercial drone industry in the U.S. hasn’t heard much from the President-elect about his plans for rulemaking that will impact their business and global competitiveness. Last month, Associated Press broke the story that Trump is interested in privatizing air traffic control, wresting that responsibility from the Federal Aviation Administration and handing it to a nonprofit… Read More
It is not uncommon in the automotive enthusiast community to admire another’s ride. The best most people could do was give a thumbs-up as they passed or leave a note on a parked car’s windshield. But no more; this is 2016. Today Tread launches, an app that connects enthusiasts using their license plate numbers. There are many questions a person might have about the wisdom of an… Read More
Paving the way for friend-to-friend payments to come to Facebook Messenger in Europe (and after the functionality debuted in the U.S. all the way back in March last year), Facebook has quietly secured an e-money license from the Central Bank of Ireland. Read More
It’s entirely possible — even probable — that the evolutionary, cutting-edge developments in the 21st century world of agriculture over the past few years have slipped under your radar. Fair enough, you’re busy. We get that. But that doesn’t mean that a massive and relatively stealthy disruption isn’t happening as we speak. Read More
This morning, Google announced that it was open sourcing its data visualization tool, Embedding Projector. The tool will help machine learning researchers to visualize data without having to install and run TensorFlow. Dimensionality, and vectors in general, is not something that most of us find easy to understand. The problem is that we all live in a three-dimensional world. We are… Read More
After going through nearly $150 million in funding, peer-to-peer used-car marketplace Beepi.com is shifting gears. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that the startup is shutting down its operations outside of California, laying off 180 staff, and merging its remaining business with Fair.com, a new venture co-founded by several car industry veterans that has yet to launch. The reduced size… Read More
Believe it or not, the money you have in your savings account right now is probably losing you money. In today’s economy, inflation outpaces the interest rates that banks pay to encourage saving money — this makes penny pinching less prudent than many might think. Catherine Berman, a former Managing Director at Charles Schwab and founder of a new YCombinator Fellowship backed… Read More
Niantic, the creator of the massively popular smartphone game, Pokémon Go, has confirmed that new Pokémon characters will be unveiled this Monday. “Keep an eye out on our social media channels on December 12th for details about the first addition of more Pokémon into Pokémon GO,” said the company statement. The augmented reality game, which allows people to catch Pokémon in… Read More
Wedding-dress shopping should be a fairy tale, but it’s usually a scam. You pay $5,000 for a dress that costs $200 to make. Boutiques hide the brands on dresses so you can’t comparison shop, and inflate lead times so you’re pressured to buy on the spot for fear the dress won’t be ready. So you get an overpriced cookie-cutter dress, all because the industry exploits… Read More
We love our pets and want to keep track of them, make sure they’re eating well and getting the exercise they need and U.K.-based Trakz wants to help us do that with technology products for keeping track of your dog and cat. The startup has a GPS and fitness tracking device that can be inserted in your pooch’s or kitty’s collar and a feeding bowl tracker to keep track of how… Read More
