500 Startups just wrapped up its 18th batch of company launches last month — which means it’s already looking forward to the next one. This time around, in its 19th batch, the program (no longer called an accelerator, ironically) has 44 companies, ranging from business-to-business software to beauty products. You’ll find everything from software for managing fitness businesses… Read More
Every generation gets the McDonald’s it deserves. And every so often, the ubiquitous fast food chain looks to reinvent invent itself for the times. There’s the McCafé coffee shop-style restaurant that launched down under in Australia in the 1990s and the Create Your Taste concept from a few years back designed the compete with Shake Shack. And there was that weird take on the… Read More
It’s been an up-and-down week for Baidu and its autonomous-driving car vision. On the plus, the Chinese tech firm yesterday announced that it had begun testing self-driving vehicles in Wuzhen, but, on the negative, its partnership with BMW has reportedly fallen through, according to comments from executives. Read More
Sesame Ventures, the venture fund formed by Sesame Workshop and New York-based Collaborative Fund in May, has made its first investment in a tutoring platform called Yup. Specifically, Yup (formerly known as MathCrunch) has raised $4 million in a seed extension round led by Sesame Ventures, bringing the company’s total capital raised to date to $7.5 million. Yup connects students with… Read More
The Xperia Ear has existed in some form or another for some time now, but up until this year’s IFA, the strange little wearable looked to be little more than a concept. Next month, Sony will put its money where its mouth is, releasing the device via Amazon on December 13, just in time for a last-minute holiday gift, with further availability following at retailers like Fry’s, Abt… Read More
Google has now lifted a controversial ban which wiped out the digital identities — meaning Gmail accounts, access to photos, voicemails and files — of those consumers who used a tax loophole to profit from reselling their Pixel smartphones. The affected people were, in fact, in violation of Google’s Terms of Service, which prohibits you from commercially reselling any device. Read More
After months of speculations and rumors that the deal was all but closed, we finally have confirmation that DraftKings and FanDuel will merge into one company. The move is being called a “strategic merger of equals”. While the company isn’t yet announcing how the combined organization will be structured, we do know that DraftKings CEO Jason Robins will become CEO of the… Read More
“Alexa, order a Star Wars robot” is an undeniably awesome thing to say to your helpful home AI assistant. And for this weekend, at least, it’ll actually mean something – and get you $30 off of one of those Sphero BB-8 robots in the process. In Amazon’s tireless quest to take all the pain points out of shopping – and make you buy as much as humanly possible,… Read More
It isn’t uncommon to see Apple hire from the media to staff its PR roster, and now the iPhone-maker has done so in Asia, too. Wei Gu, a long-time China reporter most recently with the Wall Street Journal, has joined Apple to take up a PR Director role based out of its office in Shanghai, China. Read More
Sigfox, the IoT company based out of France that is building a dedicated, global network to connect, monitor and control devices like smart-home alarms, machinery, refrigerators and city streetlights, today confirmed that it has closed its latest round of funding, a Series E round of €150 million ($160 million). We broke the news of this round in October, noting it was likely to be… Read More
As a parent, if your child breaks out with a rash, what do you do? You panic, you search the internet for what could possibly be wrong and the next thing you know is that you’re convinced your child is dying. Syounika Online is a company that’s trying to reduce this problem in the Japanese market — and they’re the winners of the TechCrunch Tokyo 2016 pitch competition. Read More
Three UK is the latest company to suffer what looks to be a major data breach — potentially exposing the personal information of millions of customers. Read More
Foxconn, Apple’s key manufacturing partner, is among a number of supply chain companies that are said to be exploring the potential to relocate iPhone production facilities from Asia to the U.S., according to a report in Japanese newspaper The Nikkei. The report comes in the wake of the U.S. election and promises that the winning candidate made in the lead-up to it. U.S.… Read More
Include Office Hours are coming to London! On Friday, December 2 from 4-6 p.m, partners from Accel will join TechCrunch to provide advice and feedback to startups. Apply now!
Unlike previous sessions, the upcoming Office Hours are solely focused on teams with at least one female founder. To sweeten the deal, teams selected for Office Hours will also be invited to an exclusive Women in… Read More
You’ve probably heard of TechCrunch Disrupt, but we run events all over the world. This week, it’s all about Tokyo. Twenty startups were battling for a spot in the final. The judges were ruthless. Well, they were very polite — this is Japan, after all — but they were politely ruthless. Or ruthlessly polite. Either way, these are the six startups still standing after the… Read More
Chinese money is set to pour into the English Premiership football league after PPTV, an online streaming platform in China, agreed to a three-year deal to broadcast matches between 2019-2022. Read More
In its first act since raising $175 million from Chinese internet giant Tencent in August, India-based messaging app Hike has become the latest to clone Snapchat. Read More
Since its global expansion in January, Netflix has pretty much sat alone as the sole video streaming site to be available in (almost) every country in the world. That situation is looking like it will change very soon, after Amazon teased an international expansion of its own, rival service. Read More
LinkedIn now blocked in Russia, Tesla acquisition of SolarCity is approved, SpaceX wants to bring internet access to everyone, AOL lays off 7 percent of workforce, Zesty replaces CEO and restructures. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
Many an iPhone 6 Plus has been struck down by the scourge known as “Touch Disease,” but Apple has not acknowledged the problem was systematic or widespread — until now. In what we have to imagine is as close to a mea culpa as Apple is likely to offer, iPhone 6 Plus devices exhibiting flickering displays and touchscreen issues are eligible for a reduced-price repair. Read More
