Bee Partners in San Francisco has raised a $30 million fund, its second, to lead investments in very early stage startups based in the U.S. Founded in 2009, the firm is best-known as the first investor in TubeMogul, now a publicly traded adtech company. Bee was also an early backer of the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, drone tech startup Skycatch, the second-hand fashion marketplace Tradesy… Read More
Back in March, we reported how Amazon was poised to up its stakes in the educational publishing market with the launch of a free platform called Inspire for teachers and others to post and share education resources online. Today, the company has confirmed it is doing just that. It has announced Amazon Inspire, an online education resources (OER) platform for teachers to source free… Read More
“We went through 45 mechanical iterations of Cozmo,” explains Boris Sofman. “This was a huge, hugely complex problem of mechanical engineering, industrial design and character design. The goal to make a character that had the size, shape and capabilities, form factor and practicality of a character that wanted to do all that we could do.”
The result is surprisingly small. Read More
Uber already integrates with Spotify so riders can pick their favorite tunes to jam to on their trip, but now Pandora is teaming up with the rideshare giant to do the same — this time for drivers. It’s not clear how many riders actually use the Spotify integration but not many drivers seem to have the set up to use it. Anecdotally, one Uber driver told me he didn’t even know… Read More
Orbital Insight, a three-year-old, Palo Alto, Ca.-based geospatial big data company, has just raised $15 million in Series B funding led by previous investor GV, with participation from CME Ventures and earlier backers Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital, and Bloomberg Beta. Together, with an investment and development agreement from In-Q- Tel (the CIA’s venture arm), the company… Read More
If you’re done with selfie sticks and are looking for what comes next in the narcissistic world of self-photography, look no further than Hover Camera, a new “personal” drone that gives you a different — more aerial — view of you and your life. Hover Camera is a tiny foldable drone that hovers around you, controlled by a compatible smartphone app, snapping 4k… Read More
American eBay sellers will soon gain access to Africa’s biggest consumer markets. This comes via a new partnership between the U.S. e-commerce giant and online shopping startup MallforAfrica.com, set to go live July 2016. Read More
Uber China is repositioning itself as an all-in-one solution for transportation, food and entertainment. At TechCrunch Shanghai, Uber China VP of Operations and Regional General Manager of Central China Kate Wang showed off Uber’s new vision for China — one that includes two new offerings, UberLIFE and Uber + Travel, which will roll out across China this year. All-in-one solutions… Read More
Recent developments in the hardware world show just how far China’s star has risen and how dominant the country has become in the world of technology hardware manufacturing, development, and innovation. And the physical impact of these products is only just beginning to shape the direction the tech industry will take in years to come. Read More
The recent ubiquity of 3D printers and innovations in prosthetic design, manufacturing and distribution offer a viable solution for the millions of people living with limb loss around the world. In the United States alone, close to 200,000 amputations are performed each year, yet, with prosthetics priced between $5,000 and $50,000, having one can almost be considered a luxury. Read More
Accessibility, conceptually, is much more than just the discrete “accessibility options for people with disabilities”. At its heart, accessibility is about just that: access. You don’t need to have a disability to benefit from it. Read More
Silicon Valley is justifiably seen as the geographical center of digital innovation. From Google and Facebook to Uber and Netflix, the Valley is home to many global technology leaders. However, when searching for the next big startup, the time has come to look beyond Silicon Valley. Read More
The sales tech stack is being built as we speak, and it’s happening in lockstep with the move from the one-to-many work of demand generation, to the one-to-one world of account-based sales and marketing. Read More
More than 5 billion IoT devices were installed in 2015. Gartner estimates this will grow to 20 billion by 2020. Unfortunately, experts agree that security is not only an afterthought, but often is actively resisted and circumvented Read More
I held the first Warsaw TechCrunch Meetup in 2007 at a pub called Lolek. We were visiting my wife’s parents and I figured I would post on the site and get a few people together to see the first iPhone. Five wary people came and three left when figured out the meetup was a dud. Two weeks ago I visited Krakow for ImpactCEE. The event was an effort to bring together politicians, big… Read More
Apple’s reveal of sponsored search ads on the App Store was overshadowed by its simultaneous opening up and improvement of its subscription offerings. But for the average developer or publisher, the ads will have a much more immediate effect on their business.
Paid ads won’t begin until Apple has completed a period of free testing. In the interim, App Store publishers should be… Read More
Politicians responding to the oil troubles are heeding calls for a new way forward, centered around startups. And the efforts to foster a new approach are led by an ambitious ex-business exec, the Crown Prince of Norway and a handful of contrarian entrepreneurs. Read More
The internet has become a lonely space, and consumers are hungry for something new. We don’t talk much anymore about new processors, video cards and faster dialup modems — at least not like we used to. The technology industry, specifically the internet, continues to become further standardized and isolating, which makes it harder for new players to get an edge. Read More
Many companies have transformed and realigned their focus with great success. Avon transitioned from peddling books door-to-door to marketing beauty products. Wrigley started as a soap and baking soda company. IBM originally sold massive mainframe computers and calculators. Now, telecom companies are making similar pivots into a lucrative industry. The battle du jour is about customer data… Read More
