Google has been all about the fun little augmented reality Easter Eggs lately, with a bevy of search terms triggering Halloween-themed AR experiences back in October. Ghosts! Jack-o-lanterns! Dancing skeletons! Now they’ve got another one. Rolled out just in time for tomorrow’s Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, this one brings The Child (or, as […]
The coronavirus pandemic has underscored, and often exacerbated, the mental health crisis that exists across the world. Even the spread of remote work is part of the problem: As everyone stays at home, the lack of interaction and watercooler chat has left employees without in-person interaction. The need for a solution has helped tech-powered mental […]
NASA’s Artemis mission is just starting to get underway, and among the commercial partnerships vying for the privilege of building the lunar landing system is one between Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin, which is leading the effort. Lockheed VP and GM of Commercial Civil Space Lisa Callahan says that the collaboration has been surprisingly smooth […]
Discord announces a big funding round, Google gets European approval to acquire Fitbit and Twitter launches a new voice-based feature. This is your Daily Crunch for December 17, 2020. Discord raises $100M The popular gaming chat platform confirmed today that it has raised $100 million and also announced that it has 140 million monthly active […]
UiPath, the robotic process automation startup that has been growing like gangbusters, filed confidential paperwork with the SEC today ahead of a potential IPO. “UiPath, Inc. today announced that it has submitted a draft registration statement on a confidential basis to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) for a proposed public offering of […]
Social gaming platform Rec Room has scored some new funding as it aims to bring its once VR-centric world to every major gaming platform out there. The startup has closed a $20 million Series C led by Madrona Venture Group . Existing investors, including First Round Capital, Index, Sequoia and DAG, also participated in the […]
Umba, a digital bank for emerging markets and aiming first at Africa, has secured a $2 million seed funding round from new investors including Lachy Groom, ex-Head of Issuing at Stripe; Ludlow Ventures; Frontline Ventures and Act Venture Capital. Currently operating in Kenya and Nigeria, Umba offers a digital financial service alternative to legacy African […]
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. For the first time in donkey’s years, we didn’t have our full crew this week. Instead, we had just Natasha and Chris and myself — we had to survive without Danny while he took the week […]
Coinbase, perhaps the best-known American crypto company, announced today that it has filed confidentially to go public. The company’s debut was expected, having been reported earlier in the year. As the well-funded unicorn has filed confidentially, its debut looks to be an early-2021 affair. What sort of flotation the company will pursue is not clear […]
Whatnot, a company I first wrote about back in February, has spent the months since growing rapidly — both in terms of feature set and user base. This morning the company is announcing it has raised a $4 million seed round. Originally focused on being a platform for safely reselling FunkoPop vinyl figurines, Whatnot has […]
Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis, Astra CEO Chris Kemp and VOX Space (Virgin Orbit’s national-security-focused subsidiary) President Mandy Vaughn all joined us at TC Sessions: Space to jointly discuss their varied approaches to the small spacecraft launch market. Each has a very different type of space launch system, but each is targeting roughly the same […]
NASA’s head of human spaceflight Kathy Lueders joined us on stage at TechCrunch Sessions: Space, where she spoke to scientist and Netflix host Emily Calandrelli about her work at the agency — including NASA’s progress on the Artemis program and the return of American astronauts to the surface of the moon. The 2024 target for […]
Orbit Fab CDO Jeremy Schiel shows off the company’s satellite coupling system on stage at TC Disrupt 2019. On-orbit servicing startup Orbit Fab, which bills itself as the company focused on creating “gas stations in space,” has added an additional investor to its seed funding round. The add-on investment comes from Munich Re Ventures (the […]
Another day, another major antitrust effort seeking to dismantle the unprecedented power of the world’s biggest tech companies. On Thursday, a group of 38 attorneys general announced a bipartisan lawsuit against Google, alleging the company has engaged in “illegal, anti-competitive conduct” to create a monopoly in search and search advertising. “Google’s anti-competitive actions have protected […]
The world of virtual communications continues to hold a central place in our socially-distanced lives, and today it looks like one of the companies reaping some of the spoils is also reaping some funding out of it. Discord, the chat and communications platform wildly popular with gamers and, increasingly, many others, has confirmed to us […]
GeneMe, Poland-based biotechnology company with a COVID-19 test, has secured a €5.2 million round of seed funding led by Robin Tombs, co-founder of Yoti and previously of Gamesys, and other angel investors. The startup has developed and patented a universal protein (polymerase) for RT-LAMP testing, which allows the production of highly accurate, rapid, molecular genetic […]
Last month, Twitter announced it would soon begin testing a new social experience on its platforms involving audio-only chat rooms, similar to the sometimes controversial startup Clubhouse. Today, Twitter Spaces, as the product is now being called, is launching into private beta testing. During this time, the product will be limited to select individuals, largely […]
