SoftBank Group Corp. is doubling down on its commitment to Latin America. Today, the Japanese investment conglomerate is announcing the launch of the SoftBank Latin America Fund II, its second dedicated private investment fund focused on tech companies located in LatAm. SoftBank is launching the new fund with an initial $3 billion commitment. “Fund II […]
Helsinki-based VC Maki.vc is poised to reach the final close of its second fund at €100 million, with the aim to invest in seed-stage startups across Europe. The first investments from the new fund include UK-based Baseimmune (antigen discovery and vaccine design), Volare (Foodtech), and PixieRay (adaptive eyeglasses). Maki.vc’s initial ticket sizes range from €250,000 […]
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said on Tuesday it fined Google $177 million for abusing its market dominance in the Android operating system (OS) market. The U.S. tech company has restricted market competition by prohibiting local smartphone makers like Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics from customizing their Android OS, through Google’s anti-fragmentation agreements (AFA), […]
London-based PassFort, a SaaS provider that helps business meet compliance requirements such as KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) reporting, has closed a $16.2 million Series A led by US growth equity fund, Level Equity. The 2015-founded startup‘s existing investors OpenOcean, Episode 1 and Entrepreneur First also participated in the round. The Series […]
India and Singapore are working to link their digital payments systems to enable “instant, low-cost fund transfers,” in a major push to disrupt the cross-border transactions between the two nations that amounts to over $1 billion each year. The project to link India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow is targeted for operationalization by […]
Whether or not Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom survives Tuesday’s recall election may depend to some degree on a small but vocal group of Silicon Valley power players who’ve thrown their weight behind the effort to oust him, including some who previously supported mostly Democratic politicians. To better understand what happened, we talked recently with […]
BridgeLinx, a 9-month-old Lahore-headquartered startup that operates a digital freight marketplace, said on Tuesday it has raised $10 million in what is the largest seed financing round in Pakistan. Harry Stebbings’ 20 VC, Josh Buckley’s Buckley Ventures and Indus Valley Capital co-led the startup’s financing round, which Salman Gul, co-founder and chief executive of BridgeLinx, […]
Chinese search engine giant Baidu has begun publicly testing its Apollo Go robotaxi mobile platform in Shanghai, marking the company’s continued expansion of its footprint in China. While Baidu says its robotaxis have achieved Level 4 capabilities, a human safety operator will be present during all rides, which are open to the public as of […]
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. We are back! From this morning, I suppose. But the news cycle doesn’t wait for our publishing schedule, so the Equity crew got together to yammer all about the Intuit-Mailchimp acquisition. A $12 billion deal composed of stock and […]
Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to charge a real book or update a book’s software. But now, our trusty Kindles remind us that they’re actually Wi-Fi connected, electronic devices capable of change as Amazon unveils a rare, significant design upgrade for the first time in years. To simplify navigation, the new look adds a two-tab bar to […]
This afternoon Intuit confirmed persistent rumors that it was in the process of buying Mailchimp, detailing a $12 billion transaction that will bring the well-known email infra company to its corporate remit. Intuit is not a well-known player in the email marketing space. The company is instead best known for its TurboTax software (and associated […]
Twitch filed a lawsuit late last week against two people on its own platform for running automated hate and harassment campaigns. The harassment, often targeted at Black and LGBTQ streamers, manifests in a unique Twitch phenomenon as a “hate raid.” On Twitch, creators regularly point viewers toward another friendly account after their stream concludes to […]
Apple has released security updates for a zero-day vulnerability that affects every iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Citizen Lab, which discovered the vulnerability and was credited with the find, urges users to immediately update their devices. The technology giant said iOS 14.8 for iPhones and iPads, as well as new updates for Apple Watch […]
Instagram confirmed it’s developing a new feature called “Favorites,” which would allow users to select certain accounts whose posts they would like to see higher in their feed. A similar feature already exists on Facebook where it gives users a bit more control over the News Feed algorithm. On Facebook, users can select up to […]
Ford Motor has hired Mike Amend as its chief digital and information officer as the automaker seeks to expand into software, subscriptions and in-vehicle connectivity. Amend, who was president of Lowe’s Online for three years, will focus on Ford’s “use of data, software and technology” — all areas central to Ford’s new Ford+ strategy, the […]
The pricing journey is long and, despite what some founders might think, jumping headfirst into customer acquisition isn’t the first stop. Step one is making sure you have a fully fledged product.
Grab a red Sharpie, circle September 20 on your calendar (ooh, how old-school) and get ready to jumpstart your TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 networking experience. Sure, Disrupt’s “official” run is September 21-23, but why wait to meet other movers and shakers in your specific tech category? We’re hosting a series of speed networking sessions to get […]
There are a growing number of companies interested in CRISPR’s potential to upend medicine. It’s probably safe to say there’s only one company interested in using the gene-editing system to create a living, breathing woolly mammoth. Or, at least, something pretty close to it. That’s the primary mission of a new company called Colossal. Co-founded […]
