The restaurant industry has been slammed hard by the coronavirus outbreak, with venues in many cities in the U.S. and beyond shuttered or restricted in how they can serve customers — to say nothing of the comfort level of customers themselves to dine in public venues — in the name of helping contain the spread […]
Current smartphone-based exposure notification systems (ENS) like the one created jointly by Apple and Google are a clever way of leveraging modern technology to support comprehensive contact-tracing efforts by health agencies worldwide. But the COVID-19 pandemic is not what anyone had in mind when the Bluetooth standard was created, so the Bluetooth Special Interest Group […]
Launch startup Skyrora had a successful test launch of its Skylark Micro rocket from Iceland on Sunday, with the rocket achieving its highest ever altitude at a height of 26.86 km (just under 17 miles). The four meter (13 foot) sub-orbital rocket took off from a mobile launch site at Iceland’s Langanes Peninsula that was […]
Quell is positioning itself as a kind of low-cost take on Peloton (less than 1/10th the price, it notes). You might too, if you were in the London-based startup’s place. With the stationary bike-maker’s value skyrocketing amid COVID-19 lockdowns, fitness startups are all the rage — heck, just look at Lululemon’s recent Mirror acquisition. A […]
The uptick in robotics funding continues this week with a big round for Calgary, Alberta’s Attabotics. The warehouse fulfillment startup announced a $50 million Series C, led — interestingly enough — by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Canada’s largest pension plan. It’s a pretty hot moment for robotics and automation investing, as more industries […]
Samsung Pay Card, a new Mastercard debit card from the mobile handset giant, has launched in the U.K. today. Powered by London-based fintech Curve, it lets you consolidate all of your other existing bank cards into a single card and digital wallet, making it easy to manage your money and, of course, use Samsung Pay […]
SpaceX is set to launch is latest batch of Starlink satellites on Tuesday at 10:31 AM EDT (7:31 AM PDT). This is the 11th of SpaceX Starlink missions so far, and will include 58 of the company’s broadband internet satellites, as well as three of customer Planet’s SkySats spacecraft. This mission is important as SpaceX […]
Canoo, the Los Angeles-based electric vehicle startup, has struck a deal to merge with special-purpose acquisition company Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp., with a market valuation of $2.4 billion. The announcement Tuesday marks the fourth time this summer that an electric vehicle company has skipped the traditional IPO path and instead taken the company public through […]
A month after Europe’s top court struck down a flagship data transfer arrangement between the EU and the US as unsafe, European privacy campaign group, noyb, has filed complaints against 101 websites with regional operators which it’s identified as still sending data to the US via Google Analytics and/or Facebook Connect integrations. Among the entities […]
A 20-month-old startup in India founded by a group of banking veterans that has built a mobile-first credit card and is improving the experience users have with credit cards has secured $10 million in a new financing round. Pune-based FPL Technologies’ $10 million Series A financing round was funded by Matrix Partners India, Sequoia Capital […]
Lightspeed India Partners on Tuesday announced it has closed $275 million from LPs for its third fund as the top American venture firm looks to ramp up its investments in the world’s second-largest internet market. The new fund, its biggest for India, will enable Lightspeed India Partners to make early stage bets on more than […]
What early-stage startup founder wouldn’t love to have a crystal ball? Especially now with a pandemic wreaking economic uncertainty across industries in every corner of the world. We don’t have mystical powers, but we do have the next best thing, and it’s available exclusively to early-stage founders exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley at Disrupt 2020. […]
The battle between Epic Games and Apple continues, Facebook faces criticism in India and Pinterest appoints its first Black board member. This is your Daily Crunch for August 17, 2020. The big story: Epic Games files injunction against Apple Epic’s legal and PR fight with Apple and its App Store policies seems to be escalating. […]
The Creamery was not a place you went for the memories. It was located firmly at the apex of convenience and comfort -- which is why it was the perfect place for the SF technorati to see and be seen.
It’s been 14 years since the launch of Flight Simulator X, which long seemed like it would be the final release in the long-running series. When the company announced it would re-launch the franchise just over a year ago, using a new graphics engine and satellite data from Bing Maps, it sure created a lot […]
Tesla shares surpassed $1,800 for the first time today, the latest in an eye-popping run up of the stock that has propelled the company’s valuation to more than $341 billion. Let’s put these numbers in perspective. Tesla, an automaker that delivered 367,500 vehicles in 2019 and is aiming to exceed the 500,000-mark in 2020, is […]
Washington-based Datasembly aims to take the guesswork out of the pricing for consumer goods. The company founded by Ben Reich and Dan Gallagher initially started as a project the two men developed after working at a retail analytics firm in the DC area. What they observed while trying to collect information on pricing for goods and […]
Pinterest has appointed Andrea Wishom, president of real estate company Skywalker Holdings* and former Harpo Studios executive, to its board of directors. The appointment makes her Pinterest’s first Black board member and third female board member. Pinterest added its first female board member in 2016, when it appointed Michelle Wilson, a former Amazon executive. Wilson […]
Lana, a new startup based in Madrid, is looking to be the next big thing in Latin American fintech. Founded by serial entrepreneur Pablo Muniz, whose last business was backed by one of Spain’s largest financial services institutions, BBVA, Lana is looking to be the all-in-one financial services provider for Latin America’s gig economy workers. […]
After taking a stand against Apple’s hefty cut of the money developers make through the App Store, Fortnite maker Epic Games shows no signs of backing down. The company filed a motion for an injunction against Apple in the U.S. District Court for California’s Northern District on Monday after it received a letter notifying Epic […]
