The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) is revealing the first beneficiaries of its Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program, and San Mateo-based Helix is on the receiving end of $33 million in federal funding as a result. Helix is a health tech startup founded in 2015 that focuses on insights derived from personal genomics, […]
News broke last night that Affirm, a well-known fintech unicorn, could approach the public markets at a valuation of $5 to $10 billion. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news, said that Affirm could begin trading this year and that its IPO options include debuting via a special purpose acquisition company, also known as […]
Like many industries with a high concentration of wealth — and the careers that help professionals accumulate it — investment firms have a severe dearth of diversity in their ranks.
It’s officially now o’clock, startup fans. All good things come to an end, and today’s the last day you can score an early-bird pass to Disrupt 2020. Don’t miss your chance to save up to $300 and get busy building your business at our global Disrupt event. Buy your pass before the deal — and the […]
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. We had the full team this week: Myself, Danny and Natasha on the mics, with Chris running skipper as always. Sadly this week we had to kick off with a correction as I am 1) […]
Amazon has received approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch and operate a planned constellation of 3,236 internet satellites. That’s the backbone of Amazon’s Project Kuiper, an initiative to create a satellite-based broadband internet service designed to provide high-speed, low-latency connections to U.S.-based households that currently don’t have great access to a […]
Twitter has confirmed it has permanently banned the account of David Duke, former leader of white supremacist hate group the Ku Klux Klan. Duke had operated freely on its platform for years — amassing a following of around 53,000 and recently tweeting his support for president Trump to be re-elected. Now his @DrDavidDuke account page […]
Twitter has revealed a little more detail about the security breach it suffered earlier this month when a number of high-profile accounts were hacked to spread a cryptocurrency scam — writing in a blog post that a “phone spear phishing attack” was used to target a small number of its employees. Once the attackers had […]
The reception to Bronco 2021 — Ford’s flagship series of 4×4 vehicles that were revealed earlier this month — surpassed expectations of the company’s most optimistic initial projections, CEO Jim Hackett said in an earnings call Thursday. More than 150,000 customers have plunked down $100 to reserve a spot to order one of the vehicles, […]
Autonomous vehicle technology startup Argo AI is valued at $7.5 billion, just a little more than three years after the company burst on the scene with a $1 billion investment from Ford. The official valuation was confirmed Thursday, nearly two months after VW Group finalized its $2.6 billion investment in Argo AI . Under that […]
Japanese conglomerate Rakuten has pulled the plug on its U.S. online retail store, originally known as Buy.com, and will wind down its operations over the next two months, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The shutdown means that the U.S. headquarters will lay off its staff as well, meaning 87 people will lose their jobs, according […]
Social video platform Triller has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against its biggest rival TikTok and parent company ByteDance. The suit, which was filed in the U.S District Court for the Western Division of Texas, claims TikTok is infringing on Triller’s U.S Patent No. 9,691,429. The patent covers “systems and methods for creating music videos […]
Apple has a strong quarter despite coronavirus, Impossible Foods is coming to Walmart and NASA launches a new Mars rover. Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 30, 2020. The big story: Apple beats Q3 expectations Apple’s latest earning report suggests that the company is thriving despite COVID-19, with revenue of $59.69 billion in the third […]
Lyft continues to expand beyond its core ride-hailing business into bikes, scooters, transit and now rental cars. The company said Thursday that it’s taking Lyft Rentals, a pilot program that launched in December, and expanding it through a partnership with Sixt. Lyft Rentals initially gave folks in Los Angeles and San Francisco the ability to […]
Users gearing up to buy the latest iPhones are going to have to wait longer than they did last year. In a call following the release of Apple’s Q3 earnings, the company’s CFO Luca Maestri shared that compared to the September 2019 release of iPhone 11 models, Apple is expecting this year’s supply of new […]
Today after the bell, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon reported their earnings results. Each bested expectations, and all but one are up sharply in after-hours trading. Coming on the heels of a day’s worth of congressional hearings in which the four companies highlighted competition and downplayed their market position, the results are loud. The group’s […]
COVID-19 isn’t keeping Apple down. The company smashed Wall Street expectations, delivering Q3 revenue of $59.69 billion, beating down the $52.25 billion analysts had expected. The company also announced earnings per share of $2.58 compared to Wall Street expectation of $2.04 EPS. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Apple’s overall revenue was up nearly 11% year-over-year, reflecting […]
The sixth full-scale testing prototype of SpaceX’s Starship has successfully completed a key static fire test of its Raptor engines, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk . The so-called “SN5” Starship prototype is now ready to move on to a 150m (nearly 500 feet) short-duration flight test, which would mark the furthest yet […]
