In its quarterly earnings today, iRobot announced an indefinite delay of its lawnmowing robot, Terra. The Roomba maker has abandoned plans to launch to the long-awaited home robot in 2020. No surprise, the company says fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame for the uncertainty. More specifically, it blames “current market realities.” Here’s the […]
Lincoln Motor, the luxury brand under Ford, has canceled plans to build an all new electric vehicle based on Rivian’s skateboard platform. Crain’s Detroit reported that dealers were informed Tuesday. Rivian and Ford said in a statement sent to TechCrunch that this was a mutual decision based on the current environment, which was meant to […]
Rapid7 announced today after the closing bell that it will be acquiring DivvyCloud, a cloud security and governance startup, for $145 million in cash and stock. With Divvy, the company moves more deeply into the cloud, something that Lee Weiner, chief innovation officer, says the company has been working toward, even before the pandemic pushed […]
Apple has now added COVID-19 testing sites to its Apple Maps app across the U.S., covering all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The update provides testing locations including hospitals, clinics, urgent care facilities, general practitioners, pharmacies and more, as well as dedicated COVID-19 testing sites, where tests are available. In addition, COVID-19 is now a […]
The coronavirus pandemic has paralyzed the global economy, but large tech companies remain relatively well-positioned to reach into their deep pockets to make big moves. In an effort to call attention to the plight of smaller businesses — and the disproportionate power and resources of larger ones — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria […]
As the world continues to lean more heavily on remote collaboration technologies, investors and entrepreneurs are growing more curious about how behavioral shifts will impact the future of work and education. Bonsai, a new online platform virtually pairing students and young professionals with mentors in professional fields, is launching today with fresh funding. The startup’s […]
Will receiving PPP funding count against me when I renew my E-2 or file my I-485 for my green card given the “Public Charge” restrictions?
Some Hulu customers found that the video streaming service was no longer working on their Apple devices, beginning in the early morning hours on Tuesday. According to tweets and other social media posts from customers, as well as from websites like DownDetector, Hulu began experiencing issues in the early AM Pacific Time in the U.S., […]
During a virtual conference briefing this week, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk provided more details about a new plan that his company has to mitigate the impact of their Starlink satellite constellation on night sky observation. Musk first revealed on Twitter the intent to build a “sun visor” to lower their visibility, but we […]
In a blog post today, YouTube announced that it’s finally bringing its fact-checking information panels to the U.S. First introduced in Brazil and India, the expansion comes as COVID-19-related misinformation and conspiracy has proliferated online and through certain media. Fact-check articles will begin appearing in relevant search results, using information pulled from a dozen or […]
Spotify is tapping into the increased usage of video conferencing during the coronavirus quarantine to grow its own podcast business. The company’s podcast creation platform Anchor, acquired for an estimated $140 million in 2019, is today introducing a new feature that will allow podcasters to turn their video chats and virtual hangouts into podcast-ready audio. […]
Earlier today at the National Assembly, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe gave a lengthy speech about post-lockdown measures in France ahead of a debate with deputies. The government originally planned to discuss France’s contact-tracing app StopCovid. It broadened the subject of the debate to post-lockdown policies a couple of days ago. But Philippe said that […]
Graduation goes virtual, more details emerge about the U.K.’s contact tracing app and Shopify launches a mobile commerce app. Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 28, 2020. 1. Facebook will stream a virtual graduation ceremony featuring Oprah and Miley Cyrus Here’s some consolation for the Class of 2020: a virtual graduation ceremony, which kicks off […]
I see far more research articles than I could possibly write up. This column collects the most interesting of those papers and advances, along with notes on why they may prove important in the world of tech and startups. This week: one step closer to self-powered on-skin electronics; people dressed as car seats; how to […]
Sarah Kunst graduated from college in 2008 and went straight into the luxury marketing world with a job at Chanel. Then, the stock market collapsed and Kunst was laid off. It was that layoff, Kunst says, that brought her to the world of startups and eventually to founding her own firm, Cleo Capital, to invest […]
A lot of restaurants have shuttered in the wake of stay-at-home guidance and government orders for non-essential businesses to close down, so a startup called Cheetah that provided a wholesale delivery service for them pivoted to selling to consumers, and now it’s raised a round of funding, both to expand its business and to help […]
More than 150 investors and entrepreneurs in India are funding dozens of projects in a bid to help millions better combat the COVID-19 epidemic and help the nation’s booming startup ecosystem withstand the economic devastation the pandemic has caused. The investors said they have contributed 1 billion Indian rupees — or $13 million — of […]
Instagram is today launching a new way for users to fundraise for nonprofits via Instagram Live, amid the coronavirus pandemic. While the company had already offered Donation Stickers for the use in Stories, the new Live Donations feature will allow anyone to create fundraisers while live streaming, either alone or with others for a sort […]
The world has been turned upside down the past few weeks, but one lesson of business remains as important as ever: treating your customers well is the best avenue to future business strength, particularly at a moment of extreme stress. As businesses come to terms with the economic crisis underway, executives are moving resources from […]
With the company growing in leaps and bounds, Zoom went shopping for a cloud infrastructure vendor to help it with its growing scale problem. In a surprising choice, the company went with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Zoom has become the go-to video conferencing service as much of the world has shut down due to the pandemic, […]
