The diagnostics startup Curative has received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its novel test to determine COVID-19 infection. The company says that its tests have already been used by the City of Los Angeles since late March and have tested over 53,000 city residents. Curative’s tests use an oral-fluid […]
Chinese investors, who have poured about $6 billion into Indian startups in the last two years, will be subjected to tougher scrutiny for their future investments in the world’s second largest internet market. India amended its foreign direct investment policy on Saturday to require all neighboring nations with which it shares a boundary to seek […]
Crowdfunding platform for startups Republic has acquired crowdfunding platform for games Fig, joining forces to help creators get their ideas off the ground. Users of each service will be happy to know they’ll continue as-is for the foreseeable future. The model of publicly accessible micro-equity has proven an effective one, and both platforms have recent […]
Before the COVID-19 pandemic shook up the world and reshaped the economy, Boston was quietly setting records. According to new venture data compiled by TechCrunch, the region set what was at least a local maximum in venture capital raised in the space of a single quarter in Q1 2020. But while Boston’s startup market announced […]
The Mendel Air Sensor app is the first app I open every morning. Before Reddit, before Gmail, before NYT. I roll over, grab my phone and check my plants. I don’t know if there’s a higher honor I can bestow on an app. The Mendel Air Sensor is a game-changer for indoor growers. It offers […]
Another startup has turned to downsizing and fund raising to help weather the uncertainty around the economy amid the global coronavirus health pandemic. People.ai, a predictive sales startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Iconiq, Lightspeed and other investors and last year valued at around $500 million, has laid off around 30 people, working out to about […]
Ventilators assembled by GM and Ventec Life Systems were delivered to hospitals Thursday night with more making their way to facilities today and through the weekend, the first in a 30,000-unit order with the U.S. government. The deliveries, which went to hospitals in Chicago and Olympia Fields, Ill., are a milestone for the two companies […]
If you have ever attended (or tuned into) one of Monzo’s many community events, you are likely familiar with the work of Simon Balmain. An early employee of the challenger bank, he has played a long-term role in helping to build Monzo’s customer support and community efforts and was often seen emceeing events. Now TechCrunch […]
A few months ago, the idea of a hand-washing app would have seemed trivial, at best. We’re all adults here, right? We’ve been washing our hands our entire lives. But things change. It’s mid-April and we’re afraid to go outside and engage with other humans — and thorough hand-washing is one of very few tools […]
Bradley Tusk has carved a unique path in the VC investment landscape: A longtime political and communications operative, he has built a track record for Tusk Ventures by going after highly regulated industries, rather than shying away from them. Whether it is ride-hailing, sports betting, cannabis or myriad other regulated sectors, Tusk takes the approach […]
Does working from home have to mean sitting in a chatroom all day or always being available for a video call? Real-time chat and video platforms are great for building camaraderie and maintaining a sense of connection with remote teams, but when you need to focus for a few hours, it can be tough to […]
A new flurry of tweets from President Trump is pushing the limits of social platform policies designed explicitly to keep users safe from the spread of the novel coronavirus, both online and off. In a series of rapid-fire messages on Friday morning, Trump issued a call to “LIBERATE” Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan, all states led […]
A coalition of EU scientists and technologists that’s developing what’s billed as a “privacy-preserving” standard for Bluetooth-based proximity tracking, as a proxy for COVID-19 infection risk, wants Apple and Google to make changes to an API they’re developing for the same overarching purpose. The Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) uncloaked on April 1, calling for […]
Stripe raises new funding, Uber acknowledges financial uncertainty and a controversial facial recognition startup accidentally exposes its source code. Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 17, 2020. 1. Stripe raises $600M at $36B valuation in Series G extension, says it has $2B on its balance sheet The economy may be contracting as a result of […]
Apple has done a good job closing the gap between Spotify and its own music streaming service. But the former still maintains some advantages, a list that until recently included a robust web interface. As a Spotify user myself, I find myself frequently using the browser interface on different devices. Apple’s been working on its […]
Would you pay with a “Google Card?” TechCrunch has obtained imagery that shows Google is developing its own physical and virtual debit cards. The Google card and associated checking account will allow users to buy things with a card, mobile phone or online. It connects to a Google app with new features that let users […]
NASA and SpaceX have set a specific date and time target for their historic first astronaut launch aboard a private spacecraft from U.S. soil, with a planned date of May 27 and a target liftoff time of 4:32 PM EDT (1:32 PM PDT) from Kennedy Space Center, at SpaceX’s Launch Complex 39A (LC-39). The mission […]
Airbnb has ended its contracts with contingent workers early and postponed summer internships, Protocol reports. Contractors at Airbnb serve as property inspectors, home consultants and more. Contractors will reportedly receive no less than two weeks’ pay after receiving notice from their temp agencies. Airbnb will also reportedly delay hiring undergraduate students until next year. TechCrunch […]
The Europas Awards for European Tech Startups is doing what everyone in tech has done before: pivoting! Given the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be ‘going virtual’ on an amazing new platform, to be unveiled. (OK, but not VR – just yet!). A percentage of proceeds from the event will be donated to charities across Europe […]
Vox Media is making a number of cutbacks in response to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to Vox itself, the digital media company owns properties including Curbed, Eater, Recode, SB Nation and The Verge — and it acquired New York Magazine last year. In a staff memo obtained by TechCrunch (and […]
