Airbnb is tweaking its landing page and introducing new features all aimed at longer-term stays, as the online rental marketplace looks to capitalize on a growing segment of its business. The changes are being rolled out just days after Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company had raised $1 billion and laid out plans to […]
Rocket Lab is in the process of developing a way to recover the rockets it launches, despite their originally being designed as fully expendable launch vehicles. The company had a surprise announcement on Wednesday: It has already managed to successfully catch an Electron in mid-air, during a test meant to prove out the feasibility of […]
Netflix is launching a new series on Instagram that will focus on taking care of yourself and your mental health during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The series, which will begin airing on Instagram Live tomorrow at 7 PM PT, features the stars of some of Netflix’s top Young Adult shows and movies, including “To All […]
Zoom has been served with another class action lawsuit — this time by one of its shareholders, who says he lost money after the company “overstated” its security measures, which led its share price to tank. The video conferencing giant has seen its daily usage rocket from 10 million users to 200 million since the […]
Earlier this week, the Equity crew caught up with Work-Bench investor Jon Lehr to get his take on the current market, and how his firm goes about making investment decisions. The conversation was a treat, so we cut a piece of it off for everyone to listen to. The full audio and a loose transcript […]
Mozilla Corporation announced today that it has chosen long-time chairwoman Mitchell Baker to be CEO, replacing Chris Beard, who announced last August he would be stepping down at the end of the year. Baker represents a logical choice to lead the company. At a time of great turmoil in the world at large, she brings […]
Google’s game-streaming service Stadia is now free for anyone with a Gmail account, the company announced today. Assuming you’ve got a compatible device and controller — and good internet in one of the 14 supported countries — you can sign up right now and get the “Pro” edition with a handful of built-in games for […]
There will be plenty of jokes. “Why is tonight different from all other nights,” the first of The Four Questions, will almost certainly serve as a laugh line in all but the most serious Seders this year. As for the plague — haven’t we had enough plague talk already? For Jews across the world, Passover […]
On Wednesday, two-time presidential Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders announced that he would conclude his bid for the party’s nomination, marking an end to a deeply influential political campaign that championed systemic progressive reforms and reframed the nation’s political conversation as a whole. “I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win […]
Facebook’s ad review system is failing to prevent coronavirus misinformation from being targeted at its users, according to an investigation by Consumer Reports. The not-for-profit consumer advocacy organization set out to test Facebook’s system by setting up a page for a made-up organization, called the Self Preservation Society, and creating ads that contained false or […]
A new startup called twine wants to help people feel less isolated and alone. Though the project has been in the works for around six months, it’s launching at a time when people are struggling with being cut off from family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and others due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting government […]
France’s health minister Olivier Véran and digital minister Cédric O have officially announced that the French government is working on a smartphone app to slow the spread of COVID-19. The government is putting a stamp of approval on the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) project but remains cautious about what to expect from an app. […]
The CEO of Twitter and Square makes a major commitment to COVID-19 relief, Tesla shuts down its U.S. factories until May and PlayStation unveils its latest controller. Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 8, 2020. 1. Jack Dorsey creates $1B COVID-19 relief fund using Square equity Jack Dorsey announced in a series of tweets that […]
Fintech startups were hot news before the COVID-19 era, but the pandemic hasn’t bumped the sector out of the headlines. Companies that were pitching optimistic news a few weeks ago are now cutting staff. Others are facing a surge of users trying to find their financial footing in the face of uncertainty. Some fintech shops […]
Thrive, founded by Twitter alumni Deepak Rao and Siddharth Batra, wants to fund student expenses by looking at job offer letters as a way to evaluate loans. Today, it launched its loan platform and is accessible to students on over 400 campuses across 31 states. The San Francisco company helps underfunded students, a group that […]
With more folks working at home than ever, and many on machines outside the purview of IT and security teams, it’s becoming increasingly imperative to find creative ways to protect them from harm. Today, Box announced it was adding automated malware detection tools to Box Shield, the security product it announced last year. Aaron Levie, […]
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. So far, 2020 has proven to be a year of surprises and disappointments. Over the past month, we’ve seen companies like Toast go from raising huge new rounds this year at heightened valuations to layoffs […]
Instacart today is rolling out new ordering options aimed at unlocking more delivery windows amid a surge of demand for its online grocery service due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The company is introducing “fast & flexible” and “order ahead” options, which will shift lower-priority orders further out on the schedule. This, in turn, allows Instacart […]
Last year Builder.ai raised one of Europe’s largest Series A investments at $29.5 million, led by Lakestar and Jungle Ventures, with participation from SoftBank’s DeepCore. The company’s platform, which allows for the fast-build of software and apps, has been used to create products for BBC, DiditFor, Manscore and ZikTruck. It’s now launching The Studio Store, […]
Opportunity’s a hot currency, and every early-stage startup founder’s on the lookout for it. Anything and everything that can help bring the dream to fruition, right? You’ll find three days packed with opportunity at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2020 on September 14-16. Care to know how you can super-size your Disrupt opportunity? We’ll get to that […]
