Fabricating a circuit board isn’t tough but it takes a while. The back and forth, the bugs, and all of the shipping costs can turn a small project into a big problem. That’s why Botfactory raised $1.3 million to stick a PCB printer on your desk. Founded by NYU grad students Nicolas Vansnick and Carlos Ospina along with NYU professor Michael Knox, BotFactory came about when Vansnick… Read More
China’s Uber-like ride hailing powerhouse Didi Chuxing is looking to build its own self-driving car project, according to an interview with CEO Cheng Wei with Bloomberg, and it’s looking for data scientists with experience in the field from Silicon Valley to hep get the job done. The company has also had talks with driverless startup UiSee Technology’s Beijing-based… Read More
Symphony, the enterprise messaging app that counts a number of major investment banks among its investors and customers, is today taking the wraps of a run of new features that catapults the app into the next level of productivity solutions.
The company is adding new voice, video and screen sharing features in the form of a new product called Symphony Meetings, and it is also launching the… Read More
Today’s chatbots, for the most part, aren’t all that useful, but what if you could use them to learn a new language? When it comes to learning languages, using what you’ve learned in the context of a conversation is extremely useful. If you are learning online, though, you often don’t have anybody to talk to. That’s why Duolingo today introduced chatbots to its… Read More
European car rental comparison startup Happycar has raised a further €2.6 million million in funding. Backing the company’s third round are lead investor Creathor Venture, HR Ventures, Capnamic Ventures, NWZ Digital, and TruVenturo. Read More
Amazon has just announced a price reduction for its online grocery shopping service, AmazonFresh, that will bring the subscription service down to $14.99 per month for Prime members. Effectively, this change makes adding optional grocery delivery a new perk for those who subscribe to Amazon’s annual membership program.
This is not the first time Amazon has announced new pricing for… Read More
Animoto is launching a new product for businesses that want to post their own marketing videos for Facebook and other social networks — but don’t necessarily have the team or the skills needed to create something slick.
The company already offers products that automatically assemble your photos and videos into a video slideshow, and it’s been adding more tools for businesses. Read More
New York Comic Con is a lot of things – a place to see watch people parade around in Netflix original series cosplay, an opportunity to get Lou Ferrigno to sign your Hulk DVD, and there’s apparently a Legends of the Hidden Temple panel later today. One thing it’s not is a tech show. But some announcements do manage to slip through here and there. Certainly Wacom makes sense.… Read More
Google held its biggest ever hardware event on Tuesday, and we got a glimpse at devices that bear more of Google’s fingerprint than anything they’ve done before. Yet most of us here at TechCrunch, including myself and TCBC guest for this week Frederic Lardinois, came away with the feeling that the event was less about hardware than it was about Google’s work with… Read More
Hello, São Paulo. I’ve spoken with some folks and we’ll be meeting at Cubo tomorrow at 7pm until 10pm. There will be free booze and some finger food and I’d love to see you there. This is basically a micro-meetup – an opportunity to talk about your startup and network. No agenda, no speeches, and no onstage pitching. I’ll be there and I’m ready to hear… Read More
Netflix is continuing its slow crawl into the movie theater, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ says that Netflix has struck a deal with iPic Entertainment, a luxury theater chain, that would allow Netflix to feature 10 of its original films in theaters on the same day that they launch across Netflix. iPic has venues in 15 markets across the U.S., but the report says… Read More
Twyla, a year-and-a-half-year-old startup that collaborates with artists to create exclusive prints for sale at its site, at prices that range from $1,000 to $5,000, has raised $14 million in new funding led by GV, with participation from earlier investors IVP and Redpoint Ventures. The company has now raised $19 million altogether. Twyla was cofounded by HomeAway cofounder Brian Sharples… Read More
It’s not like there’s a shortage of lunch options for corporate employees, but that’s not stopping on-demand food startup Munchery from testing its luck with corporate lunch delivery. Today, Munchery will start delivering lunch to office employees in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York. This is an extension of Munchery’s @Work initiative, which already… Read More
The Internet of Things — the area of technology where previously dumb objects are getting equipped with radio signals and microprocessors to be connected, monitored, controlled and supercharged through networks — is still in its early days, but one of the more interesting startups in the field is raising some significant money as it gears up to take a leading role in its… Read More
This morning, Faraday Future Dragon Racing unveiled its livery for the third season of the Formula E all-electric open-wheel racing series in Hong Kong. The car’s black-and-white fade pattern echoes the Faraday Future logo, though the company says the design takes its cues from an electromagnetic wave. In the video below, Pontus Fontaeus, chief designer of interiors at Faraday, says… Read More
With Cruise and Waze and Uber and Comma and Otto and Tesla and all the rest, it’s clear that the automotive world is on the edge of a dramatic cliff. Things are about to change and fast. It’s why we heavily featured mobility companies a few weeks back at TechCrunch Disrupt SF. And it’s why Aol’s Autoblog is holding their first conference around the topic, too. The event… Read More
A 2015 data breach at UK ISP TalkTalk has landed the company with a £400,000 fine from the national data protection agency — a record penalty for the ICO to hand out, although £100k shy of the current maximum it can impose. Read More
Story Terrace today announced it has raised £500,000 ($640,000) to continue its mission to tell the stories of those you love. The customers are typically kids who want to buy a highly personal gift for their parents around an anniversary, or startup founders who have recently exited a business and want to set the record straight — or at least firmly crooked. Read More
Polar’s been doing heart rate monitoring before it was cool. Way, way before. In fact, the company’s been making the things since 1982, giving it a three-decade head-start on most of the competition. The Finnish company’s latest device has that functionality built in, naturally, utilizing an optical sensor on the back and the company’s proprietary algorithm to… Read More
The notion of a kitchen with a built in robot chef capable of whipping up a lobster bisque at the push of a button sounds like something out of Futurama. But it technically exists — at least as a demo prototype. UK startup Moley Robotics has been working on the concept for several years now, starting off in 2014 and showing off a demo unit last year. Read More
