Tandem, one of the most sought after companies to graduate from Y Combinator’s summer batch, will emerge from the accelerator program with a supersized seed round and an uncharacteristically high valuation. The months-old business, which is developing communication software for remote teams after pivoting from crypto, is raising a $7.5 million seed financing at a
Month: August 2019
The convenience and economy of Keurig K-cup single-serve coffee makers contribute to their growing popularity, along with a seemingly endless selection of brands and blends of K-Cups. Heading into Labor Day, Amazon sliced the prices on an appealing variety of Keurig coffee makers. We’ve found the best discounts on Keurig K-cup from Amazon and gathered
Having the ability to say “Alexa” and have your questions instantly answered may be nothing short of futuristic, but with different Amazon Echo devices all offering the same voice assistant, which one should you get? Both the Amazon Echo and Amazon Echo Dot have built-in omnidirectional microphones designed to pick up your voice from anywhere
Help celebrate the launch of her latest album with a virtual interactive performance. For those of you unfamiliar with the works of Lindsey Stirling, the talented musician is best known for her one-of-a-kind violin performances in which she blends a variety of musical genres while at the same time performing choreographed dance routines. First rising
Combating human exploitation by providing victims a safe space in which to tell their stories. According to research conducted by The International Labour Organization, human trafficking is currently a $150 billion global industry, with over 40.3 million people trapped in horrific situations ranging from forced labor to prostitution. That’s 5.4 victims for every 1,000 people,
It’s finally Bag Week again! the most wonderful week of the year at TechCrunch. Just in time for back to school, we’re bringing you reviews of bags of all varieties: from backpacks to rollers to messengers to fanny packs. This year, like last year, I decided to focus on a specific niche in the bag
[embedded content] ANYbotics, the Swiss robotics company behind the four-legged, oil rig-inspecting ANYmal robot, has released its latest autonomous, legged robot. And it’s boasting a shiny new red coat of paint and a plethora of other under-the-hood improvements. Called ANYmal C, the new robot was unveiled at the World Robot Conference in Beijing. It builds
Photo: Getty In June, Google began implementing a new policy that required companies running ads with abortion-related keywords to explicitly state whether or not they provide abortion services and then added a disclosure directly on the ad to prevent crisis pregnancy centers from deceiving users. But it appears the policy still allows these dangerously misleading
Ten years ago, a hardware startup launched a fitness device on stage at TechCrunch 50. The $99 gadget combined a pedometer with a diet monitoring system, designed to help wearers meet their fitness goals. Of course, a lot has changed for Fitbit in the intervening decade. The company has since become synonymous with fitness trackers
Photo: Getty My in-laws are Canadian and thus prone to frequent bouts of trashing the broken American political system and then immediately apologizing (with the exception of my brother-in-law Dan who is a true asshole). Well, the joke’s on you, suckers. Now your system is hopeless compromised, too! On Sunday, reports emerged that the agency
Photo: George Frey (Getty Images) Progress in fighting measles in Europe has taken a substantial step back. This week, the World Health Organization stripped the UK of its measles-free status, just two years after it commended the country for eradicating the virus locally. The UK’s fate could very well be a harbinger of what will
A high school student with severe nut allergies displays an EpiPen and wears a protective mask during an interview in Charleston, West Virginia in 2008.Photo: Bob Bird (AP) Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, an Isreali drug maker, has announced that a generic version of EpiPen for kids is now available in pharmacies at $300 for a two-pack
Y Combinator, the genesis for many of the companies that have shaped Silicon Valley including Airbnb, PagerDuty and Stripe, has minted another 200 some graduates. Half of those companies made their pitch to investors today during Day 1 of Y Combinator’s Summer 2019 Demo Day event and we’re here to tell you which startups are
Image: Apple Behold, the Apple Card is now available to everyone in the United States. And to celebrate, Apple has expanded 3 percent cash back for Uber and Uber Eats purchases. Earlier this month, Apple rolled it out via an invite-only preview, complete with a whopping 10 video tutorial. You have to apply through the
Photo: Andrew Liszewski (Gizmodo) Philips’ Hue was one of the first smart home upgrades that worked well and was genuinely useful. After almost seven years, we still think they’re the best smart lighting solution on the market. But if you’re not entirely convinced it’s an upgrade you need, Philips’ new Bluetooth Hue bulbs are the
Hi, my name is Brent (“Hi, Brent”), and I live in a van. No, not down by a river. No, you’re not the first person to think of that joke. I actually live and work out of a van, zig-zagging the country and documenting much of the stuff that happens. In the beginning, I was
Photo: Getty After a quarter-century of continuous operation, the San Francisco FogCam is set to go offline on August 30. Jeff Schwartz and Dan Wong, who go by Webdog and Danno, set up the cam on the San Francisco State University campus in 1994. Advertisement Schwartz told SF Gate he decided to try the FogCam
No Mr. Bond, I expect you to…have no time to die!GIF: Sony The age of just calling it “Bond 25” is over. It’s time for, err, well, No Time to Die. The title of the long-in-the-making return to James Bond for Craig—and his final one in the role he took over since 2006’s Casino Royale—was
Artist’s concept of the Europa Clipper.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech A mission to sample Jupiter’s moon Europa for signs of life will move into its final design and construction phase, according to a NASA announcement. Scientists have long wondered whether the ice-covered moon could harbor life in a subsurface liquid water ocean. NASA has committed to a launch
Sunil Rajaraman Contributor More posts by this contributor ‘This is Your Life in Silicon Valley’: Former Pinterest president, Moment CEO Tim Kendall on smartphone addiction ‘This is Your Life in Silicon Valley’: Nomiku Founder CEO Lisa Fetterman on why Silicon Valley doesn’t care about female founders Welcome to this week’s transcribed edition of This is
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. We have a special episode ready for you today. As many of you know, it’s that time of year when hundreds of nascent startups make their big 2-minute pitch to the top venture capitalists of “Silicon Valley” (San
We’re just a few weeks away from kicking off our flagship event, Disrupt SF 2019, that takes place on October 2-4. If you’re an investor looking to increase your portfolio, it’s the perfect time to start planning your Disrupt strategy. Never fear, we’re here to help you make the most of your valuable time. But
H20.ai‘s mission is to democratize AI by providing a set of tools that frees companies from relying on teams of data scientists. Today it got a bushel of money to help. The company announced a $72.5 million Series D round led by Goldman Sachs and Ping An Global Voyager Fund. Previous investors Wells Fargo, NVIDIA
A pair of digital news companies are teaming up, with PressReader acquiring News360. PressReader was founded back in 1999 as Newspaper Direct. It now operates a platform that converts newspapers and magazines into digital formats, while offering a $29.99 monthly subscription that provides unlimited access to more than 7,000 of those titles. News360, meanwhile, is
NurseFly, a startup that’s created a job marketplace for short-term nursing positions, is announcing its acquisition by holding company IAC. While the companies aren’t disclosing the deal terms, a source with knowledge of the acquisition said the price was $15 million. Co-founder and CEO Parth Bhakta told me that hospitals often hire travel nurses (signed
The Los Angeles-based gaming company Scopely is expanding its geographical footprint in Spain and Ireland. The company is building out its Barcelona offices, tripling its office space and planning to significantly expand its 100-person-strong team in the city. Meanwhile, Scopely is also planning to invest heavily in expanding its strategy-focused game studio, DIGIT, in Dublin.
Starship Technologies invented the category of rolling autonomous sidewalk delivery robots, and to date, the company has made over 100,000 commercial deliveries on behalf of customers. The milestone comes as Starship adds $40 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to $85 million. When it announced an additional $25 million in June 2018,
It’s all fun and games until someone gets stabbed by a malfunctioning robotic cowboy. Season 3 of HBO’s critically-acclaimed series Westworld doesn’t even have a release date yet and already the premium cable provider is well underway promoting the latest installment of its sci-fi western series. **Slight spoilers ahead** Premiering at unknown date next year,
Royal Dutch Shell, the energy giant known for its fossil fuel production and hundreds of Shell gas stations, is creeping into the electric vehicle-power business. The company’s first DC fast charger launched Monday at a Shell gas station in Singapore. Greenlots, an EV charging startup acquired by Shell in January, installed the charger. This is
Most of us, by now, are aware that all sorts of crazy stuff is happening to the planet’s climate and the blame is pretty much universally recognized as lying with humans, pumping more and more carbon into the atmosphere. Scientists are now saying tree planting, for instance, has to happen very, very quickly if we