Lola, the all-cotton tampon subscription service, soaks up $3 million in seed funding

Lola, the first tampon subscription service to use 100 percent cotton tampons, is today announcing the close of a $3 million seed round of funding. The round was led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures with participation from Brand Foundry, BBG Ventures, BoxGroup, VaynerRSE, 14W, Seth Berk … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

YouTube invests in female creators

YouTube announced this morning two programs aimed at funding and highlighting women’s voices across its video network. One sees the company forging a year-long partnership with U.N. to appoint top female creators as the first Change Ambassadors for the organization’s Sustainable … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Are site reliability engineers the next data scientists?

It’s no secret that “data scientist” is one of the hottest job titles going. DJ Patil famously proclaimed data scientist “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century” before moving on to join the White House as the first chief data scientist of the U.S. Once a rarified in-house role at a … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Politically themed social network Roust launches iOS app

Launched last July as “a social network for connecting with others to discuss polarizing topics such as politics, religion and social issues,” Roust releases their first iOS app today to give members of their network another way to connect and discuss topics. Given the crazy poli … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Mozilla tests the waters for Firefox OS IoT apps, including a Samantha-style virtual assistant

Back in December, Mozilla called it a day with its failed Firefox OS for mobile business, and said it would pivot the technology into a new Internet of Things strategy. Amid a good dose of skepticism that a platform (and organization) that failed in one area can succeed in anothe … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Spotify Expands Curation Services With The Launch Of Fresh Finds

On the heels of the success of its Discover Weekly feature, Spotify is adding another curated service so that users can find new music. Called Fresh Finds, the new weekly Wednesday feature, available through to all Spotify users in its “Browse” tool, will uncover new artists for … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Hands-on with the $949 mind-bending Meta 2 augmented reality headset

Right now this industry is full of products that are cumbersome and ugly enough that you’d probably swipe left on Beyoncé wearing a pair, but this past week I had the chance to play with one that was, okay, still pretty unfashionable, but also really amazing. Meta CEO Meron Gribe … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Augment Raises Over $3 Million In Series A Funding From Salesforce Ventures

Augment, a Paris-based Augmented Reality (AR) startup announced this morning that they raised more than $3 million from Salesforce Ventures to further expand company operations and also specific integrations with Salesforce software. This brings the total investment amount raised … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Jobbatical, the marketplace for tech gigs abroad, scores $2M led by USV and LocalGlobe

Jobbatical, the Estonia-headquartered job matching site for tech gigs abroad, has raised a $2 million funding round led by Union Square Ventures, and Saul Klein and Robin Klein’s LocalGlobe. Previous investor Smartcap also participated. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Facebook faces German antitrust privacy probe

Facebook’s data harvesting practices are facing yet another probe in Europe. This time the German federal competition authority is initiating proceedings — rather than it being a European Member State’s national data protection watchdog. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Delivery Hero to exit China amid “anything but sane” competition

Berlin-based Delivery Hero has built up a large network of online food ordering and delivery operations globally that was valued at over $3 billion as of its last fundraise, but it has now decided to call it quits in one of the biggest markets in the world.TechCrunch has learned, … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

MedyMatch raises $2M to bring AI to medical imaging

MedyMatch Technology bills itself as an artificial intelligence healthcare startup. It’s applying AI in the form of “deep vision and advanced cognitive analytics” to the analysis of medical imaging scans to help radiologists or emergency department physicians recognise hard to sp … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Africa’s Commercial Drones Take Off

Startups Rocketmine and Aeroshutter are flying and booking revenue Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Auto listings platform Carsome raises $2M to expand in Southeast Asia

Carsome, a car listings portal based in Malaysia, is gearing up to enter new markets in Southeast Asia after raising a $2 million Series A. The round was led by IdeaRiverRun, a Malaysian private equity firm, with participation from IMG Investment Partners and 500 Startups. Read M … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Facebook adds 36k Telenor employees to Facebook at Work as it gears up for global launch

Facebook at Work — the enterprise version of Facebook that lets businesses build their own social networks — has racked up over 60,000 companies on a waiting list while still in closed beta. And as it gears up for a full global launch and new features like an app platform later t … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Blippar augmented reality search engine raises $54 million Series D

Blippar, the AR company that lets you see extra, rich content by simply pointing your phone at an object, has today announced the close of a $54 million Series D funding round. The round was led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the strategic investment arm of the Government of Malays … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

How I built a hoverboard company and then blew it up

I was first introduced to Hoverboards while watching Casey Neistat’s daily Vlogs on YouTube. I thought, “Wow. That’s pretty cool!” and started searching online to purchase one myself. When I looked at the cost of an IOHawk at $1,800.00 or the Phunkeeduck at $1,500.00, I thought t … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

HomeHero wants to work with hospitals to connect in-home caregivers to seniors

CEO Kyle Hill spent a lot of time building technology for his parents that would help them find better service for their aging family members — who were around 2,000 miles away across the country. So, when his last startup idea didn’t work out, he decided to bet the company on a … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Marketplace app Mercari nabs $75M to become Japan’s first unicorn

Mercari, a peer-to-peer marketplace app, has claimed the title of Japan’s first startup unicorn after raising 8.4 billion yen (about $75 million) at a valuation of over $1 billion. This is the Tokyo-based company’s first Series D and brings its total funding to 12.6 billion yen ( … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The future of on-demand: Where Are We Going, and are we getting a Lyft?

If the on-demand economy was a young pup in the late 2000s, then it has since evolved into a much more sophisticated animal: strong, resilient and capable of adapting to its environment. This movement was bred from the human desire for immediacy. Agile startups evolved quickly wi … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Accelerator NFX Guild unveiled its second startup batch today: Here’s who just graduated

The year-old Bay Area accelerator NFX Guild presented 16 companies to a crowded room of 200 investors down on Sand Hill Road today, and the room was reportedly very energized. Little wonder. NFX was founded by seasoned entrepreneurs and operators James Currier, Stan Chudnovsky an … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly breaks American spaceflight record

When former International Space Station Commander Scott Kelly steps out of a Soyuz descent module on the Kazakhstan steppe at around 8.30PM PST later today, after 340 days on the International Space Station, he will have spent more continuous time in space than any other American … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Getting predictive about politics (and everything else)

Nearly seven decades after the Chicago Tribune’s infamous presidential race headline, we’re still seeing incorrect predictions in political races. Take the 2016 Iowa caucus for example, where Ted Cruz triumphed despite expert predictions to the contrary. It’s enough to make you w … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Nanigans brings its social ad tools to Twitter

Social marketing company Nanigans announced today that it’s launching support for Twitter.Nanigans is best known as a Facebook ad automation tool, but CEO Ric Calvillo said last year that one reason for raising the company’s $24 million Series B was to expand beyond Facebook. He’ … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Strange sensations: HTC’s brave new virtual world

The first thing I notice is a feeling of weight on my face. Followed by a sensation of standing in boundless space. A monochrome 360-degree vanishing point vista winks into view. I look around, blinking into the far distance and very quickly my adjusting eyes fill with grit… Welc … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Daqri acquires 1066 Labs to power its augmented reality smart helmet

Augmented reality smart helmet company Daqri announced today that it had acquired 1066 Labs, a leading head-mounted display manufacturer focused on serving enterprise clients with augmented reality solutions. Founded in 2007, 1066 Labs manufactures a variety of “see-through compo … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Slack announces it’s building voice and video chat

Slack laid out its plan to stay ahead of its workplace chat competitors today with new products for its 2.4 million daily active users, up from 2 million in December. The big changes will center around message enhancements, greater Usability, and voice and video chat. You’ll soon … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Violence In the West Bank after Waze led Israeli soldiers into Palestinian danger zone

A battle broke out just outside of Jerusalem Monday after GPS mapping app Waze led Israeli soldiers into the Kalandia Palestinian refugee camp. According to several reports, two armed soldiers from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Okets unit were traveling in a military vehicle al … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Meet the foxes behind LA’s latest startup gem

Scrolling through the @shopboxfox Instagram account is enough to notice the clean-cut aesthetic: feminine, driven, artistic. However, the ladies behind LA’s BOXFOX, Chelsea Moore, Sabena Suri and Jenni Olivero, are channeling much more than their social media accounts let on; the … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Microsoft’s Brad Smith stands with Apple while passionately defending encryption

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer gave a passionate defense of encryption today, saying his coming stood with Apple in its legal battle with the FBI. He made his remarks during a keynote address at the RSA security conference in San Francisco. “There is no … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Extensify lets you “tweak” your iOS apps without jailbreaking

A newly launched “tweak store” called Extensify gives iOS users an alternative to jailbreaking their devices, by offering a simpler way to install modified versions of popular third-party applications like Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, WhatsApp, Vine, Instagram and others. Unlike w … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Google invests $30 million in European news tech companies

Pouring petrol on the bonfire of news tech, Google announced that it has invested more than $30m into projects spanning the European news tech scene. The fund’s goal is to ‘help stimulate innovation in digital journalism’ over the next three years, Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO sai … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The presidential candidate who might do the most for your healthcare is not who you think

Despite many healthcare insurers having decried Obamacare as the end of days, the truth–as measured by both stock prices and revenue results–is the nation’s largest healthcare insurance companies have been steadily growing. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Pebble just cut the price of the Time and Time Round smartwatches

Pebble’s latest smartwatches are now a little less cash. The Time Round is $199 and the Time is $149. At these prices, the Pebble sits more comfortable among its competition. Fitbit’s new Blaze costs $199 and Garmin’s Vivoactive is $219. At $149 rather than $199, the Pebble Time … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Facebook fights Periscope by showing Live videos higher than saved streams

It doesn’t matter if it was Live if you missed it. And Facebook knows that people watch actually Live streams 3X longer than saved ones. So it’s changing the News Feed to prefer on-going broadcasts. Twitter’s big advantage with Periscope is that they’re both inherently real-time … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The hot e-commerce app Wish has “hundreds of millions of users” (plus other fascinating stats)

Last week, toward the end of a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, GGV Capital managing director Hans Tung took the stage to interview one of his portfolio CEOs, Peter Szulczewski of Wish. With an increasingly boisterous crowd as their background, Tung managed to ferret out lots o … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Checkbook lets you email anyone a digital check and deposit it free

If you’re sick of running out of paper checks and stamps or hassling with routing numbers to send zero-fee payments, you can bank on Checkbook. The startup today launches its digital check service where you can send anyone a check with just their email address, and they can depos … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Facebook LatAm VP arrested in Brazil over failure to comply with WhatsApp court order

It looks like Apple isn’t the only tech giant battling against authorities over privacy issues and court orders. Today it emerged that Facebook’s vice president in Latin America, Diego Dzodan, was detailed by police in Brazil in connection with an ongoing investigation involving … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

The AP debuts “Election Buzz,” a tool that uses Twitter and Google data to track the U.S. elections

Just in time for Super Tuesday, the AP has launched a new tool in partnership with Google and Twitter that helps voters visualize what people are saying about the current elections, candidates and issues, as well as how that interest has changed over time. Effectively, the produc … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Here is how to watch the Apple vs. FBI congressional hearing live

Today at 1pm EST representatives from Apple and the FBI will give testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. The hearing is titled “The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy,” and will be streamed live on YouTube.The hearing will … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Google gives its Play Developer Program Policy Center a makeover and updates its rules

Google today rolled out a refreshed look-and-feel for its Developer Program Policy Center, aimed at making its guidelines for app developers easier to locate, read through, and understand. The revamp includes a visual makeover utilizing Google’s own, colorful “Material Design” to … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

3 industries being disrupted in developing countries

Entrepreneurs in developing nations have redefined the words “bootstrapping” and “disruptive,” creating all kinds of businesses that solve major societal problems. These solutions affect hundreds, thousands and sometimes millions of people, and are often developed with few resour … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Roger brings its beautifully designed walkie-talkie app to Android

Roger, the walkie-talkie style voice messaging app created by a team of ex-Spotify engineers, has landed on Android. Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Come hang out at the TC Meetup + Pitch-off in Brooklyn tonight!

New Yorkers, what are you doing tonight? Whatever it is, drop it and buy tickets to the New York TC Meetup. We’ve got an amazing lineup for tonight, and we’ll be at Output Williamsburg, which is where the cool kids hang out. Trust me. To start out the show, we’ll be having a litt … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

UK government pushing ahead with surveillance powers bill in face of strong criticism

Despite a trio of parliamentary committees criticizing the UK government’s draft surveillance legislation — and some committee members even calling for a complete rethink — the government is rushing ahead anyway… Read More | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Sign Up To Volunteer At Disrupt NY

Do you love getting your hands dirty and want to be a part of the best startup show in tech? If so, you should definitely sign up to be a TechCrunch Work Exchange Volunteer at Disrupt NY 2016.TechCrunch is happy to announce that we are now accepting applications to the Work Excha … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Vote in the The Duke Of York’s Pitch@Palace People’s Choice Awards

An lo, in Merrie Olde England, even The Duke Of York of has been bitten by the Startup Bug these past few years, and his Pitch@Palace events have not only become a fixture in the London startup scene, but have also hosted some very decent companies. In fact, his team has expanded … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago

Cisco is buying CliQr for $260M to expand in hybrid cloud management solutions

Some more consolidation underway in the world of enterprise cloud services, and specifically in the space of hybrid cloud. Today Cisco announced that it has acquired CliQr, a provider of application management solutions for hybrid cloud environments, for $260 million. The deal, w … | Continue reading


@techcrunch.com | 8 years ago