TuringSense announced today that it’s closed a $3 million early funding round, an investment that brings the Bay area-based sports tracker startup’s total investment to $6 million. The company’s entering a crowded space, dominated by the likes Zepp, which has scored some high profile partnerships with major league sports and high profile players like Mike Trout and David… Read More
Following the widespread phishing scam that affected Google Docs and Gmail users this week, Google says it’s now rolling out a new security feature in its Gmail application on Android that will help warn users about suspicious links. This feature may not have prevented this week’s attack, however, as that attack involved a malicious and fake “Google Docs” app that… Read More
Some consolidation in the world of subject-specific search and social networks, as a legacy player from the world of white goods makes a play for a wider audience. The Whirlpool Corporation — the world’s largest home appliance maker, founded back in 1911 — has acquired Yummly, a visual and semantic recipe search engine and aggregator with 20 million users, which also let… Read More
Heap, a startup that promises a uniquely comprehensive approach to analytics, has raised $27 million in Series B funding. Co-founder and CEO Matin Movassate told me Heap’s vision is to “make data useful for everyone.” Normally, according to Movassate (who previously worked as a product manager at Facebook), anyone who wants to ask an analytics-related question has to talk to… Read More
‘If you can’t stand up, stand out!’. As startup taglines go, the seven words chosen by Izzy Wheels carry a lot more meaning than most. The Irish company, founded by siblings Ailbhe and Isabel Keane, sells a range of wheelchair spoke guards created by independent designers and illustrators that turn a wheelchair into a fashion statement. Read More
Early-stage investors YL Ventures have raised a $75 million fund, their third, to back Israeli software startups seeking to enter the U.S. market. The firm maintains offices in Tel Aviv and Mill Valley, Calif. It is best-known for its use of predictive analytics to find promising entrepreneurial teams before they have officially launched a business. YLV founder and Managing Partner Yoav… Read More
Epix is launching a new feature that could make it easier than ever before to stream movies on your Internet-connected TV — Epix Cast, which allows you to find a movie in the mobile Epix app and then play it on your TV, even if the app hasn’t been installed on that TV. I saw a demo of Epix Cast last week. While there are other services that can turn your phone into a connected… Read More
Snap, Inc. has been very successful in luring legacy TV content providers and networks to its yard, mostly on the back of its unique demographics. Wall Street Journal reports that Snap has deals in place with NBCUniversal, A&E, Discovery, ABC, the NFL and is in talks with CBS and Fox, and will today announce a deal with Scripps Network Interactive, which is responsible for the Food Network… Read More
London based People.io has taken its first steps outside the UK, expanding its data sharing rewards platform into Germany — where it’s launched a co-branded version of the app with carrier o2 (called o2 Get), targeting the latter’s ~24 million customers. Read More
Back in December, component company Conexant announced that it had teamed up with Amazon to create a development kit for third-party manufacturers looking to build Alexa into their devices. The pair are back with a followup that brings a four-microphone array to the AudioSmart Development Kit for Alexa Voice Service. Amazon opened up its far-field technology to developers last month, through… Read More
British chipset firm Imagination Technologies is having a tough quarter. After announcing that Apple is about to end its relationship with its supplier, the company is now starting the dispute process according to a statement sent to Reuters.
Imagination Technologies has worked for many years with Apple on graphics chipsets. Its designs have been essential to the iPhone and iPad graphical… Read More
Express Wi-Fi is one of Facebook’s many connectivity initiatives under its internet.org umbrella. Unlike more futuristic projects like the Aquila drone, though, the emphasis here is on existing Wi-Fi technologies and allowing local entrepreneurs to resell internet access. The company is currently trialing this project in India, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Indonesia. Read More
Next Insurance, a startup that wants to make it simpler for small businesses to find coverage, has raised a $29 million Series A. The round was led by Munich Re/HSB Ventures, the venture capital arm of German insurance company Munich Re. Existing investors including Markel and Nationwide, also participated. Read More
Go-Jek, the motorbike on-demand startup that is battling Uber and Grab in Indonesia, has closed a new round of $1.2 billion led by Chinese internet giant Tencent, two sources close the company told TechCrunch. The deal, which we understand was signed last week, values the company at $3 billion post money. It is expected to be officially announced “soon.”
Go-Jek declined to… Read More
Apple updated its U.S. job creation web page today with figures from 2016. Though Apple refreshes the site every year, this latest update coincides with CEO Tim Cook’s announcement during a CNBC interview that the company has formed a $1 billion fund to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Read More
WhatsApp is back up after suffering an outage that affected users around the world for hours. The Facebook-owned messaging service confirmed in a media statement that it had been inaccessible, but did not say why. Read More
Facebook hires 3,000 people to combat the disturbing videos and live videos that have been popping up on the site, Hulu launches its live TV service, yesterday was not too good of a day for tech stocks and GM launches GM Maven to help on-demand drivers rent cars for $229 a week. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
The autonomous tech development facility is actually one of four garages Intel maintains globally, including one in Arizona, one in Portland, and one in Berlin. The Silicon Valley location, however, makes sure its biggest partners in the emerging space are close at hand. The facility officially opened at a press event on Wednesday that included a ribbon cutting ceremony, talks by Intel… Read More
Tesla is building a new vehicle platform for its upcoming crossover vehicle. Instead of repurposing the underpinnings of the Model 3 or Model S, Tesla is building something completely new for the Model Y. This comes from Elon Musk speaking on the company’s investor call. Building a new platform takes time; Musk said the Model Y is expected to hit assembly lines in 2020, but could be as… Read More
While nearly every car-related company on the planet is integrating sensors and refining algorithms to create safer cars that eliminate human error, car2go is putting safety back into human hands. A pilot program in New York City and Washington, DC will give 1,000 car2go members free online driving courses. Read More
