Browser-based website-creation service PageCloud announced that it has closed a $4 million Series A, bringing the company’s funding total to date to about $8.5 million. Participants in the round include early-stage venture-capital firm Accomplice, trade-finance agency Export Development Canada and angel investors like Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, former SalesForce VP Avanish Sahai, and… Read More
TechCrunch Disrupt in London is on December 5-6! And counting! Grab tickets here. Many speakers have already been announced, but they just keep coming! Next up is Julien Codorniou Director of ‘Workplace by Facebook’ (what we used to notionally call ‘Facebook at Work’). Julien serves as Director and global head of Workplace by Facebook, managing all things sales,… Read More
The BBC, the UK’s national media organization, is expanding its international presence as part of an ambitious goal to reach an audience of 500 million people by 2020. Read More
Tencent, Asia’s most valuable tech company, posted another healthy profit thanks to its growing mobile messaging app WeChat and its mobile games business. Read More
There’s good news and bad news for LeEco, the ambitious Chinese tech company that is working on electric cars, smartphones, smart TVs and more. Read More
This is a week for Samsung acquisitions it seems. Fresh from announcing plans to buy audio and auto systems maker Harman for a cool $8 billion, the Korean giant revealed on Wednesday that it is also acquiring NewNet Communication Technologies, a messaging company, in an undisclosed deal. Read More
Well that was quick. Barely two weeks after announcing his exit from Twitter, where he was head of its India business, Rishi Jaitly has revealed that he will take up the position of CEO at Times Internet’s global business. Read More
For people who feel that we are a little bit too connected these days, Kickstarter project Light Phone was promising a respite. It was scheduled to ship in May this year, but has seen a number of setbacks. This week, the company issued a statement. It says that while it missed its goal, it hopes to start shipping late this month. Read More
Facebook has a fake news problem, Snapchat’s Spectacles hype train continues into Tulsa, Oklahoma, Apple releases a coffee table book, Microsoft partners with OpenAI and we have our friend Justin Kan on the show with his new app, Whale. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
It may not be the most compelling technology for consumers, but for businesses, it’s important to know what’s going on in a network. That’s why Logz.io has managed to raise $16 million in a new round of financing from investors led by OpenView Venture Partners with participation from the company’s previous investors 83North and Giza Venture Capital. As a result of… Read More
Like many leaders in Silicon Valley, Box CEO Aaron Levie was a vocal supporter of Secretary Clinton. But after the shocking U.S. election outcome, the industry has been reflecting about what the next president could mean for the community. We sat down with Levie for an interview at Box headquarters in Redwood City. While it’s difficult to know what the capricious Trump will actually… Read More
If you want to make something cool, don’t give it to geeks first. Google Glass learned that the hard way. Despite Snapchat’s best efforts, Robert Scoble still got a hold of a pair of the Spectacles camera glasses. He’s the enthusiastic tech blogger above who shot a nude selfie wearing Google Glass in the shower that came to embody the gadget’s cursed brand. He even… Read More
Firefly Learning, a London-based edtech company that launched its SaaS teaching and learning support platform for schools back in 2009, has taken its first VC investment as it looks to accelerate growth of its user base — announcing a £4.5 million Series A today. Read More
For most of the past five years, investors in software companies prized revenue growth above all else. Investors were more than willing to overlook near-term profitability (or lack thereof) in favor of an acute focus on growth. As a result, entrepreneurs were encouraged to invest in building massive sales teams as quickly as possible to accelerate revenue growth, regardless of the cost. Read More
For sites like Indiegogo, supporting a project generally means a pat on the back, a t-shirt or, best-case scenario, an early delivery of whatever it is that company is selling. Leveraging a recently passed securities rule signed into law by President Obama some six months back (part of the 2012 JOBS Act) that lowers the bar on personal investments, Indiegogo is launching Equity Crowdfunding,… Read More
A group of Chinese scientists injected a human being with cells genetically edited using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. This is the first time CRISPR has been used on a fully formed adult human and it’s encouraged a biomedical battle between China and the United States. The scientists from China are hoping the genetically edited cells will help their patient fend off a virulent type of… Read More
Comedy site Funny or Die has sold a minority stake to AMC Networks. The deal is intended to strengthen the ties between Funny or Die and AMC’s IFC channel, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with IFC President Jennifer Caserta joining the site’s board of directors. (Funny or Die already produced the IFC series The Spoils of Babylon and the upcoming series Brockmire.) Funny or… Read More
A startup that originally launched as an AI-powered virtual assistant, Mezi, has pivoted to focus on travel only. And why not? There’s little to do online that’s more annoying than booking flights, hotels and everything else you need just to take a break, or be somewhere for work. Mezi’s newly designed app allows users to find and book flights and hotels and make… Read More
When Intel decided to take a crack at its first keynote at an automotive event, it swung for the fences. The company’s CEO, Brian Krzanich, took the stage at the Los Angeles Auto Show‘s Automobility event this morning to announce that Intel Capital would be investing $250 million in autonomous driving over the next two years. Technologies that will benefit from the investment… Read More
