Many countries hit hard by Covid-19 are beginning to see a glimmer of optimism from the arrival of vaccinations. Now, a promising travel startup that saw its growth arrested by the arrival and persistence of the pandemic is announcing a $97 million financing facility to help it stay the course until it can finally resume […]
Uncovered Fund, a VC firm targeting early-stage startups in Africa, announced today that it has launched its $15 million fund which is expected to close at the end of June this year. The Tokyo-based outfit founded by Takuma Terakubo in 2019 will invest $50,000 to $500,000 in African startups in seed and Series A stages. […]
From the chemical refineries that line the Gulf Coast to oilfields of West Texas, heavy industry has always been a big part of the economy in the Lone Star State. Now, as venture capital moves in to the state as part of an exodus from California, a new fund is combining Texas’ industrial past with […]
Parler returns from limbo, Uber lobbies Europe and we have more details about Notion’s outage. This is your Daily Crunch for February 15, 2021. The big story: Parler is back online The social network known for its far-right user base was dropped by infrastructure provider Amazon Web Services for posts advocating violence. Now it’s back […]
Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, renowned early Twitter execs who served as the company’s CEO and its chief operating officer, respectively, have quietly closed a second venture fund just one-and-a-half years after disclosing they’d secured $135 million for a debut fund for their firm, 01 Advisors. According to an SEC filing, they wrapped up their […]
Nature’s Fynd, the food technology company with a new food offering cultivated from fungus found in the wilds of Yellowstone National Park, is releasing its first products for pre-order. Pitching both a non-dairy cream cheese and meatless breakfast patties, Nature’s Fynd had managed to attract some serious investors, including Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management and […]
Trafi, the Lithuanian startup that created a platform that lets users plan, book and pay for various modes of transportation within a city, is expanding beyond the European market where it got its start to tackle one of the most congested urban areas in the world. The company said it has reached an agreement to […]
Chalk one up for Jigsaw, an “anti-superficial” dating app that has scored £2.7 million ($3.7 million) in seed funding to put toward U.S. expansion. The round is led by a lead generation company for online dating companies, called The Relationship Corp., with backing from angel investors in the U.S. and U.K. “primarily” in the tech […]
Parler, a social network adopted by the far right and recently kicked off AWS for its userbase’s habit of advocating violence, is back online. The restoration questions the notion that “big tech” can take and keep an unwanted presence offline, but Parler’s return is not quite a triumph, and its new CEO doesn’t suggest much […]
GoPuff, the U.S.-based startup that operates its own “microfulfillment” network and promises to deliver items such as over-the-counter medicine, baby food and alcohol in 30 minutes or less, is in talks to acquire the U.K.’s Fancy Delivery, TechCrunch has learned. According to sources, terms of the acquisition are still being fleshed out, and the deal […]
It’s becoming harder for the U.S. to ignore the very real effects of global climate change — and despite the efforts of naysayers, it’s not a push to renewables that’s to blame for the outages sweeping the nation. It’s the country’s energy infrastructure. Severe weather conditions caused by global warming have now caused massive blackouts […]
French startup Lengow has a new landlord as Marlin Equity Partners has acquired a majority stake in the company. Lengow operates a software-as-a-service platform to optimize e-commerce listings. Terms of the deal are undisclosed. In particular, many sellers now list their items on multiple e-commerce websites at once. For instance, a company could have its […]
Google has agreed to pay a €1.1 million fine over misleading star ratings for hotels in France. The tech giant had been applying its own (algorithmic) system of ratings for hotels applied via its search engine and on Google Maps. But back in 2019, following a number of complaints by hoteliers, the French national competition […]
The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive it every weekend in your inbox. Hi friends and new readers, welcome back to The Station, a newsletter dedicated to all the present and future ways people and packages move from Point A to […]
On March 3, we’re hosting TC Sessions: Justice 2021, a day-long virtual conference dedicated to examining diversity and inclusion in tech. Tune in to presentations, panel discussions, breakout sessions and interactive Q&As with key tech leaders. Topics range from accessible product design and fighting algorithmic bias to the justice system, workplace organizing and support for […]
TechCrunch is embarking on a major project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Copenhagen and Denmark will capture how the country is faring, and what changes are being wrought amongst investors by the coronavirus pandemic. We’d like to know how Denmark’s startup scene is evolving, […]
Last week’s hours-long outage at online workspace startup Notion was caused by phishing complaints, according to the startup’s domain registrar. Notion was offline for most of the morning on Friday, plunging its more than four million users into organization darkness because of what the company called a “very unusual DNS issue that occurred at the […]
