The Blue Origin -led “National Team” has submitted a proposal to NASA for its Human Landing System (HLS), which would be used to transport the next lunar astronauts to the surface of the Moon during NASA’s forthcoming Artermis mission series. Blue Origin is one of three companies selected by NASA to bid on contracts for […]
Consumers will have downloaded 130 billion apps in 2020 across iOS and Google Play, up 10% year-over-year, according to mobile data and analytics firm App Annie’s year-end forecast. Consumer spending across the two app stores will also grow by 25% year-over-year to reach $112 billion by year end, the firm also predicts. Typically, much of […]
As financial troubles escalate at Danke, China’s authorities are stepping in to hold the once-promising apartment rental and sharing company accountable. In recent weeks, landlords who did not receive payments from Danke, which functions as a sublessor, began to evict tenants. After a flurry of local reports exposing the firm’s massive debt, which is reported […]
EU lawmakers have just unveiled a wide-ranging counter terrorism agenda as they set out plans to beef up regional security. The plan touches on some key tech topics — the most keenly watched of which is encryption. Here, concerns have been mounting that the bloc could be moving toward legislating against end-to-end encryption — in […]
Quantum computing startup IonQ today announced its road map for the next few years — following a similar move from IBM in September — and it’s quite ambitious, to say the least. At our Disrupt event earlier this year, IonQ CEO and president Peter Chapman suggested that we were only five years away from having […]
Creating a resume is one of the most frustrating parts of job hunting. Though ubiquitous on social media, videos are still rare on job platforms, even though it’s difficult to capture your personality in a resume. Sydney, Australia-based myInterview wants to turn videos into an integral part of recruitment, with a platform that allows candidates […]
Remote learning and training have become a large priority this year for organizations looking to keep employees engaged and up to date on work practices at a time when many of them are not working in an office — and, in the case of those who have joined in 2020, may have never met any […]
As edtech churns out more and more MasterClass copycats and coding bootcamps, it’s becoming glaringly obvious that students need better ways to navigate the crowded world of online learning. Career Karma, founded in 2018 by Ruben Harris, Artur Meyster and Timur Meyster, wants to help. The startup is bringing a pick-and-shovel play to the coding […]
Dataform, a startup in the U.K. that was building what it dubbed an “operating system” for data warehouses, has been quietly acquired by Google’s Google Cloud division. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, although I understand this is mostly an acqui-hire, albeit one where the founders — both ex-Googlers prior to founding Dataform — […]
For many organizations, the shift to cloud computing has played out more realistically as a shift to hybrid architectures, where a company’s data is just as likely to reside in one of a number of clouds, as it might in an on-premise deployment, in a data warehouse, or in a data lake. Today, a startup […]
Karl Marx famously argued in ‘Das Kapital’ that to achieve freedom from the slavery of capitalism, the worker must own the means of production. Perhaps that day is edging closer. Today Wikifactory, billing itself as a ‘Github for hardware’, announces it has closed a $3 million funding round taking it to a total of $4.5m, […]
Carl Pei, the co-founder of OnePlus who left the company two months ago, has raised $7 million from a roster of high-profile investors for his new hardware venture. The Swedish tech entrepreneur said on Wednesday he had secured $7 million in Seed financing round from friends and private investors including Tony Fadell (Principal at Future […]
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced it has banned 105 mobile apps for violating Chinese internet regulations. While almost all of the apps are made by Chinese developers, American travel booking and review site TripAdvisor is also on the list. TripAdvisor shares dipped on Nasdaq after the CAC’s announcement, but began recovering in after-hours […]
Inspiration to launch a lawn-care company struck Coulter Lewis when he was shopping for lawn-care products one day. The entrepreneur, who previously worked as a designer and co-founder of a snack company, says the stench of pesticides and herbicides piled high was too strong to ignore. Lewis began researching safer alternatives to fertilize his backyard. […]
Amy Yin doesn’t foresee startups resuming a five-day-a-week in-office work schedule, even after COVID-19 has been battled back. It’s probably a safe bet. Many companies have learned this year that employees can be just as productive, working from home. More, employees — much as they might miss their own desks — no longer want to […]
From a young age, Will Bruey, the co-founder and chief executive of Varda Space Industries, was fascinated with space and running his own business. So when the former SpaceX engineer was tapped by Delian Asparouhov and Trae Stephens of Founders Fund to work on Varda he didn’t think twice. Bruey spent six years at SpaceX. […]
The Federal Trade Commission has sued to block Procter & Gamble’s acquisition of Billie, a NY-based startup that sells razors and body wash. In the notice, the FTC alleged that the merger would “eliminate innovative nascent competitors for wet shave razors” to the loss of consumers. Billie was founded in 2017 with the goal of […]
We already knew that Halo Infinite was delayed until next year. Initially intended to launch alongside the new Xboxes, Microsoft announced back in August that it would instead ship in 2021. Exactly when in 2021, though, was still anyone’s guess. A new blog post from 343 Industries narrows it down a bit: it’ll be released […]
A year ago this week Ada Ventures — a UK/Europe focused VC with an ‘impact twist’ aiming to invest in diverse founders tacking societal problems — launched on stage at Techcrunch Disrupt. (You can watch the video of that launch below). Today Ada announces that it has closed its first fund at $50 million. Cornerstone […]
Apple has used a speech to European lawmakers and privacy regulators today to come out jabbing at what SVP Craig Federighi described as dramatic, “outlandish” and “false” claims being made by the adtech industry over a forthcoming change to iOS that will give users the ability to decline app tracking. The iPhone maker had been […]
