Naj Austin, founder and CEO of subscription-based physical and digital community Ethel’s Club, is building Somewhere Good to be a one-stop shop for people of color. Beyond being a place for people of color to connect, it’s also about creating a safe space for folks to be their authentic selves. “A lot of how we’re […]
Trapped-ion quantum computing startup IonQ today announced the launch of its latest quantum computer, which features what IonQ calls “32 perfect qubits with low gate errors.” Using IBM’s preferred quantum benchmark, IonQ expects to hit a quantum volume of 4,000,000. That’s a massive increase over the double-digit quantum volume numbers that IBM itself recently announced […]
I’ve found a new object of desire which, once acquired, I would probably never use. It’s this OB-4 “magic radio” from Teenage Engineering, a design group that creates tech with a playful but premium approach. This wireless speaker not only looks lovely but has a handful of really interesting features, the most interesting of which […]
Facebook is introducing a suite of new features for Facebook Groups, the private social networking product now used by over 1.8 billion people every month. At the company’s digitally hosted Facebook Communities Summit today, Facebook detailed a set of upcoming tools aimed at those who run Groups, which are designed help them better organize, filter […]
In what could be the first step in the development of a significant new line of business for the telemedicine prescription provider Ro, the company is finally announcing the general commercial availability of weight loss product, Plenity. Developed by Gelesis, a biotech company that makes treatments for gastro-intestinal disorders, Plenity is a weight loss treatment […]
Pixie, a startup that provides developers with tools to get observability into their Kubernetes-native applications, today announced that it has raised a $9.15 million Series A round led by Benchmark, with participation from GV. In addition, the company also today said that its service is now available as a public beta. The company was co-founded […]
Braintrust, a network for freelance technical and design talent that launched over the summer, is announcing that it has raised $18 million in new funding. Co-founder and CEO Adam Jackson has written for TechCrunch about how tech companies need to treat independent contractors with more empathy. He told me via email that the San Francisco-based […]
Kajabi may not be an American household name, but users of the web hosting and video tech platform are now being seen in a lot of American households. The company, initially bootstrapped and profitable since its launch, raised a minority investment from Spectrum Equity Partners last November, but that was merely icing on the cake […]
Google is taking aim at photo face filters and other “beautifying” techniques that mental health experts believe can warp a person’s self-confidence, particularly when they’re introduced to younger users. The company says it will now rely on expert guidance when applying design principles for photos filters used by the Android Camera app on Pixel smartphones. […]
Detlev von Platen is a car guy, and in this age of new mobility, that’s important. Platen has been at Porsche for over 30 years and is currently on Porsche’s executive board as the sales and marketing executive. Before his current role, he lead Porsche North America, where he oversaw incredible growth. We’re thrilled Platen […]
The Pixel has always been a mixed bag. The first-generation product was announced roughly this time four years ago, with Google finally offering a full-throated entry into the smartphone space after years of device partnerships. Of course, by 2016, the market was already mature — particularly for Android phones. But while it was easy to […]
When Microsoft introduced its customer data platform last February the focus was on simply connecting silos of data to help customers get the data into the system, but as the pandemic has taken hold this year, customers need deeper insight into their customers and Microsoft has made some enhancements to the platform today. James Phillips, […]
Twitter users around the world have reported some short partial outages today, with the platform not displaying certain tweets or not able to retrieve any at all. TC’s own geographically distributed staff reported issues with accessing tweets in Europe, India and the US, for example, while DownDetector‘s map indicated some service issues across the world […]
Algorithms are reshaping many parts of our lives, including how news gets to us. Around the world, entrepreneurs make use of algorithms to program their ideal news apps, and while they normally agree on universal objectives like fighting fake news, their views diverge elsewhere, leading to different applications of machines and user experiences. No one […]
SAP seemed to be all in on customer experience when it acquired Qualtrics for $8 billion in 2018. It continued on that journey today when it announced it was acquiring Austrian cloud marketing company Emarsys for an undisclosed amount of money. Emarsys, which raised over $55 million, according to PitchBook data, gives SAP customer personalization […]
As people continue to work and study from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in edge computing has increased. Macrometa, a Palo Alto-based that provides edge computing infrastructure for app developers, announced today it has closed a $7 million seed round. The funding was led by DNX Ventures, an investment fund that focuses on […]
Motif Foodworks, the Ginkgo Bioworks spinout focused on developing new plant-based flavorings and food ingredients, is readying commercial scale production of its first product an ingredient to improve the flavor of beef substitutes. The expansion of Motif’s manufacturing capacity presages the commercial availability of its new flavoring, which should be on folded into consumer products […]
Cisco is making another acquisition to expand its reach in security solutions, this time specifically targeting DevOps and the world of container management. It is acquiring PortShift, an Israeli startup that has built a Kubernetes-native security platform. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. PortShift had raised about $5.3 million from Team8, an incubator […]
Earlier this month, cloud data warehouse Snowflake turned heads when it debuted on the stock market. Today, Altinity, the commercial company behind the open source ClickHouse data warehouse announced a $4 million seed round from Accel along with a new cloud service, Altinity.Cloud. “Fundamentally, the company started out as an open source services bureau offering […]
Microsoft just added a couple of key additions to its ever-growing lineup of Surface devices. There are a bunch of new accessories and an update to the Surface Pro X, which you can read about here. The biggest news of the morning, however, is the arrival of the Surface Laptop Go — an affordable take […]
