Today at TechCrunch Disrupt 2020, leaders from three quantum computing startups joined TechCrunch editor Frederic Lardinois to discuss the future of the technology. IonQ CEO and president Peter Chapman suggested we could be as little as five years away from a desktop quantum computer, but not everyone agreed on that optimistic timeline. “I think within […]
After 17 years, Palantir is getting closer and closer to its public debut later this month. We’ve been covering different facets of the company’s direct listing process, including concerns about its governance and how insiders are accelerating the sale of their shares as the public markets date looms closer. Now, we have several major updates […]
What market selloff? Despite last week’s market declines, two big IPOs are rolling ahead this week, with Snowflake and JFrog both boosting their IPO price ranges this morning. The jump in expected pricing means each IPO will likely raise more capital, valuing the firms more richly than their initial ranges made clear. Snowflake’s first IPO […]
A privacy bug in Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s official campaign app allowed anyone to look up sensitive voter information on millions of Americans, a security researcher has found. The campaign app, Vote Joe, allows Biden supporters to encourage friends and family members to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election by uploading their phone’s […]
For founders who have a startup idea — but few engineering skills to make it a reality — making the team’s first technical hire can be a daunting task. Nontechnical founders will face greater challenges when it comes to sourcing and recruiting engineering talent, but another factor that raises the stakes: They must often act […]
The robotics industry is having a major moment amid the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s true that category has been an exciting target for investments for a number of years now, but labor issues and concerns over transmission have led many sectors to take a good, long look at automation. Meal preparation is a […]
GoodRx is a rare breed of modern tech IPO: a startup that is actually profitable and heading to the public markets. The consumer service offers coupons on prescriptions redeemable at pharmacies that can save customers significant money on their monthly drug prices. The company filed an amended S-1 with the SEC this morning, and that […]
Earth observation has grown from government-run missions to a crucial everyday business tool, but it still has room to grow. Specifically, into the thermal infrared spectrum, if startup Satellite Vu gets itself into orbit. The company plans to be able to monitor the heat signatures of most of the planet’s buildings with a satellite constellation […]
Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd wants to build a truly timeless company. “You can never disrupt the need for humans to connect. And the other thing that you can never disrupt is the need for women to feel respected and to feel equal and to feel safe and empowered in those connections. And those are […]
While SpaceX and its ilk in the commercial rocket launch market have changed the economics of space and ushered in an era of small satellite entrepreneurship, the actual rocket engine technology they use isn’t that different from what was in use 50 years ago when NASA was making its first forays into outer space. Firehawk […]
Congratulations, you landed your Series A round. What’s next? Your Series B, and a lot of twists and turns. Yasmin Razavi of Spark Capital and Elliott Robinson of Bessemer are joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2020 (happening right now!) to talk about how early stage founders should think about landing growth stage venture capital money. […]
GM will reveal its GMC -branded electric Hummer on October 20, the same day that the company will also begin taking customer reservations for the new vehicle that it describes as a “super truck.” The Hummer EV debut, which was originally scheduled to occur May 20 and delayed due to COVID-19, is one of 20 […]
Before launching Clinic Price Check, Joanne Rodrigues-Craig had been a stay-at-home mom with Master’s degrees in population demographics, political science and applied mathematics from UC Berkeley and the London School of Economics. She’d written a book on demographics and politics, published work on data analysis for predictive customer insights and, most recently, worked for Sony […]
We’re excited to announce a new Partner Perk from Dell for Extra Crunch members. Starting today, annual and two-year Extra Crunch members can get a discount on a Dell XPS laptop as well as a discount on membership to the Dell for Entrepreneurs program. What is the Dell for Entrepreneurs program? The Dell for Entrepreneurs […]
Investor interest in no-code, low-code apps and services advanced another step this morning with Airtable raising an outsized round. The $185 million investment into the popular database-and-spreadsheet service comes as it adds “new low-code and automation features,” per our own reporting. The round comes after we’ve seen several VCs describe no- and low-code startups as […]
It’s a big world out there, but the software that allows professionals to take a closer look at geospatial data hasn’t made the same leaps that consumer-focused platforms have. Matidor, a Vancouver-based geospatial visualization and collaboration startup, is building a project platform for consultants and engineers in the energy sector to keep track of projects […]
Amazon today announced it will rebrand its kid-friendly services formerly known as Amazon FreeTime and Amazon FreeTime Unlimited to Amazon Kids and Amazon Kids+. In addition to the name change, the services are being redesigned to include a new home screen experience, Amazon Echo integrations, and will introduce an expanded catalog of music and video […]
Nikola Corp., the hydrogen electric vehicle startup that went public this year through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, released Monday a point-by-point rebuttal that attempts to disprove a report issued last week by short-seller Hindenburg Research that accused the company of fraud. In spite of the careful wording of the rebuttal, some […]
Estonia-based Sentinel, which is developing a detection platform for identifying synthesized media (aka deepfakes), has closed a $1.35 million seed round from some seasoned angle investors — including Jaan Tallinn (Skype), Taavet Hinrikus (Transferwise), Ragnar Sass & Martin Henk (Pipedrive) — and Baltics early stage VC firm, United Angels VC. The challenge of building tools […]
Hardware season is in full swing. Apple’s big Watch event kicks off tomorrow and Samsung is readying itself for a third (!) Unpacked event on September 23. Now Google’s getting in on the fun. After opting to skip a virtual version of I/O earlier this year, the company has confirmed that it will be doing […]
