TechCrunch Industry News

A number of investors including Sequoia Capital India and Steadview Capital are in talks to back Polygon, which operates a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, by way of tokens purchase, three sources familiar with the matter told me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Earlier this week, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his role. He appointed CTO Parag Agrawal as new CEO, effective immediately. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Porsche’s venture arm has taken a minority stake in 1Komma5, a five-month-old German startup aiming to offer households everything needed for a carbon neutral home, including energy storage, charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and solar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

General Motors will continue to delay production of new Chevrolet Bolt EVs at the company’s Orion assembly plant in Michigan “through the week of Jan. 24, 2022,” the company said in a statement emailed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bangalore-based Bounce on Thursday priced its first electric scooter at as low as 36,000 Indian rupees ($480), considerably undercutting the heavily-backed rival Ola as the mobility war intensifies in the world’s second most populous nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As companies look for ways to prevent cyber attacks, one strategy is to be proactive and find vulnerabilities that could lead to a breach in an approach called “attack surface management.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With key ESG reporting regulations such as the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) covering more than 75 percent of European companies, across the EU and the UK, the regulatory environment is evolving fast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A fantasy sports exchange founded by Irish betting veteran Paddy Power is bringing NFT-enabled live trading to rugby fans in a bid to expand globally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will go before Congress again this week, this time offering her unique perspective on the company’s moderation and policy failures as they relate to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the key legal shield that protects online platforms from liability for the user-created content they host. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...

Thought Machine, a 2014 (Xoogler) founded startup that sells cloud-based b2b banking services, has closed a $200 million Series C round and announced that it’s achieved unicorn status (aka, passing a $1BN valuation). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Riding a scooter in Paris will soon feel incredibly… slow. The City of Paris has announced that scooter sharing services should restrict the maximum top speed to 10km/h (that’s 6.2mph). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Worldwide, over 1.3 trillion eggs are produced annually, and Perfeggt co-founders believe this market is largely untapped and has room to grow with plant-based alternatives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In August 2020, two FBI agents were standing on my doorstep, unannounced, wanting to ask me questions about a TechCrunch story we had published the year before. The story was about how a hacker took thousands of documents, including visas and diplomatic passports, from a server at Mexico’s Embassy in Guatemala. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Blume Ventures said on Wednesday it has raised $105 million in the first close of its fourth fund, less than two years after finalizing its previous fund, as investment activity intensifies in the world’s second largest internet market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Polestar Precept sedan — the concept vehicle turned production project — has a new name and an official launch date. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A number of Roku customers are experiencing problems with their Roku TVs following the Roku OS 10.5 update. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

French startup Lydia is entering a whole new category by adding trading to its financial super app later this year. The company is partnering with Bitpanda for this feature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mmhmm has perhaps the noisiest take on the future of video-conferencing: virtual meetings will be fun, flexible, and, as shown by its most recent acquisition, emotive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Given its product market fit in real estate, Zuma now aims to implement its business model into other industries with sales teams, like healthcare, automotive, insurance, education and fashion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biliti Electric, a startup founded less than a year ago, wants its electric tuk tuks to become a common sight in densely packed cities in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carro enables brand partnerships to sell each other’s products without having to purchase inventory or manage logistics and returns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook, errr Meta, showed off a new prototype haptic feedback glove yesterday which they detailed could eventually bring a new generation of AR/VR users closer to digital content than they’ve ever been. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

QuEra Computing, a Boston-based quantum computer developer, is coming out of stealth mode today with $17 million in funding from Rakuten, Day One Ventures and Frontiers Capital. Angel investors Serguei Beloussov and Paul Maritz also joined in the round.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lambda School, a buzzy coding bootcamp that has landed over $122 million in known venture capital to date, is rebranding to Bloom Institute of Technology, according to a blog post from CEO Austen Allred. The company is also updating its tuition payment options to introduce an outcomes-based loan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No-code continues to permeate the many layers of enterprise IT, where traditionally non-technical workers have had to rely on technical experts to get things done, and startups building these tools are raising a lot of money as they see a surge of business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices