TechCrunch Startup News

We’ve got great news for all the time-strapped female founders out there. Yeah, we’re looking at you, sister. We’re extending the application deadline to apply for the All Raise “ask me anything” (AMA) sessions at Disrupt SF 2019. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to meet with a leading female VC and, well, ask her anything. Apply for an AMA sessionby August 15. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Software grabs so much attention that it even has its own catchphrase — there’s an app for that. It’s not a bad thing, but we know nothing happens without hardware. That’s why we’re hunting for the best early-stage hardware startups to take center stage at Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhenon November 11-12 in China. Apply here to compete in TC Hardware Battlefield 2019, our hardware-focused pitc...

Newsflash for all female founders of the early-stage startup variety. Your chance to meet with leading women VCs atDisrupt SF 2019on October 2-4 ends on July 19 at 5 p.m. (PT).Apply for an AMA sessionbefore the deadline expires. We’re serious when it comes to supporting women in tech, which is why we partnered with All Raise — a startup nonprofit dedicated to accelerating female founder success. L...

Our recently published EC-1 on Roblox recounts the origin story and growth prospects of the company. But there’s one more piece to the story: what Roblox’s impact will be on gaming and the broader startup industry, if the company manages to multiply its current 90 million users. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google and its flagship search portal opened the door to the possibilities of how to build a business empire on the back of organising and navigating the world’s information, as found on the internet. Now, a startup that’s built a search engine tailored to the needs of enterprises and their own quests for information has raised a round of funding to see if it can do the same for the B2B world. Lea...

At first glance launching a new social app may seem as sensible a startup idea as plunging headfirst into shark-infested waters. But with even infamous curtain-ripper Facebook now making grand claims about a ‘pivot to privacy’ it’s clear something is shifting in the commercial shipping channels that contain our digital chatter. Whisper it: Feeds are tiring. Follows are tedious. Attention is expiri...

One of Silicon Valley’s most fun and enduring traditions — the14th Annual TechCrunch Summer Party — takes place on July 25. If you don’t have a ticket yet, know this: We just released the last batch of tickets. Once they’re gone, that’s it. No party for you. Don’t miss out on a night of fun and opportunity — buy your ticket today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoice...

India’s Oyo has expanded its hotel chain business to over 80 countries and entered co-living spaces segment in recent years. The firm, which has raised about $1 billion in the last two quarters from several big names including Airbnb, has now identified a new business to target: co-working spaces. The Gurgaon-headquartered firm on Tuesday announced Oyo Workspaces that is already operational across...

Brave Care is an urgent care facility for pediatric care that costs, on average, about 80% less than a pediatric ER visit. Darius Monsef and his co-founder came up with the idea shortly after a fateful week for the Monsef family, during which their four-year-old dove off a bike ramp and their one-year-old started having breathing problems. For both visits, he went to a pediatric urgent care facili...

Sage is giving reviewers, chefs and other experts and publishers a central place to share all their content. To do this, the startup has created a new product called Sage Plus for Experts, which isn’t open to the public yet, but is accepting signups from those aforementioned travel experts — the kinds of experts who can share content around things to do, food, drinks, experiences and shopping. Lea...

Ajay Chopra Contributor Ajay Chopra co-founded Pinnacle Systems in his living room and grew it to a multi-billion dollar public company before becoming a venture capitalist with Trinity Ventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This new autonomous startup has designed its delivery robot to conquer winter Refraction, a new autonomous delivery robot company that came out of stealth Wednesday at TC Sessions: Mobility, sees opportunity in areas most AV startups are avoiding: regions with the worst weather. The company, founded by University of Michigan professors Matthew Johnson-Roberson and Ram Vasudevan, calls its REV-1 de...

Early-stage startup founders, you’re searching for opportunities to take your company to greater heights, amirite? Then allow me to direct your attention to Disrupt San Francisco 2019, TechCrunch’s flagship event that takes place October 2-4. More specifically to Startup Alley, the exhibition floor where opportunity thrives. Grab that opportunity by the scruff and buy a Startup Alley Exhibitor Pac...

European fintech startup N26 is now accepting customers in the U.S. The company is launching a bank account with a debit card that should provide a better experience compared to traditional retail banks. If you’re familiar with N26, the product that is going live today won’t surprise you much. Customers in the U.S. can download a mobile app and create a bank account from their phone in just a few...

Maker Faire and Maker Media are getting a second chance after suddenly going bankrupt, but they’ll return in a weakened capacity. Sadly, their flagship crafting festivals remain in jeopardy, and it’s unclear how long the reformed company can survive. Maker Media suddenly laid off all 22 employees and shut down last month, as first reported by TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit pod...

Early-stage hardware startupfounders, it’s your turn to step into the spotlight and launch your innovative inventions to the world’s top investors. We’re inviting you to apply to compete in our hardware-focused pitch competition,Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhenon November 11-12. You might even walk away with $25,000 and a whole new business trajectory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...

Our 14th Annual TechCrunch Summer Party is a mere two weeks away, and we’re serving up a fresh new batch of tickets to this popular Silicon Valley tradition. Jump on this opportunity, folks, because our previous releases sold out in a flash — and these babies won’t last long, either. Buy your ticket today. Our summer soiree takes place on July 25 at Park Chalet, San Francisco’s coastal beer garden...

Building apps and tools on the web shouldn’t just be for the technically inclined. In the early days of the web, it was easy to make your MySpace account, for example, unique to your personal aesthetic. Glitch is doing that for the modern era. Glitch, formerly known as Fog Greek Software, is an online community where people can upload projects and enable others to remix them. Dash likens coding on...

Away from the limelight of the press and the frenzy of fundraising, a tech startup in India has achieved a feat that few of its peers have managed: going public. IndiaMART, the country’s largest online platform for selling products directly to businesses, raised nearly $70 million in a rare tech IPO for India this week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Karamel is an app to find activities for your kids French startup Karamel wants to help you find things to do for your kids. The company is launching a mobile app that lets you find and book kid-friendly activities around you. The startup also just raised a $450,000 round (€400,000) from Kima Ventures, Roxanne Varza and Thibaud Elzière. Varza participates in the Atomico Angel Programme, which mean...

It’s no secret that America thrives on tech-savvy immigrants who put down permanent roots: Three in five of the country’s biggest tech companies —Apple, Facebook, and Google among them — were founded by first- or second-generation immigrants. Those giants combined boast a market cap of over $4 trillion and employ nearly two million workers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...

HQ Trivia is struggling after a mutiny failed to oust its CEO. Downloads per month are down 92% versus last June according to Sensor Tower. And now four sources confirm that HQ laid off staff members this week. One said about 20% of staff was let go, and another said six to seven employees were departing. That aligns with Digiday reporter Kerry Flynn’s tweet that 7 employees were let go bringing H...

Larissa Russell and Fiona Lee founded a cookie startup called Green Pea Cookie in 2014. The cookies were 100% natural, vegan and “handcrafted with love.” The company failed but not because the cookies weren’t selling. The business couldn’t keep up with the antiquated wholesale food distribution system’s steep costs. Two incumbent players, United Natural Foods Inc. and KeHE Distributors, essentiall...

San Francisco is a city of extremes, with multi-billion dollar glass-cladded obelisks piercing the SoMa sky while thousands of the city’s long-term residents fail to find even the basic rudiments of housing and other social services. The tech industry has created the world’s greatest inequality machine, solving every one of our problems except the ones like housing affordability, education access,...

TikTok is being investigated in the U.K. for how it handles children’s data and safety TikTok is being investigated in the U.K. for how it handles the safety and personal data of underage users. According to the Guardian, information commissioner Elizabeth Denham told a parliamentary committee that the probe started in February, after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission levied a $5.7 million fine ag...