If you have purchased a drone in the last year or two, there’s a high likelihood that it only emerges from your gadget closet a few times per year. DroneBase is a startup that connects drone users with commercial missions so that they can keep the dust from settling on their fly … | Continue reading
CommonSense Robotics, an Israel-based startup developing AI and robotics tech to help online grocery retailers speed up fulfilment and delivery, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Read More | Continue reading
Korea’s dominant messaging firm Kakao is back raising funds after its games business, a standalone unit that is headed for an IPO, pulled in $130 million (140 billion KRW) from Tencent and a range of other strategic investors. The company, which owns Korea’s top mobile messaging … | Continue reading
Fujifilm’s mirrorless lineup of X Series cameras has an excellent reputation, especially thanks to their ability to produce great-looking images comparable to full-frame competitors from crop sensors due to their unique image processing. Among still photographers, the X-Pro 2 an … | Continue reading
Uber lost $4.5 billion last year, but CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he’s not worried. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, the newly appointed chief defended the company’s financials, saying that “we can turn the knobs to g … | Continue reading
Greenwich, Connecticut-based Activant Capital has closed a $129 million late-stage venture fund. The firm was founded in 2013 by Steve Sarracino and has seen six liquidity events so far, a sizeable chunk of the 18 companies it’s invested in. One of those was Hybris, an e-commerc … | Continue reading
Demand is off the charts for blockchain talent, and the capital is waiting to back it up. Over $3.7 billion has been raised through ICOs in the United States alone. Blockchain-related jobs are the second-fastest growing in today’s labor market; there are now 14 jobs openings for … | Continue reading
I’m a big fan of the Netgear Orbi line of mesh access points and now there’s more to love. Netgear is now shipping the RBS50Y, a new satellite that is weatherproof and allows you to add coverage to your back yard or garage without worrying that your access point will short out i … | Continue reading
Workast, the popular Slack-based task management toolkit, is looking to expand its messaging horizons. The company, which answered the prayers of everyone who was sick of working with Asana and other task management applications, has raised $1.85 million in a seed round of fundi … | Continue reading
Fresh off a public spat between Uber investor Benchmark Capital and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Benchmark general partner Bill Gurley took the stage in front of a large room of bankerfolk at the Goldman Sachs technology conference to talk about how startup boardrooms are no … | Continue reading
Tony La Russa is a member of the MLB Hall of Fame as a manager. The man helped introduce video study and analytics to the game of baseball when he was manager of the great Oakland A’s teams in the late 1980s and 1990s. He understands the value of data, but he also gets that data … | Continue reading
Translating is difficult work, the more so the further two languages are from one another. French-Spanish? Not a problem. Ancient Greek-Esperanto? Hard. But sign language is uniquely difficult because it is fundamentally different from spoken and written languages. All the same, … | Continue reading
Yesterday, at Startup Grind, an event series that’s aimed at new founders and people contemplating becoming entrepreneurs, we sat down with Joe Kraus, a partner for the last eight years with Google’s early-stage investing arm, GV. Kraus, who’d earlier cofounded two companies — E … | Continue reading
Yeah, so this is a bummer. Now that the HomePod is out in the wild, reports have started trickling in from users complaining about the $349 smart speaker’s unfortunate side effect on wood furniture. A quick trip to Twitter shows various sorts of HomePod-sized rings left on desks … | Continue reading
Alongside co-founder and longtime partner Stephan Ango, Jesse Genet has built a business with Lumi that’s already been profitable, and has just raised $9 million in venture funding to boost its growth. Read More | Continue reading
MIT researchers are working on a new steering system for drones that uses uncertainty to ensure that they don’t hit obstacles as they fly autonomously. The system is a bit complex but it’s called NanoMap and it quite simply finds ways to get from point A to point B without crash … | Continue reading
Microsoft has spent much of the past couple years arguing its vision of an augmented reality future with the HoloLens. Now, it’s realizing that for potential buyers of the company’s enterprise-focused Commercial Suite edition, there’s some desire to try it out before they break … | Continue reading
As the augmented reality industry slowly matures and those within it look to realize the path to ubiquity that they have been preaching, it turns out that they’re showing more appreciation for the vision that Google laid out years ago with its Glass headset. RealWear is aiming t … | Continue reading
We’re just about a week away from hosting our 1st Annual Winter Party at Galvanize and if you haven’t been able to grab a ticket yet, today is your lucky day. We’ve released our final round of tickets to TechCrunch’s Winter Party so do yourself a solid and pick yours up so you c … | Continue reading
The latest game from Monument Valley designer Ken Wong doesn’t have much in common with the brilliant pastel puzzler, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth experiencing. Florence, available now in the App Store, isn’t really a game so much as a graphic novel strewn with a few int … | Continue reading
Back in the early 2000s before Dropbox was gleam in Drew Houston’s eye, sharing large files was a huge challenge. Email services limited attachment size because bandwidth and storage were both expensive and FTP required a certain level of technical acumen. YouSendIt tried to res … | Continue reading
SpaceX is planning to send up a pair of its own satellites in this weekend’s launch, in order to test a proposed space-based broadband internet service. But if you want get into the broadband business, first you have to get past its U.S. gatekeepers: the FCC. Fortunately for Spa … | Continue reading
Less than a month ago I was happy to be able to write about a new accelerator focused narrowly on technological solutions to problems faced by our oceans — and today the organization behind that accelerator has announced that the mysterious Pineapple Fund has backed its conserva … | Continue reading
The Koov Educator Kid is up for pre-order today, with an estimated shipping date of March 25. Read More | Continue reading
Crowdsourced design marketplace 99designs launched 10 years ago this week, so I talked to CEO Patrick Llewellyn (who joined in 2009) about the anniversary, and where the company goes from here. Turns out Llewellyn and the official 99designs headquarters both relocated back to Me … | Continue reading
Video platform Vimeo is today rolling out new features designed to simplify video distribution across social networks, including one tool that allows live video to be streamed to Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and Periscope at the same time. Another allows creators to upload to both … | Continue reading
MIT researchers have developed a chip designed to speed up the hard work of running neural networks, while also reducing the power consumed when doing so dramatically – by up to 95 percent, in fact. The basic concept involves simplifying the chip design so that shuttling of data … | Continue reading
Things are still looking pretty bleak for Huawei’s plans to conquer the U.S. market. Earlier this week, half a dozen top members of intelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA and NSA reaffirmed surveillance concerns about the company and fellow Chinese smartphone maker ZTE. A … | Continue reading
Monzo, one of a number of “challenger” banks in the U.K. aiming to re-invent the current account, has announced the first step in its plans for international expansion with news that is has regulatory approval to operate in the Republic of Ireland. Read More | Continue reading
Microsoft has launched a number of programs for startups. These programs never quite told a cohesive story about Microsoft’s commitment to startups, though. Now, the company is launching Microsoft for Startups, a program that aims to bring technology and marketing expertise to s … | Continue reading
Another high-profile TV producer is going all-in with Netflix: Ryan Murphy has signed what the streaming service describes as “a multi-year deal to produce new series and films exclusively at Netflix, starting July 1, 2018.” Murphy’s credits include Glee, American Horror Story, … | Continue reading
Facebook’s controversial app Messenger Kids, which lets parents control who kids can talk to, is today rolling out to Android devices in the U.S. with its launch on Google Play. The app will also now include a variety of new features for Valentine’s Day, like themed makes, stick … | Continue reading
Snapchat has always been terrible at analytics, only showing daily Story view counts that content creators had to screenshot just before they disappeared every 24 hours in order to prove their worth to sponsors. But starting today, tens of thousands creators who make official St … | Continue reading
If you can’t beat ‘em, shift to a similar business model. In its struggles to adapt to to a post-Amazon retail landscape, Walmart subsidiary Sam’s Club is adopting an online membership model notably similar to Prime. The bulk retailer’s new Plus membership gives shoppers the abi … | Continue reading
Today’s Valentines Day, and while it’s become a consumer-driven holiday, it’s also a day where many couples take stock of their relationship. iHeartUs, a new app for couples, is launching today to help those couples keep and grow their relationships. Using a proprietary ‘love la … | Continue reading
Millions of idiots trying to mine so they can be part of the latest, stupidest and most irresponsibly hyped get-rich-quick tech craze are hindering the actual important work of finding out if aliens exist. This revelation, first reported by the BBC, has ruined my Wednesday. I g … | Continue reading
Varsity Tutors, the learning platform founded in 2011, today announced the close of a $50 million Series C funding round led by Learn Capital. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and existing investor TCV also participated in the round. Varsity Tutors started as an offline service, c … | Continue reading
When smart home tech first started coming out, I was hopeful, but also skeptical. It seemed overly complicated, with too many hoops to jump through and a relative inability to meld old and new for situations like rental apartments and older homes. Now, though, the range and brea … | Continue reading
Good morning and happy Wednesday, everyone! Here is a thing that falls under Today In Very Good Things: Pinterest is going to, finally, finally, let you move pins around on your boards. This seems really small and trivial but, really, this is one of the biggest quality of life i … | Continue reading
ESPN may be going from a sure-fire cable bounty to something that needs a little more flexibility in a cord-cutting era — like launching a new streaming service in 2018. But an even more troublesome trend may be emerging among younger sports fans, according to Overtime CEO Dan P … | Continue reading
YouTube TV today announced a significant expansion of its channel lineup thanks to new deals with Turner, NBA TV, and MLB Network. A number of Turner-owned networks will be added to YouTube TV’s base package starting now, including TNT, TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, HLN … | Continue reading
SpaceX is launching a Falcon 9 on February 17 (should the current target date stick) and the rocket is carrying a primary payload of a Spanish satellite for client Paz. The secondary cargo on the launch is more interesting, however, since it’s two of SpaceX’s own satellites – de … | Continue reading
We live in world where bots are operating all over the internet. Like Glenda in the Wizard of Oz asking Dorothy if she is a good witch or a bad witch, network admins simply want to determine if a bot is there to help or harm. It’s not always easy to know. That’s where Stealth Se … | Continue reading
Norwest Venture Partners has closed a $1.5 billion fund, bringing the total under management to $7.5 billion. The firm will be using the money to invest primarily in the consumer, enterprise and healthcare categories. And they are looking for opportunities at all stages, from se … | Continue reading
The quest for Olympic gold is the search for the slightest leg up — small changes that could ultimately shave fractions of a second off of one’s time. It’s an ideal platform for a technology like 3D printing, where the ability to customize products can have a dramatic effect on … | Continue reading
Chrome’s built-in ad blocker will go live tomorrow. It’s the first time Google will automatically block some ads in Chrome, but while quite a few online publishers are fretting about this move, as a regular user, you may not even notice it. Read More | Continue reading
French startup Adikteev raised a $12 million funding round led by Ring Capital and BNP Paribas Développement, with existing investors ISAI, Ventech and Laurent Asscher also participating. It’s also worth noting that it represents Ring Capital’s first investment after raising its … | Continue reading
HTC’s smartphone and connected devices president and former CFO, Chialin Chang, has resigned. The move, spotted earlier by Engadget, was announced today and is effective immediately. Read More | Continue reading