2019
Featured Article
The year of the gig worker uprising
2019 was a momentous year for gig workers. While the likes of Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash rely on these workers for their respective core services, the pay does not match how much they’re worth — which is a lot. It’s this issue that lies at the root of gig workers’ demands. “This past year…
Featured Article
Remembering the startups we lost in 2019
All manner of startups fail for all manner of reasons. But there’s one constant: this is an incredibly difficult business. Launching a successful company isn’t just a matter of drive and finding the right people (though both, clearly, are important). Doing well in this business requires the stars to align perfectly on a billion different…
As 2019 closes, a look back at what happened to the altcoin boom
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re peeking at what’s gone on in the world…
Huawei reportedly got by with a lot of help from the Chinese government
For those following Huawei’s substantial rise over the past several years, it’ll come as no surprise that the Chinese government played an important role in fostering the hardware maker. Even…
Cosmo and Google create a mobile Watch Party for the new season of ‘You’
The second season of the Penn Badgley romantic murder drama “You” launches on Netflix today — and along with it, a new project called Cosmopolitan Watch Party. You can hit…
Apps from Chinese developers have been gaining popularity on Indian app stores for some time. Last year, as many as 44 of the top 100 Android apps in India were…
Daily Crunch: Travis Kalanick is leaving Uber’s board
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you…
Pyka and its autonomous, electric crop-spraying drone land $11M seed round
Modern agriculture involves fields of mind-boggling size, and spraying them efficiently is a serious operational challenge. Pyka is taking on the largely human-powered spray business with an autonomous winged craft…
A Twitter app bug was used to match 17 million phone numbers to user accounts
A security researcher said he has matched 17 million phone numbers to Twitter user accounts by exploiting a flaw in Twitter’s Android app. Ibrahim Balic found that it was possible…
Micro-angelo? This 3D-printed ‘David’ is just one millimeter tall
3D printing has proven itself useful in so many industries that it’s no longer necessary to show off, but some people just can’t help themselves. Case in point: this millimeter-tall…
The holiday season can be a lot. You might need something to make you feel better. This post doesn’t have it. But it does have some pretty terrible bitcoin Christmas…
Public investors loved SaaS stocks in 2019, and startups should be thankful
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today, something short. Continuing our loose collection of looks back…
Uber founder Travis Kalanick is leaving the company’s board of directors
Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick is leaving the company’s board of directors, the ride-hailing company announced today. Kalanick will officially resign from the board as of December 31,…
DJI patents an off-road rover with a stabilized camera on top
DJI is easily the leading brand when it comes to camera drones, but few companies have even attempted a ground-based mobile camera platform. The company may be moving in that…
Social media influencers have been known to promote events around the world for the right price — decisions that sometimes prove to be mistakes. Bella Hadid, who promoted the failed…
Gift Guide: 13 last-minute subscription gifts for the people you totally didn’t forget
WHOOPS. You forgot to buy a gift for someone on your list. Maybe you’ve been too busy at work. Maybe you just found out that the cousins are coming after…
SpaceX achieves key safety milestone for crewed flight with 10th parachute test
SpaceX is closing out the year with an achievement that should help it keep on track to fly astronauts on board one of its spacecraft next year. The Elon Musk-led…
Daily Crunch: Boeing names a new CEO
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you…
Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. Typically, the holiday season is a slow one…
Slack’s worth about 18x revenue, and there’s nothing wrong with that
One odd thing in 2019 has been Slack’s falling share price contrasted against the rising value of the Nasdaq composite, a tech-heavy index that many use as shorthand for the…
No, Spotify, you shouldn’t have sent mysterious USB drives to journalists
Last week, Spotify sent a number of USB drives to reporters with a note: “Play me.” It’s not uncommon for reporters to receive USB drives in the post. Companies distribute…
A year from now, this is likely to have all blown over. A year from now, the Samsung Galaxy Fold’s turbulent takeoff may well be a footnote in the largest…
Plenty of Fish app was leaking users’ hidden names and postal codes
Dating app Plenty of Fish has pushed out a fix for its app after a security researcher found it was leaking information that users had set to “private” on their…
As DraftKings finds an exit, a reminder of what could have been
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today the big news that falls into our orbit is…
After battery fires, Lyft’s e-bikes are back in San Francisco
Just in time for Christmas, Lyft has brought back to San Francisco its pedal-assist e-bikes. The plan is to roll out hundreds of bikes each week until it hits 4,000…
Rivian adds $1.3 billion in funding for its electric utility and adventure vehicles
American automotive technology startup Rivian has raised $1.3 billion in new funding, the company announced today. The new investment is the fourth round of capital announced by the company in…
Mastercard announced today that it is acquiring RiskRecon, a Salt Lake City startup that uses publicly available data to build security assessments of organizations. The companies did not share the…
Eddy Travels closes pre-seed round led by Techstars to scale its AI travel assistant
Eddy Travels, an AI-powered travel assistant bot which can understand text and voice messages, has closed a pre-seed round of around $500,000 led by Techstars Toronto, Practica Capital and Open…
Boeing CEO out following 737 Max fiasco, will be replaced by current board chairman
Boeing’s CEO Dennis A. Muilenburg is CEO no longer, the company announced today. Effective January 13, 2020, current Board Chairman David L. Calhoun takes over the top executive officer spot…
Tesla lands $1.4 billion from Chinese banks to build out its Shanghai gigafactory
Tesla has reportedly secured more than $1.4 billion in financing in the form of loans from multiple Chinese banks in order to help fund the construction of its new gigafactory…
