Catherine Shu
Catherine Shu has covered startups in Asia and breaking news for TechCrunch since November 2012. Her other interests include anything related to fiber and textiles, design and cats. Catherine was raised in California and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She is now based in Taipei, Taiwan and can be reached at shu@techcrunch.com, @catherineshu on Twitter or keybase.io/catherineshu
Disclosures: None
Crunchbase profile →Featured Picks from Catherine Shu
Latest from Catherine Shu
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Smilo’s products are designed to be healthy for babies and easy on parents’ eyes
For a basic baby item, picking the right pacifier is surprisingly daunting. Many new parents have no idea how many different pacifiers are on the market until they are staring bleary-eyed at store shelves. Babies are also notoriously picky about their soothers and often reject several brands before finding their favorite, but it’s also important to use pacifiers that won’t hinder… Read More
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Intel CEO quits Trump’s manufacturing council, calls out the ‘hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville’
Intel’s CEO is the latest executive to leave one of Trump’s advisory councils in the wake of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, which many felt was inadequately addressed by the president and his administration. Read More
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GoDaddy tells white supremacist site Daily Stormer to find a new domain provider
White supremacist site Daily Stormer needs to find another domain provider after getting the boot from GoDaddy. In a tweet, the company said “We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service.” Read More
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A-ha! A track that ameliorates an Apple Music annoyance
Apple Music aficionados are already acquainted with an aggravating attribute of the app: when you plug your iPhone into your car, it automatically plays the first song in alphabetical order from your library. This gets old pretty quickly, but instead of deleting that song from your music (and then gradually going down the list like Arya Stark), you can now download a new track called “A a… Read More
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Aerostat startup Altaeros gets $7.5M from SoftBank to bring broadband wireless to rural areas
Altaeros, a Boston-based startup that develops autonomous aerostats, announced today that it has received $7.5 million in new funding from SoftBank Group. The capital will speed-up the launch of SuperTower, a project that uses Altaeros’ tethered balloons to bring broadband wireless to rural areas. Read More
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SparkLabs launches its latest accelerator program in Taipei
Accelerator network SparkLabs opened its newest program today in Taipei. Headed by managing partner Edgar Chiu, SparkLabs Taipei will focus on preparing Taiwanese startups to enter other countries. Read More
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How high-tech breast pumps help new mothers reclaim their time
HUUUURRRRRRK hurk HUUUURRRRRRK hurk HUUUURRRRRRK hurk HUUUURRRRRRK hurk HUUUURRRRRRK hurk HUUUURRRRRRK hurk HUUUURRRRRRK hurk HUUUURRRRRRK hurk… When you are pregnant, everyone tells you that nothing can ever prepare you for parenthood. What they should also tell you, however, is that nothing can ever prepare you for the distinctive sound of an electric breast pump. Read More
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CommonSense Robotics raises $6M seed round to make on-demand logistics affordable for all retailers
As e-commerce giants like Amazon continue expanding their on-demand offerings, retailers are struggling to keep up. CommonSense Robotics wants to make near-instantaneous deliveries accessible to smaller businesses with micro-fulfillment centers that can be built inside existing retail spaces. The company announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed funding from Aleph VC and… Read More
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Charter says it doesn’t want to merge with Sprint
Charter Communications says it has “no interest” in merging with Sprint, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint had proposed a deal. The proposed merger would have combined Sprint and Charter into a new publicly traded entity controlled by SoftBank, which currently controls a majority stake in Sprint. Read More
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Putin passes law that will ban VPNs in Russia
Russia has banned VPNs and other technology that allows users to gain anonymous access to websites. Read More
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Net30 wants to fix the construction industry’s payments problem
The invoicing and payments process in the commercial construction industry is broken. It takes a median of about 70 days to get paid, which means contractors are often stuck without enough working capital. Net30, a startup in Y Combinator’s current batch, wants to solve that problem. Read More
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UpCodes makes researching building regulations less exhausting for architects
For architects, complying with building codes means navigating labyrinthine layers of regulations that vary between municipalities. Sorting through different codes and keeping track of updates is a daunting task and, in a worst-case scenario, a mistake can cost thousands or even millions of dollars to tear out and fix. Firms that can afford it hire building code consultants, but a startup… Read More
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LG Display will add $7B to its OLED investment in an attempt to challenge Samsung
LG Display announced today that it will invest 7.8 trillion won (about $7 billion) to boost its OLED production capacity. This increases the stakes in LG’s competition with Samsung over OLED displays, a market that Samsung dominates by far, as Apple prepares to launch the iPhone 8, which is widely expected to come with OLED screens. Read More
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Agtech startup Prospera, which uses AI and computer vision to guide farmers, harvests $15M
Tel Aviv-based startup Prospera has raised a $15 million Series B to expand the scope of its technology, which uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to help farmers analyze data gathered from their fields. The round was led by Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from Cisco Investments, ICV and returning investor Bessemer Venture Partners, and brings Prospera’s total funding… Read More
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Korean startup Urbanbase gets $1.8M to turn apartment floor plans into virtual reality
Urbanbase, a Seoul-based startup that makes virtual reality tools for interior planning and design, plans to expand in Asia after raising $1.8 million in Series A funding. Its investors are CKD Venture Capital, Magellan Technology and Capstone Partners. Read More
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The long-term cost of sexual harassment
When news recently broke that multiple women have accused 500 Startups founder Dave McClure of sexual harassment, I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. In 2015, I was propositioned and groped by a 500 Startups venture partner named Tristan Pollock during an event here in Taipei while working as a contributor for TechCrunch. After 500 Startups conducted an internal… Read More
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D-ID’s tech protects your privacy by confounding face recognition algorithms
Unless you literally wear a mask all the time, it is almost impossible to completely avoid cameras and face recognition technology. Not only is this a privacy concern, but it also presents a potential liability for companies that need to protect personal data. D-ID, a startup currently taking part in Y Combinator, wants to solve the problem with tools that process images to make them… Read More
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Marketing personalization startup Dynamic Yield adds $9M to its Series C, bringing it to $31M
Dynamic Yield, which uses machine learning to help online marketers personalize customer experiences on their site, has added $9 million to its Series C, bringing it to a new total of $31 million. Its new investors are DTCP (Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners) and La Maison. Read More
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Syte.ai, a visual search startup just for fashion, closes $8M Series A
Syte.ai, a visual search startup focused on fashion products, announced that it has raised an $8 million Series A. The lead investor is NHN Ventures (the investment arm of Korean internet services giant NHN), with participation from Naver Corp., messaging app Line Corp., Magma VC, Remagine VC, KDC Ventures, and NBM Ventures. Read More
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Samsung plans to recover 157 tonnes of rare metals, including gold, from Galaxy Note 7s
Samsung Electronics announced today that it will recycle parts from Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, which gained notoriety last year after a battery defect caused several to burst into flame. The company said in a statement on its Korean site (via Google Translate) that it also expects to recover 157 tonnes of rare metals, including gold, from the devices. Read More
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