Lora Kolodny
Lora Kolodny re-joined TechCrunch in San Francisco in 2016 as emerging technologies editor and video host. Earlier, she worked at TechCrunch in New York as a cleantech writer and trends editor.
She returned to TechCrunch after spending four years on the venture capital beat with Dow Jones VentureWire and the Wall Street Journal in San Francisco.
Lora began her business and tech reporting career as a staff reporter for Inc. magazine during the dotcom bust.
She also covered the business of entertainment for The Hollywood Reporter. And she wrote a blog for the New York Times called “The Prize,” covering the winners, losers, innovation and deal-making around business and tech competitions.
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Latest from Lora Kolodny
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Evaptainers decouples refrigeration from electricity to help rural farms and families
Some 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity worldwide today, most in rural areas across Southeast Asia, China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa. While others are focused on wiring up those places and developing new energy sources, a startup called Evaptainers has created a kind of refrigerator that requires no electricity, but instead runs on water. Read More
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Voiceitt lets people with speech impairments use voice-controlled technology
Voice-controlled technology like Amazon Echo, Siri or hands-free features in Google Maps are things we’re starting to take for granted. But as Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends Report noted, voice controls are changing computer-human interfaces, and industries, broadly. Read More
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Nike-backed Grabit has quietly raised $25 million for robots that handle what others can’t grasp
Robot arms have come a long way since the 1960’s when George C. Devol and Joseph Engelberger created the earliest industrial models. Those had two-finger grippers that, in retrospect, look fit to pluck a rubber ducky out of a bin in a carnival game, but nothing too sophisticated. By now, robots in factories and warehouses can adjust their grip like human hands, or use suction and… Read More
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Epic! raises $8 million to keep kids reading in a digital age
The makers of Epic!, one of many apps jockeying to become a “Netflix for books,” have raised $8 million in a round led by Reach Capital, the education-specialized venture firm. Epic! at its core is an on-demand digital library that includes about 25,000 different books and videos appropriate for kids in elementary school, or between the ages of about five and twelve. Read More
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Sana Health aims to stop insomnia with smart goggles
When Solar Impulse pilot Bertrand Piccard set out to fly around the world in a plane that uses no fuel, he knew he wasn’t going to get much rest. During the journey, he would be able to sleep, at a maximum, three hours per day with rest meted out in twenty-minute intervals. The plane, which could only accommodate one aviator, required a human systems check every twenty minutes. For part… Read More
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Spin raises $8 million as bike-sharing battle heats up in the US
Bike sharing has taken a turn in the U.S. The new mode is “dockless,” where companies distribute bikes around a city or campus to be rented per trip instead of dispensing them from one station. The bikes are tracked via GPS, and can be located by users, paid for and unlocked using their smartphones. When riders are done, they can park the bike anywhere that’s convenient… Read More
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Kuang-Chi invests $5 million in SkyX, a maker of drones to monitor oil and gas pipelines
Shenzhen-based Kuang-Chi Group is investing $5 million in SkyX Systems Corp., according to the drone tech startup’s founder and CEO Didi Horn. A former fighter pilot with the Israeli Air Force, Horn started SkyX in 2015 to help public and private companies monitor energy infrastructure from on high, using increasingly powerful drones and big data analytics. Read More
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Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown says VCs need to ask harder scientific questions
Impossible Foods has raised more than $200 million to make a burger engineered from plants that tastes at least as good as ground beef. The company’s many backers are hoping to disrupt the massive “animal products” industry with food that is appealing, affordable and produced in an environmentally sustainable way. Read More
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Echodyne homes in on $29 million to give drones and self-driving cars ‘radar vision’
Autonomous vehicles all need sensors that can help them detect and avoid objects in their environment. And to operate at high speeds, these sophisticated machines need to identify objects ahead precisely, and early enough, that they can avoid crashing into them. Existing systems have included light ranging and detection systems and cameras, primarily. But the effectiveness of both LiDAR… Read More
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Handy and Managed by Q want to make the gig economy a force for good
Handy CEO Oisin Hanrahan, and Managed by Q CEO Dan Teran joined TechCrunch Disrupt in New York on Tuesday to discuss the evolution and shortcomings of the so-called “gig economy.” Both startups help customers book quality cleaning and maintenance services, on-demand or at a convenient time. And both expect to be profitable within the next year. But the companies have taken… Read More
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To stop hackers from invading self-driving cars, Karamba Security raises $12 million
By 2020, an estimated 75 percent of cars will be internet-connected worldwide, according to estimates from the FBI, Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That connectivity will allow drivers to tap into life-saving safety features and make self-driving cars a reality. But it also makes vehicles vulnerable to malicious hackers. Read More
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RecordGram thinks your phone is the new recording studio
If RecordGram has its way, top record producers will all turn to their app, a kind of mobile recording studio, to find the next Justin Bieber or Nicki Minaj. And aspiring artists will all find beats, create songs and get signed to their first label through RecordGram. The company was a “wildcard” contender at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield in New York today. Read More
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Collider 3D printers can make shiny metal objects on demand
When he worked at Shapeways just a few years ago, customers constantly asked Graham Bredemeyer if they could get their designs made out of metal by the 3D printing services firm. Think about it — if a plastic Yoda is covetable, a titanium one is even better. However, most 3D printers could not yet handle alloys like sterling silver or stainless steel in 2014. And to this day, 3D… Read More
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Outdoor Voices and Glossier are cleaning up by making fashion inclusive
The founders of Glossier and Outdoor Voices, Emily Weiss and Tyler Haney, respectively, spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York today about how they’re taking a bite out of the massive beauty and apparel industries. Key to both startups’ success? A digital-first, and friendly, approach to everything from sales to product development. Read More
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Teleretail built a delivery robot to make on-demand logistics easy for small businesses
Delivery robots are seen as novelties, job-killers and a gimmicky way for restaurants to reach nearby customers. The newest entrant in this logistics segment is a Swiss startup called Teleretail AG. The company has put a twist on the personal delivery device—its machines, still in prototype, were designed to cover long distances, up to 50 miles, and to serve rural and suburban markets… Read More
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This robot helps kids with special needs to communicate
At the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon in New York today, a team of sophomores from Rutgers University introduced a social robot, named Robota, to help teachers in special ed classrooms. Read More
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Unilever leads $9 million investment in meal kit startup Sun Basket
A meal kit startup with a focus on healthful recipes and organic ingredients, Sun Basket, has just raised $9 million in series C-2 round of venture funding led by Unilever Ventures, with Baseline Ventures and Founders Circle Capital joining the round. The investment brings the startup’s total capital raised to-date to $52 million. Sun Basket delivers recipes and pre-measured ingredients… Read More
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HelloFresh is launching a wine club, taking a page from the Blue Apron playbook
As competition among them heats up, meal kit startups are expanding their repertoire, including by selling their dinner kits at groceries and adding new products to their catalogs. Today, early meal kit player HelloFresh announced the availability of wines on their site beginning May 17th. Read More
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Ceres Imaging raises $5 million to pinpoint crop stress for farmers
Oakland, Calif.-based Ceres Imaging has raised $5 million in a Series A investment led by Romulus Capital. The startup uses cameras, sensors and software to pinpoint crop stress in the field for farmers, so that they can apply herbicides, pesticides and irrigation just where it’s needed. Ceres, like several other startups, started out with the notion to build a drone just for… Read More
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Volans-i shows off its long-range delivery drones in Texas
Whether flying food or medication to customers’ doors, drones for delivery have arrived. Businesses as far-ranging as UPS, Domino’s, Amazon and the hospital group Ticino EOC are testing drones. Still, most drones built for delivery only fly for a short time and distance. Now, a startup called Volans-i has developed long-range drones for business to business, express deliveries. Read More
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