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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Cover raises $1.6 million to make in-law units easy to add to any backyard
Whether you call them granny units, in-laws or backyard studios, accessory dwelling units are rising in popularity in the U.S., in part due to new regulations that make it easier to obtain permits to build them in California. Now, a startup called Cover Technologies Inc. has raised $1.6 million in seed funding to give accessory dwelling units a high-tech makeover. Read More
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Fortem raises $5.5 million to hunt and take down unwanted drones
As drones became available to private citizens around the world, bad actors found ways to use them for nefarious purposes, like spying, carrying contraband across borders and turning the aerial robots into weapons. Drone crashes also put people and property at risk. Fortem Technologies has raised a new seed round to keep the skies, and people below, safe. Read More
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Made In Space reveals the Archinaut, a robot-operated factory in the sky
Made In Space is known as the company behind the 3D printers on board the International Space Station. Astronauts have used the startup’s Additive Manufacturing Facility to churn out everything from finger splints to tools — and even other printer parts. Now the company is revealing a video rendering of its larger Archinaut system, a factory in the sky operated by autonomous robots. Read More
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Rethink Robotics and iRobot founder Rod Brooks is coming to Disrupt NY
In 1997, robotic scientist Rodney Brooks predicted a future where sensors and robots would be pervasive, and people could simply tell a door to open. His prognostication has come to pass. Brooks will be onstage at Disrupt NY to discuss what it will take to make the robots of science fiction into reality, how robotics will make the greatest impact on humanity in his lifetime and more. Read More
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YL Ventures closes $75 million fund to bring Israeli startups to the US
Early-stage investors YL Ventures have raised a $75 million fund, their third, to back Israeli software startups seeking to enter the U.S. market. The firm maintains offices in Tel Aviv and Mill Valley, Calif. It is best-known for its use of predictive analytics to find promising entrepreneurial teams before they have officially launched a business. YLV founder and Managing Partner Yoav… Read More
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Apple started a $1 billion fund to create advanced manufacturing jobs in the US
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed today that the hardware titans have formed a new, $1 billion fund to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Cook said Apple will reveal its first investments from this fund later this month. Read More
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Abundant Robotics rakes in $10 million for apple harvesting robots
GV (formerly Google Ventures) is leading a $10 million investment in Abundant Robotics, a company building apple-picking robots that could eventually be adapted to harvest other fruits. Joining GV in the round were BayWa AG and Tellus Partners, along with the company’s earlier backers Yamaha Motor Company, KPCB Edge and Comet Labs. Read More
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Mayo maker Hampton Creek is shedding execs
Food and beverage startups backed by tech investors are having a rough go of it this season, with Juicero all but melting down and companies like Beyond Meat, Urban Remedy and Soylent recalling products, according to required disclosures on the federal site Foodsafety.gov. Now, Hampton Creek Foods, a packaged goods company backed by the likes of Horizons, Khosla, and AME Cloud Ventures, is… Read More
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Yik Yak shuts down after Square paid $1 million for its engineers
Yik Yak co-founders Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington published a farewell note to users on Friday, announcing they would shut down their once-popular anonymous social network this week. The app allowed people to connect with other users within a certain radius, and was widely marketed in and used on college campuses. Read More
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Investors are betting 3DR can find life after Solo as a drone data platform
An early player in drone-tech, 3D Robotics Inc. on Thursday announced that it has raised $53 million in a Series D round of funding, including new equity funding and conversion of debt equity. Atlantic Bridge led the round, joined by Autodesk Forge Fund, True Ventures, Foundry Group, Mayfield and other undisclosed investors, according to the company statement. Read More
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Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man Ozobots are on the way
Ozobot, a golf ball-sized toy robot that helps kids learn to code, will be available in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man characters as of this summer. Evollve Inc., which makes the Ozobot, has previously offered character skins from Disney’s Marvel Avengers, including Iron Man and Captain America. Read More
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Everfi raises $190 million to teach life skills and touchy subjects online
EVERFI Inc. has raised $190 million in Series D funding to teach students online the life skills and touchy subject matter that they never learned in school. A sampling of courses offered by Everfi range from “Harassment Prevention Training” for the workforce, to “Alcohol EDU” for college students and “Vault Understanding Money” for fourth-, fifth- and… Read More
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Taylor Farms wants to make food without fossil fuels
As industries go, agriculture represents one of the worst environmental offenders. Besides all the fertilizers, pesticides and water they use, farms also burn a lot of fossil fuels and money to keep the lights on, tractors rolling and refrigerators humming. Taylor Farms is making an effort to make food without fossil fuels, and shrink its environmental footprint. Read More
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Desktop Metal reveals how its 3D printers rapidly churn out metal objects
Desktop Metal revealed pricing and other details for its 3D printers today which can make objects out of hundreds of different alloys including steel, aluminum, titanium and copper. In terms of quality, the parts produced by Desktop Metal systems compare to injection-molded items, says the startup’s CEO and cofounder Ric Fulop. While metal 3D printers have been around for decades… Read More
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Flush with funding, Instacart accelerates US expansion
Grocery delivery startup Instacart recently closed a $400 million Series D round of funding at a valuation of $3.4 billion. Now, the company is putting that capital to work by accelerating its expansion across the U.S., and offering free Instacart Express memberships to entice new users wherever it goes. Read More
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Why tech workers showed up to March for Science
Demonstrators turned out in an estimated 600 cities around the world to rally for science and its role in policy-making. The march was organized after the Trump administration proposed and began to implement steep budget cuts to federal science agencies in the U.S., notably the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health. Read More
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PowerRay is an underwater drone for filmmakers or fishermen
The creator of the PowerEgg, an ovoid flying robot, has begun accepting orders for its newest creation, a submersible camera drone for home use. Dubbed the PowerRay, the waterproof device can find, attract and record fish. It operates at a depth of 30 meters, or about 98 feet, for up to four hours at a time. It is suitable for use in fresh-, salt-or chlorinated-water. The PowerRay garnered… Read More
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Figure 1, a knowledge-sharing app for doctors, launches sponsored content
Since its launch in 2013, Figure 1, a photo- and knowledge-sharing app for medical professionals, has focused on “traction” that is winning over new users and keeping them around. The app now boasts registered users in 190 countries, with three-quarters of U.S. med students using Figure 1. Today, the Toronto- and New York-based startup revealed how it has begun to generate revenue. Read More
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With DroneDeploy’s Fieldscanner, pilots can create maps as they fly
Flying drones to inspect a farm, construction site, or any other venue from overhead can generate a huge amount of data. It takes time, though, for drone users to upload and turn this high-resolution data into maps, graphs or business intelligence they can act upon. Today, a data management platform for drones called DroneDeploy, is launching a tool called Fieldscanner that makes it possible… Read More
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The winner of the meal kit market won’t be a meal kit company at all
Now, meal kit companies are facing an onslaught of competition from newcomers and big food brands alike. Turning a profit has proven elusive. And somewhat embarrassingly, it looks like meal kit companies need to emulate the brick-and-mortar groceries and online retailers they once criticized for overwhelming shoppers with choices. To go truly mainstream, they need to diversify their… Read More
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