Oct 28th
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
San Francisco, CA
The Latest
Startups
Onfido, the AI-based ID verification platform, raises $100M led by TPG
3:19 am PDT • April 15, 2020
Contactless transactions have become a major priority at a time when people all around the world are minimising their contact with others outside their households to slow down the often-insidious…
Media & Entertainment
Setu raises $15M to help developers connect with banks to offer Indians ‘sachet-sized’ financial products
2:36 am PDT • April 15, 2020
India’s push to digital payments in the last three years has seen tens of millions of people get comfortable with exchanging money online for the first time. But most businesses…
Startups
Airbnb ups its debt by $1BN amid the coronavirus travel crunch
2:01 am PDT • April 15, 2020
Airbnb has secured commitments of $1 billion for a syndicated term loan from institutional investors, it said. The emergency cash injection comes as the coronavirus travel freeze continues to hammer…
Startups
Credit Kudos raises £5M Series A to use open banking for credit scoring
1:00 am PDT • April 15, 2020
Credit Kudos, a U.K. fintech using open banking to provide more accurate credit scoring, has raised £5 million in Series A funding. Leading the round is AlbionVC, which is joined…
French startup Slite has raised an $11 million Series A round led by Spark Capital with existing investors also participating. Slite is a sort of multiplayer Evernote. It lets you…
Media & Entertainment
Google announces a Journalism Emergency Relief Fund for local newsrooms
12:00 am PDT • April 15, 2020
Google is offering financial support to local newsrooms hit by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of its Google News Initiative. The company isn’t disclosing the size…
Startups
India’s FarEye raises $25M to grow its logistics SaaS startup in international markets
10:30 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
More than 150 e-commerce and delivery companies globally use an Indian logistics startup’s service to work out the optimum way before they ship items to their customers. That startup, Noida-based…
Gadgets
Ooni’s Koda 16 pizza oven is the rare kitchen gadget that delivers on its promise
6:30 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
Ooni (nee Uuni), has been around for a few years now, but its latest oven, the Koda 16, launched in March. Just like everyone else, I’ve been cooped up at…
Luxury consignment retailer The RealReal lays off 10% of workforce, furloughs 15%
4:56 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
Online consignment company The RealReal is the latest tech company to lay off and furlough employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In the company’s quarterly earnings report today, The RealReal announced…
It’s hard enough in the first place having to drive an astronomically expensive rover around a planet millions of miles away. Doing it from home seems like a pretty big…
Where we’ll be next
Jun 11th
StrictlyVC – Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
May 21st
StrictlyVC – London
London
Adriel is a South Korean startup bringing automated ad tools to small businesses — and in recent months, it’s been expanding into the United States and the United Kingdom. This…
Hardware
Google is lowering Nest camera quality ‘to conserve internet resources’
3:05 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
If you’re looking at footage from your Nest Cam and the quality seems a bit lower than normal: it’s not your eyes. In an email to users, Google says it…
Space
Rocket Lab inks deal to carry Japanese startup Synspective’s first satellite into orbit
2:52 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
The well-funded Japanese space startup Synspective has tapped launch provider Rocket Lab to take its first Earth observation satellite to orbit. Launch is planned for late 2020, and the company’s…
Hardware
MIT developed a wireless box that can detect COVID-19 patients’ movement and breathing at home
2:22 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge for healthcare workers. Among the major challenges are social distancing issues, which have required novel approaches to diagnosing and treating illness. For…
Startups
Labster’s latest partnership, and what it tells us about the future of remote learning
2:05 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
Labster, a virtual science lab edtech company, today announced that it is partnering with California’s community college network to bring its software to 2.1 million students. California Community Colleges claims…
The odd reality of today’s stock market
1:53 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
As the COVID-19 death toll in the United States continues to climb, American stocks are, in a grim divergence, recovering lost ground. It isn’t clear precisely why locally-listed equities have…
Bradley Tusk is relatively unique among investors. Where other VCs shy away from heavily regulated industries and businesses, Tusk leans in. The Tusk Ventures founder and CEO has investments that…
Dear Sophie: How do I extend my visa status without leaving the US?
12:43 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
I’m an E-3 visa holder and I usually go back to Australia to extend my visa. Given the COVID-19 travel restrictions, how do I extend my immigration status from inside…
Media & Entertainment
NBCUniversal’s Peacock launches on Comcast tomorrow
12:00 pm PDT • April 14, 2020
NBCUniversal’s new streaming service Peacock is launching for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex customers tomorrow, April 15, at no additional cost. Comcast says the rollout to its platforms begins tomorrow…
Media & Entertainment
Sony announces $10M fund to help indie game developers impacted by COVID-19
11:30 am PDT • April 14, 2020
Though more people are stuck at home with their PCs and gaming consoles, times are still tough for small indie game developers that are often dependent on gaming conferences to…
