The Latest
Startups
Report: ClassPass is hunting for unicorn status in a new funding round
7:56 am PST • December 27, 2019
The nearly seven-year-old, New York-based fitness subscription app ClassPass is reportedly trying to raise $285 million in a new funding round that would push its valuation to more than $1…
Transportation
Tesla to begin delivering China-built Model 3 cars next week
5:49 am PST • December 27, 2019
Tesla will start making the first deliveries of its Shanghai-built Model 3 sedans on Monday, Bloomberg reports. The cars are rolling off the assembly line at the new Tesla Shanghai…
Transportation
Elon Musk says Tesla will add Disney+ to its vehicles ‘soon’
5:29 am PST • December 27, 2019
Elon Musk spent some time over this past holiday week answering questions posed by fans on Twitter, and one addressed the growing catalog of entertainment options available in-car via the…
Featured Article
The year of the French unicorns
In September 2019, President Emmanuel Macron was about to wrap up a speech on late-stage investment in France. According to a press briefing and some discussions with a source, everything that he was supposed to announce had been announced. But he dropped an unexpected number. “I’ll leave you with a goal: there should be 25…
1:00 am PST • December 27, 2019
Gillmor Gang: Old Friends
6:36 PM PST • December 26, 2019
Recorded on December 26, 2019. The Gillmor Gang — Frank Radice, Keith Teare, Michael Markman, Denis Pombriant, and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live Sunday, December 22,…
Wikimedia Foundation expresses deep concerns about India’s proposed intermediary liability rules
5:15 pm PST • December 26, 2019
Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that operates Wikipedia and a number of other projects, has urged the Indian government to rethink the proposed changes to the nation’s intermediary liability rules…
Startups
Latin America Roundup: XP’s chart-topping IPO, Wildlife becomes a unicorn, SoftBank backs Konfio
3:22 pm PST • December 26, 2019
Latin America’s startup and investment ecosystem has likely more than doubled this year as compared to 2019.
It’s gotten to the point now where a handful of angel investors can put a space company on the map. But the same changes that have made the industry accessible…
Russia has begun testing a national internet system that would function as an alternative to the broader web, according to local news reports. Exactly what stage the country has reached…
The Federal Aviation Administration this week issued proposed rules for the remote identification of drones in the U.S. The “next exciting step in safe drone integration” (their words) aims to…
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Venture
VCs from Accel and SoftBank talk Europe’s startup scene, what they expect in 2020, and the future of SoftBank
11:00 am PST • December 26, 2019
If you haven’t noticed, Europe’s startup scene is in full bloom, with more than $30 billion deployed in startups across the continent over the last 12 months and more than…
Bill Gates played Secret Santa to a Michigander, sending 81 pounds of goodies tailored just for her
9:50 am PST • December 26, 2019
Since roughly 2012, billionaire Bill Gates has been participating in Reddit’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange, which matches Reddit users with internet strangers who give them presents. He seems to…
Media & Entertainment
Wikipedia ban ruled unconstitutional by Turkish court
9:34 am PST • December 26, 2019
Two and a half years after being blocked by the Turkish government, Wikipedia appears to have received a reprieve. The country’s constitutional court this week ruled that the April 2017…
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…
9:17 am PST • December 26, 2019
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…
8:59 am PST • December 26, 2019
Startups
As 2019 closes, a look back at what happened to the altcoin boom
8:51 am PST • December 26, 2019
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…
Hardware
Huawei reportedly got by with a lot of help from the Chinese government
8:16 am PST • December 26, 2019
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…
Media & Entertainment
Cosmo and Google create a mobile Watch Party for the new season of ‘You’
7:19 am PST • December 26, 2019
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…
Media & Entertainment
Daily Crunch: Travis Kalanick is leaving Uber’s board
12:05 pm PST • December 24, 2019
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…
