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Goldsky raises $20M to bring real-time, on-chain data to crypto companies
Despite well-known volatility in the crypto market, crypto startups building infrastructure to support the industry’s long-term growth have seemed to fare better than their peers. This is especially true for…
Shuffles, Pinterest’s invite-only collage-making app, is blowing up on TikTok — here’s how to get in
Collage-style video “mood boards” are going viral on TikTok — and so is the app making them possible. Pinterest’s recently soft-launched collage-maker Shuffles has been climbing up the App Store’s…
Say hello to the kick-ass final agenda for the TechCrunch+ stage at Disrupt 2022
TechCrunch is bringing our flagship event, Disrupt, back to the real world this year, which means we’re hard at work on our big October 18-20 shindig. Founders, investors, tech denizens,…
Amazon Prime Video launches local service in Nigeria
Amazon Prime Video today announced the launch of the localized version of its streaming service in one of Africa’s biggest markets: Nigeria. Just as it did in Southeast Asia some…
Seedtag, the ex-Googler-founded, cookie-free, AI-based adtech startup, taps $250M+ in funding
As regulation, platform dynamics and consumer choice continue to eat into the adtech stalwart known as cookies, it’s leaving a gap in the market for advertising solutions that can work…
The anonymous Q&A app NGL climbed to the top of the App Store by tricking its users with questions it claims are sent in by their friends and by charging…
Twitter is bringing back its long-lost Chirp Developer Conference in November
As Twitter continues to woo developers back to its platform, the company today announced the return of its developer conference, Chirp. The event was first held in 2010 but was…
Google for Startups deploys $4M of grant funding to 40 Black-led startups across Europe
In an effort to kick-start a greater number of Black tech founders in Europe, last year Google for Startups launched a $2 million (£1.5 million) grant fund to help tackle…
Spotify hypes the revenue potential of podcasts and audiobooks at its second Investor Day event
In its second Investor Day, streaming service Spotify updated the financial community about its potential for further growth and monetization, despite the overall economic downturn impacting the tech sector. The…
With the pandemic leaving many searching, group support app Circles raises new round
Between one-to-one therapy and free online forums, people search for a range of solutions to mental health therapy online. Especially since the pandemic increased anxiety and depression rose by 25%…
Top Twitter execs, including heads of revenue and consumer products, are out following Musk deal
Twitter GM of Consumer, Keyvon Beykpour, announced today he will be leaving the company after seven years. Beykpour first joined the social media platform by way of its acquisition of…
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It’s not rocket science: Why Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover could be bad for privacy
Elon Musk has put an end to weeks of speculation with the announcement that Twitter has accepted his offer to buy the platform for $54.20 per share, valuing the social media platform at about $44 billion. While Musk’s drawn-out pursuit of Twitter has come to an end, for him at least, the next chapter of…
Russia says nyet, sanctions Mark Zuckerberg, LinkedIn’s Roslansky, VP Harris and other US leaders
From the department of Tit for Tat, on the heels of a cascade of sanctions against Russia, Russian organizations and Russian individuals over Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine, the Russian…
Flutterwave responds as CEO is put on the spot for alleged bullying by ex-employee
On Monday, Clara Wanjiku Odero, a former employee of African payments giant and unicorn Flutterwave, accused the company’s chief executive officer Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola of bullying and harassing her for…
Wing Security launches its end-to-end SaaS security platform, raises $26M
As businesses increasingly rely on an ever-growing number of SaaS products, it has become imperative for security teams to get a better understanding of which applications a company’s employees are…
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The 26 crypto startups that Y Combinator is backing in its W22 batch
Crypto was big at YC this batch. Y Combinator Demo Days returned yet again with another ballooning heap of startups. In the old days, a gaggle of TechCrunch reporters would go to the Demo Day in person, write up the presentations of each startup and hobnob with VCs during the breaks, but in a post-pandemic…
Capitolis valued at $1.6B after raising $110M for new tech to update capital markets trading
A lot of the startups you tend to hear about in the world of fintech are building solutions for consumers and businesses. Today, a startup that’s aiming to serve the…
Flickr is paywalling the ability to upload NSFW photos
Flickr isn’t very good at making money, but as the old adage goes, sex sells. So, in an attempt to draw in more paying subscribers, Flickr changed its content guidelines…
Facebook and Instagram cut the reach of Russian state media
Meta confirmed Tuesday that it is limiting the spread of content shaped by the Russian government across its platforms. The company will suppress the algorithmic spread of content shared by Russian…
The first hire at our SaaS startup was not an engineer. It might seem counterintuitive, but the first person on board at Wingback was a Fractional Head of Remote —…
Twitch partners with indie music licensing group Merlin
Twitch will strike up a partnership with independent digital music licensing group Merlin, marking the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform’s latest effort to get cozy with the recording industry. The deal emphasizes…
Atlassian today announced that it has acquired Percept.AI, an AI company from Y Combinator’s summer 2017 batch that offers an automated virtual agent support solution — a chatbot, basically —…
Daily Crunch: Google dumps FloC plan, proposes new Topics API for ad targeting
Today our cup overflows with news. There’s simply too much going on to cover in a single newsletter, so I’ve tried to fit in as much as possible.
VCs approached Facebook to fund a spinout of Workplace valued at over $1B, but Facebook declined
Workplace — the app originally built as a version of Facebook for employees to communicate with each other — now has more than 7 million users, carving out a place…
Meta’s Workplace will integrate with WhatsApp later this year to expand communication with front-line employees
Workplace, the app owned and originally built by Facebook (now Meta) as a version of the social network for enterprise employees to communicate with each other, has signed up upwards…
Tado, the German smart home energy startup, plans to go public via a SPAC at a €450M valuation
Tado, the German smart home startup that specializes in thermostats and more recently moved into flexible “time of use” energy tariffs based on loadshifting technology, is today announcing the next…
A Bluetooth bug in a popular at-home COVID-19 test could falsify results
A security researcher found a Bluetooth vulnerability in a popular at-home COVID-19 test allowing him to modify its results. F-Secure researcher Ken Gannon identified the since-fixed flaw in the Ellume…
Spotify is launching Apple-like ratings for podcasts
If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, you’ve probably heard a host ask you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts in their end credits. Now, that script might flip…
Meta’s Horizon Worlds is available in the US and Canada for 18+ users
The company formerly known as Facebook is taking a step toward its goal to transport us to the metaverse. Now, Horizon Worlds — the Second Life or Minecraft of Meta’s…
Instagram’s Adam Mosseri defends the app’s teen safety track record to Congress
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri testified before Congress for the first time Wednesday, defending the app’s impacts on teens and its aspirations to bring younger children formally into the fold.…
