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Trump says Google CEO Sundar Pichai called to apologize
At what is now a daily coronavirus press briefing at the White House, President Trump today said that Google CEO Sundar Pichai called him to apologize. What Pichai apologized for…
While many venture capital firms spend their days either chasing the limelight or shunning it, for the last 42 years, New Enterprise Associates has just done the work of investing…
As national COVID-19 cases top 1,000, insurers waive treatment fees and US preps stimulus
The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. crossed 1,000 on Tuesday as President Donald Trump met with the nation’s largest insurers and members of his cabinet to discuss how…
These leaders are coming to Robotics + AI on March 3. Why aren’t you?
TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics + AI brings together a wide group of the ecosystem’s leading minds on March 3 at UC Berkeley. Over 1,000+ attendees are expected from all facets of…
Financing for social impact and climate businesses gets a billion dollar boost with new KKR fund
KKR, the multi-billion dollar, multi-strategy investment firm, has closed on over $1.3 billion for companies focused on social and environmental challenges. KKR Global Impact says its fund will focus on…
Week in Review: Ad Nauseam
Hey everyone, welcome back to Week in Review where I dive deep into a bit of news from the week or just share some thoughts and go over some of…
African fintech firm Flutterwave raises $35M, partners with Worldpay
San Francisco and Lagos-based fintech startup Flutterwave has raised a $35 million Series B round and announced a partnership with Worldpay FIS for payments in Africa. With the funding, Flutterwave will invest…
Catalyst Fund gets $15M from JP Morgan, UK Aid to back 30 EM fintech startups
The Catalyst Fund has gained $15 million in new support from JP Morgan and UK Aid and will back 30 fintech startups in Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the…
What we know (and don’t) about Goldman Sachs’ Africa VC investing
Goldman Sachs is investing in African tech companies. The venerable American investment bank and financial services firm has backed startups from Kenya to Nigeria and taken a significant stake in…
Hyundai to build air taxis for Uber’s future aerial ride share network
Hyundai Motor is partnering with Uber to develop and potentially mass produce air taxis for a future aerial ride share network. The partnership is the latest addition to Uber Elevate’s…
Curve, the ‘over-the-top’ banking platform, launches ‘Curve Send’ for P2P payments in 25 currencies
Curve, the so-called “over-the-top” banking platform that lets you consolidate all of your bank cards into a single Curve card and app, is launching a new feature to make it…
Daimler and Bosch take a mixed mobility approach to autonomous vehicles
A fleet of Mercedes-Benz S Class vehicles are now plying the roads of San Jose, California as part of a robotaxi pilot project that Daimler and Bosch have been developing…
LA-based Maslo pivots to professional services, launching an AI product for executive coaching
When the Los Angeles-based startup Maslo launched its first product in early 2018, the company was focused on a direct-to-consumer tool designed to encourage mindfulness and self-awareness through a machine…
In this week’s newsletter: Fintech’s banner year, subscription rental furniture and Particle’s Series C.
Featured Article
Work permit delays disrupt foreign workers’ career plans
Immigration advocates are rightly fretting over the Trump administration’s new health insurance mandate and efforts to dismantle the asylum system. But away from the spotlight, another crisis is quietly brewing that could affect virtually every foreign-born STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) student and worker.
Pegging Libra to just the $ could soothe regulators, a16z says
What if Libra wasn’t backed by a basket of international currencies, but only the dollar? Regulatory pushback to the Facebook-led cryptocurrency Libra has caused major partners — including Visa, Mastercard,…
SAP today announced that Bill McDermott, its CEO for the last nine years, is stepping down immediately. The company says he decided not to renew his contract. SAP Executive Board…
Nexkey raises $6M Series A round to make your company’s doors smarter
Nexkey, a company that provides a mobile access control solution for commercial buildings and workspaces, today announced that it has raised a $6 million Series A round led by Upfront…
Police hijack a botnet and remotely kill 850,000 malware infections
In a rare feat, French police have hijacked and neutralized a massive cryptocurrency mining botnet controlling close to a million infected computers. The notorious Retadup malware infects computers and starts…
Verified Expert Growth Marketing Agency: 3Q Digital
With 12 offices and 350 employees around the world, 3Q Digital is a giant among growth marketing agencies. They’ve worked with companies like Brandless, Opendoor, and Warby Parker, but they…
Ikea’s smart home investments to date have been smart but scattered – now the Swedish home goods brand says it’s going to amp up its smart home bets with a…
Adobe’s Amit Ahuja will be talking customer experience at TechCrunch Sessions: Enterprise
As companies collect increasingly large amounts of data about customers, the end game is about improving the customer experience. It’s a term we’re hearing a lot of these days, and…
Capital One’s breach was inevitable, because we did nothing after Equifax
Another day, another massive data breach. This time it’s the financial giant and credit card issuer Capital One, which revealed on Monday a credit file breach affecting 100 million Americans…
Heat waves bring record-breaking temperatures on a geological scale
From Alaska to Europe, the world has spent the past few weeks roasting under temperatures never before seen in recorded history. In Alaska, all-time-high record temperatures were set across the…
A Boston startup developing a nuclear fusion reactor just got a roughly $50 million boost
After twenty five years of research, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think that they have finally cracked the code for the commercialization for nuclear fusion reactions. Commonwealth Fusion…
BMW has a long history of building motorcycles, but it hasn’t done all that well in the electric motorcycle department. Clearly, though, this is something the company is thinking hard…
Zynga launches battle royale game as a Snap Games exclusive
Zynga the casual games developer which once rode Facebook’s platform to popularity and riches is now turning its attention to Snap for growth. Today, the gaming company is launching its…
Oppo and Xiaomi tease under-screen selfie cameras for smartphones
The next innovation in mobile is peeking its head for all to see today after Chinese companies Oppo and Xiaomi both showed off under-screen cameras. Apple’s notch set the ball…
Facebook’s latest account purge exposes Africa’s misinformation problem
Facebook last week purged a network of hundreds of pages, groups and Instagram accounts it labeled as producing “coordinated inauthentic behavior” toward Africa. The activity originated in Israel and was…
Featured Article
These Johns Hopkins students are slashing breast cancer biopsy costs
Over 2 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018. And while the diagnosis doesn’t have to be a death sentence for women in countries like the United States, in developing countries three times as many women die from the disease. Breast cancer survival rates range from 80% or over in North America, Sweden…
