Lyft
Online learning marketplace Udemy raises $50M at a $2B valuation from Japanese publisher Benesse
The internet has, for better or worse, become the default platform for people seeking information, and today one of the companies leveraging that to deliver educational content has raised some…
New Early Stage speakers to talk fundraising strategies, growth marketing and PR
TC Early Stage SF goes down on April 28, and we are getting pretty damn excited about it! The show will bring together 50+ experts across startup core competencies, such…
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Profitability expectations ding Lyft despite better-than-expected growth
Hello and welcome back to our regular look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. This afternoon we’re digging into Lyft’s earnings results, unpacking the company’s performance, the market’s expectations and why shares in the American ride-hailing giant are off in after-hours trading. Lyft’s earnings — following Uber’s own results that…
Aptiv’s self-driving cars have given 100,000 paid rides on the Lyft app
What started out as a temporary pilot project to test a robotaxi service in Las Vegas has turned into a multi-year partnership between self-driving software company Aptiv and Lyft and…
Unpacking Uber’s new profitability promise
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Yesterday Uber reported its Q4 2019 financial performance. Today, following…
Shares of popular American ride-hailing giant Lyft are off 1.5% today in regular trading after The New York Times reported that the company would cut some staff. TechCrunch confirmed with…
Technology is anthropology
The interesting thing about the technology business is that, most of the time, it’s not the technology that matters. What matters is how people react to it, and what new…
Opera and the firm short-selling its stock (alleging Africa fintech abuses) weigh in
Internet services company Opera has come under a short-sell assault based on allegations of predatory lending practices by its fintech products in Africa. Hindenburg Research issued a report claiming (among…
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Mobileye takes aim at Waymo
Mobileye has built a multi-billion-dollar business supplying automakers with computer vision technology that powers advanced driver assistance systems. It’s a business that last year generated nearly $1 billion in sales for the company. Today, 54 million vehicles on the road are using Mobileye’s computer vision technology. In 2018, the company made what many considered a…
NextNav raises $120M to deploy its indoor positioning tech to find people in skyscrapers
NextNav LLC has raised $120 million in equity and debt to commercially deploy an indoor positioning system that can pinpoint a device’s location — including which floor it’s on —…
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Delta Air Lines’ startup partnerships are fueling innovation
For the first time, this year Delta Air Lines had a large presence at CES. The carrier used much of its space to highlight the “parallel reality” screens developed by Misapplied Sciences and Sarcos Robotics, which brought its latest Guardian exoskeleton. At the show, I sat down with COO Gil West, an industry veteran with…
Comcast launches SportsTech startup accelerator with NASCAR and others
Comcast NBCUniversal believes its can access startup innovation while supporting future Olympic gold-medalists. The American mass media company launched its new SportsTech accelerator today, based in part, on that impetus.…
R.I.P. Goofy Times
A strange new sensation has settled across the tech industry, one so foreign, so alien, it’s almost hard to recognize. A sense that some great expectations are being radically revised…
Throughout 2019, a number of mobility companies launched in additional markets, while many pulled out of areas that no longer served them. Meanwhile, transportation startups continued to raise more money…
Rappi and Oyo pare staff as Vision Fund companies trim costs, target profits
This week we’ve covered layoffs at unicorns both inside the Vision Fund and out. This afternoon we add two more to our list: Oyo and Rappi. The staff reductions are…
How gig economy giants are trying to keep workers classified as independent contractors
Now that 2020 has started, Uber, DoorDash and Lyft are taking additional steps to undermine a new California law that would help more gig workers qualify as full-time employees. These…
6 VCs explain why seed investors now favor enterprise startups
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between. Today we’re digging into seed-stage companies, the vanguard of the…
Mobility mavericks, get ready to strut your stuff at TC Sessions: Mobility 2020 on May 14. Don’t miss our second annual day-long conference devoted to technologies that move people and…
It’s The Jons 2019!
Happy New Year! It’s been another wild and wacky ride of a year in the tech world: breakthroughs and disgraces, triumphs and catastrophes, cryptocurrencies and starships, the ongoing rise of…
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…
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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…
After battery fires, Lyft’s e-bikes are back in San Francisco
Just in time for Christmas, Lyft has brought back to San Francisco its pedal-assist e-bikes. The plan is to roll out hundreds of bikes each week until it hits 4,000…
In a world where people access their financial services through one universal hub, which companies are the best-positioned to win?
Blacklane is on the road to building a profitable on-demand transportation platform
Like it or loathe it, Uber changed the face of modern urban transportation by providing a relatively pain-free way to order a car to take you from A to B.…
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the grey space in between. Today we’re looking into Uber’s bike bet and what the…
Reinventing the relationship between workers and tech
The average American worker hasn’t gotten a meaningful raise in over 40 years, which has been made worse by meager benefits packages, volatile schedules and pay, and barriers to worker…
Profitability is tied to growth. You can have one or the other, but rarely both simultaneously.
DoorDash tipping practices prompts lawsuit from DC Attorney General
DoorDash is facing a new lawsuit regarding its tipping practices. This time, it’s coming from Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. In the suit, Racine accuses DoorDash of engaging in…
Juno shuts down its operations in NYC as owner Gett signs strategic partnership with Lyft
Gett, the ridesharing company backed by Volkswagen and valued at around $1.5 billion, is putting the brakes on a major part of its growth strategy. Today, the company announced that…
Lyft is ceasing scooter operations in six cities and laying off 20 employees
In an industry where unit economics and rider utilization are key to running a profitable business, perhaps it’s better to cut your losses early on. Lyft notified employees today that…
