Rome

Volocopter raises $170M, now valued at $1.87B, to fuel first commercial launches of flying taxi fleet in 2024

Volocopter, the startup out of southern Germany (Bruchsal) that has been developing electric VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft and a business model for operating them in taxi-style fleets i

Boutique hotel tech platform NUMA raises $45M growth financing round led by DN Capital

Based out of the U.S., Sonder is a tech-driven hospitality company. It’s raised $529.6 million, and, in the post-pandemic world where the population has become far more movable due to remote working

Micromobility startup Helbiz to go public via a SPAC, and will expand into ghost kitchens

Micromobility startup Helbiz, which now operates across Europe and the USA, is merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to become a publicly listed company, giving it a war chest to p

Airbnb nears IPO as Asana and Palantir land their direct listings

World events have so far not stopped the enthusiasm for tech investing, and really, where else are those dollars going to go?

Google Maps gets improved Live View AR directions

Google today announced a few updates to Live View, the augmented reality walking directions in its Google Maps app that officially launched last year. Live View uses your phone’s camera and GPS

Calling VCs in Rome and Milan: Be featured in The Great TechCrunch Survey of European VC

TechCrunch is embarking on a major new project to survey the venture capital investors of Europe, and their cities. Our survey of VCs in Rome and Milan will capture how the cities are faring, and what

Amazon and Valentino team up in joint lawsuit against New York counterfeiter over Rockstud knock-offs

Amazon is ramping up its efforts to tackle counterfeiting on its platform by aiming for the higher end of the fashion market. Today the e-commerce giant announced that it has jointly filed a lawsuit w

New coronavirus research suggests vaccines developed to treat it could be long-lasting

A new study from Italian researchers suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is the cause of the COVID-19 disease currently causing a global health crisis, is relatively slow to mutate – mea

GetYourGuide widens its horizons, will expand its Originals short tours into day trips and more

GetYourGuide has made a name for itself as the startup that helped the stale idea of guided tours for travellers on its head. Tapping into the generation of consumers who think of travel not just as g

Transit city navigation app seeks to solve bad public transit ETAs with machine learning

Transit, a company that has spent its entire life trying to make it easier to get around cities, is unveiling a new machine learning-powered estimated time of arrival prediction feature to help addres

Caterina Fake is known for her trend-spotting; here’s some of what she’s chasing now

Roughly a year ago, entrepreneurs Caterina Fake and Jyri Engeström decided to form a traditional venture outfit called Yes VC. Fast forward, and the duo has nearly closed on $50 million for their deb

Badi gets $30M for AI-aided room rentals

Should you let AI help you pick your roommates? Barcelona-based urban room rental startup Badi thinks so, and it’s just closed a $30 million Series B funding round less than a year after a $10 m

When in Rome is the first Alexa-powered board game

Years ago, in the heyday of home video, I played a board games that used VHS tapes and electronic parts to help spur the action along. From Candy Land VCR to Captain Power, game makers were doing the

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg hopes to show off his Jarvis-like home AI next month

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is living at least a few years out ahead of anyone reading this post – the founding executive told an audience in Rome (via Verge) today that he hopes to demonstrate his

Rome Reborn: Ancient Rome Recreated In 3D, You Can't Have It

I don’t know how many of you watched the HBO series “Rome,” but if you’re anything like me, you watched and loved it. Why not take a virtual tour of the city that entertained u