United Kingdom
One way to curb competition in other countries is to file a patent in each of those countries. However, the cost of filing a patent in every country can be…
Massage-booking platform Urban responds to reports of alleged sexual assaults by some therapists
Urban, a popular U.K.-based startup that allows customers to find self-employed massage therapists who can be booked to attend customers’ homes, has been named in an investigation into alleged abuse…
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Did no one tell Europe the party is over?
Did no one tell European venture capitalists and startup founders that we’re supposed to be on the cusp of a global recession?
OnlyFans invests in UK creator Chloe Sims and her sisters for new streaming series
Often dubbed as the U.K.’s Kardashians, British reality TV stars Chloe Sims and sisters Demi and Frankie have announced their upcoming series with OnlyFans TV (OFTV), OnlyFans’ free streaming platform…
Can everdrop scale its plastic-bottle-free cleaning products, as well as build a global brand?
Household cleaning chemicals in the form of a tablet that can be dissolved in water appear to have given rise to a number of startups. As well as Munich-based startup…
As regulation heats up, will gaming studios’ gamble on loot boxes pay off?
Loot boxes, a way for players to receive random in-game rewards in exchange for real money, have been disparaged for a while now, and they’re now increasingly subject to government…
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After Roe’s reversal, founders of women’s health startups prepare for battle
TechCrunch conducted a vibe check with the women founders taking themselves and their companies to the front lines of the fight for abortion.
Despite creaky markets, European edtech is showing its resilience
The European edtech ecosystem has managed to maintain most of its momentum, with the sector securing $1.4 billion so far in 2022, 40% more than a year earlier.
US App Store revenue from non-game apps just topped games for the first time
A major shift in the U.S. app economy has just taken place. In the second quarter of this year, U.S. consumer spending in non-game mobile apps surpassed spending in mobile…
A major populist but controversial piece of U.K. legislation to regulate internet content through a child safety-focused frame is on pause until the fall when the government expects to elect…
Kids and teens now spend more time watching TikTok than YouTube, new data shows
Kids and teens are now spending more time watching videos on TikTok than on YouTube. In fact, that’s been the case since June 2020 — the month when TikTok began…
Venture capital funding may have slowed, but VC firms have no problems raising new funds
Three firms discuss their funds and any concerns that limited partners had brought up during the fundraising stage.
TikTok’s attempt to switch legal basis for targeting advertising at users in Europe looks to be in trouble after Italy’s data protection watchdog stepped in and issued a warning of…
London fails to retain Atlassian as it heads stateside in search of a ‘broader set’ of investors
Despite multiple overtures by the British government to woo tech companies and keep the largest ones from defecting to the U.S., the latest example of the failure of this policy…
YuLife picks up $120M at an $800M valuation for gamified, wellness-focused life insurance
YuLife originally made a name for itself in its home market of the U.K. for its new approach to the provisioning of life insurance: Yes, sell a policy that provides…
Amazon faces more antitrust scrutiny in UK and Germany
More antitrust scrutiny for Amazon in Europe: The U.K.’s antitrust watchdog has opened an investigation into Amazon’s marketplace on the same day Germany’s regulator has confirmed it can apply special…
The U.K. government has tabled an amendment to the Online Safety Bill that could put it on a collision course with end-to-end encryption. It’s proposing to give the incoming internet…
UK launches antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s $69B proposed Activision acquisition
One more hurdle up ahead for Activision Blizzard, the games giant behind Call of Duty that Microsoft is looking to acquire for $68.7 billion. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority…
Amazon takes a Prime step back into restaurant delivery in the US with big Grubhub investment and partnership
Amazon tried but then ultimately stepped away from building its own cost-intensive Grubhub and DoorDash competitor in the U.S. back in 2019. Now three years on, it’s taking a different…
Crypto trading volume drops in India as additional taxes hit investors
India on July 1 implemented a 1% tax on cryptocurrency trades over 10,000 Indian rupees, or about $127. There’s already been a chilling effect on Indian digital asset marketplaces.
UK signs its first data sharing deal post-Brexit, with South Korea
Six years on from the referendum where the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, and in the midst of an apparent government meltdown, the country is announcing its first…
UK to combat Russia’s ‘hostile online warfare’ by forcing internet firms to remove disinformation
The U.K. government is pushing to make “foreign interference” such as disinformation a priority offence under its proposed Online Safety Bill, forcing technology firms to remove contravening content shared by…
UK’s Oxford Quantum Circuits snaps up $47M Series A for ‘QaaS’
Quantum computing has been making quantum leaps of progress in the last several years — going from theoretical concept to multiple testing environments, to help organizations prep for a time…
This Week in Apps: Period tracking app privacy, Snapchat’s paid subscription, calls for TikTok ban
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues…
US publisher Macmillan confirms cyberattack forced systems offline
Macmillan, one of the largest book publishers in the U.S., said it has been hit by a cyberattack that forced it to shut down its IT systems. Macmillan spokesperson Erin…
An independent review of UK legislation has concluded the country urgently needs new laws to govern the use of biometric technologies and called for the government to come forward with…
Birdie, a U.K.-based caretech software-as-a-service maker, has closed a $30 million Series B funding round led by investment firm Sofina, with Omers Ventures and Index Ventures also participating — the…
The UK wants to boost AI development by removing data mining hurdles
The U.K. is planning to tweak an existing law to allow text and data mining “for any purpose,” in a move that’s designed to boost artificial intelligence (AI) development across…
Speechmatics raises $62M for its inclusive approach to speech-to-text AI
Last week I wrote about an AI startup that’s building technology that can alter, in real time, the accent of someone’s speech. But what if the AI goal instead is…
UK’s Magical Mushroom Company uses mycelium to replace plastic packaging
Global plastic waste has more than doubled, and 40% of that waste comes from packaging. Luckily there is no shortage of sustainable packaging startups in Europe. Just take a look:…
