west coast
The Silicon Peach is still ripe: Atlanta’s venture ecosystem stands strong
TechCrunch conducted a city vibe check with those in the Atlanta area to see how the ecosystem is faring. The verdict? The Silicon Peach is doing just fine
Hong Kong-based drug discovery and development company Insilico has secured fresh capital at a time that its CEO described as a “biotech winter.” The firm has raised $35 million on…
AWS just can’t catch a break
For the third time this month, AWS today suffered an outage in one of its data centers. This morning, a power outage in its US-EAST-1 region affected services like Slack,…
Featured Article
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram are slowly returning. Why did they disappear to begin with?
Facebook’s day-long outage is by far its longest and most extreme in years. At around 9 a.m. PDT on the U.S. West Coast — where the social giant is headquartered — Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger seemed to vanish from the internet. The outage continued through market close, with the company’s stock dropping around…
Sustainable e-commerce startup Olive now ships beauty products, in addition to apparel
Earlier this year, a startup called Olive launched its new shopping site and app with the goal of making e-commerce more efficient, convenient and sustainable by offering a way for…
Google announces the Firmina subsea cable between the US and Argentina
Google today announced its plans to build a new subsea cable that will connect the East Coast of the U.S. and Las Toninas, Argentina — with additional landings in Brazil…
Andreessen Horowitz could make the carbon offset API Patch its latest climate bet
The early-stage carbon offset API developer Patch could be another one of Andreessen Horowitz’s early bets on climate tech. According to several people with knowledge of the investment round, former…
Bristol entrepreneur who exited for up to $800M doubles-down on the city with deep-tech incubator and VC fund
Harry Destecroix co-founded Ziylo while studying for his PhD at the University of Bristol. Ziylo, a university spin-out company, developed a synthetic molecule that binds to glucose in blood. Four…
Microsoft announces its first Azure data center region in Denmark
Microsoft continues to expand its global Azure data center presence at a rapid clip. After announcing new regions in Austria and Taiwan in October, the company today revealed its plans…
Facebook says it will ban QAnon across its platforms
Facebook expanded a ban on QAnon-related content on its various social platforms Tuesday, deepening a previous prohibition on QAnon-related groups that had “discussed potential violence,” according to the company. Today’s…
The joke is on consumers as Liquid Death raises $23 million more
In what began as a kind of funny, savvy marketing stunt that has since gained traction, a nearly three-year-old, Santa Monica-based startup that sells water from the Austrian Alps under…
Elon Musk says Tesla will ‘one day’ produce ‘super efficient home HVAC’ with HEPA filtering
Elon Musk has previously touted the “Bioweapon Defense Mode” boasted by Tesla’s vehicles, which are designed to provide excellent air quality inside the car even in the face of disastrous…
Kibbo wants to remake the RV park so #vanlife can be a life and not a lifestyle
Colin O’Donnell was already rethinking the notion of what makes cities and communities function even before the COVID-19 epidemic swept through the U.S. and revealed some of the cracks in…
Lawsuits allege Microsoft, Amazon and Google violated Illinois facial recognition privacy law
In a set of new lawsuits, two Illinois residents argue that three tech giants violated state laws prohibiting the use of personal biometric data without permission. Illinois residents Steven Vance…
Featured Article
Former Lime exec launches Cabana, a company that merges #vanlife and hotels
Is it glamping on wheels? Hotel #vanlife? It’s Cabana, a new startup from a former Lime executive that’s bringing tricked-out vans with all the amenities of a Holiday Inn hotel room to cities on the West Coast, starting in Seattle. “Because of Lime I spent 54 consecutive weeks on the road staying at hotels,” recalls…
Polestar’s first all-electric vehicle will start at $59,900 in the US
Polestar, the electric performance brand spun out of Volvo, said the base price of its first all-electric vehicle will be $59,900 in the United States, lower than originally targeted. The 2021…
Impossible Foods rolls out to nearly 1,000 new grocery stores and supermarkets
Starting tomorrow, 777 supermarkets in California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Nevada will begin stocking the Impossible Foods plant-based meat substitute. Fueling the increased distribution and a push to expand its…
Radar, a location data startup, says its ‘big bet’ is on putting privacy first
Pick any app on your phone, and there’s a greater than average chance that it’s tracking your location right now. Sometimes, they don’t even tell you. Your location can be…
Smart TV hub Solaborate secures $10M Series A and a go-to-market partnership
When siblings Labinot and Mimoza Bytyqi fled the war in Kosovo in 1999, arriving as refugees on the West Coast of the U.S., they would have had no idea they’d…
Founder of language learning platform Babbel steps down as co-CEO to focus on board role
Babbel, the popular Berlin-based language learning service, today announced that its founder and current co-CEO Markus Witte is stepping down from his CEO role but that he will remain the…
SpaceX details launch and landing plans for Starship and Super Heavy in new document
SpaceX has prepared a draft environmental assessment around its plans for the new Starship and Super Heavy spacecraft launches it intends to begin, in a test capacity, very soon. Preparing…
Loon breaks its stratospheric balloon flight record with 223 days aloft
Alphabet’s Loon is gearing up for its first big commercial trial later this year, but it’s also breaking records in terms of pure performance. The company announced today that it…
SpaceX records another first for reusable rocketry by catching Falcon Heavy fairing with a boat
SpaceX has managed to do another thing that seemed audacious and highly unlikely after a few early botched attempts. It used a ship at sea to catch the falling nosecone…
When it comes to public universities, the old adage “you get what you pay for” clearly does not apply. Leading public research universities have a track record of turning out…
With a new CEO and fresh funding from Upfront, healthy prepared food delivery service Territory looks to grow
With a new chief executive officer and $4 million in fresh funding from investors including the Los Angeles-based investment firm, Upfront Ventures, Territory Foods is poised for growth. The company…
Announcing TC Sessions: Mobility, a one-day event on the future of mobility and transportation
Mobility is changing and the world is changing with it. Technology is upending century-old establishments, creating new lifestyles and routines. Regions across the globe are trying to replicate Silicon Valley,…
Venture capital investment in US companies to hit $100B in 2018
So many new unicorns valued at $1 billion-plus, countless $100 million venture financings, an explosion of giant funds — it’s no surprise 2018 is shaping up to be a banner year for…
Google Cloud’s LA region goes online
Google Cloud’s new region in Los Angeles is now online, the company announced today. This isn’t exactly a surprise, given that Google had previously announced a July launch for the…
