TechCrunch Industry News
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NASA’s mega expensive moon rocket will make its public debut Thursday
Twelve years after it was first announced, NASA’s massive Space Launch System will finally make its public debut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ford announces new EV production and profit goals for Europe
Ford is accelerating plans to sell more electric vehicles in Europe on its way toward reaching carbon neutrality in the region by 2035. The automaker announced Monday that it will launch three new electric passenger vehicles and four new electric commercial vehicles in Europe over the next two years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Blue Origin will fly SNL’s Pete Davidson to space on March 23
Blue Origin has announced its next roster for a flight of New Shepard to suborbital space, and it includes Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sorenson Ventures keeps focus on enterprise with new $150M fund
Sorenson Ventures may not be a household name, but the Lehi, Utah-based firm has quietly backed 30 enterprise startups since 2017 when it launched its initial $100 million fund, some exiting via acquisition and some sporting flashy valuations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ubisoft won’t say why it reset employee passwords after ‘cyber incident’
Gaming giant Ubisoft has confirmed a cybersecurity incident that led to the mass-reset of company passwords, but has declined to say what the incident actually was. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google’s Art & Culture platform updated with documents, artifacts and music from Timbuktu
Google, working with historians from West Africa, has been working to digitize contemporary art, cultural and historic sites about Mali, and the digital library went live on Google Art & Culture (GAC) today, making these items available for exploration by the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Topsort, an auction-based advertising startup, now valued at $110M after seed round
When Regina Ye was in college, she was a Shopify seller and recalls being so fed up with advertising solutions that she spent finals week staying up late to figure out how ads worked on Facebook and Amazon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
E-bike subscription service Dance adds new cities and mopeds
After raising nearly $20 million a few months ago, Berlin-based startup Dance is expanding its electric bike subscription service to a handful of new cities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Workbounce’s ‘Google meets Slack’ product for sales teams raises $2.7M from Index Ventures
Selling commercial products has become pretty complex, and the pandemic has not helped. Sales teams are often hampered by the difficulties of building trust in their product, especially in a hybrid world where much of the interactions are virtual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Amazon launches a ‘live radio’ app, Amp, which lets you play DJ with the Amazon Music catalog
Amazon’s Clubhouse competitor has arrived. The retail giant on Tuesday launched a new mobile app called Amp, which allows people to create live “radio shows” where they can act as a DJ, by taking callers and playing tracks from Amazon Music’s tens of millions of licensed songs, ranging from classic titles to today’s music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
General Motors, PG&E pilot EVs as backup power sources for homes
General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric Company are launching a pilot that will let EV owners use their vehicles as a backup power source for their homes during an outage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Robotaxi startup Pony.ai now valued at $8.5B
China- and U.S.-based Pony.ai said Monday its valuation has surged to $8.5 billion after the first close of its Series D funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Aston Martin to develop battery cell technology with Britishvolt
British luxury carmaker Aston Martin has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with lithium-ion battery cell technologies company Britishvolt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Disco gets brands to boogie together on customer acquisition
Disco used to be Co-op Commerce, and leadership says the new name better reflects the company's focus on consumer discovery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sony and Honda reveal plans to jointly make and sell electric vehicles
Sony’s current favorite big tease is playing at being a carmaker, and today it announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with real automaker Honda to discuss and develop that idea further. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sikur touts a new secure Android phone for enterprise, gov’t comms
It’s many years since the Blackberry was the corporate phone du jour. Touchscreen phones and the ‘Bring your Own Device’ trend put paid to all that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Reliance to invest $221 million for electronics manufacturing with Sanmina in India
Reliance Industries plans to invest up to $221 million in American electronics firm Sanmina to set up a joint venture as the Indian giant looks to expand its electronics manufacturing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Blockchain infra startup Tenderly raises $40M after seeing ‘500x’ YoY revenue growth
Tenderly, a startup that aims to make it easier for web3 developers “of all skill sets” to build blockchain products, has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding – just months after closing on its Series A. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ford splits EV and combustion units in major restructuring
Ford today announced a significant restructuring to better focus on the different challenges and opportunities with electric vehicles and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alphabet’s Wing drones hit 200,000 deliveries as it announces supermarket partnership
Alphabet’s drone service Wing this morning announced another milestone, as it hit 200,000 commercial deliveries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
YouTube geoblocks Russia Today, Sputnik channels in Europe
Google has just announced that YouTube will geoblock the Kremlin-affiliated media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in Europe, following pressure from regional lawmakers to choke off Russian war propaganda. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Weee! delivers second big funding round in a year, this time backed by SoftBank
This new monster round comes about a year after another big fundraise of $316 million in Series D financing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
HearHere raises $3.2M to scale its immersive storytelling road-trip app
Santa Barbara-based HearHere, the company behind an audio entertainment and immersive storytelling road-trip app, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by RV and outdoor retailer Camping World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Carvana acquires Adesa US auction business for $2.2B to jump-start used car sales
Carvana, the online used car marketplace, has agreed to buy Kar Global’s Adesa U.S. auction subsidiary for $2.2 billion in cash, an acquisition aimed at adding another revenue stream as well as a network of physical sites that could help bolster operations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SEC opens investigation into Elon Musk over possible insider trading
Elon Musk isn't getting a break from the SEC any time soon. WSJ reports the SEC is investigating whether Musk and his brother Kimbal violated insider trading regulations with recent share sales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Specify automagically collects, stores and distributes your design tokens and assets
Meet Specify, a startup that is creating a common language for Figma and GitHub. Specify acts as a central repository and API for your design tokens and assets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Cloudflare to acquire Area 1 Security, a startup that blocks phishing emails
Cloudflare has announced that it plans to acquire Area 1 Security, a security startup that has developed a product that stops phishing attacks before they land in an employee’s inbox. Cloudflare plans to spend around $162 million on the acquisition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Target to add Starbucks orders and returns to its curbside pickup service
Target is preparing a series of changes to make its curbside pickup service called Drive Up more appealing to consumers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
RightHand cashes in on the white-hot warehouse robotics space with a $66M raise
COVID, supply chain issues, labor shortages, Amazon. Take your pick. The reasons for getting excited about logistics robotics are numerous and growing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
To combat chip shortage, Bosch to invest $296M to produce semiconductors
Bosch is increasing its previously stated investment in semiconductor production in order to stay on top of the ongoing chip shortage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
PerchPeek raises $11M to woo ‘great resignation employees’ with easy relocation
Relocating employees can involve up to 20-30 different complex processes, while many of the support packages on the market can be inflexible and expensive. Plus, relocating services are usually only available to company leaders, not staff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Better.com loses more senior execs as employees brace for another mass layoff
Things are getting worse at Better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Walmart is expanding autonomous delivery pilot with GM’s Cruise this year
Cruise plans to expand the self-driving delivery pilot it has with Walmart in Arizona, the company’s senior government affairs manager said in a recent public meeting with state legislators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Reusable packaging startup bags $3.1M to pick a fight with single-use packaging
Quick pop quiz: Is it better to recycle your cardboard boxes, or use a sturdier packaging bag that can be used again and again until it meets its maker again? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
New York’s Thrive Capital closes its eighth fund with a whopping $3 billion
Thrive Capital, the venture firm founded in 2009 by a then-25-year-old Joshua Kushner, says it has closed its eighth fund with approximately $3 billion in capital commitments, $500 of which it plans to invest in early-stage startups and another $2.5 billion that it has earmarked for later-stage companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Amazon reaches deal to continue accepting Visa payments worldwide
Amazon and Visa have resolved their simmering dispute over payment fees in the UK and elsewhere, Reuters has reported. Amazon threatened to stop accepting Visa in the UK starting January 19. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Blueland raises more money to avoid shipping water around and reduce single-use plastics
The cleaning products you use in your house are 99% water. Yes, the same stuff that comes out of the spigot at your house. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
New Waymo Via partnership gives it access to 200,000 shippers and carriers
Waymo Via, Waymo’s autonomous trucking and cargo unit, has found another long-term strategic partner to see it through to commercialization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stronghold launches $100M venture arm to invest in underrepresented founders and fintech
Payments infrastructure company Stronghold has launched a venture capital arm to deploy $100 million of its balance sheet capital in startups and funds in three core strategies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Singapore-based alternative protein startup Next Gen Foods gets $100M Series A for U.S. growth
Alternative protein startups have attracted a lot of investor attention over the past couple of years and the trend looks set to continue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Grubhub expands its ‘Grubhub Goods’ convenience offering nationwide
Food delivery app GrubHub is expanding its branded convenience offering nationwide, the company announced on Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gaia, a platform to finance IVF treatments, closes $20M Series A led by Atomico
Gaia is a startup that is effectively out to ‘de-risk’ the whole process of IVF fertility treatment, using products like personalized insurance and payment plans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
3D social network BUD raises $15M in Series A+ round
Investors are justling to find the next killer app for the metaverse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chasing Cruise and Waymo, Chinese AV company AutoX plans to begin testing in San Francisco
AutoX, a Chinese autonomous vehicle company that has made plays in both the U.S. and its home country, is now making a move into San Francisco, an area where its biggest competitors are creeping towards commercialization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Indiegogo will designate legit crowdfunders with a ‘Trust-Proven’ badge
Indiegogo has a trust problem. It’s something the company is keenly aware of. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sardine’s algorithm helps crypto and fintech companies detect fraud
It’s a great time to be in the fraud detection business in crypto and fintech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tinder introduces a way for members to go on virtual ‘blind dates’
Tinder is bringing back the idea of the “blind date” through a new in-app feature, launching today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
eAgronom closes $7.4M Series A to create a farming-based carbon credits platform
There are plenty of competitors in so-called FMS (Farm Management Software), but so far no global dominant leader has emerged. Agrivi has raised $7.3M, Granular $24.9M and Farmlogs $37M. So there’s clearly plenty of scope for more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SpaceX loses 40 Starlink satellites to a geomagnetic storm
80% of Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX on February 3 won't reach their intended orbit. SpaceX has revealed that a geomagnetic storm had a severe impact on the satellites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Artiphon drops the hardware requirement for its musical camera app, Orbacam
We’ve been following Artiphon closely over the years. Back in late 2020, I took a liking to the music startup’s latest smart instrument, the Orba. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices