TechCrunch Industry News

Allbirds started with a humble, natural wool shoe, but it is not merely an apparel company today. It has become a materials innovation company disrupting how clothes are made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

According to World Health Organization, cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer among women, affected approximately 570,000 women and resulted in about 311,000 death in 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just days after rebranding itself, Facebook announced plans to delete a trove of the most worrisome data that the world’s biggest social network collected on more than a billion individuals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

137 Ventures, a 10-year-old, San Francisco-based investment firm that mostly buys private company shares of founders, executives, early employees, and other large shareholders of private, high-growth tech companies, has closed its fifth fund with $350 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Epic Games announced today that its work to bring video game mega-title Fortnite to the Chinese market is shutting down. The company said in an official announcement that the long-running test of the popular shooter title in China will conclude on November 15th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two Stanford dropouts in their late teens, who have previously collaborated on a number of projects including a ride-hailing commute app for school kids, said on Sunday they have raised $60 million to disrupt India’s overcrowded and highly-competitive grocery delivery market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Granted, there aren’t many cities where self-driving water taxis are a viable option, but Amsterdam may just be one of those places. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google and top Indian telecom network Jio Platforms said on Friday that their much-anticipated budget smartphone, JioPhone Next, will go on sale in the world’s second largest smartphone market on November 4 (to coincide with Big Indian festival of Diwali.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, it’s official. After 17 years of being called Facebook, the social networking parent company behind Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus has a new name. Facebook’s corporate entity is now Meta. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg announced the change at the company’s AR/VR-focused Connect event, sharing that the new title captured more of the company’s core […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new funding will accelerate the company’s goal of doubling its stores in the U.S. and Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple finally put itself on equal footing with rivals by allowing users to rate and review its own, first-party apps for the first time this fall, amid increased regulatory pressure ahead of a likely antitrust investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Five-year-old startup Skyryse has raised a $200 million Series B to develop FlightOS, a flight automation technology stack that the company says will help experienced pilots operate new types of aircraft and allow complete novices to quickly learn the ropes of flying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

DeHaat, an online platform that offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers in India, has raised $115 million in what is the largest funding round for an agritech startup in India. Sofina, Lightrock, and Temasek co-led the 10-year-old startup’s Series D financing round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chalo, an Indian startup that is digitizing bus commutes in India and which recently raised $40 million in a financing round, has acquired Amazon-backed app-based office commute bus aggregator Shuttl in an all-cash deal, the two said on Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

YouTube is rolling out a designated “New to you” tab on its platform after testing the feature earlier this year. The new tab is now available on the YouTube homepage across mobile, desktop and TV devices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new firm brings together a foursome with operator, venture capital and private equity expertise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The era of private space stations is officially here as Nanoracks, Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin announce plans to launch a commercial station in 2027, but it’s just the next logical step for developing the new space economy, the companies say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the Climate Crisis looming, lots of companies want to do their part. But asking customers to “offset the CO2 emission of this delivery” is usually a hammer to crack a nut. There is very little transparency around carbon offsets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After steadily expanding access over the course of the year, Twitter announced today its audio chatroom feature known as Twitter Spaces is now open to anyone who wants to host a Space across iOS and Android. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Small and medium-sized exporters in India struggle to communicate their designs with buyers. They can’t list those designs publicly on their website or sell through popular e-commerce platforms as doing so would risk giving away the proprietary property to rivals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An “ongoing” cyberattack against the Japanese technology giant Olympus was caused by a Russian ransomware group sanctioned by the U.S. government, according to two people with knowledge of the incident. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NASA and Boeing provided an update on the beleaguered Starliner capsule Tuesday, confirming that the earliest the spacecraft will fly will be sometime during the first half of next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Buried in Biden’s 2021 tax plan are new amendments to the U.S. Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) program, which, if passed, will impact early-stage startup employees, founders and investors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Micromobility companies that aim to turn a profit have to juggle running a tight ship, adhering to constantly shifting local regulations and getting as many riders on vehicles as possible. Boston-based Zoba, a micromobility fleet optimization startup, has developed a platform to help with that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple has unveiled some new MacBook Pro models at a virtual conference today. And the company is timing the release of the next major release of macOS with the new laptop. Mac users will be able to update to macOS Monterey on Monday, October 25. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The pandemic forced the legal profession to cobble together remote work strategies, often through a combination of video conferencing and emails. Founded in Melbourne, Immediation provides a tailor-made solution with digital courtrooms and mediation tools. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SiriusXM-owned Pandora is partnering with SoundCloud to launch ‘The Lookout by SoundCloud,’ a new station available on Pandora that aims to showcase music from the “hip hop superstars of tomorrow.” Today’s announcement comes as Pandora’s parent company, SiriusXM, recently partnered with SoundCloud to launch a show of the same name on its Hip-Hop Nation channel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clubhouse added a new “music mode” this week, doubling down its commitment to centering social audio in all its permutations. The new music mode will give musicians who play live on the social network their own special set of tools to optimize sound quality and will hit iOS first before rolling out to Android. Clubhouse […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After announcing a deal with Beyond Meat back in February, McDonald’s this morning announced that it is set to start selling plant-based Beyond Meat burgers in select locations next month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SumUp, a European-based competitor to Square, PayPal/iZettle and others that provide mobile-powered card readers and other sales technology to merchants and small businesses, has made an acquisition in the U.S. to dig deeper into that market, and to expand the kinds of services that it provides to customers globally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Instagram today announced the launch of a couple of new tools aimed at addressing the needs of Live creators. Now, creators will be able to build up buzz for their upcoming Live by scheduling it up to 90 days in advance, then share the news across Instagram to alert their fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Embedded finance continues to be a major theme in the world of fintech, with a wide swathe of new financial services companies tapping APIs built by others to power payments and other financial transactions, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After testing last month, Twitter is rolling out a feature to all web users that will let them remove followers without blocking them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google has invested in Bangalore-based Open, becoming the latest high-profile investor to back a neobanking platform. Open said on Tuesday it has raised $100 million in a Series C financing round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Facebook’s external policy review board will meet with Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who went public with her concerns about the company last week. Facebook’s Oversight Board announced Monday that it would meet with Haugen “in the coming weeks” after the whistleblower accepted the board’s invitation to speak. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Five months after announcing a deal with two of China’s biggest two-wheel vehicle makers, Gogoro officially launched there today, opening 45 battery swapping stations in Hangzhou. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Experts say an environmental document that needs U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approval before SpaceX can begin testing the world’s largest rockets is missing key details about where its fuel will come from. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would be moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, a city that has recently seen a flood of tech companies and remote workers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RoboTire crossed our radar in February of last year, just before much of the world was brought to a complete standstill courtesy of the pandemic. Things were still fairly early stages for the Detroit-based startup, which was founded by former Spark Robotics CEO Victor Darolfi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rebel Foods, which operates a large network of dark kitchens in nearly a dozen markets, is the latest Indian startup to attain the unicorn status. The Bangalore-based startup said on Thursday it has raised $175 million in its Series F financing round that valued it at $1.4 billion, up from about $800 million last year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenStack, the open-source project that gives large enterprises and public cloud providers the tools to run their own AWS-like private clouds in their data centers, today announced the release of OpenStack 24. Codenamed Xena, the release focuses on polishing many of the system’s sharper edges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Uber is piloting new app features aimed at making air travel more hassle-free, including the ability to reserve rides from airports, gain access to enhanced curbside pickup, request a ride once you land and order food in advance from airport restaurants for pickup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Byteboard, a service designed to replace the on-site technical interview part of a company’s hiring process with a web-based alternative, will be spinning out of Google, TechCrunch learned and Google confirmed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A pair of new e-readers from Kobo iterate on the company’s high-end options, adding Bluetooth audiobook and stylus support to the now familiar asymmetrical design of its larger devices. The Sage and Libra 2 also gain a new charging cover so you only have to plug the device in every few months rather than every […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dapper Labs, the NFT startup behind NBA Top Shot which was recently valued above $7.5 billion, made an interesting acquisition this morning, telling Decrypt that they have purchased virtual influencer startup Brud and will be bringing the entire 32-person team aboard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FoodTech is booming in Europe has grown exponentially. In 2020, €3 billion went into European FoodTech companies (State of European Tech Report, March 2021), and the pandemic has accelerated demand as consumers have shifted to grocery delivery. The industry has also been affected by the rise of direct-to-consumer food brands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff Bezos just can’t get away from labor issues. The beleaguered billionaire, who has faced repeated and persistent criticism over working conditions at the company he formerly led, Amazon, is now facing allegations of a hostile work environment at his space company Blue Origin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The future of office work, post-COVID-19, is driving plenty of startup activity. Not just around core business needs like comms (Zoom, Slack et al) — but entrepreneurs are also competing to come up with the perfect tool to recreate the social serendipity of office life in order to make dispersed workers feel a bit more […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clubhouse announced today that it is unveiling four new features: Clips, Replay, Universal Search, and spatial audio for Android (which already exists on iOS). All of these features will launch today, except for Replay, which will roll out in October. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

No one knows exactly how drone delivery will fit into the future of logistics, but one thing is for sure: the aircraft aren’t going to drop off important payloads directly onto someone’s lawn. Matternet’s Station, an automated landing space and payload control tower, may be the solution, and the flower-like structure has finally made the […] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices