Tech

It’s Friday (or should I say, Fri-yay.) You’ve made it. Give yourself a pat on the back — and then go read the rest of this issue of Week in Review, TechCrunch’s newsletter summing up the past seven days in tech (sign up here to get it directly in your inbox every Saturday). I’ll continue

For an ecosystem that covers a majority of the planet, the oceans have basically been ignored by startups and investors alike. Sure, plenty of money is spent on ocean-based industries, but most of today’s marine investments are into either extractive industries like fishing or oil and gas, or activities like shipping, which aren’t extractive but

The first thing we ask Voicemod‘s CEO and co-founder, Jamie Bosch, when he picks up the phone to talk about a new funding round is not something we’re accustomed to asking — but our question may become the norm in the generative AI future that’s fast-flying at us: Is this your real voice? Bosch’s startup

In a word: “telecom.” Network and enterprise have long played a key part in Barcelona’s big mobile show, but more than ever, such topics are going to have an outsized role at the event. The consumer element appears to be taking an increasing back seat at the event, which kicks off in earnest next Monday.

Google has launched tests that block access to news content for some users in Canada in response to the Canadian government’s online news bill. Bill C-18, or the Online News Act, would require platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate deals that would pay news publishers for their content. The bill is currently before the

Supply chain management software startup Slync, which was at one point valued at $240 million, hasn’t had the easiest go of it lately. Slync’s founder, Christopher Kirchner, was charged by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this month for misappropriating $20 million from the company to fund a lavish lifestyle, including a

Byju’s is weighing whether to wind down WhiteHat Jr, a coding platform that it acquired over two years ago at an enterprise value of $300 million, as the edtech group looks to cut expenses and eliminate a business unit that has drawn considerable criticism to the firm. The Bengaluru-headquartered firm, India’s most valuable startup at

Around 39,000 people were killed in motor vehicle incidents in the USA in 2020 — and 6,200 of those deaths were pedestrians. Needless to say, those deaths aren’t just statistics: each has a ripple effect on families, loved ones and the wider communities. Viva is looking to tackle transportation impacts after raising $8.5 million in

Meet Carbon Maps, a new French startup that raised $4.3 million (€4 million) just a few weeks after its inception. The company is building a software-as-a-service platform for the food industry so that they can track the environmental impact of each of their products in their lineup. The platform can be used as a basis

Home fitness had a huge moment at the outset of the pandemic — and understandably so. People were stuck at home, gyms closed and suddenly workout options seemed to dramatically decrease. As with the teleconferencing revolution, plenty of startups were waiting in the wings to pounce on the sudden opportunity. As predicted, when the world

Hey, TechCrunch besties. After a week in Korea and the Philippines, it’s great to be back in the States — and slightly more tan (i.e., burnt) than before. Massive thanks to Henry, who was forced to step in over the past two weeks thanks to my failing to realize that Korean Air does not offer

Cory Siskind Contributor My company just had its best quarter ever. As its founder and CEO, I am proud to say that I wasn’t there for most of it. I had a good excuse, though: I was on parental leave raising my first child. Since starting this company, I had not taken more than one

It’s that time of the year. The French government and the government-backed initiative La French Tech gathered applications, processed the numbers and ranked the 120 top-performing startups in France right now, with a special category for the top 40 ones. The result is two rankings that are based on objective criteria — the Next40 and

After a decade of keeping its North American charging network closed to outsiders, Tesla appears poised to allow other electric vehicles to use its Superchargers. The White House announced on Wednesday that the company would open 7,500 chargers — including 3,500 250 kW stalls along highways — to any EV with the combined charging system

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This week, Natasha Mascarenhas, Mary Ann Azevedo and Rebecca Szkutak got on the mic to talk startups, pet peeves and focaccia. What else did you expect? Here’s what we got into: Descope landed a $53 million (!)

Indian startup Ultrahuman has made a name for itself since 2019 by building out a subscription fitness platform which offers a range of workout and wellness-related content, integrating with third party wearables like the Apple Watch. In 2021 it expanded into offering medical grade sensing hardware which monitors real-time blood glucose — spinning up a

Apple TV+ released the first trailer for its — shall we say, block-busting — movie “Tetris,” based on the origin story of the popular puzzle video game. The movie will first premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in March. Apple will then release it worldwide on the streaming service on March 31. Starring

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here. Okay, NOW it’s Friday. Got any fun plans for the long weekend? Haje is moving house (ugh), and Christine is browsing GIFs of puppies until her battery runs out. Probably. Most people

Achieving product-market fit (PMF) arguably ranks as both the No. 1 strategic objective and the biggest challenge for early-stage founders. Hitting this critical milestone tells you — and any investors you hope to attract — that there’s consistent, enthusiastic demand for your product. Everyone defines PMF differently, and that fact alone makes finding yours a

No matter how you slice it, buildings are serious climate change drivers. Every component of the so-called built environment — from off-site materials production and construction to electricity and maintenance — comes at a steep environmental cost. The sector is responsible for nearly 40% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions globally, according to the International Energy

Micro-EV subscription startup Dance, which launched in 2020, has raised an additional €12 million in an equity and debt round led by existing investors HV Capital, Eurazeo and BlueYard. Dance was launched out of Berlin by former Soundloud and Jimdo founders, but since last year is now also available in Paris, Hamburg, Munich and Vienna.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch5 will now offer improved period tracking features thanks to a new partnership with Natural Cycles that leverages the smartwatch’s temperature sensors to make better predictions. The launch follows last fall’s announcement of a new temperature sensor on the Apple Watch Series 8 that similarly allows wearers to improve their period predictions as well

Janky and Guggimon, “synthetic” celebrities conceived in a studio and big on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where they exist as influencers with millions of followers, hyping up other brands, music acts and themselves, are soon coming to a streaming screen, and maybe a Whole Foods, near you. Superplastic, the startup that created and

Oligo Security, a Tel Aviv-based startup that focuses on runtime application security and observability to detect and prevent open-source vulnerabilities, is coming out of stealth today and announcing that it has raised a total of $28 million in seed and Series A funding. The company’s investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ballistic Ventures and TLV Partners,

Most merchants in South Korea keep track of their international shipping logistics via email until their cargo safely gets to its destination. This includes all the administrative processes, from shippers to importers, and covers logistics, customs, charges and transportation booking.  Portlogics, a South Korean digital freight forwarder that offers a robotic process automation-based forwarding management

Canadian vertical farming startup Adapt AgTech is partnering with Reef Technology to bring its mushroom-growing shipping containers to major cities across the United States, starting with Austin. Reef transforms urban real estate like parking lots into mobility and logistical hubs and currently operates over 8,000 locations across hundreds of cities. The partnership will help Adapt

A joint venture (JV) between four big European carriers to build cross-network ad-targeting infrastructure — which they claim will rely on “affirmative” consent to target mobile and/or fixed network subscribers with “personalized” ads across participating brands/publishers’ sites — has been given the green light to proceed by the European Commission’s antitrust division in a decision

Samsung is the best at big. Big, brash, bold, kitchen sink phones. The company that mainstreamed the phablet a dozen years ago has never given up on big dreams about big phones. Last year, the company took a risk — sunsetting the beloved Note line. While I stand by my initial assessment that the Samsung

YouTube recently became the exclusive streaming rights holder of NFL Sunday Ticket, a sports package that was reportedly bid on by other tech giants Apple and Amazon. While YouTube will likely charge a high price for the NFL Sunday Ticket, there may be a more affordable YouTube offering for viewers that want access to fewer