Tech

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello, Daily Crunchers! Personal story time: I came to the U.S. on an IR1 visa — also known as a “green card” — after having been married to an American for more

The fintech sector has had its ups and downs as of late, with Klarna experiencing hefty valuation cuts, Fast shutting down and Robinhood and Better conducting mass layoffs. Despite the market turbulence, investors remain bullish on the potential value that financial technology startups can bring worldwide. To understand how fintech startups are preparing to weather

A new report detailing the cost of mobile data in different markets across the world, bears the evidence of why internet use in most of Africa remains low despite the growing broadband internet coverage. The Worldwide Mobile Pricing 2022 report, which surveyed 233 countries, shows that five of the 10 most expensive countries to buy

General Motors is teaming up with Pilot Flying J to build a national fast-charge network for EVs. The partnership between GM and Pilot will help accelerate EV sales by filling in gaps along the charging infrastructure. Access to charging stations remains American drivers’ top concern over buying or leasing an EV, according to a July

Meta announced today that it’s raising the price of its Quest 2 virtual reality headsets due to increased production costs. Starting on August 1st, the Meta Quest 2 will cost $399.99 USD for the 128GB version, which is a $100 increase from the current $299.99 price tag. The 256GB version will cost $499.99, up from

Amazon has announced that it’s increasing the prices for its Prime subscription service in Europe, with fees rising by as much as 43% in some markets. The announcement comes some six months after the ecommerce giant announced a similar price increase in the U.S., where the annual price jumped 17% from $119 to $139. The

Robots have always found it a challenge to work with people and vice versa. Two people on the cutting edge of improving that relationship joined us for TC Sessions: Robotics to talk about the present and future of human-robot interaction: Veo Robotics co-founder Clara Vu and Robust.ai founder Rod Brooks (formerly of iRobot and Rethink

Tuned, Meta’s social app for couples, is winding down a little over two years after it launched. Users, including this reporter, began receiving a notification about the impending shutdown last week, advising them to download their data before September 19 when the app will cease to work. Tuned was a project under Meta’s New Product

Startups that solve the supply-chain and operational challenges of players in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry–by helping buyers access products from sellers on a single platform–keep attracting venture capital from investors. Cartona, one of the major players digitizing the traditional trade market, including mom-and-pop stores, FMCG producers, wholesalers, and distributors in Egypt, has raised

Omni wants to be the human resources platform to rule them all—or at least all HR-related tasks. The software enables HR teams to digitize employee records, automate administrative tasks like employee onboarding and time-off management, and integrate employee data from different systems. Based in Singapore, it is currently active there and in Indonesia, and plans

Crop One Holdings and Emirates Flight Catering announced this week they opened Emirates Crop One, what they say is “the world’s largest vertical farm.” The over 330,000-square-foot facility is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates near Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central. It has the capacity to produce over 2 million pounds of

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we looked at a crossover episode for meme investing. This week, we’re talking about Musk dumping tokens while holding onto others. You can get this newsletter in your inbox every week by subscribing on TechCrunch’s newsletter page. Dumping favor A weekly dispatch from the desk of TechCrunch crypto

Just Eat Takeaway is cutting 390 jobs from its workforce in France, constituting part of a broader global restructuring effort as the food delivery giant looks to reverse its recent downturn. Just Eat Takeaway is the result of a $7.6 billion merger between the U.K.’s Just East and Dutch rival Takeaway.com back in 2020. Shortly

Framework has been expanding its footprint in the laptop scene over the last few years, and we felt it was time to give one of their modular laptops a look. This latest generation is good enough that I felt it could be my daily driver, the port swap system is simple enough for a child

If you were one of the nearly 77 million people affected by last year’s T-Mobile breach, you may have a few bucks coming your way. The company has just announced the terms of a settlement in a consolidated class action lawsuit, and it isn’t cheap: $350 million to be split up by customers (and lawyers),

World Fund, a newcomer in climate-VC land, is taking the lead in a $128 million round for IQM, with hopes the Finnish quantum computing company will one day deliver carbon cuts by the megatonne. Quantum computing trades the bits of conventional computers for quantum bits, and in theory, quantum machines may be better suited for

Once seemingly unstoppable, Big Tech is now in reset mode. We’re not talking about Snap’s earnings sending its stock plunging, or Twitter’s lackluster earnings report from earlier this morning. No, we’re talking about Big Tech. The world’s largest tech companies are pulling back in a way that could, perhaps, clear some brush for startups still making

“Buy now, pay later” (BNPL) startups have gained traction by targeting consumers, but BNPLs for businesses are also starting to take off. One example is Fairbanc, which is based in Singapore but focused on Indonesia. It allows small businesses to take out short-term credit to purchase fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) inventory. Fairbanc announced today it

Tesla’s mythical solar roofs may be on ice right now, but its conventional solar business is a whole ‘nother story. This afternoon, the automaker said the division notched its “strongest” quarter in more than four years, with a total of 106 megawatts deployed in Q2 2022. “Although we continue to experience import delays beyond our

Teja Yenamandra Contributor Venture funds are clear: given the uncertainty of the coming few years as the Fed seeks to unwind its decades-long monetary policy, the mandate for CEOs is to: Cut burn. Slow growth. Carefully manage towards profitability. This is a tough pill to swallow for founders who were planning to accelerate growth this

The UK’s App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) staged a 24-hour strike Wednesday to demand Uber be held accountable for the findings of the Uber files, a trove of thousands of leaked confidential documents that show how the ride-hail company broke laws, secretly lobbied governments and exploited driver safety to expand aggressively from 2013 to

Today during an event focused on Alexa developer and partner news, Amazon announced new features and integrations, including a collection of APIs and software development kits (SDKs) aimed at making Alexa more versatile. They come a month after the company demoed forthcoming and experimental Alexa features at its annual re:Mars conference in Las Vegas, including

The days of the Galaxy Note Unpacked events are sadly gone, but Samsung’s foldables are more than happy to fill a phablet-sized hole in the company’s annual release schedule. Over the last couple of years, the company has made good on its promise to fully commit to the form factor, and we expect to see

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. It’s hot all over the world, and even hotter in today’s newsletter. We’ve procured a steaming pile of TechCrunch deliciousness for you to devour. If you can believe it, it is only

An investor in Instacart, Capital Group, has repriced its shares in the company, lowering its estimation of the value of the online grocery delivery service. The news follows other, similar repricings by companies like Fidelity, which also own a stake in the decacorn. It’s really not surprising that one more investor agrees Instacart’s 2021 valuation

While the venture capital world slows, climate tech is bucking the trend as startups in the space continue to ink deals at a record pace. In the process, the sector is climbing the ranks. In the first quarter of this year, five climate tech deals made it into CB Insight’s top 10 lists covering seed

Lithium-ion batteries are one of the driving forces behind the transition away from fossil fuels, but the rechargeable battery that started it all — lead-acid — has received very little attention. Invented over 160 years ago, lead-acid batteries have been upgraded a few times, but today’s cells are largely unchanged from those sold in the

Gbike, a South Korea-based micromobility Gcooter operator, is acquiring Hyundai Motor’s shared micromobility sharing platform ZET as it wants to increase its market share and create technological synergies via ZET’s fleet management system.  Gbike CEO Walter Yoon told TechCrunch that the deal, which is its first acquisition, will be completed in early August. The financial terms of

Facebook parent Meta’s been putting up a strong fight appealing the UK antitrust decision investigating and ultimately ordering Meta to sell Giphy, the GIF marketplace that it acquired back in May 2020 for around $315 million; and now it has gotten a small stay of execution: the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has sent the case

Tonal, an at-home fitness company last valued at $1.6 billion, has laid off 35% of its workforce in what the company says was a “responsible” decision made in order to grow at a more sustainable rate. “Tonal is prioritizing becoming a self-sustaining business with an emphasis on profitability,” the company said in a statement confirming