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Wele to the it’s-so-subtle pivot season
Wele to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. As late-stage tech startups face the changing environment in t
This Week in Apps: Apps blocking Russia, Walmart adds virtual try-on, Netflix’s trivia game
Wele back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a re
Ukraine, API startups and startup valuations
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Uganda in the spotlight as country’s startups captivate YC, Google
The startup ecosystem in Africa has until now been dominated by Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt (‘the Big 4’), countries that continue to receive the bulk of venture capital and other forms
A look inside Founders Fund, as it closes on $5 billion across two new funds
Founders Fund has garnered a lot of money from investors; it has also returned quite a bit of capital. A lot of the action on both fronts has happened very recently. Yesterday, the 17-year-old outfit
Daily Crunch: Ransomware group threatens to release Nvidia’s ‘most closely guarded secrets’
Hello friends and wele to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.
It’s pivot season for early-stage startups
Early-stage startups still have access to ample capital, giving them a VC bubble that somewhat protects them from rapid changes in the greater economy. But that bubble is changing shape.
TechCrunch+ roundup: 3 views on Epic-Bandcamp deal, SPAC letdown, CIO sales strategy
You are more likely to close a sale if you have actionable insights into your prospective customer’s needs. But for enterprise software startups, this presents a special problem.
Infrastructure is broken, Gecko is using robotics to help fix it
Gecko Robotics’ mission statement is “To protect today’s critical infrastructure, and give form to tomorrow’s.” It’s certainly the sort of thing that rings true in the startup’s home
Winnie has a new plan to help childcare centers scale care
When Winnie was first founded in 2016 by Sara Mauskopf and Anne Halsall, it was focused on childcare solutions built for parents. “The other SaaS solutions in the childcare space have gone after the
How quickly do enterprise tech firms need to grow to satisfy today’s investors?
A half-dozen enterprise stocks reported earnings, but with the world in turmoil this week, the stock market gave them kind of a rough reception.
Samsung says it will release an update to address app throttling issues
Samsung has addressed plaints that the tech giant is throttling the performance of thousands of apps on some of its Android phones. In a statement sent to TechCrunch, a spokesperson for the pany
In the metaverse, responsible AI must be a priority
Language technology powered by AI can perpetuate bias if we are not careful. We need to be sure that language AI is trained to be ethical as well.
Russia says it will block Facebook, its latest effort to control the narrative on Ukraine
A week after introducing partial restrictions on Facebook, the Russian government announced Friday that it would begin blocking the social network in the country outright. Russia’s internet regu
Apple Maps now displays Crimea as part of Ukraine to viewers outside of Russia
Apple Maps now shows Crimea as part of Ukraine when viewed outside of Russia, in what appears to be a new and quiet update. Mashable first reported the change, which es amid Russia’s ongoing
Google pauses its ad sales in Russia, Microsoft pauses sales
In further responses from the tech industry to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week and the country’s continued aggression against its neighbor, Google and Microsoft have both now said t
Fetch raises $3.5M for its self-service truck rental marketplace
Once upon a time, I had a truck. I loved that truck! I didn’t actually use the truck as a truck all that often, so eventually I sold it and bought something more in tune with my daily needs. Som
Box strikes back with a quarter that beats everyone’s expectations, including its own
While all the trends appear to be moving in the right direction, can Box keep it going, and what are its projections for FY2023? Let's take a deeper look at the numbers.
D’Amelio family launches VC fund 444 Capital to invest up to $25M in high-growth startups
The D’Amelio family, including TikTok stars and digital creators Charli D’Amelio and sister Dixie, are formalizing their investments in startups with the launch of a new VC fund, 444 Capit
From beer waste to ‘plastic’ packaging, Mi Terro downs $1.5M to make the world more biodegradable
A shrewd entrepreneur joins the 100+ accelerator program sponsored by brewing giant AB Inbev and home consumables emporium Unilever, and spots a pattern. The breweries have tons of spent grain, and th