News

Pear, a Palo Alto, Ca.-based venture firm that we’ve been tracking since its outset in 2012, looks to be raising a fourth fund that’s targeting $410 million in capital commitments, shows a new SEC filing. It would be a big step up from Pear’s first three funds, which closed progressively with $50 million in 2013, […]

Hey everyone, and welcome back to Chain Reaction. In our Chain Reaction podcast this week, Anita and I chatted with Mercedes Bent of Lightspeed Venture Partners on backing blockchain startups and the future of consumer fintech. More details below. Last week, we talked about how the crypto industry needs to take a moment to reflect […]

Founders have gotten the memo that the ground is shifting under their feet right now. What to do about it is the question. Already, teams are making plans to scale back their spending to preserve capital. They’re making painful staff cuts toward that same end — or else instituting hiring freezes. But they should also […]

What is that we hear? Is that the Friday, May 20, 2022, on the calendar and the soft, alluring siren’s song of a weekend that’s right around the corner? Why, yes, that must be it! Our events team is busy putting together an awesome TechCrunch Disrupt, and we are psyched about Startup Battlefield, where the […]

Amazon’s cute little Astro robot has been scurrying its way around my apartment for the past few weeks. It has no arms to scratch its own head in confusion, but I am willing to do that for him. As part of Amazon’s Day 1 Editions program, the robot is a $1,000 invitation-only program with limited […]

Walker Drewett founded NuBrakes in May 2019. According to Mike Ghaffary, GP at Canvas Ventures, Drewett is building a high-growth business powered by a marketplace model, which is why Ghaffary led the company’s Series A. The product is simple: On-demand vehicle brake repair services. Join this episode to hear how Drewett raised capital and built

Hyundai is the latest automaker to announce plans to open an EV factory in Georgia, the same state where Rivian is preparing to break ground on its controversial plant. Hyundai’s $6.5 billion EV and battery manufacturing facility outside of Savannah will further the state’s goal of becoming a major regional hub for the EV industry. […]

Skyroot, the first private Indian company to design, build and test a solid rocket propulsion stage, has reached another key milestone in the development of its Vikram-I launch vehicle: a full-duration test of the rocket’s third stage. The third stage, dubbed Kalam-100 in homage to Indian rocket scientist and former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,

Historically, continuous tracking of an individual’s vital signs meant they had to be in a hospital. But that's not true anymore.

You thought the market was bad for venture capitalists, but what about the actual workers behind the tech companies they’ve backed? Reluctantly, we’re writing a tech layoffs roundup for the third week in a row, because once again, there have been reductions across stages and sectors. Over the past month, public and private tech companies […]

As you may have heard, tech companies are having a bit of a whoopsie.

Match Group, the parent company of dating apps Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, is getting along better with Google, just by a little bit. On Friday, Match withdrew its request for a temporary restraining order against the company, which it accuses of wielding unfair monopoly power in its mobile app marketplace. Match filed an antitrust lawsuit […]

Today’s lithium mines can't hope to meet skyrocketing demand. Startups like Lilac Solutions and Vulcan Energy Resources have leaped into action with new, more efficient lithium extraction processes.

Unless you live near a port, you probably don’t think much about the tens of thousands of container ships tearing through the seas, hauling some 1.8 billion metric tons of stuff each year. Yet these vessels run on some of the dirtiest fuel there is, spewing more greenhouse gases than airplanes do in the process. […]

In 2017, we noted that smartphone screen sizes had settled into a sweet spot between five and six inches. In hindsight, that may well have been wishful thinking. A brief respite aside, it seems that phones have only continued to embiggen, driven by a continued spec war and panel manufacturers like Samsung. Heck, even Steve […]

The other day, Brian reported on Sony’s new LinkBuds headphones, including its partnership with “what if Brian Eno was a piece of computer software” app Endel. The company uses really fascinating AI technology to generate soundscapes and music tracks to help your brain do its best work — to help you focus deeper, sleep more […]

At TC Sessions: Mobility, Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell admitted that his now successful company was founded in hubris, but that a skeptical eye during peak lidar hype helped them focus on real markets. “It’s no longer about some theoretical promise — you actually have to show real results, real deliveries, real technology and […]

No one likes a down round. They are dilutive, messy and demoralizing. But they are also miles better than not raising money and dying, so companies raise them when required.

I don’t cover post-IPO companies a lot, and Coca-Cola is def on the list of ones I can generally ignore. But when the company sends out a hand-wringing press release about how awesome they are for launching a bottle cap where the cap stays attached to the bottle “for environmental reasons,” I’m sorry, my blood […]

Do Kwon, the creator of the stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and its sister token Luna, is facing legal prosecution in South Korea over the collapse of the two coins that wiped out billions of dollars from investors around the world earlier this month. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said Friday that it has kicked off […]