Volunteer at TechCrunch Early Stage in Boston
Our founder-focused summit, TechCrunch Early Stage, is back in Boston on April 25! And we are looking for some incredible volunteers to help us make this event happen. If you are interested in finding out what goes into building tech events, apply to volunteer. If you are selected, not only
Read moreLapse, the app turning your phone into an old-school camera, snaps up $30M
It can cost a fortune in 2024 to find an analogue camera, buy film (and maybe special batteries) for it, and take pictures that then need to be paid to be developed. Yet the experience had a charm and a simplicity to it. For those longing for those old days,
Read moreMWC 2024: Motorola’s Rollable Concept phone laughs at your silly foldable
[Cartoonishly exaggerated Crocodile Dundee accent] That’s not a foldable. This is a foldable. More specifically, it’s a foldable concept device from Lenovo/Motorola showcased on the floor at this year’s MWC. The company walked us through a demo of a device that’s another terrific example of its ability to get weird
Read moreSubsets helps subscription businesses reduce churn with ‘retention experiments’ and explainable AI
Recurring revenue is pretty much the holy grail for any business — it’s precisely why Apple has segued towards being almost as much a services company as it is a hardware company, with 20% of its revenue now emanating from Apple TV+, Apple Music, iCloud, among an array of other
Read moreAlibaba staffer offers a glimpse into building LLMs in China
Chinese tech companies are gathering all sorts of resources and talent to narrow their gap with OpenAI, and experiences for researchers on both sides of the Pacific Ocean can be surprisingly similar. A recent X post from an Alibaba researcher offers a rare glimpse into the life of developing Large
Read moreShadowfax confirms $100M round to fuel instant delivery push
Shadowfax, one of the largest logistics service providers to hyper-local and on-demand delivery businesses in India, has raised $100 million in a new funding round as it clocks an yearly growth of 35%. TPG NewQuest led Shadowfax’s Series E financing round, which includes some secondary transactions, the startup said on
Read moreCOTU Ventures launches $54M fund for pre-seed and seed startups in MENA
Dubai-based early-stage venture capital firm COTU Ventures is announcing that it has raised $54 million for its inaugural fund to support startups in the Middle East from pre-seed to seed stages. With a final close achieved last year, COTU Ventures, which identifies and backs founders from the inception to post-product
Read moreThe Supreme Court could decide the future of content moderation — or it could punt
The Supreme Court is considering the fate of two state laws that limit how social media companies can moderate the content on their platforms. In oral arguments on Monday, the justices grappled with a thorny set of questions that could reshape the internet, from social networks like Facebook and TikTok
Read moreInkitt, a self-publishing platform using AI to develop bestsellers, books $37M led by Khosla
Everyone has a story in them, as someone famous once said. A startup called Inkitt believes that it can use AI to turn the strongest of these into blockbusters and to build a new “Disney” for the 21st century around that content. Now, it’s raised $37 million in aid of
Read moreFAA completes investigation into SpaceX’s second fiery Starship test
The Federal Aviation Administration has concluded its review of SpaceX’s investigation of the second Starship launch in November, with the regulator saying Monday that it accepted the “root causes and 17 corrective actions” identified by the company. While this means the investigation is now closed, SpaceX must implement all the
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