Home: 

TechCrunch

Agritech startup DeHaat raises $12M to reach more farmers in India DeHaat, an online platform that offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers, has raised $12 million as it looks to scale its network across India. The Series A financial round for the eight-year-old Patna and Gurgaon-based startup was led by Sequoia Capital India. Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO, and existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder, also participated […]
Boeing to re-fly uncrewed demo mission of their human spacecraft after first try met with errors Boeing has confirmed what many suspected following the partial failure of their original Starliner capsule Orbital Flight Test (OFT)– the company will re-fly the mission, once again seeking to test and demonstrate the Starliner’s launch, flight, Space Station docking and landing capabilities prior to flying a version of the mission with actual astronauts on board. […]
Boeing suspends 787 airplane production Boeing said Monday it will suspend all 787 operations at its South Carolina factory following a stay-at-home order issued by the governor, effectively putting the company’s entire commercial airplane production on hiatus. The closure will start at the end of the second shift April 8. Boeing announced the production suspension on the same day it […]
White House signals support for a new international Moon Treaty The international community has struggled for decades to formalize rules regarding the collection and use of resources in space and on the Moon. While the U.S. and all spacefaring countries declined to endorse the most famous attempt, the 1979 “Moon Treaty,” the new Moon race has spurred the White House to announce it is open […]
Bidet startup Tushy scales up to meet demand amid toilet paper shortage Business at Tushy is booming. While the circumstances that led to the boom are sobering, the bidet company needed to adapt its strategy after seeing an uptick in business amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Other companies in this cohort include video conferencing service Zoom, meal kit service Blue Apron and Facebook, thanks to its social network, […]
AngelList lays off a number of staff and cuts executive salaries AngelList, a platform that connects angel investors to startups and has roughly $1.8 billion assets under management, has laid off a sizable number of staff and cut executive salaries across all departments, according to a source familiar with the company. AngelList declined to share the number of people who were laid off. The layoffs, which […]
FCC shoots down petition to label Trump’s coronavirus broadcasts as hoaxes The FCC has denied a request that it investigate and take action on a broadcast the petitioners allege has made material and deadly contributions to the spread of COVID-19: President Trump's frequent press conferences.
Creative ways to host a virtual birthday party for kids Social distancing requirements amid the COVID-19 pandemic may have canceled kids’ birthday parties, but parents are finding new ways to take the celebrations online. While video chat apps like Zoom, Google Hangouts or FaceTime are an option for gathering kids together in the virtual space, there’s still the challenge of what to do once there. […]
Facebook starts prompting US users to fill out a COVID-19 survey to help track the virus Starting today, some U.S. Facebook users will see a new pop-up on the app asking them to complete a survey about COVID-19. The survey, from Carnegie Mellon University’s Delphi epidemiological research center, is one of many new symptom mapping projects that seek to anticipate where the next wave of the virus will hit as COVID-19 […]
As demand for mental health services soars, SonderMind raises $27 million to expand its services “Our real focus is on democratizing mental healthcare,” says SonderMind co-founder chief executive, Mark Frank. His company, founded back in 2017, is having a moment. With the restrictions and economic stresses caused by the government’s efforts to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in the U.S., demand for mental health services is soaring. And […]
Airbnb turns to private equity to raise $1 billion Airbnb said Monday that it has raised $1 billion in debt and equity from private equity firms Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners, even as the online rental marketplace has seen its business plummet due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It’s unclear how this funding might alter Airbnb’s previously […]
Quibi had a launch day outage Looks like things haven’t gone completely smoothly with Quibi‘s launch. The issue appears to have been resolved, but the Quibi customer support account tweeted this afternoon that “some users may be experiencing problems with the Quibi app,” only to add an hour later that “Users should once again be able to use the Quibi app […]
American stocks rally sharply on COVID-19 optimism as earnings loom Stocks rallied Monday, with all major indices snapping back into positive territories as investors seized on any positive developments in the fight to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The stock market is, of course, not the economy. And this is likely a dead-cat bounce — a temporary recovery after […]
COVID-19 crisis spurs triple-digit growth for refurbishing startup Back Market “The U.S. and Germany are pushing the growth," says CEO Thibaud Hug de Larauze. "They are the main two drivers of the boom of Back Market."
BounceX cuts staff, reduces salaries in wake of COVID-19 economic disruptions TechCrunch confirmed today that BounceX (the firm is rebranding this year) has executed layoffs and salary cuts in the wake of recent COVID-19-led economic disruptions. Many startups are undergoing staff cuts as the domestic and global economies slow, making individual reductions less newsworthy as the layoff tally rises. However, as BounceX is a company we’ve […]