Author: TechBrunch
The humanoid sucked a large amount of air out of the room. After all, it's much easier to generate press with a robot that looks like a human and moves like a human. Ultimately, however, both the effectiveness and scalability of such a design remain to be proven. Brad Porter, founder of Collaborative Robotics, has been avoiding robots that look like humans for some time. But machines that can potentially reason in the same way as humans are a completely different story. As the two-year-old startup's name suggests, Collaborative Robotics (cobots for short) is interested in how humans and robots…
If you've been feeling lonely for the past few years, you're not alone. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, about half of U.S. adults reported feeling lonely, according to a 2023 report from the U.S. Surgeon General. The report warns that loneliness and isolation can lead to physical effects, including a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke. A new app called Buffet aims to address the loneliness epidemic by helping users meet new people by quickly matching people and places to meet (Think Tinder + OpenTable). This app is designed to remove the barriers…
Anticipation is high for TechCrunch Early Stage 2024, with industry leaders and budding entrepreneurs alike looking forward to a series of startup-focused sessions. We're excited to feature HomeHQ.ai's partner session “From Inception to Cash: How I Wandered into an Idea and Jumpstarted a Company.” This session promises to provide valuable insight into HomeHQ.ai's entrepreneurial journey led by Co-Founder and CEO Oliver Parnau and Co-Founder and COO Vinny Romano. Attendees can expect to be inspired by Oliver Parnau's entrepreneurial journey, which began with his entry into the real estate market at the age of 23. From flipping houses to exploring robotics,…
Travel and tourism is once again in the spotlight for consumers and the business community. And now, underscoring that surge, one of the startups building software in this space has closed a major funding round. Guesty, a platform that allows lodging managers to manage their businesses online, including platforms like Airbnb and his Vrbo, has raised $130 million. Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that the Series F values Guesty at about $900 million post-money. The New York-based company, which has Israeli roots, said its revenue has increased fivefold over the past three years and it expects to be profitable this year.…
Almost 10 years ago, Brian Frist, Nick Alexander, and Daniel Hunter came up with the idea of bringing technology to the automotive industry. They launched the Yoshi Mobility app, which delivers gas on the day of your choice for $20 a month to consumers in the San Francisco area using the first gas entry point. “The auto industry has never been an industry that has anything to do with innovation,” Frist told TechCrunch. “In the days of Amazon, when everything was delivered, we had this idea of never going to a gas station again.” The trio brought Yoshi to Y…
Proton, the Swiss-based privacy-focused company behind end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) webmail ProtonMail and other apps, has acquired Standard Notes, a note-taking app founded in 2017. . The company offers a similarly robust privacy promise. By also applying E2EE, it will reach more than 300,000 users. In a press release announcing the move, Proton highlighted the companies' “shared values” including the use of E2EE. Commitment to open source technology. And how neither relies on venture capital to fuel growth. E2EE is considered the gold standard in security technology because the service provider does not hold the encryption keys. This means that they…
Caller ID company Truecaller today announced Truecaller for the Web, a web version that offers SMS and chat mirroring, call notifications, and number lookup capabilities. At launch, it will be available only to his Android users in India, but it is planned to expand to other regions as well. All Truecaller for Android users can link their device to the web client on a PC or Mac via a QR code. Currently, users can only link to one web client. If you do not use Truecaller for the web he has a 30 day timeout period. Users can also manually…
According to a study by the World Resources Institute, global demand for wood could increase by 54% between 2010 and 2050. While some building materials, such as steel, are consistently recycled into the supply chain, wood is not. Cambium wants to solve that. Cambium aims to create a supply chain that prevents wood waste by connecting people who already have used wood with the companies and people who need it. Cambium co-founder and CEO Ben Christensen recently told TechCrunch's Found podcast that only 5% to 10% of wood is currently recycled, with most ending up in landfills. He said he…
Bot creators now have a new way to make money with Poe, Quora's own AI chatbot platform. The company on Monday introduced a revenue model that allows creators to set a per-message price for their bots, allowing them to earn money every time a user sends a message. This addition follows his October 2023 release of a revenue sharing program that gives bot creators a cut of the revenue if users subscribe to Poe's premium products. First released by Quora in February 2023, Poe gives users the ability to sample various AI chatbots from ChatGPT makers OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and…
Meta announced Tuesday that it is rolling out features that will allow Messenger users to create shared albums within chats, send photos in high resolution, and share large files up to 100MB. With these new features, Messenger is targeting people who tend to create shared albums and share HD images through services like Google Drive. Previously, users could only see a list of photos shared in a particular Messenger chat, without being able to group or organize them. To organize photos from your recent spring break or your grandma's girlfriend's 80th birthday celebration, users can now create photo and video…