Author: TechBrunch
Company X, formerly known as Twitter, will soon release a TV app dedicated to videos uploaded to the social network. X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced On Tuesday, the company announced that a new app will bring “real-time, engaging content” to smart TVs. The app's interface is very similar to his YouTube one, as seen in the teaser video shared by Yaccarino. The app will feature a trending video algorithm designed to help users stay up to date on popular customized content, as well as AI-powered topics that organize videos by theme. The app also supports cross-device viewing, so you can…
News that HeadSpin's former founder will be sent to prison on fraud charges is further evidence that the last boom in the twin worlds of startups and venture capital has spawned more than a little fraud. The founder in question, Manish Lakhwani, is facing a prison sentence and a hefty fine for lying to investors, a lie that enabled his company to raise nine figures worth of funding. The company is adamant and probably wants this whole situation to disappear from the public eye. That's understandable, but the Ratchwani story — The New York Times says that Rashwani “nearly quadrupled…
Keeping your home or office at the right temperature requires a lot of energy. Approximately one-third of the carbon pollution in the United States comes from buildings, mostly from heating and cooling. Bedrock Energy, co-founded by Jocelyn Lai, believes it has found at least a partial solution. The startup aims to decarbonize climate control by installing geothermal heating pumps. Although currently focused on large commercial buildings, the core technology could potentially power almost any HVAC system. Lai appeared on TechCrunch's Found to talk about her company and its hope to reduce the cost of proven technologies that address the climate…
Perplexity, an AI search engine startup, is a hot asset right now. TechCrunch has learned that the company is currently valued at $3 billion, up from $2.5 billion, and has raised at least another $250 million. The news comes on the heels of two other major financings that have seen the company's valuation skyrocket in the past four months. In January, the company raised nearly $74 million at a valuation of $540 million (up from $121 million in April 2023). And in early March, the company closed on $56 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The increases have…
Fisker said it plans further cuts in the next two months after cutting 15% of its workforce as EV startups scramble to raise capital to survive. If Fisker is unable to raise the funds, it plans to file for bankruptcy protection within the next 30 days, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The crisis-hit company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it had just $54 million in cash and equivalents as of April 16, with another $11.2 million not immediately accessible. Fisker said in his filing that it is currently trying to raise…
Many students in the United States enroll in community colleges with the intention of transferring to a four-year university, but only 16% of those students earn a bachelor's degree within six years. But Campus, an online alternative to traditional community colleges, has an approach aimed at changing that. Many adjunct professors at the nation's top universities, including UCLA, Princeton University and New York University, earn salaries so low that a quarter of them qualify for some form of government aid. At the same time, education costs are rising. “We fell in love with the idea of giving everyone access to…
Digital twin platform Matterport has agreed to be acquired by one of its customers, Costar, in a cash and stock deal of $5.50 per share, valuing the company at approximately $1.6 billion. Matterport's technology helps businesses create digital replicas of their physical spaces. KoStar's offer represents a whopping 212% premium over Matterport's last closing share price before the acquisition was announced on April 22nd. For Matterport, the stock has remained below $5 since August 2022 as it struggles to meet investor expectations for subscriber growth amid a downturn in the real estate market and broader macroeconomic slowdown. The deal appears…
Downsizing a startup can be bittersweet for founders. In Fundid's case, rising interest rates decimated the business finance startup. But venture capitalists and partners are also hurting it, says founder Stephanie Sample. TechCrunch profiled Sample in 2022 when it raised $3.25 million in seed funding backed by fintech investors Nevcaut Ventures, The Artemis Fund, and Builders and Backers. Prior to joining Fundid, Sample spent more than 10 years as the owner of more than 10 profitable franchise businesses in Montana. She owns 12 Taco Bell locations, and is the former owner of two Envy franchises, as well as three of…
Platform is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the technology industry, and it's often misused. But the basic definition of business school is: A platform is a company or business model that creates more value for its participants than it itself captures. Consider that some of the most successful companies in the technology industry help other companies make more money in total than they make themselves. Decades ago, Microsoft made a lot of money promoting her PC revolution. Just recently, Apple announced that developers using the App Store will generate $1.1 trillion in revenue in 2022. This…
Easel is a new startup founded by two former Snap employees at the intersection of generative AI and social trends. The company is working on an app that lets you create images of yourself and your friends doing cool things right from your favorite guy's iMessage conversations. There's a reason why the co-founders said they worked at Snap before founding Easel. Snap may never reach the scale of Instagram or TikTok, but it's certainly the most innovative social company since social apps started taking over smartphone home screens. Before Apple made augmented reality and virtual reality cool again, Snap paved…