2020
Amazon eyes launching its computer science education program in India
Amazon is planning to extend its computer science program Future Engineer to India, demonstrating its growing interest in the education space in the world’s second-largest internet market. In a job…
RentPath drops acquisition deal with CoStar after FTC antitrust lawsuit
RentPath, owner of property-listing sites including Rent.com and Apartment Guide, said today it has cancelled its agreement to be acquired by CoStar Group after the Federal Trade Commission sued to…
New York licenses GMO Internet to issue the first JPY-pegged stablecoin
The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has approved Tokyo-based GMO Internet to launch GYEN, the first stablecoin pegged to the Japanese yen. GMO Internet, an internet conglomerate that…
Daily Crunch: Judge dismisses Apple copyright claims against Corellium
Apple faces a major setback in one of its legal fights, VMware sues a former executive and Google tests a new short-form video feature. This is your Daily Crunch for…
This quick and clever tool creates an instant homepage for your podcast
Podcast homepages weren’t something I gave any thought to until I launched my own standalone show. And honestly, even then I probably didn’t give enough thought to the subject. For…
Google pilots a search feature that aggregates short-form videos from TikTok and Instagram
Google is testing a new feature that will surface Instagram and TikTok videos in their own dedicated carousel in the Google app for mobile devices — a move that could…
Apple’s lawsuit against Corellium has been partly thrown out
Back in August of last year Apple filed a lawsuit against the virtualization software company Corellium, arguing that the product infringed its copyright and later adding claims that Corellium’s product…
There’s no denying that 2020 has been the year of the special purpose acquisition company. Since the beginning of the year, 219 SPACs have raised $73 billion, according to widely…
It’s that time of year again. Of course, this year is going to be different (to be honest, even looking at that lead image makes me uneasy). For the first…
From the US to China, Korea, India and Europe, antitrust action against tech is gaining serious momentum
After decades of global expansion and consolidation in the tech sector, antitrust is now a headline issue for the industry across the world. What has been a slow and sputtering…
DNA testing technology company 23andMe has raised just shy of $82.5 million in new funding, from an offering of $85 million in total equity shares, according to a new SEC…
CommonGround, a startup developing technology for what its founders describe as “4D collaboration,” is announcing that it has raised $19 million in funding. This isn’t the first time Amir Bassan-Eskenazi…
As launch market matures, space opportunities on the ground take off
The space economy in the last few years has been in large part driven by the increasing cadence and reliability of launch services, and while that market will continue to…
Seattle-based Madrona raises $345M for its eighth early-stage fund
Madrona Venture Group has been a mainstay of the Seattle and northwest United States startup ecosystem for years now, and it looks like it is going to continue that legacy…
Z Fellows offers $10k to stop what you’re doing for a week and work on a side project
There is massive VC overcapitalization for Series A and later companies, and probably for seed as well. But there is a massive gap in the market to financially underwrite promising…
If you build it, they will come, but they sure as hell are going to complain about everything until they do. There were millions of bets made in the tech…
Streaming services face their real test in 2021
“Next year, all of those services are leveling up to a different world, where people are going to need to start paying for it.”
VMware files suit against former exec for moving to rival company
Earlier this month, when Nutanix announced it was hiring former VMware COO Rajiv Ramaswami as CEO, it looked like a good match. What’s more, it pulled a key player from…
Dongnae raises $4.1 million to digitize real estate in South Korea
Despite the pandemic keeping us in one place most of the time, proptech is still taking off. And not just in the U.S. Dongnae is looking to digitize the rental…
Skyroot successfully test fires India’s first privately-made solid rocket stage
Rocket launch startup Skyroot is closing out 2020 with a key milestone in the development program for their Vikram-I launch vehicle: A successful test firing of a solid rocket propulsion…
COVID-19 revealed the fragility of supply chains
All these materials and components find their way in the supply chain, but their stories get lost along the way.
Estonian proptech Rendin raises €1.2M seed for its long-term rental platform
Rendin, an Estonian proptech startup that wants to improve the home rental experience, including offering a no-deposit feature, has raised €1.2 million in seed funding. Backing the round is Tera…
AI chipmaker Graphcore raises $222M at a $2.77B valuation and puts an IPO in its sights
Applications based on artificial intelligence — whether they are systems running autonomous services, platforms being used in drug development or to predict the spread of a virus, traffic management for…
Tencent backs Chinese healthcare portal DXY in $500M round
DXY, a 20-year-old online healthcare community for Chinese consumers and healthcare organizations like Pfizer, announced this week that it has raised $500 million in its Series E round led by…
Daily Crunch: China presents ‘rectification’ plan for Ant Group
The Chinese government could reshape Ant Group’s business, Tesla plans to launch in India next year and the FAA announces a new ID requirement for drones. This is your Daily…
Feast your eyes on the space rocks Japan’s Hayabusa 2 mission harvested from asteroid Ryugu
Japan’s ambitious second asteroid return mission, Hayabusa 2, has collected a wealth of material from its destination, Ryugu, which astronomers and other interested parties are almost certainly champing at the…
The Exchange is taking a break from vacation to dig into the new Qualtrics S-1 filing. Then the column and newsletter are back on hold until January 4. This afternoon,…
The FAA today announced that it will be issuing two new rules for drone pilots in the U.S. The first is the implementation of a long-awaited Remote ID. The system…
How Niantic evolved Pokémon GO for the year no one could go anywhere
Pokémon GO was created to encourage players to explore the world while coordinating impromptu large group gatherings — activities we’ve all been encouraged to avoid since the pandemic began.
Samsung hasn’t announced the Galaxy S21 yet, but you can already reserve one
For obvious reasons, many of us are spending the final week of 2020 looking forward. Samsung is hoping some folks are looking far enough ahead to reserve a spot in…
