Daily Crunch: Microsoft acquires Nuance for $19.7B

Microsoft makes a big healthcare tech acquisition, Twitter is building a presence in Africa and Apple may be cooking up some new smart home products. This is your Daily Crunch for April 12, 2021. The big story: Microsoft acquires Nuance for $19.7B Microsoft announced this morning th

Another milestone for in-space servicing as Northrop Grumman gives aging satellite new life

Northrop Grumman hit a new milestone in extending the life of active spacecraft as a purpose-built spacecraft, MEV-2, docked with Intelsat’s IS-10-02 satellite to give it another five years of life. It’s a strong demonstration of the possibilities in a growing field of orbital servicing

From pickup basketball to market domination: My wild ride with Coupang

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Blue Origin will run an ‘astronaut rehearsal’ during a launch this week to prep for human spaceflight

Blue Origin is making progress toward its goal of flying human astronauts aboard its spacecraft, with a plan to run an “astronaut rehearsal” during a launch it has planned for Wednesday, April 14. The launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital, reusable rocket will be a key st

Tiger Global in talks to lead $100 million investment in Indian social commerce DealShare

Tiger Global is in talks to invest in DealShare, a startup in India that has built an e-commerce platform for middle- and lower-income groups of consumers, just three months after the Indian firm concluded its previous $21 million Series C funding round. The New York-headquartered firm plans to lea

Chinese autonomous vehicle startup WeRide scores permit to test driverless cars in San Jose

WeRide, the Chinese autonomous vehicle startup that recently raised $310 mlion, has received a permit to test driverless vehicles on public roads in San Jose, California. WeRide is the seventh company, following AutoX, Baidu, Cruise, Nuro Waymo and Zoox, to receive a driverless testing permit. In t

Tech and auto execs tackle global chip shortage at White House summit

A collection of tech and auto industry executives met with the White House to discuss solutions for the worldwide chip shortage Monday. CEOs from Google, Intel, HP, Dell, Ford and General Motors attended the virtual summit on semiconductors and resilience in supply chains. National Security Adviser

Apple and Google will both attend Senate hearing on app store competition

After it looked like Apple might no-show, the company has committed to sending a representative to a Senate antitrust hearing on app store competition later this month. Last week, Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) put public pressure on the company to attend the hearing, which will

Atomico’s talent partners share 6 tips for early-stage people ops success

In the earliest stages of building a startup, it can be hard to justify focusing on anything other than creating a great product or service and meeting the needs of customers or users. However, there are still a number of surefire measures that any early-stage company can and should put in place to

Docugami’s new model for understanding documents cuts its teeth on NASA archives

You hear so much about data these days that you might forget that a huge amount of the world runs on documents: a veritable menagerie of heterogeneous files and formats holding enormous value yet incompatible with the new era of clean, structured databases. Docugami plans to change that with a syst

How to choose and deploy industry-specific AI models

As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, previously cutting-edge — but generic — AI models are becoming commonplace, such as Google Cloud's Vision AI or Amazon Rekognition. While effective in some use cases, these solutions do not suit industry-specific needs right out of the box.

UiPath’s first IPO pricing could be a warning to late-stage investors

A few months back, robotic process automation (RPA) unicorn UiPath raised a huge $750 million round at a valuation of around $35 billion. The capital came ahead of the company’s expected IPO, so its then-new valuation helped provide a measuring stick for where its eventual flotation could pri

Biden’s cybersecurity dream team takes shape

President Biden has named two former National Security Agency veterans to senior government cybersecurity positions, including the first national cyber director. The appointments, announced Monday, land after the discovery of two cyberattacks linked to foreign governments earlier this year — the

Cybersecurity training startup Hack The Box raises $10.6M Series A led by Paladin Capital

Cybersecurity training startup Hack The Box, which emerged originally from Greece, has raised a Series A investment round of $10.6 million, led by Paladin Capital Group and joined by Osage University Partners, Brighteye Ventures and existing investors Marathon Venture Capital. It will use the fundi