SoftBank teams with home-goods maker Iris Ohyama for new robotics venture

You'd be forgiven for being underwhelmed by the output from SoftBank Robotics thus far. The firm's best-known product to date is almost certainly Pepper, a humanoid robot designed for greeting and signage that grew out of it 2015 acquisition of French robotics company Aldebaran. There's

VC investment in proptech can yield profits and change lives

In 2020, nearly $24 billion in venture capital poured into companies creating new technology products or innovative business models for the real estate market. While things like smart home apps and digital mortgage financing services make life easier for upmarket renters and homeowners, none of the

SAP is buying Berlin business process automation startup Signavio

Rumors have been flying this week that SAP was going to buy Berlin business process automation startup Signavio, and sure enough the company made it official today. The companies did not reveal the purchase price, but Bloomberg reported earlier this week that the deal could be worth $1.2 billion. W

Could meme stocks like GameStop kill Bitcoin’s rise?

Cryptocurrencies, more so than most other things, are only valuable because of a shared agreement that they are valuable. Their value is a product of digital handshakes over millions of transactions firming up that consensus. For bitcoin, the trust that it has worth has turned more valuable in the

Robert Downey Jr. is launching a new ‘rolling’ venture fund to back sustainability startups

A little less than two years ago, when the actor, producer and investor Robert Downey Jr. unveiled his new, sustainability focused initiative called the FootPrint Coalition at Amazon’s re:MARS conference it was little more than a static website and a subscription prompt. Jump cut to today, an

Spin bets its scooter future on 3 wheels and remote-control tech

Spin, the micromobility startup acquired by Ford, has developed a new scooter with partners Segway-Ninebot and software startup Tortoise that aims to solve the sidewalk clutter problem for good. The Spin S-200 scooter not only has three wheels — a design change that helps it stand out in a crowde

Dear Sophie: How can I sponsor my mom and stepdad for green cards?

Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies. “Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says

Battling algorithmic bias at TC Sessions: Justice

At TC Sessions: Justice on March 3, we’re going to dive head-first into data discrimination, algorithmic bias and how to ensure a more just future, as technology companies rely more on automated processes to make decisions. Algorithms are sets of rules that computers follow in order to solve

Stilt, a financial services provider for immigrants, raises $100 million debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank

"attachment_2100503" aria-describedby="" style="width: 4032px">Stilt founders Priyank Singh and Rohit Mittal Stilt, a provider of financial services for immigrants in the United States, announced today it has raised a $100 million warehouse facility from Silicon Valley Bank for lending to its custom

Check out the amazing speakers joining us on Extra Crunch Live in February

Last year, we hit you with 44(!) episodes of Extra Crunch Live, a series that gives startups and founders direct insights from the experts who know best. We’re making Extra Crunch Live even better in 2021: we’ll take a look at funding deals through the eyes of the founders and investors

Charlie launches a mobile app that ‘gamifies’ getting out of debt

Charlie, a personal finance app that began as a chatbot, is relaunching today with a revamped experience focused on the larger goal of helping everyday Americans get out of debt. To do so, Charlie presents users with a full picture of their current debt and how long it will take them to pay it off.

Finesse raises $4.5M to predict fashion trends with AI

Finesse, a startup promising to take the guesswork and waste out of fashion, is announcing that it has raised $4.5 million in seed and pre-seed funding. Founder and CEO Ramin Ahmari said the tremendous waste in the fashion industry has become a badly kept secret, with Burberry recently facing a bac

Ring's new video doorbell is $60

The top-line feature for Ring's latest is no doubt its price. No way around that. At $60, it's $40 cheaper than the standard Video Doorbell – and prices from there go up significantly, with the “Elite” running $350. Perhaps the company is feeling some pressure from the race the bo

Pinecone lands $10M seed for purpose-built machine learning database

Pinecone, a new startup from the folks who helped launch Amazon SageMaker, has built a vector database that generates data in a specialized format to help build machine learning applications faster, something that was previously only accessible to the largest organizations. Today the company came o