You’ll never believe what this email thread says about the ad-funded ‘open’ web

Among a number of claims on U.K. adtech lobby group MOW’s website is the canonical biggie that “Advertising funds the open web.” This coalition of “marketers,” whose members are not being made public despite its sweeping claims to love web openness — lest, MOW sa

Extra Crunch roundup: 2 VC surveys, Tesla’s melt up, The Roblox Gambit, more

This has been quite a week. Instead of walking backward through the last few days of chaos and uncertainty, here are three good things that happened: Google employee Sara Robinson combined her interest in machine learning and baking to create AI-generated hybrid treats. A breakthro

Twitter bans former Trump adviser Michael Flynn and other QAnon figures

Twitter took action against a pair of President Trump’s close associates Friday, banning them from the platform as part of a broader effort to contain the QAnon conspiracy movement. Trump’s first national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell were

Venrock’s Bryan Roberts on the firm’s new $450 million fund, and where it’s shopping in 2021

Venrock, the 51-year-old firm that started as the venture arm of the Rockefeller family, has closed its ninth fund with $450 million, the same amount it raised for its last two funds. The outfit, with offices in Palo Alto, New York and Cambridge, clearly feels comfortable with the fund size, but it

Stolen computers are the least of the government’s security worries

Reports that a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was stolen during the pro-Trump rioters’ sack of the Capitol building has some worried that the mob may have access to important, even classified information. Fortunately that’s not the case — even if this computer a

NHTSA determines sudden acceleration complaints in Tesla vehicles were due to driver error

The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has determined the reports of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) involving four different Tesla models were due to user error. The NHTSA first began investigating the claims last January, shortly after Bria

What is up with Tesla’s value?

The last year taught us that the connection between the stock market and the economy is imprecise at best. Despite some useful commentary underscoring the two are at least somewhat linked, it’s clear that many Americans can lose their jobs and financial security at the same time that stocks

Cruise taps former Delta executive for COO post as it creeps toward commercialization

Cruise, the autonomous vehicle technology subsidiary of GM, said Friday it has hired Delta Air Lines’ former chief operating officer Gil West as it makes the transition toward early commercialization. West, who had retired from Delta last year, will become Cruise’s first chief operating

Reddit bans r/donaldtrump following violence at the US Capitol

Days after a mob broke into the U.S. Capitol amid protests against Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, another major social media platform has banned a popular pro-Trump forum. Reddit this morning confirmed that it shut down the r/donaldtrump subreddit due to “repeated policy violations

VCs discuss gaming’s biggest infrastructure investment opportunities in 2021

We last polled our network of investors on the topic of gaming infrastructure startups back in May just as it was becoming clear what pandemic opportunities were in store for gaming startups. Accel’s Amit Kumar told us at the time that “social and interactivity layers spanning across t

Jumbotail raises $14.2 million for its wholesale marketplace in India

Jumbotail, an online wholesale marketplace for grocery and food items, said on Friday it has raised an additional $14.2 million as the Bangalore-based startup chases the opportunity to digitize neighborhood stores in the world's second-largest internet market. The five-year-old startup said the

GM launches new logo to show it’s serious about an electric future

General Motors has changed its logo, refreshed its website and kicked off a new “Everybody In” marketing campaign as part of a broader effort to illustrate the company’s transformation to a modern, fast-moving and inclusive organization that is serious about accelerating the adopt

Tesla has decided to sell the cheaper Model Y standard range after all

Tesla has started taking orders for a cheaper standard-range version of the Model Y in an apparent reversal by CEO Elon Musk who earlier this year seemed to put on hold plans to release the vehicle.  Electrek was the first to report that Tesla had updated its website to include the Model Y standar

Meet the 7 winners of the Taiwan Excellence awards, presented by ShowStoppers and TAITRA

Taiwan is known for being a tech powerhouse, the headquarter of companies like Foxconn, Pegatron, TSMC, Acer and Asus. But while Taiwan's tech industry is defined by well-established players, it is also home to a growing startup scene. Ahead of the official start of CES, the Taiwan Excellence