Nigeria's Autochek raises $3.4M for car sales and service platform

Nigeria based startup Autochek looks to bring the sales and servicing of cars in Africa online. The newly founded venture has closed a $3.4 million pre-seed round co-led by TLcom Capital and 4DX ventures toward that aim. The raise comes fresh off of Autochek’s September acquisition of digital

Panasonic explores a European battery deal with Norway’s largest energy and industrial companies

Panasonic, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries, has signed a preliminary agreement with the Nordic energy company Equinor and engineering and industrial company Norsk Hydro to collaborate on building a battery business in Northern Europe. The three companies said

Resellee wants to become the Pinduoduo of Southeast Asia

Launched in the Philippines, social commerce startup Resellee wants to recreate the success of Pinduoduo, one of China's fastest-growing e-commerce companies, in Southeast Asia. A major part of Resellee's business is grocery deliveries, including fresh produce, and it has struck partnership

Yubo could be the next big social app as it raises $47.5 million

French startup Yubo is the biggest social media app you've never heard of — unless you're a teen. With a focus on young people under 25, the company has managed to attract 40 million users. A fraction of them hang out every day in live-streaming rooms, meet new people and spend money for

China’s smartphone giant Oppo ratchets up AR push

Tech companies around the world are still identifying the “next big thing” enabled by 5G connections. Some, such as Oppo, are betting it will be augmented reality. The Chinese smartphone firm showcased its progress in AR at a Tuesday event swarmed by hundreds of reporters, analysts, and

Trump fires top US cybersecurity official Chris Krebs for debunking false election claims

Chris Krebs, one of the most senior cybersecurity officials in the U.S. government, has been fired. Krebs served as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) since its founding in November 2018 until he was removed from his position on Tuesday. It’s not immed

AI-tool maker Seldon raises £7.1M Series A from AlbionVC and Cambridge Innovation Capital

Seldon is a U.K. startup that specializes in the rarified world of development tools to optimize machine learning. What does this mean? Well, dear reader, it means that the “AI” that companies are so fond of trumpeting does actually end up working. It has now raised a £7.1 million Series A rou

Musicians get the bulk of ticket sales with Bandcamp's new live-streaming concert feature

The musician's life is rarely an easy one. That goes double for these last, oh, eight or so months. Most artists who haven't risen the ranks to rock-star levels make the lion’s share of their money from live shows, and that's just not in the cards for now — and likely won't

Perkins, ACB, Benetech, Salesforce and more announce breakout sessions at Sight Tech Global

Sight Tech Global is little more than two weeks out, and today we published the detailed agenda for Dec. 2 & 3. The show runs from 8 a.m. to noonish Pacific standard time. If you have not already grabbed a free pass to the 100% virtual event, now is the time! Sight Tech Global will present 35 s

Google has created an AI-powered nightmare creature generator

Google has taken the wraps off Chimera Painter, a web-based tool that lets anyone generate terrifying cryptozoological entities in an interface that looks like MS Paint by way of Diablo. Why, you ask? Well, isn’t it obvious? No… no, I suppose it isn’t. Surely the strangest thing t

Daily Crunch: Reviewing Apple’s new Macs

We review each of Apple’s new M1-powered Macs, Twitter launches its new Stories-like format and Amazon launches a pharmacy service. This is your Daily Crunch for November 17, 2020. The big story: Reviewing Apple’s new Macs We’ve got three big hardware reviews today

Twitter and Facebook’s diverging philosophies were on display in the latest tech hearing

The latest tech hearing was a study in contrasts. Contrasts between lawmakers who made an effort to stay on topic in a hearing ostensibly about social media and the 2020 election and those who… just talked about whatever was on their minds. Also contrasts between then and now. Social media co

Biden’s infrastructure plans could boost startups

As President-elect Joe Biden readies his transition team and sets the agenda for his first 100 days in office, startups can expect to see some movement on long-stalled infrastructure initiatives that could mean big boosts to their business. Infrastructure is high on the list of priorities of the in

Twitter’s new Stories feature ‘Fleets’ is struggling under the load

Twitter’s new Stories feature, “Fleets,” appears to be struggling under the load. Launched this morning to Twitter’s global user base, Fleets appear at the top of the Twitter app, allowing users to post ephemeral content that disappears in 24 hours as well as view stories po