Facebook investor Jim Breyer picks Austin as Breyer Capital’s second home

For Jim Breyer, the mantra, “Silicon Valley is a state of mind” has always been behind Breyer Capital, his personal investment fund. While many of his investments and board seats (which have included Facebook, Blackstone, 21st Century Fox, Dell, Etsy, Marvel Entertainment and Walmart) b

Courier raises $10.1M Series A to help developers integrate multichannel notifications

Courier is an API platform with a no-code twist that helps developers add multichannel user notifications to their applications. The company today announced that it has raised a $10.1 million Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Matrix Partners, Twilio and Slack Fund also partic

Blue Origin’s human lunar lander all-star space team completes first key milestone for moon mission

Blue Origin, along with it partners Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper, was one of three companies to be awarded contracts by NASA to develop human lunar landers for future moon missions. Blue Origin’s so-called “National Team” is focused on developing a Human Landing Sy

Here's what’s happening today on Day 1 of Disrupt 2020

Welcome to Day One of Disrupt 2020, our biggest Disrupt ever! Over the next five days (cue Star Trek theme), you'll explore strange new technology, seek out new opportunities and new collaborations. You'll boldly immerse yourself with the global startup community. There’s still time t

What to expect from Apple's hardware event

If this was a normal year, we would be settling in for an iPhone event right about now. This is, however, very much not a normal year. And while we are, in fact, getting an Apple hardware event tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, it's looking entirely possible — even likely — that we won'

Scientists detect a gas that typically indicates the presence of biological life in the atmosphere of Venus

In a press briefing today, scientists rom the Royal Astronomical Society announced a potentially revolutionary scientific discovery: They’ve detected the presence of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus, which suggests the possible presence of biological life. Phosphine is a gas that’s

Arm co-founder starts ‘Save Arm’ campaign to keep independence amid $40B Nvidia deal

Arm Holdings, the U.K. semiconductor company, made history for the second time today, becoming the country’s biggest tech exit when Nvidia announced over the weekend that it would buy it from SoftBank for $40 billion in an all-stock deal. (Arm’s first appearance in the record books? Whe

YouTube launches its TikTok rival, YouTube Shorts, initially in India

As TikTok’s fate in the U.S. remains murky, YouTube today announced the launch of a new short-form video experience it’s calling YouTube Shorts. The feature will allow users, initially in India, to upload 15-second or less short-form videos using a new set of creator tools, including a

Microsoft’s Project Natick underwater data center experiment confirms viability of seafloor data storage

Microsoft has concluded a years-long experiment involving use of a shipping container-sized underwater data center, placed on the sea floor off the cost of Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The company pulled its “Project Natick” underwater data warehouse up out of the water earlier this

Europe starts testing app interoperability service to power cross-border COVID-19 exposure alerts

The European Commission has begun testing backend infrastructure that’s needed to make national coronavirus contacts-tracing apps interoperate across the bloc’s internal borders. It has kicked off test runs between the backend servers of the official apps from the Czech Republic, Denmar

Beyond Meat is introducing pre-packaged meatballs at stores across the US

"speakable-summary" style="font-weight: 400;">Indulging in American food companies’ favorite pastime of marketing innovations that no one needs but potentially everyone wants, Beyond Meat is launching Beyond Meatballs in grocery stores nationwide this week. The new product can be put on top of

Airtable raises $185M and launches new low-code and automation features

The spreadsheet-centric database and no-code platform Airtable today announced that it has raised a $185 million Series D funding round, putting the company at a $2.585 billion post-money valuation. Thrive Capital led the round, with additional funding by existing investors Benchmark, Coatue, Caffe

Red Ventures acquires CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS for $500M

Another big M&A play is going down in the world of media. Publishing group Red Ventures today announced that it is buying CNET Media Group from ViacomCBS for $500 million. The deal will include the eponymous CNET tech site, as well as ZDNet, Gamespot, TVGuide, Metacritic and Chowhound. The n

YouTube hit with UK class action style suit seeking $3BN+ for ‘unlawful’ use of kids’ data

Another class action style lawsuit has been lodged against a tech giant in the U.K. alleging violations of privacy and seeking major damages. The latest representative action, filed against Google-owned YouTube, accuses the platform of routinely breaking U.K. and European data protection laws by un