The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. The lonely death of Jibo, the social robot The company behind Jibo came to an unceremonious end late last year, in…
Wefox Group, the Berlin-based ‘insurtech’ startup behind the consumer-facing insurance app and carrier One and the insurance platform Wefox, has raised $125 million in Series B funding. Notably, the round is led by Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Ventures (which is also an LP in Softbank’s Vision Fund) and is the first investment from Mubadala’s newly…
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a Far Right UK activist who was permanently banned from Facebook last week for repeatedly breaching its community standards on hate speech, was nonetheless able to use its platform to livestream harassment of an anti-fascist blogger whom he doorstepped at home last night. UK-based blogger Mike Stuchbery detailed the intimidating incident in a…
In a recent Twitter thread, comedian Miel Bredouw recounted some shady behavior by Barstool Sports’ legal team. In fact, even Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy isn’t trying to defend it, and instead reportedly described it as “moronic,” admitting it, “makes us look like assholes.” According to Bredouw (who backed up her account with screenshots of…
Instant Pots aren’t just popular in the kitchen, they are apparently pretty popular in the business world as well. Instant Brands, the Ottawa, Canada-based company behind the beloved kitchen appliance, announced this week that it is merging with kitchenware maker Corelle Brands. The terms of the deal were not disclosed and the merger is expected to…
Sujai Hajela is co-founder, president and CEO of Mist, which develops self-learning wireless networks using artificial intelligence. There’s been a bit of hysteria — AI-steria, if you will — over the Trump administration’s recently issued American AI Initiative, formally known as “Executive Order on Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” The initiative is a broad…
Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital fund behind the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Groupon, has tapped David George as its newest general partner and its first top dealmaker focused on late-stage deals. George joins from General Atlantic, where he’d backed consumer internet, enterprise software and fintech startups as a principal since 2012. “Andreessen has always…
Atomico, the European venture capital firm founded by Skype’s Niklas Zennström, sometimes feels like it’s on a perpetual hiring and promotions spree, even if a number of partners have also departed over the years. Most recently, in November Sophia Bendz, the former Spotify Global Director of Marketing, promoted to Partner. Bendz had already spent two…
Salesforce has been using the notion of trailblazers as a learning metaphor for several years, since it created a platform to teach customers Salesforce skills called Trailhead. Today, the company announced the availability of myTrailhead, a similar platform that enables company to create branded, fully-customizable training materials based on the Trailhead approach. It’s worth noting…
Quip, the dental care startup, is releasing a new product aimed toward kids. Similar to the electric toothbrush it makes for adults, the kids’ brush features a timer that pulsates every 30 seconds and automatically turns off after two minutes. The main differences between the brush for kids and one for adults is the non-slip…
