Every year we dig deep to make the next TechCrunch Disrupt bigger, bolder and better than before. Disrupt San Francisco 2019, on October 2-4, is no exception. One of the many upgrades we’re proud to announce is the Extra Crunch Stage. Hold up a second — need a ticket to Disrupt SF 2019? Get one […]

Rent the Runway just closed a $125 million led by Franklin Templeton Investments and Bain Capital Ventures. This round values the company at $1 billion. In total, Rent the Runway has raised $337 million in venture funding. “Shared, dynamic ownership is a movement that Rent the Runway has pioneered over the last decade and we’re […]

We’re just weeks away from our TC Sessions: Robotics + AI event at UC Berkeley on April 18. Some of the best and brightest minds are joining us for the day-long event, including Marc Raibert, Colin Angle, Melonee Wise and Anthony Levandowski . Last week, we added to the list of marquee guests and announced a panel with roboticist Ken Goldberg, […]

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. Review: Apple’s new iPad mini continues to be mini Matthew Panzarino tried out Apple’s new tablet with Apple Pencil support, and […]

According to the City of Paris, there are 15,000 free-floating vehicles of all forms and shapes in the city, from electric scooters to fluorescent bikes and motorcycle-like scooters. And the City of Paris announced today that companies that operate free-floating services will have to pay a tax depending on the size of their fleet. If […]

This week Brian Heater, fresh off a trip to Pittsburgh to visit a handful of robotics companies, led a discussion about the current state of robotics and how startups are integrating the machines into our lives. When it comes to our home lives, we really only have the Roomba, that circular disc that moves about our floors on its own sweeping up the dust and dirt. In fact, the jobs being performed behind the scenes are the ones robots are digging into.

The world of digital payments continues to power ahead — fuelled by the continuing growth of e-commerce and fintech — and now one of the bigger startups making waves in the sector is raising a huge round of funding. TechCrunch has learned that Marqeta — a payment processing company that works in the area of […]

HoneyBook, a customer-relationship management platform aimed at small businesses in creative fields, announced today it has raised a $28 million Series C led by Citi Ventures. All of its existing investors, including Norwest Venture Partners, Aleph, Vintage Investment Partners and Hillsven Capital, also returned for the round. Citi is a strategic partner for HoneyBook and […]

Flip the “days since last Facebook security incident” back to zero. Facebook confirmed Thursday in a blog post, prompted by a report by cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, that it stored “hundreds of millions” of account passwords in plaintext for years. The discovery was made in January, said Facebook’s Pedro Canahuati, as part of a routine […]

Dan Frommer has worked at some of the best-known publications in tech and business journalism — he was editor in chief of Recode, an editor at Business Insider and he’s even done some writing and chart-making for TechCrunch. But he’s also started his own things, including the tech news site SplatF and the mobile travel […]

China’s Tencent reported disappointing profits in the fourth quarter on the back of surging costs but saw emerging businesses pick up steam as it plots to diversify amid slackening gaming revenues. Net profit for the quarter slid 32 percent to 14.2 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), behind analysts’ forecast of 18.3 billion yuan. The decrease was […]

In the wake of Apex Legends, which has briskly grown to 50 million players, many have wondered whether Fortnite has felt the impact. But Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told GamesBeat that Apex hasn’t really made a dent. Without being asked about Apex Legends, Sweeney said “an Apex Legends worth” of players have come over […]

The U.K.’s Police Federation has confirmed it’s been hit by a cyberattack. The union-like organization, representing 119,000 police officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales, described the event as ransomware in a statement shared on Twitter. The ransomware attack hit computers at the federation’s Surrey headquarters on March 9, but was only revealed […]

As founding CEO of MoviePass, Stacy Spikes has already changed the way we think about paying for movie tickets. Now he’s pursuing a new approach — providing a free ticket to people who watch 15 to 20 minutes of ads. Spikes noted that when it comes to watching movies outside the theater, there are three […]