While we haven’t achieved Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the transporter beam (yet), mobility and transportation — and the tech that drives both — are undergoing a huge and rapid evolution. There’s no better place to see, share and learn about these revolutionary advances than at TC Sessions: Mobility 2019, a day-long conference that takes a […]

Netflix this morning announced a new feature for its streaming service focused on offering viewers better sound. The company is rolling out “high-quality audio,” or an audio experience that features a higher bitrate for TV devices that support either 5.1 or Dolby Atmos. Depending on the device and the customer’s bandwidth capabilities, the actual bitrate […]

A year after Amazon opened up in-skill purchasing to all Alexa developers in the U.S., the company is launching the service internationally. Initially, the capability will roll out to developers in the U.K., Germany and Japan, and then developers elsewhere in the world. With in-skill purchasing, developers are able to generate revenue from voice apps […]

Google announced an interesting new Wear OS feature today that makes a number of highly used features more easily available. Google calls this feature ’tiles’ and it makes both information like the local weather forecast, headlines, your next calendar event, goals and your heart rate, as well as tools like the Wear OS built-in timer […]

Ticketing startup SeatGeek has a new CTO. Brian Murphy previously held the same position at Tumblr (which, like TechCrunch, is owned by Verizon Media) and has also served as vice president of engineering at The New York Times and senior director of technology at Condé Nast. “Brian is an incredible leader and team-builder who has […]

Axios reported this morning that Andreessen Horowitz, the storied venture capital firm with investments in Airbnb, BuzzFeed and Coinbase, has closed on $2.75 billion for two new funds. The firm has raised $2 billion for a growth fund led by their most recent hire and 15th general partner David George. Additionally, a16z has lassoed $750 […]

Causes grew to a jawdropping 186 million users as one of the first ten Facebook platform apps. Started by Facebook co-founder Sean Parker, it was meant to turn a generation into activists and philanthropists. Causes acquired Votizen to augment shallow clicktivism with a way to remind friends to vote. But after Facebook went mobile and […]

Good news for European startups with a health or wellness bent. Joyance Partners, a $20M US VC firm that invests in early-stage startups in the health and ‘better living’ space is launching into the European market with a dedicated European partner. The move could be seen as taking advantage of leaps in the capability of […]

India’s trucking system has a big inefficiency problem that continues to drag the economy. BlackBuck, one of the handful logistics startups that is trying to overhaul this system, just raised $150 million in Series D round to further pursue its mission. The new round was led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and Accel at a […]

OYO, the fast-growing budget hotel startup out of India that’s backed by Airbnb, SoftBank, Grab and Didi, has made an acquisition to expand its footprint into Europe, specifically around self-catering home rentals. The company has picked up @Leisure Group from Axel Springer for about $415 million (€369.5 million). @Leisure sees traffic and business from some 2.8 million […]