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It is happening, a bunch of the team are on airplanes, aeroplanes and other spellings of flying vessels to join us in San Francisco for Disrupt. We would use too few words to say that we're excited. Lauren S gave us a user's guide to the event, along with a guide to all the parties and extracurricular activities. See you soon.
The TechCrunch Top 3
What’s another word for Synonym?: Ever heard of a “fermentation farm”? Well you have now. Christine covered Synonym Biotechnologies’ pre-seed round, with big backer Andreessen Horowitz, in which the company plans to build giant fermentation farms so nonpharmaceutical companies can mass-produce bioproducts like dairy proteins.
A rose by any other name: “Ad,” “Sponsored,” whatever you want to call it, Google is making it so when you perform a mobile search, you will definitely know if it is some sponsored content or an organic search result. Ivan has more.
Legless for a while longer: We were promised legs, but now Ivan writes that it could be another year for any Meta leg-equipped avatars to appear in Horizon Worlds.
Startups and VC
The Indonesian government wants to reduce waste by 30% by the year 2025. The startup, which currently manages more than 8000 tons of waste every year, has raised $5 million in Series A funding.
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DIY: 5 ways disruptive component startups can win over OEMs
Hardware startup founders have a difficult time. Only a small percentage of tech investors will meet with them, and building a product line is often chaotic.
Mor's company started building devices that used his company's technology instead of relying on sales and marketing teams.
Mor says there is no need to rush when building a hardware startup. Start by making just a single prototype.
DIY: 5 ways disruptive component startups can win over OEMs
There are three more people from the team.
The membership program helps startup teams get ahead of the game. This is where you can sign up. You can get a 15% discount on an annual subscription.
Big Tech Inc.
Rebecca got the scoop on the new Sion solar electric vehicle, as well as some face time with Goldberg. Though the family-friendly vehicle comes in at $25,000, Rebecca points out that the interior is roomier than it looks from the outside, and that cup holders in the back might not go over with some Americans.
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More layoffs: Jagmeet has more on Momentive Global’s layoff announcement of 11% of its workforce. If you’re thinking, “Who?” that would be SurveyMonkey’s parent company. Real estate valuation technology company Clear Capital is also reducing its staff by 27%, reports Andrew.
Get the popcorn ready: Peacock is making the “Real Housewives” franchise its guinea pig as it tests out some new interactive features that will give viewers extended clips and interviews, Lauren reports.
Don’t @me: Meanwhile, over at Twitter, the company is developing a way for users to control who can mention them, writes Aisha.
It puts the lotion on its robotic skin: Brian reports that Touchlab, which won the TC Sessions: Robotics pitch-off event a few months ago, began piloting its robotic skin sensors in a hospital setting.
Time, time, time, see what’s become of me: The owner of the Shein fashion e-commerce site was fined $1.9 million for not properly handling a 2018 data breach that compromised millions of users’ information, Rita writes.
Tata Power, a leading power generation company in India, has confirmed it was hit by a cyberattack. In a brief statement released on Friday, the Mumbai-based company said that the attack impacted s...New PitchBook data found that US companies with all female founders are raising less capital this year than the last. But it’s not all bad news.
Opeyemi Awoyemi, one of Nigeria’s well-known serial founders, is back with another outfit. It’s not a tech company this time — Awoyemi co-founded online jobs site Jobberman (which...In 2022, the pace of quarterly change in how venture investors are disbursing capital is making full-year numbers almost misleading.
Clear Capital, a real estate valuation technology company and firm, is laying off 27% of its staff months after freezing mass hiring, TechCrunch has learned from sources. A spokesperson for Clear C...Manipulation and sensing have long been considered two key pillars for unlocking robotics’ potential. There’s a fair bit of overlap between the two, of course. As grippers have become a fundamental...NBCUniversal’s Peacock is unveiling a new interactive video feature that will let Peacock Premium subscribers delve into extended clips, including extra footage and interviews, from within an episo...A ‘Prevention of Future Deaths’ report following a U.K. coroner’s inquest into the suicide of British schoolgirl, Molly Russell, who killed herself almost five years ago after vie...Momentive Global, the parent of the web-survey portal SurveyMonkey, laid off 11% of its workforce this week. Multiple people across divisions — including those handling the business developme...Boosting expansion revenue, particularly during a downturn, will impress the hell out of your potential investors.
It’s time for procrastination to stop here. Well, it is if you’ve put off buying your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt. Today is your final opportunity to avoid paying full freight. Nobody likes fu...Sarah Guo raised $101 million for her new fund to back companies that are building artificial intelligence and what she describes as software 3.0.
Beyond Meat expects the job cuts to be completed by the end of the year.
Members of the European Parliament have lodged complaints against three tech giants, Amazon, Google and Meta, with the EU’s Transparency Register — aka, the oversight process that’...Sono Motors, the company building an electric vehicle that’s partially powered by the sun, debuted its flagship Sion in New York City this week as part of a multi-city tour throughout the U.S...There are still opportunities for growth out there, but founders and operators will need a new strategy if they want to continue growing through the downturn.
