Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices … Read more
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s greatest and most important stories in your inbox every day at 3:00 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Welcome back to the Daily Crunch on Friday June 18th. Congratulations! You made it to the end of the week without Alexander, who will return on Monday with sparkling eyes. TechCrunch has a … Read more
Ford has two electric vehicles in the pipeline – the e-transit truck and the F-150 Lighting Pro – for commercial customers. The automaker is now rounding off its future EV business with the acquisition of the battery management and fleet monitoring software startup Electriphi. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Ford is betting that … Read more
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has revived bill to create a new federal agency to protect Americans from the invasive practices of tech companies that operate in their own backyards. Last year, Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Data Protection Act, a proposal to create an independent agency to address modern privacy and technology concerns that existing state … Read more
General Motors Co. has again increased the amount it plans to spend on investing in electric and autonomous vehicles, announcing on Wednesday that it will spend $ 35 billion by 2025 – an increase of $ 8 billion from its November 2020 plan announced previous plan. The company has set itself the goal of bringing … Read more
Scale co-founder and CEO Alex Wang joined us this week at TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility 2021 to discuss his company’s role in the autonomous driving industry and how it has changed in the five years since its inception. Scale is helping AV players large and small alike establish reliable ground truth through data annotation and management, … Read more
The French startup Upflow has raised a Series A round worth $ 15 million. The company wants to help you keep track of late payments. It optimizes how you collect payments from your customers to improve your cash flow. Investors in today’s financing round include 9yards Capital, existing investor eFounders, as well as N26 co-founder … Read more
Motorway is a UK startup enabling professional car dealers to bid for private cars at auction. The startup had quick success by eliminating a lot of friction. It has now raised £ 48m / $ 67.7m in a Series B round led by Index Ventures along with new investors BMW i Ventures and Unbound. Existing … Read more
Tristan Abbey Contributor Tristan Abbey is President of Comarus Analytics LLC. He was senior policy advisor to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and director of strategic planning for the National Security Council. There is no question that burdens American energy and environmental policy more than nuclear waste. No, not even a changing … Read more
Blue Origin has its winner for its first manned spaceflight, and the winner will pay $ 28 million for the privilege of flying aboard the company’s first private astronaut mission. The winning bid came today during a live auction in which 7,600 registered bidders from 159 countries competed for place. This was the culmination of … Read more