Category: Tech news

 Vouch Financial, a social lending startup founded by ex-PayPal and ex-Prosper alumni offering customers loans with lower interest rates, has raised $3 million in new funding, according to an SEC filing. The company also confirmed the investment details to us, noting that the round, led by Alex Rosen of IDG Ventures, actually closed last year but had yet to be disclosed. Other investors… Read More

 Google’s latest attempt to get its operating system for TVs embedded on consumer electronics devices has attracted a handful of partners, which were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show. In a blog post today, the search giant said TVs from Sony, Sharp, and Philips would begin shipping soon. Read More

 Douglas Trudeau of Tierra Antigua Realty in Tucson, Ariz., today became the first real estate agent who can legally use a drone for real estate photography. If you have recently looked at the listings in your local MLS (or on Zillow and Redfin), you have likely seen plenty of images that could have only come from a drone. Under the FAA’s strict definition, however, those weren’t… Read More

 SkySpecs has solved the biggest problem with drones: avoiding obstacles. With the company’s first product, launching today at TechCrunch’s Hardware Battlefield 2015, drones become aware of their surroundings and will automatically avoid objects. If a person walks towards the spinning blades of death, the drone will casually back out of the way. If there is a tree in the way, the… Read More

 Meet Peeple, a connected peephole to screen who is knocking on your door. Whenever someone knocks on your door, Peeple snaps a picture and send it to your phone. This way, whether you are home or away, you can monitor who is passing by your home. Peeple is competing in our Hardware Battlefield at CES. Read More

 Rdio, the music-streaming service founded by Skype co-founder Janus Friis that offers 30 million songs in 60 countries, is trailing behind Spotify and Deezer in the race for paying music streaming subscribers. Today it announced a raft of integration partnerships that it hopes will give its service more ubiquity and make it more attractive. At CES, the company announced that the partners… Read More

 Building circuit boards is fun but difficult. While you could do it at home with a some etchant and some clear plastic, Voltera hopes to make the entire process much easier with their V-One circuit printer.
The creators, James Pickard, Jesus Zozaya, and Alroy Almeida all studied Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo and got together to solve the problem of rapid… Read More

 After a multitude of worthy nominations, TechCrunch and VentureBeat are proud to announce the 8th Annual Crunchies Awards nominees. The full list is below and voting begins now. There are 20 award categories that recognize the top accomplishments across a variety of fields and roles. It’s going to be a tight competition with so much talent, so start voting now. Everyone is eligible… Read More

 Venture firm Formation 8 has been on a bit of hiring spree recently, bringing on multiple partners and advisors over the past few months. Today it’s announcing Lior Susan will be joining the firm to help lead its investments in the hardware sector. Read More

 Press day is over.
The monster companies — Samsung, LG, etc. — have had a chance to say their piece. And now, we focus on what’s really exciting: the little guys looking to make it big in the hardware game. Read More

 At its CES keynote today, Ford announced its Smart Mobility initiative, a set of 25 experiments ranging from big data analytics to a car swap service that let you swap your Mustang in for a minivan for the weekend. The company also talked about its plans for autonomous cars. Ford CEO Mark Fields noted four trends for the auto industry’s future: Increasing urbanization, and its… Read More

 As the U.S. population ages, more technology is coming online to help manage care for the elderly, a group long neglected by the tech sector. Among the many apps that are dealing with aging and healthcare is Caremerge, which aims to provide unified communications between family members, doctors, and other designated caregivers about the health of older patients. The company recently raised… Read More

 Fashion-savvy wearable jewelry startup Cuff announced a new partnership with one of the largest jewelry manufacturers in the U.S. today. Cuff is teaming up with Richline to create necklaces, bracelets, earrings and other fine jewelry items for everyone from Tiffany’s and QVC to Macy’s. “Think of it like Intel Inside for computers but this is using our CuffLinc… Read More

 Coffee Meets Bagel, the dating service that asks for patience and, in return, offers something real, has launched on Android.
Coffee Meets Bagel is one of the few dating services that does things differently. It’s not about an endless browsing experience where you subject countless photos to your own judgement, then go fishing with a sexy one-liner, and maybe perhaps get an answer back. Read More

 Indiegogo has just announced their InDemand feature, a sort of web shop for funded projects that allows creators to sell their wares after crowdfunding is complete. Essentially the platform allows users to sell pre-orders after crowdfunding and manage customers using the site’s platform.
The service allows creators to raise additional funding and manage customer orders. It also uses… Read More