GoDaddy is buying rival Host Europe Group for $1.8B to accelerate its international expansion

godaddy-heg GoDaddy is on a shopping spree. Yesterday we reported that the domain and hosting company had bought WP Curve, a WordPress services startup to expand its WordPress support team. And today the company has just announced a much bigger deal. GoDaddy has acquired European rival Host Europe Group (HEG) for $1.8 billion — including €605 million paid to existing Host Europe… Read More

Ruvento raises new seed fund to invest in hardware across Singapore, China and the U.S.

Behind The Scenes At CERN The European Organisation For Nuclear Research Today, Ruvento is announcing a new $25 million seed fund for hardware startups in need of capital from Singapore, China and the U.S. The fund, managed by Slava Solonitsyn and Alex Toh, will write 70 percent of its checks between $100k and $500k. The rest of the capital will be reserved for follow-on investments of up to $2 million. Ruvento is not the first investor to take a… Read More

New journal Science Robotics is established to chronicle the rise of the robots

science_robotics Over the last few years, robotics and every other field have come to inform and improve each other, and robots have begun to infiltrate and affect our lives in countless ways. So the only surprise in the news that the prestigious journal group Science has established a discrete Robotics imprint is that they didn’t do it earlier. Read More

Inboard’s M1 electric skateboard offers stiff competition

img_1295 Boosted Board, long considered the de facto electric skateboard, finally has some competition from a rival that is also based in California. Price as reviewed: $1,399 at Inboard The Inboard M1 brings a new take to the category, with hubless motors that are planted into the rear wheels of the board. This means that the motors, batteries and wires are hidden, and there’s no resistance in… Read More

Trump is holding a meeting with key tech leaders at Trump Tower next week

New York City - USA - April 27 2016: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures while speaking to press after his five-state super Tuesday win Aside his on-going free market bromance with entrepreneur-turned-transition-adviser Peter Thiel, things between Donald Trump and the broader tech community have been fairly rocky for some time. Silicon Valley largely put its weight between his opponent, and the President-Elect has taken a number of potshots at big technology names from Apple to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
A number of execs… Read More

TiVo tests a cloud DVR

BOLT_Right Front_Wide Angle Reports that media player and DVR maker TiVo is testing a “cloud DVR” type functionality have been circulating in recent weeks. If the feature was to make it into commercial production it would be a notable addition for the hardware maker, whose products have been more focused on competing with traditional DVRs by combining TiVo’s unique user experience with the ability… Read More

And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt London 2016 is… Seenit

img_4275 Startups participating in the Startup Battlefield have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. They all presented in front of multiple groups of VCs and tech leaders serving as judges for a chance to win £40,000 and the coveted Disrupt Cup. After hours of deliberations, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges’ notes and narrowed the list down… Read More

4K movies come to the Google Play Movies & TV app

It may be getting a late start, compared with streaming services from Amazon and Netflix, but today Google Play Movies & TV is adding 4K movies to its content library. Google says there are now over 125 movies in 4K resolution, using VP9, available for purchase via its web or mobile storefront. These can be streamed via a Chromecast Ultra, Sony Bravia Android TV, or Xiaomi Mi Box 3.… Read More

What’s next for tech companies in the Brexit debate

steve-hilton-crowdpac-and-daniel-korski2 Crowdpac’s Steve Hilton, a passionate advocate of Brexit, has few points of agreement with Daniel Korski, a former advisor to David Cameron and an organizer of the Remain campaign. But the two could agree on at least one thing — the U.K. is headed for a so-called hard Brexit that will have negative ramifications for the technology and business sectors. “My sense is that they… Read More

Zenly lays out its plan to become a must-have social media app

antonine-martin-zenly6 French-based location sharing app Zenly hopes to be the next Snapchat and co-founder Antoine Martin came onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt London to talk about how it plans to get there. The original idea came from Foursquare check-ins but Zenly allows users to check-in and share their location with friends and family. Martin spent two to three years with ex-Google and Apple engineers perfecting… Read More

Arago’s AI can now beat some human players at complex civ strategy games

hiro-freeciv Arago’s flagship HIRO AI product plays Freeciv, a free civilization building simulation that’s based on the popular and long-lived Sid Meier’s Civilization series of games – and it’s getting more skilled. Freeciv is a complex, sprawling game with a huge number of possible strategies that can lead to success, especially when playing against unpredictable human… Read More

Windows 10 Creators update loads up on features for IT

can_9787 Microsoft announced a slew of goodies today for its upcoming Windows 10 Creators update, designed to please IT admins and simplify management of Windows 10 inside large enterprises. Microsoft has been trying to get enterprise companies — you know the ones with lots of users — to make the switch to Windows 10. They claim, even before this announcement, the number of… Read More

Pepo, Jason Goldberg’s social media app, raises $2.35M from his old Fab.com backers

jason-goldberg-pepo2 Jason Goldberg — a founder that may be as well known for his high-profile startups (Fab.com, Fabulis, Jobster) as his failures and pivots (Hem, Fab.com, Fabulis, Jobster) — earlier this year stepped up to the batting plate once again with Pepo, a group social messaging app that lets you post, read and interact with content based on specific interests. Today, he’s… Read More

Netflix rolls out video previews worldwide, but only on its TV app

netflix-tv Netflix is rolling out a new user interface for its app for televisions and streaming media players which will now include video previews, instead of still images. The previews will appear when you’re browsing through the library looking for something to watch, and pause on a specific title. Video previews are something Netflix began testing more broadly earlier this year, so… Read More