Krafton India has launched a gaming incubator in the South Asian nation as it seeks to expand the local ecosystem and support the domestic talent looking to enter the fast-growing gaming market. Called Krafton India Gaming Incubator (KIGI), the program aims to support six to 10 teams annually, with the total duration ranging from six …
Eyeing vision-based autonomy for farm equipment, Bonsai Robotics raises $10.5M
One can’t accuse Bonsai Robotics of lacking focus. The Bay Area-based firm is starting with trees – specifically nut trees. Like most labor-intensive sectors these days, farms have suffered from a profound lack of available workers, so the startup had began striking deals with OEMs to outfit heavy farming equipment with its vision-based autonomy. This …
Why we’re seeing so many seed-stage deals in fintech
Welcome back to The Interchange, where we take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. If you want to receive The Interchange directly in your inbox every Sunday, head here to sign up! It was a relatively quiet week in fintech startup land, so we took the time to scrutinize where we’re seeing …
Tinder goes ultra-premium, Amazon invests in Anthropic and Apple explains its new AirPods
It’s that time of the week again, folks — time for Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter that recaps the past few days in tech. The news cycle never sleeps, and it’s exhausting — this reporter knows all too well. But fortunately, neither does WiR. Our curated list of the top stories this week will …
Kick streamers consider leaving over CEO’s comments in a sex worker ‘prank’ stream
Streamers are leaving Kick en masse in protest of the platform’s lack of safety guidelines, after a prominent creator streamed an encounter with a sex worker without informing her that there were other people present. She was briefly prevented from leaving after she expressed discomfort, while Kick’s CEO posted laughing emotes in the stream chat. …
VW bails on its plan for a $2.1B EV plant in Germany
Volkswagen’s $2.1 billion plan to launch a dedicated electric-vehicle factory in Wolfsburg, Germany is kaput. The automaker instead reportedly plans to modify its existing plants in Zwickau and Wolfsburg to handle production of a new flagship EV — the postponed Project Trinity — and an all-electric Golf hatchback. This tracks with an earlier statement from …
SpaceX’s defense-focused Starshield satellite internet business lands first contract
SpaceX won its first contract for Starshield, the defense-focused version of its Starlink satellite internet service, from the U.S. Space Force. The one-year contract has a maximum value of $70 million, a U.S. Air Force representative told Bloomberg. The contract “provides for Starshield end-to-end service via the Starlink constellation, user terminals, ancillary equipment, network management …
Sonos Move 2 review: The greatest rugged smart speaker gets better
Sonos rarely misses, and its first ruggedized, weather-resistant smart speaker, the Sonos Move, was no exception. This year, it released the Sonos Move 2, a sequel that looks, on the outside, pretty much identical to its predecessor, but that has improvements under the hood that make an already excellent speaker even better. The Basics This …
Meta Connect 2023: How to watch the Quest 3 reveal
Meta’s annual Connect conference kicks off with a keynote tomorrow September 27 at 10AM PT/1PM ET. Facebook’s parent is expected to make the Meta Quest 3 the centerpiece of the event. The latest version of the headset arrives three years after its predecessor and a little under a year since the company unveiled the Quest Pro …
X will make audio and video calls a premium subscriber-only feature
Last month X CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed that video calls would be coming to the app formerly known as Twitter as part of its transition into an “everything app.” Now, new code in the X app reveals that both audio and video calls will be supported. However, the feature will not be available to all …