Kazuo Hirai, the former CEO who led Sony’s turnaround, is retiring

Here’s a well-earned retirement. Kazuo Hirai, the former CEO who spearheaded Sony’s turnaround in recent years, is leaving the company following 35 years of service, according to an announcement made today. Hirai became Sony CEO in 2012, replacing Sir Howard Stringer with a mission of bringing the good times back to the then-bloated electronics giant through […]

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Dakar Network Angels begins startup investments in francophone Africa

The Dakar Network Angels network launched this month, making its first investment in francophone Africa to cleantech venture Coliba. The Ivorian startup—that uses a mobile app to coordinate waste recycling—will receive mentorship and a minimum of $25K in seed funds. The deal is part of Dakar Network Angels’ mission of convening experts and capital to […]

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Aurora’s Sterling Anderson, Uber ATG’s Raquel Urtasun to discuss self-driving cars and AI at TC Sessions

We’re just weeks away from our TC Sessions: Robotics + AI event at UC Berkeley on April 18. Some of the best and brightest minds are joining us for the day-long event, including Marc Raibert, Colin Angle, Melonee Wise and Anthony Levandowski . Last week, we added to the list of marquee guests and announced a panel with roboticist Ken Goldberg, […]

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Razer hooks up with Tencent to focus on mobile gaming

Razer is summoning a big gun as it bids to develop its mobile gaming strategy. The Hong Kong-listed company — which sells laptops, smartphones and gaming peripherals — said today it is working with Tencent on a raft of initiatives related to smartphone-based games. The collaboration will cover hardware, software and services. Some of the […]

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Starbucks will anchor the new $400 million food-focused Valor Siren Ventures fund

Starbucks is serving up a steaming hot $100 million cash commitment to anchor a new food-focused fund in partnership with the consumer and tech-focused focused private equity firm Valor Equity Partners. The behemoth of burnt-coffee said that its commitment to the Valor Siren Ventures fund is an attempt to focus on “new ideas and technologies […]

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Seven Africa-focused startups present at Y Combinator’s Demo Day

The seven African-focused companies which presented as part of Y Combinator’s 200 strong cohort of Winter 2019 class of 200 startups may seem like a small percentage for such a large class, but it represents the growing significance of African ventures in YC’s universe. Since 2016, the Silicon Valley accelerator—that provides seed funds and mentorship […]

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Camera maker Insta360 raises $30M as it eyes 2020 IPO

Insta360, one of the pioneers in making 360-degree cameras, just raised $30 million in a Series C+ funding round from Chinese investors including Everest Venture Capital, MG Holdings and Huajin Capital. The Shenzhen-based camera maker declines to disclose its latest valuation. It plans to use the fresh proceeds in research and development, marketing and after-sales services […]

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In big tech’s future expansion plans, public good should be the corporate incentive

Yung Wu Contributor Yung Wu is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a Toronto-based innovation hub. More posts by this contributor To actually change the world, Big Tech needs to grow up The cancellation of Amazon’s planned expansion in New York exposes the truth about its HQ2 promises. In the end, the company seemed mainly […]

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Sprint customers say a glitch exposed other people’s account information

Several Sprint customers have said they are seeing other customers’ personal information in their online accounts. One reader emailed TechCrunch with several screenshots describing the issue, warning that they could see other Sprint customers’ names and phone numbers. The reader said they informed the phone giant of the issue, and a Sprint representative said they […]

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Former Dropbox exec Dennis Woodside joins Impossible Foods as its first President

Former Google and Dropbox executive Dennis Woodside has joined the meat replacement developer Impossible Foods as the company’s first President. Woodside, who previously shepherded Dropbox through its initial public offering, is a longtime technology executive who is making his first foray into the food business. The 25-year tech industry veteran most recently served as the […]

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Tetrate nets $12.1 million to bring microservices to the corporate masses

Tetrate, a company bringing commercial services and support to the open source projects –Istio and Envoy — providing network management functions for the microservices that make up modern mobile applications, has launched with $12.1 million in new financing. The company, founded by top engineers at Google who started the Istio project, raised its initial financing […]

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