Grab, the $16 billion-valued ride-hailing firm that acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia business last year, is in talks with Alibaba’s Ant Financial and PayPal as it considers spinning out of its financial services unit to double down on its non-transportation business, TechCrunch has learned. The seven-year-old company’s coming-of-age moment was a deal to buy Uber’s regional […]
View More Grab is talking to Ant Financial and PayPal about spinning out its financial services businessCategory: Uber
Microsoft gives 500 patents to startups
Microsoft today announced a major expansion of its Azure IP Advantage program, which provides its Azure users with protection against patent trolls. This program now also provides customers who are building IoT solutions that connect to Azure with access to 10,000 patents to defend themselves against intellectual property lawsuits. What’s maybe most interesting here, though, […]
View More Microsoft gives 500 patents to startupsTo improve Uber’s driver app, he hits the road as an Uber driver
Uber’s head of driver product is proud of his 96 rides (and no tickets … so far).
Daniel Danker knows they’re nothing compared to the thousands of rides some drivers have under their belts. But every rider he drops off helps him understand the Uber service — and provides more insight than anything he’d get from a feedback survey or second-hand notes.
So a few times a month, he opens the separate Uber driver app and cruises around San Francisco for a few hours, picking up passengers, earning tips, and making chitchat with riders in the backseat of his Mazda station wagon. (He lets them know he’s an Uber employee and not a regular driver.) Read more…
More about Uber, Ride Hailing Apps, Drivers, Gig Economy, and Tech
View More To improve Uber’s driver app, he hits the road as an Uber driverUber just made the largest tech deal in Middle East history
Uber spent $3.1 billion to dominate competition in the Middle East.
It announced Tuesday that it reached an agreement to buy Dubai-based Careem, which operates in 15 countries including Morocco, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The deal was for $1.4 billion in cash, $1.7 billion in loans — and marks the biggest tech industry deal in the region outside of Israel, according to the Associated Press.
The company will operate with its two co-founders under Uber as its own brand — for now. On Careem’s website, the company wrote, “We are still Careem.” Read more…
More about Uber, Middle East, Ride Hailing Apps, Careem, and Tech
View More Uber just made the largest tech deal in Middle East historyUnicorns aren’t profitable, and Wall Street doesn’t care
On Wall Street’s leniency toward unprofitable tech companies and outsized exits.
View More Unicorns aren’t profitable, and Wall Street doesn’t careFlipkart ranked highly for ‘fairness’ of working conditions in India gig platform study
The Oxford Internet Institute has published what it bills as the world’s first rating system for working conditions on gig economy platforms. The Fairwork academic research project is a collaboration with the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore, the University of Cape Town, the University of Manchester, and the University of the Western Cape. As […]
View More Flipkart ranked highly for ‘fairness’ of working conditions in India gig platform studyUber may have one of the biggest IPOs in U.S. history
The company is expected to go public at the New York Stock Exchange sometime next month. By the time it does, analysts tell ‘Fortune’ that Uber could be worth up to $120 billion. That value is so large that just 16% of Uber’s shares would let it crack…
View More Uber may have one of the biggest IPOs in U.S. historyTwo years after a first close, 500 Startups wraps its Middle East fund with $33 million
When 500 Startups partner Hasan Haider announced the $15 million first close for the accelerator and investment firm’s Middle Eastern focused fund, 500 Falcons, Dave McClure was still at the helm of Silicon Valley’s second most famous accelerator. Within a month, McClure was removed from the accelerator after admitting to sexual misconduct and 500 Startups […]
View More Two years after a first close, 500 Startups wraps its Middle East fund with $33 millionUber is paying $3.1BN to pick up Middle East rival Careem
After months and months of rumors it’s finally been confirmed that ride-hailing giant Uber is picking up its Middle East rival Careem in an acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion — with $1.7BN to be paid in convertible notes and $1.4BN in cash. Careem was founded as a ride-hailing rival to Uber in 2012 but has […]
View More Uber is paying $3.1BN to pick up Middle East rival CareemTransportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheel
Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch. We love the reader feedback. Keep it coming. Never heard of TechCrunch’s Transportation Weekly? Read the first edition here. As I’ve written before, consider this a soft launch. Follow me on Twitter @kirstenkorosec to ensure you see it each week. […]
View More Transportation weekly: Nuro dreams of autonomous lattes, what is a metamaterial, Volvo takes the wheelFlying taxi startup Blade is helping Silicon Valley CEOs bypass traffic
Blade, backed by Lerer Hippeau and Airbus, has begun chauffering the Bay Area’s elite.
View More Flying taxi startup Blade is helping Silicon Valley CEOs bypass trafficHow Nuro plans to spend Softbank’s $940 million
Autonomous delivery startup Nuro is bursting with ideas since SoftBank invested nearly $1 billion in February, new filings reveal. A recent patent application details how its R1 self-driving vehicle could carry smaller robots to cross lawns or climb stairs to drop off packages. The company has even taken the step of trademarking the name “Fido” […]
View More How Nuro plans to spend Softbank’s $940 million