United Kingdom
CoreWeave, a $19B AI compute provider, opens European HQ in London with plans for 2 UK data centers
CoreWeave has formally opened an office in London that will serve as its European headquarters and home to two new data centers.
OnlyFans hits UK regulator’s radar for age-verification failures around porn access
Ofcom is investigating OnlyFans for failing to prevent children from accessing pornography through the platform.
London’s not calling for Par Equity, as VC firm targets £100M at UK startups in the north
Any conversation centered on the U.K. tech scene often has a strong center of gravity around the south of the country — to many, “the U.K.” and “London” may as…
The impact of technology is going to be so big that both France and the U.K. are right to bet on it, just like Israel did by putting itself on…
Virgin Orbit says issue with rocket’s second stage led to mission failure
Virgin Orbit, the unconventional rocket company founded by billionaire Sir Richard Branson, said its mission failure earlier this week was due to an anomaly with the rocket’s second stage. Although…
Visa and Mastercard payments are convenient for customers but can cost merchants high processing fees. Atoa Payments wants to provide a cheaper alternative that is still easy for customers to…
Startup founders go to war with UK government over its moves to appoint bank into key ecosystem role
Nothing less than a war has broken out between an influential swathe of the U.K. tech startup community and the British government, after the latter has allegedly sought to hand…
For immigrant founders in the UK, office hours with VCs are rocket fuel
The “International Founders Open Office Hours” program aims to help immigrant founders boost their social networks by meeting VCs in the U.K.
LockerGoga ransomware victims can now recover their files for free
Victims of the LockerGoga ransomware can now recover their stolen files for free, thanks to a new decryptor released by Romanian cybersecurity firm Bitdefender and the NoMoreRansom Initiative. The LockerGoga…
Grocery delivery startups with low margins might drop IPO dreams for M&A reality
Getting a bunch of bananas and avocados from your favorite 15-minute grocery delivery company at 3 a.m. might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but some of these companies…
The VC ‘Scramble for Europe’ breaks out in the East as a €70M fund breaks cover
There is a fight emerging in Central and Eastern Europe, and all the way down into the South Eastern regions. Investors such as Inovo, Credo, LauncHub, Vitosha, VentureFriends, and Marathon…
Can this startup solve the HR headache that is digital nomads? It just raised $12M to try
In the new era of remote and hybrid working, companies need to manage people who either relocate or work remotely. For obvious reasons, that has created a huge headache for…
Google’s adtech practices targeted in UK, EU antitrust damages suits
More antitrust litigation targeting Big (ad)Tech: Google is being sued in the U.K. and the Netherlands where two suits have been announced today seeking damages on behalf of publishers who…
Roku’s latest update adds short-form video, a universal save list and ‘continue watching’ feature
Alongside its fall hardware update, which included new streaming and audio devices, Roku today unveiled the features it has in store for the next version of its media software, Roku…
This Week in Apps: Apple’s event brings a ‘Dynamic Island,’ new widgets and iOS 16
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached…
UK’s FocalPoint raises $17M for its software-based approach to repairing the flaws of GPS
GPS in its many regional flavors has become a ubiquitous feature in phones, smart watches, cars and other connected devices, but for all the location-based features that it helps enable…
Hotel giant IHG blames cyberattack for booking systems outage
IHG runs 6,000 hotels in over 100 countries and serves more than 150 million guests each year.
COVID-19 has reshaped our lives in many ways and given rise to a plethora of services tailored to these newborn needs. Waysia, an Asian grocery delivery platform, is one such…
Tencent, the biggest social networking and video games company in China, hasn’t really managed to scale its popular products in the Western mainstream. The behemoth’s international expansion for the most…
This Week in Apps: Twitter’s edit button, BeReal clones, Trump’s Truth Social gets blocked
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached…
UK closely probing four tech firms over kids’ privacy code breaches
The U.K. could be gearing up to hit a handful of tech firms with enforcement orders (and potentially fines) related to a children’s online privacy and safety Code which has…
Apple’s highly anticipated mixed reality headset may now have a name, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this week. The outlet spotted trademarks in the U.S. and global markets related…
With schools increasingly focused on mental health, PsycApps raises seed round for US expansion
I’ve been tracking PsycApps, a startup that came up with a gamified mental health game called eQuoo, since 2016, and this company — and its founder — is nothing if…
To reach fintech’s next level, infrastructure providers must address these pain points
As long as infrastructure providers are able to specialize to address the pain points of their customers, they can be an asset to any market they serve.
UK dials up scrutiny of Microsoft’s $68.7BN Activision deal over antitrust concerns
Microsoft’s $68.7 billion all-cash deal to bag gaming giant Activision Blizzard faces closer antitrust scrutiny in the U.K. where the country’s market watchdog has just announced it will move to…
Duplo digitizes payment flows for African B2B enterprises, gets $4.3M seed funding
The process of sending and receiving payments in a $1.5 trillion B2B payments market in sub-Saharan Africa is one where merchants commonly use manual invoices and inefficient processes that burden…
UK mobile and broadband carriers face fines of $117K/day, or 10% of sales, if they fail to follow new cybersecurity rules
More than three years in the making, the U.K. government today announced a new, sweeping set of rules it will be imposing on broadband and mobile carriers to tighten up…
Flush with fresh funds, UK ‘eco laundry’ startup Oxwash spins up growth plans
Oxwash, a U.K. startup that’s spent the last few years applying high tech processes to shrink the environment cost of dry cleaning and commercial laundry, has trousered £10 million (~$12…
Nigeria’s Grey raises $2M for cross-border payments play and regional expansion
The provision of virtual foreign bank accounts has become a common strategy for fintechs to enable Nigerians and Africans to facilitate international transfers. In the latest development, Grey, a fintech…
OnlyFans’s Ami Gan and Keily Blair join us at Disrupt for a SFW fireside chat
It’s been a tumultuous year for OnlyFans, the popular subscription-based social media platform best known for hosting explicit content and offering an online safe haven to the sex workers who…
