Uber unveils half a dozen new features, and Samsung announces a new flagship laptop and Zomato files to go public. This is your Daily Crunch for April 28, 2021.
The big story: Uber adds vaccine booking
Uber announced a half dozen new features today, including making a vaccine appointment at Walgreens and reserving a ride to get there. Other additions include a valet service to drop off rental cars, prearranged airport rides, and the ability to pick up food during a ride. In an interview, CPO Sundeep Jain suggested that these features are part of the company’s key focus for the past year, namely “helping users ‘go’ and helping users ‘get.’”
The tech giants
Here’s Samsung’s new flagship laptop series, the Galaxy Book Pro — These Windows machines continue their push to blur some of the productivity lines between its Galaxy PC and mobile offerings. Facebook hides posts calling for PM Modi’s resignation in India — Facebook temporarily hid all posts with the hashtag “ResignModi” in India. However, a spokesperson said those posts have now been restored. Netflix launched its shuffle feature, now called ‘Play Something,’ to users worldwide — This should make it easier to find something to watch when you can’t decide on your own.
Startups, funding, and venture capital
Alchemy raises $80M at a $505M valuations as the ‘AWS for blockchain’ — The company describes itself as the backend technology behind the blockchain industry. MessageBird acquires SparkPost for $600M using an $800M Series C extension — The acquisition enables MessageBird to get a stronger foothold in the U.S. market. Splitwise raises $20M Series A to help everyone in the world divvy expenses — Splitwise aims to reduce the stress and awkwardness that money puts on relationships of all sorts.
Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch
Zomato juice: Indian unicorn’s proposed IPO could drive regional startup liquidity — Zomato’s debut could lead to a liquidity rush in India.
Dear Sophie: What’s the latest on DACA? — The latest edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.
Fund managers can leverage ESG-related data to generate insights — Apex Group’s Georges Archibald argues that environmental, social, and governance insights can yield treasure in the form of alternative data. (Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
Everything else
CES will return to Las Vegas in 2022 — Per a press release, roughly 1,000 companies have committed to producing. India’s entrepreneurs and investors are mobilizing to help the nation fight COVID-19, and you can too — For a week straight, India has reported more than 300,000 new infections daily, about half of all the cases across the globe. Porsche makes its case for an all-electric Taycan wagon — The Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo offers a blend of practicality with power and speed for under $100,000. The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox daily at around 3 pm Pacific, subscribe here.
