Author: TechCrunch News

Tesla’s 2,500-acre manufacturing hub in Austin, Texas tripled its workforce last year, according to the company’s annual compliance report filed with county officials. Bloomberg first reported on the news. The report filed with Travis County’s Economic Development Program shows that Tesla increased its Austin workforce from just 3,523 contingent and permanent employees in 2021 to…

Kobo launched its Kobo Plus subscription tier in the U.S. today. The plan starts at $7.99 per month and gives users access to 1.3 million books (but not all titles) from Kobo’s library. This new subscription will compete with Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited plan, which costs $9.99 per month. Amazon also offers a Prime Reading plan…

Africa contributes less than 3% of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions but the continent will be one of the most impacted by the adverse effects of climate change. Some explanations for Africa’s vulnerability include poor diffusion of technologies and information relevant to supporting adaptation, usually provided by clean or climate tech companies. Despite the…

A year after Kia unveiled its roadmap to sustainable mobility by 2030, the Hyundai-owned brand has upped the ante. At the company’s 2023 CEO Investor Day Wednesday, Kia’s leadership said the company aims to reach KRW 160 trillion ($122 billion) in gross revenue by 2030. The financial goal is part of a general update of…

Amazon’s first foray into the world of accelerator programs, designed to help early-stage startups build and launch, was focused on conversational AI back in 2016. Now, seven years later, Amazon has another AI accelerator – this time led by Amazon Web Services with a focus on the newest zeitgeist: generative artificial intelligence. Announced today, AWS…

In a move reminiscent of its successful early bet on the government-backed UPI network seven years ago, PhonePe, India’s leading mobile payments app, is now setting its sights on the e-commerce sector. The Bengaluru-based startup, backed by retail giant Walmart, on Tuesday launched a hyperlocal commerce app, called Pincode, that is powered by the Open…

Jonathan Martinez Contributor Share on Twitter Jonathan Martinez is a former YouTuber, UC Berkeley alum and growth marketing nerd who’s helped scale Uber, Postmates, Chime and various startups. More posts by this contributor When it comes to early-stage growth marketing, it’s often better to imitate than innovate Building a growth marketing team the right way…

Amit Jain, the former head of Uber’s Asia Pacific division, revealed his new venture, Zamp Finance, on Monday that simplifies the process for businesses to invest their excess capital in US Treasury bills to hedge against bank failures and other uncertainties. Zamp offers a treasury management platform that enables businesses worldwide to invest surplus cash…

Krablr, the real-time crab pricing engine for amateur fishermen, has announced yet another pivot in its business model. Following a successful transition from crab pricing to crab futures trading, the company is now setting its sights on a new, cutting-edge technology: generative AI. Krablr’s latest pivot is focused on developing a new language in which…

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. The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to data.ai’s “State of…