Top Stories of the Day // July 4, 2018

Draper Esprit invests in and partners with German VC Earlybird | ISAI closes new $175 million fund | "Everyone is talking to everyone" -- rideshare investor bypasses Uber-Careem rumor | The Winners of The Europas Awards 2018 show Europe's startup power | Review: The V-Moda Crossfade II Wireless headphones look and sound beautiful | Starling CEO Anne Boden is coming to Disrupt Berlin | Uber relaunches a licensed service in Finland after taxi law deregulation |

THE DAILY CRUNCH WEDNESDAY, JULY 4 2018 TODAY'S TOP STORIES: TOP HEADLINE | Steve O'Hear Draper Esprit invests in and partners with German VC Earlybird Draper Esprit, the publicly-listed VC firm based in London, is putting down further roots across Europe in cooperation with German VC Earlybird. The "strategic partnership" sees Draper invest an initial... Read More… Romain Dillet ISAI closes new $175 million fund French venture capital firm ISAI just raised a new $175 million fund (€150 million) called ISAI Expansion II. This fund is designed for later stage investments. The firm says that... Read More… Natasha Lomas "Everyone is talking to everyone" -- rideshare investor bypasses Uber-Careem rumor Ride-hailing giant Uber is in talks over a possible merger with Middle East rival Careem, according to Bloomberg -- citing three people familiar with the matter. The report suggests various deal structures... Read More… SPONSORED CONTENT Disrupt SF 2018 Get Your Startup In Front Of 10,000 People Book your Startup Alley package at Disrupt SF and get 3 passes to the conference (that's 1 extra than normal!). Disrupt SF will bring together 10,000 innovators from around the world for 3 full days of startups and tech news. Book your package today and get your startup noticed by today's leading investors. Learn More Mike Butcher The Winners of The Europas Awards 2018 show Europe's startup power Yesterday The Europas, the European Tech Startup Awards and Unconference once again held its annual jamboree in London, throwing together an afternoon of deep-dive panel discussions on the hottest topics... Read More… Matt Burns Review: The V-Moda Crossfade II Wireless headphones look and sound beautiful Damn. These are good looking headphones. The V-Moda Crossfade II Wireless could be the best looking headphones available. Better yet, they sound good, too. As the name suggests, this is the... Read More… Romain Dillet Starling CEO Anne Boden is coming to Disrupt Berlin The European fintech wave can't stop and won't stop. That's why I'm excited to announce that the founder and CEO of Starling Bank Anne Boden is joining us at Disrupt... Read More… Natasha Lomas Uber relaunches a licensed service in Finland after taxi law deregulation Ride-hailing giant Uber is officially relaunching in Finland today, a year after suspending its primary service in the market -- when it said it would wait for taxi laws to... Read More… Natasha Lomas Wikipedia goes dark in Spanish, Italian ahead of key EU vote on copyright Wikipedia's Italian and Spanish language versions have temporarily shut off access to their respective versions of the free online encyclopedia in Europe to protest against controversial components of a copyright... Read More… Samantha Stein Applications are open for Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin '18 This is the moment that early-stage startup founders across Europe have been waiting. We've flung open the application window for Startup Battlefield, which takes place at Disrupt Berlin 2018 on... Read More… Kirsten Korosec Baidu and Softbank's SB Drive are bringing an autonomous bus service to Japan Chinese search engine giant Baidu have partnered with Softbank subsidiary SB Drive and manufacturer King Long to deploy a self-driving mini bus service to Japan early next year. The agreement... Read More… Get more stories at techcrunch.com  Newest Jobs From CrunchBoard: 07-Jul VP of Software Engineering ($200K/yr) - Online Hiring Tournament - at Crossover For Work (Global) Senior VP of Software Engineering & Operations at CrossOver For Work (Global) EVP of Software Engineering and Operations at Crossover For Work (Global) Sr. Software Engineer, Full Stack, Applications at Box, Inc (Redwood City, CA, USA) Entrepreneurial + Technical Product Manager For Automotive Web Startup at VinAudit.com, Inc. (Kirkland, WA, USA) SEE MORE JOBS ON CRUNCHBOARD Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month View this email online in your browser If you do not want to receive this email or you would like to update your preferences click here. 410 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 © 2018 Oath Tech Network. All rights reserved.   TechCrunch is now a part of Oath and a part of Verizon. On May 25th 2018 we will be introducing a new unified Oath Terms of Service and Privacy Policy which will explain how your data is used and shared. Learn More.