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TechCrunch was founded in June 2005 by Michael Arrington and Keith Teare through Archimedes Ventures. It began as a blog about Web 2.0, early internet startups, venture deals, and Silicon Valley’s investment scene. Arrington, a lawyer and entrepreneur, became both editor and public face of the site in its first years.

In 2006, TechCrunch adopted the green visual scheme that would later become associated with the publication. By 2007, it had become one of the most-read technology media outlets, competing with Mashable and VentureBeat. Its coverage focused on venture capital and startups before they became industry-wide names.

In 2007, the company launched TechCrunch40, later renamed TechCrunch50 in 2008. Yammer won the San Francisco event, gained 10,000 users and 2,000 organizations on its first day, and was later bought by Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 billion. In 2010, TechCrunch introduced Disrupt and Startup Battlefield, giving early public exposure to companies such as Dropbox, Trello, Cloudflare, and Soluto.

AOL bought TechCrunch in 2010 for about $25 million. Arrington left in September 2011 after disputes with AOL over editorial freedom and conflicts of interest, then founded CrunchFund. Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion, later folding it with Yahoo into Oath and Verizon Media. In 2021, Apollo Global Management bought AOL, Yahoo, and TechCrunch for $5 billion. Yahoo closed TC+ in January 2024, then sold TechCrunch to Regent LP in March 2025. Soon after, it shut down its European team, including longtime editor Mike Butcher.