Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADIA is in talks to back Pocket FM in a large new round of funding, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, as the Indian audio-storytelling platform makes deeper inroads in the U.S. The talks for the new round,...
Apple has added another AI startup to its acquisition list with Canada-based DarwinAI, which specializes in vision-based tech to observe components during manufacturing to improve efficiency, Bloomberg reported. While Apple or DarwinAI haven’t announced this deal, several members of the startup’s team joined Apple’s machine...
Zscaler, a cloud security company with headquarters in San Jose, California, has acquired cybersecurity startup Avalor 26 months after its founding, reportedly for $310 million in cash and equity. In a press release announcing the news, Zscaler founder and CEO Jay Chaudhry said that the deal...
When the open source streaming service Apache Kafka was created in 2011 at LinkedIn, it was a different world. Most companies were still on prem. The notion of cloud computing was just beginning to emerge. WarpStream, an early-stage startup, sees the value of streaming in...
A new ad from Under Armour featuring boxer Anthony Joshua has come under fire from creatives on Instagram after its director claimed it as the “first Ai-powered sports commercial” — but critics in the industry say it blatantly reused others’ work without credit as part...
Two months ago, media giant Fox Corp. partnered with Polygon Labs, the team behind the Ethereum-focused layer-2 blockchain, to tackle deepfake distrust. Fox and Polygon launched Verify, a protocol that aims to protect their IP while letting consumers verify the authenticity of content. And since...
If your robotics startup is looking to raise, there’s close to a 100% chance you’re going to get two questions from potential investors: 1) How are you incorporating generative AI? and 2) Have you consider building a humanoid? The first is easy enough to answer....
The biotech sector has embraced the microbiome in recent years, a green field market powered by cheap genome sequencing and venture dollars, promising bespoke treatments for everything from gut troubles to skin problems. But a report in Science alleges that these companies lack scientific rigor...
If you asked a bunch of VCs at the end of 2023 if the IPO market would finally open again in 2024, most of them would have said yes. We know because TechCrunch surveyed more than 40 of them in December and that’s what they...
Italy’s competition and consumer authority, the AGCM, has fined TikTok €10 million (almost $11M) following a probe into algorithmic safety concerns. The authority opened an investigation last year into a so-called “French scar” challenge in which users of the platform were reported to have shared...
Google announced a major change to its Safe Browsing feature in Chrome today that will make the service work in real time by checking against a server-side list — all without sharing your browsing habits with Google. Previously, Chrome downloaded a list of known sites...
Ticktock! Only 48 hours remain to snag your discounted tickets to Disrupt 2024! Shift into high gear and save up to a whopping $1,000 by seizing this opportunity before the clock strikes at 11:59 p.m. PT on Friday, March 15. Picture it: Come October, you’ll...
Startups and tech giants are trying to move from chatbots that offer help via text, to AI agents that can get stuff done. Recent demos include an AI coder called Devin and agents that play videogames....
Coreshell, a battery materials startup, revealed a breakthrough this week that could lower the cost of lithium-ion batteries while reducing reliance on China. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
ShopMy, a marketing platform for content creators to connect with brands and monetize their content, announced today that it raised $18.5 million. The company will use the money to help scale its network of 40,000 creators, including Alix Earle, the latest “It Girl” on the...
After a shakeup at Kleiner Perkins a few years back, one of its star B2B investors, Ted Schlein, started his own firm. Ballistic has already closed a second fund, even bigger than the first. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
A surprisingly fast ruling at the end of a six-week trial in the UK High Court ends Craig Wright's campaign to be recognized as the inventor of Bitcoin....
The European Commission has sent a series of formal requests for information (RFI) to Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snap, TikTok and X about how they’re handling risks related to the use of generative AI. The asks, which relate to Bing, Facebook, Google Search, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok,...
Satellite sensors collect an incredible amount of raw data, but on-orbit compute limitations mean that operators have little way to process this data in space. Aethero, a startup founded 13 months ago, wants to change that. The startup is developing radiation-hardened edge computers for on-orbit...
There is perhaps no bigger jump for a startup to make than from the incubatory seed stage to its Series A round. Given how large a step-up landing a Series A can be, there are many guidelines out there. But most seem to be a...
The European AI Office and the UK government are trying to hire experts to study and regulate the AI boom—but are offering salaries far short of industry compensation....
When thousands of subreddits went dark in protest, it exposed the tension at the core of Reddit. Is the web’s most reliably human forum a gold mine for investors, or an old-fashioned dumpster fire?...
Amazon launched generative AI-powered features last year to help sellers quickly create listings by entering just a few words about the product. The company is now making it easier for sellers to create listings if an item is already listed on their website. The e-commerce...
Elaia's third deep tech seed fund, DTS3, is double the size of the two previous funds, and signals the momentum that is forming around an emerging concept: European dynamism. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
OpenAI’s legal battle with The New York Times over data to train its AI models might still be brewing. But OpenAI’s forging ahead on deals with other publishers, including some of France’s and Spain’s largest news publishers. OpenAI on Wednesday announced that it signed contracts...
You might’ve heard of Grok, X’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s a chatbot and, in that sense, behaves as you’d expect — answering questions about current events, pop culture and so on. But unlike other chatbots, Grok has “a bit of wit,” as X owner...
The company says it was cash flow positive in 2023, and plans to be again in 2024. With $8.7 billion in venture capital it likely means it has little to no need to raise more before it goes public. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For...
Investors bet the startup’s algorithms, which feed on satellite data, will fill a significant gap in the methane market. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only....
Downshift into get ’er done gear, and you can save a hefty $1,000. How? Simply take decisive action and buy your pass to TechCrunch Disrupt before Friday, March 15 at 11:59 p.m. PT. We can think of a lot of great ways to use an...
Content delivery networks (CDN) have changed. They used to be platforms for efficiently delivering static files — and little else. These days, however, virtually every CDN service is adding edge compute services, security tools and more on top of their core delivery networks. As a...