Oct 28th
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
San Francisco, CA
The Latest
Social
Google lays off workers, Tesla cans its Supercharger team and UnitedHealthcare reveals security lapses
1:15 pm PDT • May 4, 2024
Welcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that recaps the week that was in tech. This edition’s a tad bittersweet for me — it’ll be my last…
Venture
Human composting and timber marketplaces: Talking ‘industrial’ VC with investor Dayna Grayson
12:23 pm PDT • May 4, 2024
While the venture world is abuzz over generative AI, Dayna Grayson, a longtime venture capitalist who five years ago co-founded her own firm, Construct Capital, has been focused on comparatively…
AI
Women in AI: Tara Chklovski is teaching the next generation of AI innovators
10:00 am PDT • May 4, 2024
Tara Chklovski is the CEO and founder of Technovation, a nonprofit that helps teach young girls about technology and entrepreneurship.
Threads users can now exert more control over who can quote their posts. This builds on a feature that already allows Threads users to limit who can reply to their…
Biotech & Health
Deal Dive: Amae Health is building an in-person approach to mental healthcare in an increasingly digital space
9:00 am PDT • May 4, 2024
While many recent mental health-focused startups are digital first, Amae Health focuses on the importance of in-person care.
RAG is being pitched as a solution of sorts to generative AI hallucinations. But there’s limits to what the technique can do.
AI
This Week in AI: Generative AI and the problem of compensating creators
6:31 am PDT • May 4, 2024
Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of recent stories in the…
According to SEC filings, ICONIQ Growth has raised $5.21 billion across two funds affiliated with the Seventh Growth Fund Family. However, the firm’s original fundraising was $5.75 billion, according to…
Lidar company Luminar is slashing its workforce by 20% and will lean harder on its contract manufacturing partner as part of a restructuring that will shift the company to a…
X’s Premium subscribers will be able to read a summary of posts on X associated with each trending story featured on the For You tab in Explore.
Where we’ll be next
Jun 11th
StrictlyVC – Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
May 21st
StrictlyVC – London
London
Apps
Match-owned Archer hits over half a million installs amid dating app slump
12:43 pm PDT • May 3, 2024
With Match and other online dating companies facing a downturn, Archer’s growth is certainly notable.
Startups
Musk raises $6B for AI startup. Also, is TikTok dodging Apple’s commissions?
12:05 pm PDT • May 3, 2024
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje’s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Musk’s…
Despite spending more than $100 billion on R&D over the last five years, Apple isn’t planning to spin up too many new data centers to run or train AI models.
Transportation
Fisker stiffed the engineering firm developing its low-cost EV and pickup truck, lawsuit claims
11:53 am PDT • May 3, 2024
Henrik Fisker stood on a stage last August and proudly debuted two prototypes designed to catapult his eponymous EV startup Fisker into the mainstream. There was the Pear, a low-cost…
Apps
Instagram now lets you post a secret Story that viewers can uncover with a DM
11:36 am PDT • May 3, 2024
Instagram is adding a handful of new features for Stories to give users more creative ways to share content and engage with each other, the company announced on Friday. Most…
The new job cuts come over a year after the company cut about 4% of its headcount in February last year.
Startups
Despite recent successes, IPO market still won’t fully open until 2025
11:09 am PDT • May 3, 2024
Experts say macroeconomic factors including the upcoming election and the current state of the economy will deter too many IPOs this year.
Enterprise
EQT snaps up API and identity management software company WSO2 for more than $600M
10:50 am PDT • May 3, 2024
WSO2, a company that provides API and identity management services for enterprises, has been acquired by EQT for more than $600M.
Apple finally updated its App Store guidelines to allow global developers to host retro game emulators on iOS. Now, you don’t need to jailbreak your iPhone or download any sketchy…
Featured Article
10 years in the making, retro game emulator Delta is now No. 1 on the iOS charts
Video game emulator Delta’s decade-long struggle against the iOS App Store began with a school-issued TI-84 calculator. When Riley Testut was a sophomore in high school, he showed his friends how to load illicit software onto their bulky graphing calculators. Such behavior was generally discouraged at school, but he wasn’t plotting to cheat on a…
10:34 am PDT • May 3, 2024