Oct 28th
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
San Francisco, CA
The Latest
Featured Article
Indian fintech unicorn Slice secures rare approval to merge with bank
Indian unicorn fintech Slice is merging with North East Small Finance Bank, they said Wednesday after receiving the approval from the central bank, in an extremely rare feat that has eluded many tech giants, top financial startups and tycoons for decades. Slice — which earlier offered credit card–like cards and at peak issued over 400,000…
11:30 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
Gaming
Krafton India launches gaming incubator to expand local ecosystem
5:30 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
Krafton India has launched a gaming incubator in the South Asian nation as it seeks to expand the local ecosystem and support the domestic talent looking to enter the fast-growing…
Startups
Electric Hydrogen is the green hydrogen industry’s first unicorn
2:37 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
Investors have historically been skeptical of green hydrogen. High production costs, expensive infrastructure builds, competition with batteries and minimal government support have made the green hydrogen sector a risky bet.…
Transportation
In latest Cruise incident, video shows pedestrian struck by human-driven car, then run over by robotaxi
2:26 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
The San Francisco Police Department is investigating an October 2 incident that left a woman stuck underneath a Cruise robotaxi after being hit by a human-driven vehicle. Video captured by…
Apps
Spotify to include a selection of 150K audiobooks with its Premium subscription
1:36 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
Spotify today unveiled what’s next for the future of its audiobooks service. At an event hosted in its New York offices on Tuesday afternoon, the company announced a new business…
AI deepfakes are getting so good that a fraudulent MrBeast ad slipped past TikTok’s ad moderation technology to end up on the platform. In the ad, the massively influential creator…
Space
7 companies to provide NASA with commercial satellite imagery under $476M contract
1:14 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
Umbra, Capella Space and GHGSat are among the seven companies that will provide NASA with commercial satellite imagery, part of an acquisition program that has a maximum potential value of…
Apps
You can now add PayPal and Venmo credit or debit cards to your Apple Wallet
12:20 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
PayPal announced today that users can now add their PayPal and Venmo credit or debit cards to their Apple Wallet. With this new integration, you can now make payments in-store,…
Gadgets
The Xencelabs Pen Display 24 is a terrific alternative to Wacom’s big-screen drawing tablets
12:14 pm PDT • October 3, 2023
For a long time, if you wanted something like the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 but didn’t want to spend quite so much money, you were pretty much out of luck.…
Apps
US lawmakers ask TikTok about its ByteDance ties after recent exec transfers between the companies
11:56 am PDT • October 3, 2023
U.S. lawmakers have written a letter to TikTok questioning its independence from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, in the wake of a recent report from The Wall St. Journal that…
Where we’ll be next
Jun 11th
StrictlyVC – Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
May 21st
StrictlyVC – London
London
AI
Sam Altman backs teens’ AI startup automating browser-native workflows
11:31 am PDT • October 3, 2023
Sam Altman, Peak XV, and Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman’s AI grant are among backers of an AI startup, founded by two teenagers, that’s aiming to assist businesses in automating…
Crypto
US government confirms it didn’t offer any plea deals to Sam Bankman-Fried
10:36 am PDT • October 3, 2023
It was a slow start to the six-week-long trial.
Featured Article
TechCrunch+ Roundup: SBF’s trial opens, Series A tips, how to roll out AI features
If someone wants to advise you on “storytelling,” you have my permission to skip that meeting and work on your data room instead.
10:25 am PDT • October 3, 2023
Apps
Arc browser’s new AI-powered features combine OpenAI and Anthropic’s models
9:51 am PDT • October 3, 2023
The Arc browser is “finally” launching its AI-powered features under the “Arc Max” moniker. The Browser Company is using a combination of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and Anthropic’s models to build lightweight…
Apps
Promova’s new feature helps people with dyslexia learn a new language
9:50 am PDT • October 3, 2023
Promova, the language learning app with more than 11 million users, today launched “Dyslexia Mode,” which uses a specialized typeface called Dysfont so people with dyslexia can learn a new…
Apps
Gmail to enforce harsher rules in 2024 to keep spam from users’ inboxes
9:17 am PDT • October 3, 2023
Google today is announcing a series of significant changes to how it handles email from bulk senders in an effort to cut down on spam and other unwanted emails. The…
Does TikTok owner ByteDance’s valuation cut mean that it is a struggling business? Not in the slightest.
Venture
Greylock secures $1B for its 17th fund amid launch of early-stage founders program
9:01 am PDT • October 3, 2023
Greylock 17 will target pre-seed, seed and Series A founders in the areas of enterprise and consumer software.
It seems like everyone in the database business is thinking about how to capitalize on the growth of AI by adding support for vectors to their products. That, after all,…
Government & Policy
The EU is about to adopt a dangerous law with international consequences
9:00 am PDT • October 3, 2023
Media freedom must be able to operate outside the confines of political interference to give users more information, not less.
