Oct 28th
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
San Francisco, CA
The Latest
Startups
Byju’s founder floats share offer to make peace with estranged investors
8:53 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
Founder Byju Raveendran is making a last-ditch attempt to placate the embattled Indian startup’s disgruntled investors.
Grok-1.5 appears to be a measurable upgrade over its predecessor, Grok-1 — at least judging by the published benchmark results and specs.
Featured Article
Bumble’s new CEO talks about her critical mission: to spice things up at the company
The bigger concern for Bumble is user fatigue. People aren’t downloading dating apps as enthusiastically as they once were, which means less subscription revenue.
5:26 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
Crypto
SBF’s prison sentence marks the end of the crypto grift era — so what’s next?
5:13 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
Nearly everything else that’s being built on or enabled by blockchains replaces something that’s already being done fairly well.
Featured Article
Apple dismisses Microsoft monopoly comparisons
A week after finding itself at the business end of a landmark lawsuit from the United States Department of Justice, Apple is staunchly denying any parallels between itself and Microsoft in the 1990s. It’s a comparison into which the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland leaned heavily in last week’s filing. While portions of the United…
3:50 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
AI
Uber Eats courier’s fight against AI bias shows justice under UK law is hard won
2:58 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
On Tuesday, the BBC reported that Uber Eats courier Pa Edrissa Manjang, who is Black, had received a payout from Uber after “racially discriminatory” facial recognition checks prevented him from…
Security
Activision investigating password-stealing malware targeting game players
1:38 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
Video game giant Activision is investigating a hacking campaign that’s targeting players with the goal of stealing their credentials, TechCrunch has learned. At this point, the hackers’ specific goals —…
Welcome to Elon Musk’s Twitter (now X), where the rules are made up and the check marks don’t matter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced his bid to buy Twitter…
Even though X seems to be working on this NSFW Communities feature, that doesn’t mean it’ll come to fruition.
Startups
Buy now, pay later on a Porsche? Zaver now has $30M to make it a reality
12:42 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
We last checked in on Zaver, a Swedish B2C buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) provider in Europe, when it raised a $5 million funding round in 2021. The company has now closed a…
Where we’ll be next
Jun 11th
StrictlyVC – Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
May 21st
StrictlyVC – London
London
Crypto
Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years in prison for fraud and money laundering at FTX, ordered to pay $11B in forfeiture
12:42 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
Before sentencing, Bankman-Fried acknowledged in court that he made a “series of bad decisions,” but argued they were not “selfish” ones.
Commerce
Meet Kidsy, a kids’ clothing startup that sells what parents need at a discount
12:00 pm PDT • March 28, 2024
All parents know that raising kids is expensive. Especially in those early years when they quickly outgrow clothes or toys, leaving parents on a never-ending cycle of buying new stuff…
Crypto
SBF sentenced, Worldcoin hit with another ban order and big web3 pre-seed rounds are back
12:00 PM PDT • March 28, 2024
Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. This is the last edition of this newsletter. I want to personally thank each of you…
Apps
YouTube now lets creators share exclusive Shorts with their paying subscribers
11:42 am PDT • March 28, 2024
YouTube is launching “members only” Shorts, allowing creators to share short-form videos exclusively to their paying viewers.
AI
Skyflow raises $30M more as AI spikes demand for its privacy business
11:07 am PDT • March 28, 2024
This morning, Skyflow announced that it has raised a $30 million Series B extension led by Khosla Ventures. The deal is interesting on a number of fronts, including the round’s…
The government’s reward for information now extends to ALPHV’s affiliates, which claimed responsibility for a massive weekslong healthcare cyberattack.
Apps
Ibotta’s expansion into enterprise should set it up for a successful IPO
9:26 am PDT • March 28, 2024
Ibotta’s recent partnerships with brands Exxon, Shell and Walmart helped the company reach profitability.
Apps
TechCrunch Minute: You’re likely seeing less news and politics on Instagram. Here’s why
9:00 am PDT • March 28, 2024
As the election cycle heats up, Instagram and Threads will be cooling down the amount of political content entering many users’ feeds. These changes, which limit the reach of political…
Social
LinkedIn targets users caught between TikTok and what used to be Twitter
8:01 am PDT • March 28, 2024
Two weeks ago, TechCrunch broke the news that LinkedIn was getting into games, helping users “deepen relationships” through puzzle-based interactions. And on Wednesday, TechCrunch reported that the Microsoft-owned social network…
Apps
After spat with TikTok, UMG expands Spotify partnership to include music videos and more
7:47 am PDT • March 28, 2024
In the wake of Universal Music Group’s (UMG) public spat with TikTok, which saw the label pulling its full catalog from the video app earlier this year, the company is…
