TechCrunch Industry News

BYD is overtaking Tesla, but its EV dream skips the US for now

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A Chinese electric vehicle brand that’s rarely spotted in the U.S. is quickly catching up to Tesla’s dominance of the global EV market. BYD, which...

Ransomware gang lists first victims of MOVEit mass-hacks, including US banks and universities

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Clop, the ransomware gang responsible for exploiting a critical security vulnerability in a popular corporate file transfer tool, has begun listing vi...

Uber leads $20M round in India’s Everest Fleet for EV expansion

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Uber has led a $20 million round into Everest Fleet, a Mumbai-based fleet management company that boasts over 10,000 vehicles running on rideshare pla...

EV laggard Toyota says its next-gen EVs will have over 600 miles range

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Toyota plans to introduce a high-performance lithium-ion battery to its next-generation electric vehicles by 2026, part of the automaker’s new techn...

Striveworks snaps up first funding of $33M to build tools for machine learning operations

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

MLOps, or DevOps for those working with machine learning models, has seen a boom of interest in the last year, and that should come as no surprise. Le...

US intelligence confirms it buys Americans’ personal data

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A newly declassified government report confirms for the first time that U.S. intelligence and spy agencies purchase vast amounts of commercially avail...

London lures a16z’s first international office with ‘predictable’ crypto regs

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

US VC giant Andreessen Horowitz — which has about $35bn in assets under management — is to open its first (yes, the first) international office in...

Barracuda urges customers to remove and replace vulnerable hardware exploited by hackers

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Barracuda Networks has told customers they must replace vulnerable email gateway appliances following the disclosure of a critical security flaw.  Le...

Nasdaq to acquire financial services software company Adenza from Thoma Bravo for $10.5B

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nasdaq today revealed that it’s doling out $10.5 billion to acquire Adenza, a company that develops risk-management and related regulatory software ...

Meta to appeal court ruling declaring content moderatos as its employees

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Meta is set to appeal Kenya’s court decision declaring it as the primary employer of the moderators that review content on its platforms in sub-Saha...

Adobe brings Firefly to the enterprise

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Adobe today announced that it is bringing its Firefly generative image generator to its enterprise customers and allowing them to customize the model ...

Uber is taking its car-sharing service to North America

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Uber plans to bring peer-to-peer car sharing to North America, starting with Toronto and Boston, the company said Thursday at its Go-Get product event...

Automattic launches an AI writing assistant for WordPress

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and the main contributor to the open-source WordPress project, launched an AI assistant for the popular c...

Blush, the AI lover from the same team as Replika, is more than just a sexbot

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The team behind the AI friendship bot Replika is launching another AI companion — one that’s made to flirt.  Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Apple Vision Pro: Here’s everything you need to know

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At its annual WWDC 2023 conference, Apple took the wraps off of the Vision Pro, its long-rumored augmented reality (AR) headset. Learn more about your...

Byju’s files suit challenging acceleration of $1.2B loan, seeks to disqualify Redwood for ‘predatory’ tactics

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Indian edtech giant Byju’s has filed a complaint in the New York Supreme Court to challenge the acceleration of the $1.2 billion term loan B and to ...

As Deeptech and AI explodes, European Deeptech VC IQ Capital closes new $200M fund

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

European Deeptech startups get another shot in the arm this week in the shape of IQ Capital’s new $200m venture fund. The new fund takes its assets ...

YouTube rolls back its rules against election misinformation

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

YouTube was the slowest major platform to disallow misinformation during the 2020 U.S. election and almost three years later, the company will toss th...

NestAway, once valued at over $225 million, sells for $11 million

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

PropTech firm Aurum is acquiring NestAway, a once high-flying Indian startup operating in the same space, for up to $10.9 million, in a deal that mark...

Shopify’s Shop app introduces a new ‘Shop Cash’ rewards program

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shopify’s Shop app is introducing a new rewards program called Shop Cash, the e-commerce platform announced on Friday.  Learn more about your ad ch...

Enzo Biochem says ransomware attack exposed clinical test data of 2.5 million patients

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Enzo Biochem, a New York-based biotechnology company, has confirmed that a ransomware attack exposed the clinical test information of almost 2.5 milli...

Legal tech firm Casepoint investigates breach after hackers claim theft of government data

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Casepoint says it’s investigating a potential cybersecurity incident after hackers claimed to have compromised the legal technology platform to stea...

Flighty’s tool will help you connect with fellow WWDC attendees

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is now just less than a week away. Many developer communities are already organizing watch parties acr...

Volvo’s new small EV tries to optimize space with Scandinavian design

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Volvo is continuing to drip-feed more information about its upcoming electric Volvo EX30 small SUV. Last week the automaker promised the new EV would ...

OpenAI’s ChatGPT iOS app now available in Canada, India, Brazil and 30 more countries

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

OpenAI has expanded the availability of its ChatGPT app for iOS users in India and 32 other countries — just a week after its launching it in the U....

Bernstein pegs Reliance as India’s eventual e-commerce kingpin

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Indian conglomerate Reliance is poised to outpace Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart in the race for the country’s $150 billion e-commerce marke...

Ford to bring Tesla’s charging tech into its future EVs

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ford has reached an agreement with rival Tesla that will give owners of Ford’s EVs access to more than 12,000 Superchargers across the U.S. and Cana...

Applied Intuition to buy autonomous trucking SPAC Embark for $71M

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Embark Trucks, the autonomous trucking company that recently cut 70% of its workforce, is being acquired by Applied Intuition, a simulation and softwa...

Ambani’s Reliance targets Indian fashion e-commerce with low-cost model

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Reliance Industries, run by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, is gearing up to deploy a winning strategy from its past playbook for the fashion mar...

Elon Musk says Tesla might ‘open source more code’ to other automakers

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk suggested Thursday during a Twitter Spaces with Ford CEO Jim Farley that Tesla might open up some of its automotive operating system code to...

Arc browser’s new tool lets you remove some elements from a website

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Browser Company, the company behind the web browser Arc, introduced a fun new tool today called Boosts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...

The official ChatGPT app is now available in 11 more countries

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

OpenAI has announced in a tweet that the official ChatGPT mobile app is now available in more countries.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit pod...

SoundCloud lays off 8% of staff as it aims to reach profitability this year

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Music streaming platform SoundCloud has laid off 8% of its staff according to multiple reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...

Figure raises $70M to build its humanoid robots

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I spent a bit of time at Figure’s Sunnyvale offices during a recent visit to the South Bay.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...

Proton launches family subscription plan for privacy app suite starting at $20 per month

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Privacy-centric software maker Proton has launched a new family plan starting at $19.99 (€19.99) per month, giving up to six family members access t...

Former Apple engineer’s Mimestream app is a nifty Gmail client for Mac

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former Apple engineer Neil Jhaveri has been working on an email app for Mac called Mimestream. It is now out of beta after a long test phase of more t...

Meta ordered to suspend Facebook EU data flows as it’s hit with €1.2BN privacy fine

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s finally happened: Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has been hit with a formal suspension order requiring it to stop exporting Euro...

China bans Micron chips in key infrastructure over ‘national security’ risks

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

China has banned some sales of Micron products after launching a probe into the American memory chip giant for cybersecurity risks in early April.  L...

Restaurant365 gobbles up $135M to supersize its software for the food service industry

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The price of food continues to go up and up, but surprisingly that hasn’t (yet?) played out as pressure on the wider restaurant industry. Learn more...

Apple releases iOS 16.5 with a new sports tab in Apple News

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple released iOS 16.5 Thursday to all users with a new sports tab in the Apple News app. The tab acts as a hub for scores, match schedules, and arti...

FTC says popular fertility tracking app Premom shared sensitive data with Chinese analytics firms

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A popular fertility tracking app shared users’ sensitive health information with third-party advertisers without their consent, a new Federal Trade ...

1Password’s new service lets businesses quickly adopt passkeys

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Password manager 1Password today launched a new service, Passage by 1Password, that’s designed to allow businesses to build passkey authentication i...

Disney+ changes up its release model, plans to launch all ‘Echo’ episodes at once

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

President of Marvel Studios Kevin Fiege took to the Disney Upfront stage Tuesday to announce that Marvel’s new Disney+ show, “Echo,” is getting ...

Amazon undercuts the Echo Dot with the $40 Echo Pop

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You know the old saying: If you don’t like Amazon Echo’s form factors, just wait a few minutes.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastc...

Youth mental health startup Somethings launches with a $3.2M raise led by General Catalyst

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When he was 10 years old, Patrick Gilligan’s childhood struggle with food began.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi...

UK’s Space Forge debuts new reentry tech for in-space manufacturing satellites

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Welsh in-space manufacturing startup Space Forge has developed a satellite reentry system to enable rapid recovery and reuse of its in-space manufactu...

US pharmacy giant says hackers accessed personal data of almost 6 million patients

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the largest pharmacy service providers in the United States has confirmed that hackers accessed the personal data of almost six million patient...

Apple partner Foxconn to invest $500 million in India’s Telangana

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Foxconn will invest $500 million to set up manufacturing plants in the southern Indian state of Telangana, the latest in a series of bets from the key...

Toyota Japan exposed data on millions of vehicles for a decade

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Toyota Japan has apologized after admitting to leaving millions of customers’ vehicle details on the public internet for a decade.  Learn more abou...

TikTok turns up on the volume on its music play with NewMusic search feature

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

TikTok has upended how music is discovered, used and consumed these days; now, its long-term effort to build a business around that is getting a boost...

Pinterest is combining Pins and Idea Pins into a single format

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As Pinterest further shifts its focus to video content following the development of its video-focused Idea Pins, the company says it will now streamli...

Study says App Store revenue of small developers grew by 71% in last two years

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Apple just released findings from an independent study, which highlighted that the revenue of small developers on the App Store grew by 71% from 2020 ...

Clearview fined again in France for failing to comply with privacy orders

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Clearview AI, the US startup that’s attracted notoriety in recent years for a massive privacy violation after it scraped selfies off the Internet an...

Vast and SpaceX aim to put the first commercial space station in orbit in 2025

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Artificial gravity space station startup Vast announced that it intends to put the first commercial space station in orbit in August 2025 via launch p...

UK greenlights $7.3B merger between satellite rivals Viasat and Inmarsat

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially greenlighted the proposed $7.3 billion merger between Viasat and Inmarsat.  Learn...

Porsche taps Mobileye for automated driving functions in future models

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Porsche has partnered with Mobileye, the autonomous driving unit that Intel spun out into a public company last year, to bring hands-free automated as...

Western Digital tells customers that hackers stole their data

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Friday, a month after the company revealed it had been the victim of a data breach, Western Digital published an update on the incident and notifie...

Virgin Galactic aims for triumphant return with crewed flight at the end of May

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Virgin Galactic will return to the skies later this month, in a crewed mission that the company hopes will bring to an end the nearly three-year gap s...

Security researcher finds trove of Capita data exposed online

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

London-based outsourcing giant Capita left a trove of data exposed online for 7 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...

Samsung surpasses Apple in smartphone shipments by 1% amid persisting market decline

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Samsung overtook Apple through a slender 1% lead to secure the top spot in smartphone shipment volumes during the first quarter of 2023. Learn more ab...

Japan’s biggest drone maker sets its sights on the US

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, ten-year-old drone company ACSL announced plans to enter the U.S. commercial drone market.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...

Ransomware attack forces Dallas to shut down courts, disrupt some 911 services

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The City of Dallas in Texas has confirmed a ransomware attack has downed key services, including 911 dispatch systems.   Learn more about your ad ch...

Roku touts its new ad products, including an AI that matches campaigns to TV moments

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Roku’s recent quarter, the company posted better-than-expected revenue of $741 million, but worried investors with its warning of an uncertain ad...

Airbnb’s average home prices have gone up, so now it’s refocusing on rooms to give users more affordable alternatives

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Airbnb started out of an idea of renting out spare beds and rooms in private homes to people as an affordable alternative to hotels. Learn more about ...

Mixpanel moves into marketing data with its latest product

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Traditionally, Mixpanel has provided information about product usage to product teams. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...

Box is partnering with OpenAI to bring generative AI tools across the platform

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve seen a number of enterprise software companies making announcements related to generative AI in the last six weeks from established companies ...

SpaceX’s Starship didn’t self-destruct immediately as planned during test launch

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

SpaceX’s recent Starship test flight, the first during which it flew with its Super Heavy orbital booster, was a bit more of a mess than it even app...

Brave Search doesn’t use Bing’s index anymore

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brave just announced that it is now exclusively using its own index for its search engine. In other words, it doesn’t rely on third-party solutions ...

Reddit is testing Discord-like channels for community chat

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Reddit announced Thursday that it is testing Discord-like chat channels with select subreddits.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoic...

Energy Dome gets $44M uplift into its CO2 battery for renewable energy storage

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Italian climate startup Energy Dome, which has developed a “CO2 Battery” for storing renewable energy, has closed a €40 million. Learn more abou...

NBCUniversal reports higher Peacock losses as it shows CEO the door

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peacock losses continue to widen this quarter, NBCUniversal parent company Comcast reported Thursday, just days after the company announced that Jeff ...

Smile Identity expands African footprint with acquisition of Appruve to strengthen ID verification services

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Smile Identity, a KYC compliance and ID verification partner for many African fintechs and businesses, has acquired Inclusive Innovations, the parent ...

UK blocks Microsoft’s planned $68.7B Activision bid, saying it would ‘substantially weaken competition’

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority has confirmed that it intends to block Microsoft’s megabucks Activision acquisition, concluding that ...

With $20M in new funding, Hydrosat preps climate-monitoring satellites for launch

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spotify passes 500M users, but its premium-to-free ratio is falling

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Spotify now has 515 million monthly active users (MAUs), representing a 5% increase on the previous quarter and 22% increase on the corresponding peri...

Apigee rolls out new AI-powered API protection features

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Timed to coincide with the annual RSA cybersecurity conference, Google Cloud announced updates to Apigee, its API management and predictive analytics ...

Volvo Cars Tech Fund invests in driver monitoring startup CorrActions

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

CorrActions, an Israeli startup that, among other things, built a driver monitoring system that can understand a driver’s cognitive state, today ann...

The IRS is sending four investigators across the world to fight cybercrime

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plans to send four agents who specialize in investigating cybercrime to Australia, Singapore, Colombia, and Germany...

Twitter seemingly now requires all advertisers to have a verified checkmark

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As Twitter’s legacy blue check mark system finally comes to an end, the social network’s new paid-for verification system is causing more than a l...

Uber and Cartken are bringing sidewalk delivery robots to Virginia

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Uber is expanding its partnership with sidewalk delivery robot startup Cartken to Fairfax, Virginia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...

Outsourcing giant Capita fears customer data stolen during ransomware attack

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Capita, the British outsourcing company that provides critical services for the U.K. government, says hackers may have accessed customer data during a...

Salesforce is working on a pair of new generative AI-driven workflow tools

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the promises of generative AI is the ability to create code based on a written request.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...

Ditto raises $45M to help companies keep their data in sync

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many apps today assume that data lives in only one location, typically a single cloud database. But the reality is more complex.  Learn more about yo...

Alaska Airlines does away with check-in kiosks

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alaska Airlines recently started a 3-year, $2.5 billion project to improve the airport experience at its hubs and focus cities like Seattle, Portland,...

Apple’s high security mode blocked NSO spyware, researchers say

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last year, Apple launched a new feature for iPhone users who are worried about getting targeted with sophisticated spyware, such as journalists or hum...

Mercedes debuts the Maybach EQS SUV with more power, range, and luxury

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I can’t get over the huge faux grill. Mercedes today revealed the Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV, an electric SUV built on its excellent EQS SUV.  Learn ...

Adobe brings Firefly to its video tools

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A month ago, Adobe announced Firefly, its entry into the generative AI game. Initially, Firefly’s focus was on generating commercially safe images, ...

Spotify is shutting down Heardle, the Wordle-like music guessing game it bought last year

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Spotify is closing down Heardle, the Wordle-inspired music guessing game it acquired last July for an undisclosed sum.  Learn more about your ad choi...

Twitter introduces 10,000 character long tweets for Blue subscribers

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter has introduced a new feature that will let Blue subscribers post 10,000-character-long posts — as if the social network is trying to compete...

Twitter partners with eToro to show real-time stock and crypto information

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Twitter has partnered with the investment platform eToro to show real-time information about stocks and crypto prices.  Learn more about your ad choi...

LMS365, a learning management system built into Microsoft 365 and Teams, raises $20M

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Danish company LMS365, an online learning management system (LMS) built for use inside Microsoft products, has raised $20 million in its first instit...

Truecaller brings live caller ID to iPhone… but with a catch

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Truecaller has been a known name in the app market globally — thanks to its eponymous caller-identification service. Learn more about your ad choice...

Strava launches integration with Spotify to let users listen to content while tracking activities

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Strava, the activity tracking and social community platform used by more than 100 million people globally, has announced a new in-app integration with...

‘Drink to dust’: Startup says just smash its clay alternative to plastic cups

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Disposable plastic and paper cups are an environmental mess. GaeaStar, a startup based in Berlin and San Francisco, thinks it can do better with just ...

Ex-Twitter CEO Agrawal, other execs sue firm over unpaid legal bills

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former Twitter employees, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, ex-legal head Vijaya Gadde, and ex-CFO Ned Segal, have sued the social network over alleged ...

Twitter is now resurfacing official Russian accounts in search results

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A year after Twitter restricted the Russian government accounts on its platform, the social network appears to have removed those blockings.  Learn m...

Cruise recalls 300 robotaxis, issues software update after crashing into city bus

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

GM’s self-driving unit Cruise filed with federal regulators a voluntary recall to update the software in 300 robotaxis after one struck the back of ...

Samsung cuts memory chip production as it hits worst quarterly profit since 2009

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Samsung Electronics plans to cut back memory chip production as its operating profit in the first quarter of 2023 is expected to plummet about 96% fro...

T-Mobile to provide free MLB.TV subscriptions to customers through 2028

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

T-Mobile announced today that it has extended its partnership with Major League Baseball to allow its customers to continue receiving free MLB.TV subs...

Legal powerhouse Proskauer exposed clients’ confidential M&A data

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A security lapse saw Proskauer Rose, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, expose sensitive client data for more than six months, ...