Thursday, November 30, 2023

Google is poised to delete inactive accounts

TechCrunch Newsletter
TechCrunch logo
The Daily Crunch logo

By Christine Hall

Thursday, November 30, 2023

In today's top story, Lauren reminds us that if you haven't used your Google account in two years, it will probably be deleted on Friday. Don't panic — she shares what you need to do to have this not happen.

Speaking of Google, Lauren also reports that the search giant resigned its homepage to make finding files easier. She also shows what you'll find in your YouTube Music Recap.

Meanwhile, Rita writes about the competitive world of Chinese e-commerce. Alibaba has traditionally dominated in this space; however, PDD, the company behind Temu, is hot on its heels. Read how all of this is shaking out.

And Robinhood is finally going international in 2024 with the launch of its stock trading platform in the United Kingdom. Paul reports that people have been waiting a long time.

 image

Image Credits: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto / Getty Images

Improve operational efficiency with a simple approach to IoT

Sponsored by T-Mobile for Business

Is your business grappling with inventory inaccuracies, disruptive maintenance schedules, and inefficient resource management? Join us to explore the unique advantages America's largest and fastest 5G network provides. Join us to learn how our IoT solutions can optimize your business processes, enhance productivity, and drive growth.

Watch Now

More top reads

Contained, but is it?: After a weeklong outage, Fidelity National Financial confirms cyberattack is now "contained." Here's the update.

Noted: Days after we initially reported about Evernote's free plan, it's now official that the company will restrict free users to 50 notes. Read more.

And now . . . presenting the Tesla Cybertruck: Here's everything to know about the much-hyped electric pickup.

Potty mouth: Yesterday, Elon Musk told advertisers leaving X to "go f*ck yourself." Today, X CEO Linda Yaccarino publicly backs Musk's sentiments.

Happy birthday, ChatGPT: One year later, ChatGPT is still alive and kicking. And with a lot of users. Its mobile apps topped 110 million installs and nearly $30 million in revenue. Meanwhile, Sam Altman is officially back at OpenAI.

For your eyes only: This small French company wants to build an open alternative to Kindle and Kobo. Meet Vivlio.

What's new?: When Android users make that latest update, they will see nearly a dozen new features. Check them out.

Have your cake and eat it too: Kognitos raises $35 million to help businesses automate back-office processes. It's all about efficiency.

M&A: NomuPay acquires Total Processing for tooling and customer service. This is why.

Can you keep a secret?: WhatsApp's new "secret codes" add an extra layer of privacy for your locked chats. Read more.

Even more for your Thursday:

Clayful, a startup that helps students connect to mental health experts within 60 seconds, raises $7M

Drug discovery startup Pepper Bio hopes to challenge Eroom's law with new funding

Amazon CTO Werner Vogels on culturally aware LLMs, developer productivity and women’s health

Instagram Threads search now supports 'all languages' in latest update

Stensul draws on new capital to boost marketing creation features

More top reads image

Image Credits: Lori Moffett/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Flipboard

View this email online in your browser

Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe

© 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

The Okta breach was worse than we thought

TechCrunch Newsletter
TechCrunch logo
The Daily Crunch logo

By Christine Hall

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

In today's top story, we have an update for you on the Okta breach, first announced in October, where the company said a hacker broke in to steal sensitive files that could be used to access customer networks. At the time, it said just 1% of customers were affected. However, Carly writes that the company now admits the breach actually affected all of its customers.

Over on TechCrunch+, Alex wants to know why venture funding into cybersecurity is "so tepid" even when it's clear the demand is so strong. Find out the answer.

Meanwhile, General Motors continues to put the brakes on Cruise. Kirsten reports that while the automaker is committed to offering a self-driving product, it will slash spending at Cruise by "hundreds of millions of dollars" next year. Get the scoop.

And Manish has a pair of Byju’s updates. The first is that the Indian edtech giant's investment firm, Prosus, slashed the company's valuation to under $3 billion. Byju’s is also the focus of an investigation looking into whether it breached the nation's foreign exchange rule; however, the company expects minimal or no fine from this allegation.

 image

Image Credits: Michael Vi / Getty Images

More top reads

Nope, can't make me say it: Apple and Google avoid naming ChatGPT as their "app of the year," picking AllTrails and Imprint instead. We think it was deliberate.

AWS re:Invent Day 2: Our team was there for the second day of keynote speeches, adding some new features to the roundup, including that Amazon finally releases its own AI-powered image generator.

Take note: A new Mac app called Type is a bare-bones note-taking app that utilizes the command bar. See how it works.

Driving force: South African startup GoMetro gets £9 million for its fleet management optimization software. Read more.

What does your Spotify Wrapped say about you?: For me, I listen to way too many scary movie soundtracks. If you haven't yet checked out yours, Spotify Wrapped 2023 adds an AI DJ and Blend to its annual personalized insights. Meanwhile, the new Sound Town feature, which shows who around the world shares our listening habits, had us wondering what's up with Burlington, VT?

Fund frenzy: Tola Capital, investing in AI-enabled enterprise software, closes its third — and largest — fund at $230 million. Get the scoop. Speaking of funds, we learned that the Fearless Fund grant program was already "at risk" before its lawsuit.

Do you like travel and chatbots?: Layla takes in new capital as it leverages artificial intelligence and creator content to build a travel recommendation app. Where will you go?

It's all Relativ-ity: Relativity Space CEO discusses why building a backlog isn't "worthless," but rather is the path to product market fit. Read more.

Not just big, but Immensa: Immensa, an additive manufacturing and digital inventory platform operating in the Middle East, raises $20 million. Read how it boosts the energy sector.

Generative AI keeps going and going: Together grabs a $102.5 million investment to grow its cloud for training generative AI. Here's how.

Go go gadget smartphone: Squint brings in $13 million in a new round of funding, led by Sequoia, for augmented reality to interact with physical objects. See how it works.

Cloudy with a chance of apps: DuploCloud lands $32 million to make provisioning cloud apps easier. Read more.

Even more for your Wednesday:

WSJ says the Goldman-Apple deal is dead. Apple says not yet

Innovation or folly? The Cybertruck will test whether anyone still trusts Tesla

Netflix gets a major win with GTA: The Trilogy coming to its mobile games roster

Elon Musk is now taking applications for data to study X — but only EU researchers need apply…

Discord expands its plans to sell custom avatars and other virtual items

More top reads image

Image Credits: Apple

Venture Debt Remains Strong Amidst Slowdown in VC Investment

Sponsored by Bridge Bank, a division of Western Alliance Bank. Member FDIC.

Economic uncertainty has dramatically changed the venture capital landscape, yet venture debt lenders remain a strong partner for many technology startups, explains Mike Lederman, senior managing director in Bridge Bank's Technology Banking Group.

Read More

On the pods

On Equity, Alex spoke with Anu Hariharan, who previously led YC Continuity and has partnered with two of her former colleagues and former Brex executive Lucas Fox to launch a new fund, Avra. The fund aims to raise about $350 million and operate a program that some are referring to as a "YC for growth."

In light of the new fund news, we're throwing it back to a conversation we had with Anu earlier this year: Alex and Anu dug into what makes a “great” founder and how those founders are successfully guiding their companies toward cash flow positivity. Listen here.

Read More

On the pods image

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Flipboard

View this email online in your browser

Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe

© 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Dataminr is the latest unicorn to announce layoffs

TechCrunch Newsletter
TechCrunch logo
The Daily Crunch logo

By Christine Hall

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

In today's top story, Ingrid writes about Dataminr laying off 20% of its staff, or 150 people. The big data startup, worth about $4 billion, cited "the impact of the economic environment, operational efficiencies and the recent rapid advancements of our AI platform." The layoffs happened just as Dataminr prepares to double down on artificial intelligence. Get the scoop.

Meanwhile, speaking of AI, generative AI is in full force over at Pika Labs. Kyle reports that the startup, building AI tools to generate and edit videos, is the recipient of a $55 million capital infusion. This comes six months after the company launched its new suite of videography tools. Time to animate.

And we have a team on the ground this week at Amazon's AWS re:Invent event. Here's everything from today's keynote.

 image

Image Credits: Getty Images

TechCrunch Early Stage 2024

It's Cyber Monday all week for TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 passes. On April 25 in Boston, expert-led, hands-on sessions give new and aspiring founders help, not hype. Now through November 28 at 11:59 p.m. PT, buy a founder or investor pass for just $99!

TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 image

Improve operational efficiency with a simple approach to IoT

Sponsored by T-Mobile for Business

Is your business grappling with inventory inaccuracies, disruptive maintenance schedules, and inefficient resource management? Join us to explore the unique advantages America's largest and fastest 5G network provides. Join us to learn how our IoT solutions can optimize your business processes, enhance productivity, and drive growth.

Watch Now

More top reads

Smooth landing: Plane takes on Jira with an open source project management tool for software teams. With some new funding to boot.

Good dog: As pet owners turn to mobile insurance apps, Lassie raises $25 million in Series B capital. Read more.

Arrested development: Europol arrests hackers who were allegedly behind a string of ransomware attacks. Here's what happened.

For those who have free time: Vimcal, a calendar app, raises $4.5 million to expand its team. See how it works.

Augment-ing your skills: French startup Augment, which recently raised $6 million, provides an MBA-like program — exclusively online. Get the scoop.

When B2B is H-O-T: Venture capital firm NXTP closes its largest fund to date with $98 million for early-stage B2B founders in Latin America. Learn about its third fund.

That's one way to pay: Candex lands a $45 million infusion to grow its procurement management business. Here's how.

Just when they thought they were out: Meta's new European Union ad-free subscription faces some early privacy challenges. Read more.

Game on: YouTube launches more than 30 "Playables" — minigames for Premium users. Here's how to play.

ABCs of IP: Solve Intelligence takes in new capital to help attorneys draft patents for intellectual property analysis and generation. Court is in session.

Your favorite songs, by Apple: Apple Music Replay is here. However, it's still no Spotify Wrapped. Listen up.

IPO yeah!: Now that Shein and Reddit made their intentions known to join the league of publicly traded companies, Alex lays out what the 2024 IPO cohort will look like. (TC+)

Tabs on talent: Nvidia is on a major recruitment mission across China, looking for talent to boost its autonomous driving endeavors. Read more.

Even more for your Tuesday:

Webull leaps into Mexico with acquisition of stock trading app Flink

Why 2024 could be a hot year for startup founders (TC+)

Oxford study says internet use doesn't harm mental health, but its research has limits

Paris-based startup studio Hexa raises some funding to launch even more startups

Wind.app makes DeFi accessible to the average consumer

More top reads image

Image Credits: The Image Bank / Getty Images

On the pods

Medicaid is in its regulatory moment. Today on Found, we're joined by Neil Batlivala from Pair Team, which is building the infrastructure that will help the most vulnerable populations get the clinical and social care they need through the Medicaid expansion.

Dom and Becca talked to Neil about how his previous health tech experience led him to start a company solely focused on connecting care facilities like food pantries and shelters to clinical training and care through Medicaid funding. Listen here.

Read More

On the pods image

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Flipboard

View this email online in your browser

Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe

© 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Automattic is 'short-staffed' amid ongoing drama

Plus: Apple releases a new chip for MacBook Pro ...