Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Good morning, and welcome to TechCrunch AM! Today we have news about TikTok, though not about its potential ban for once; a massive new round for browser tech of all things, and notes on an early-stage venture capital fund. Let's get started! — Alex

TechCrunch Top 3

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1. TikTok risks Apple's ire: It appears that TikTok is offering some users a way to buy its in-app tipping tokens outside of Apple's App Store. By our understanding of Apple's rules, TikTok is breaking them. Recall that similar actions from Fortnite led to its removal from the App Store. Read More

2. $175M will buy you (a part of) Island: What happens if you take Chromium, the guts of most modern web browsers, and make an enterprise-grade version? Well, Island has done exactly that and its wager appears to be paying off. With a fresh $175 million round under its belt at a $3 billion valuation, Island's software is turning heads in both corporate and venture circles. Read More

3. Hyde Park Venture Partners closes $98M fund: Chicago-based Hyde Park Venture Partners has closed its fourth fund, totalling just under $100 million. TechCrunch reports that the early-stage venture firm with a Midwest focus has already made two investments with the new vehicle. Read More

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Morning Must Reads

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Midi Health wants to improve women's midlife health: This telehealth startup is focused on connecting women with healthcare providers who understand perimenopause and menopause symptoms and treatments. The company's business model is clearly resonating, as it recently closed a $60 million Series B. Read More

API security is big business: API attacks are becoming more common by the day, and Traceable tells TechCrunch that the rise of genAI means that more businesses are interacting with more APIs. That makes for a larger threat landscape. The startup, which focuses on making APIs more secure, just banked a big round to continue growing. Read More

Should your N95 mask light up? Maybe not. That's the lesson from Razer's recent tangle with the FTC over some masks it sold back in 2021 that it said were N95-rated, but weren't. Sure, they looked cool, but they don't appear to have been quite as functional as advertised. Fees and penalties are the order of the day. Read More

Around the Web

$100B: That's Amazon Web Services' (AWS) new run-rate after it reported revenue of $25 billion in the first quarter of 2024. Even more impressively, AWS generated operating income of $9.4 billion in the same period. That's kinda bonkers, frankly. Read More

Don't skimp on your taxes: Or, eventually, you will get in trouble. Even if you're part of the bitcoin world. Fortune reports that Roger Ver, also popularly known as "Bitcoin Jesus," is in trouble after allegedly dodging $50 million worth of tax. Read More

What is gpt2-chatbot? A new AI model is causing waves in technology circles. The gpt2-chatbot model appeared mysteriously on a major large language model benchmarking site, and it was seemingly very high performance. Then it got taken offline. Gizmodo has the deets. Read More

Before You Go

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TwitchTok: Calling the feature a "discovery feed," online livestreaming service Twitch is building a TikTok-style service that allows users to watch short clips from streamers, helping them find new creators to follow. I would normally mock such blatant borrowing, but in this case, it seems to make good sense and is something that I would use. Read More