OpenAI’s next flagship model might not represent as big a leap forward as its predecessors, according to a new report in The Information. Employees who tested the new model, code-named Orion, reportedly found that even though its performance exceeds OpenAI’s existing models, there was less improvement than they’d seen in the jump from GPT-3 to […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Bankrupt cryptocurrency company FTX filed 23 lawsuits Friday against Anthony Scaramucci (pictured above), his hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, and other organizations, including Crypto.com and the Mark Zuckerberg-backed lobbying group Fwd.us. These lawsuits are an attempt to claw back money for FTX’s creditors following the company’s collapse. FTX claims that the money targeted in these suits […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

After a chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was found inside a Huawei processor, the U.S. Department of Commerce has ordered the company to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, according to a report in Reuters. Huawei faces significant trade restrictions from the U.S., so the pause on shipments is supposed […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Lawsuits against X (formerly Twitter) will soon be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The shift was first announced last month as part of a broader set of changes to X’s terms of service and privacy policy. Now, with the changes set to take effect on November 15, The […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The company captures real-time customer behavior so companies can see who is genuine, and who is fraudulent, and identify the root cause of customer friction.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

UNest, a fintech startup that provides financial planning tools for parents saving on behalf of their children, announced today that it raised $26 million in Series B funding led by The Artemis Fund. Existing investor Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures participated alongside new investors including Franklin Templeton, Launchpad Capital, AltaIR Capital, OneWay Ventures, Unlock Venture Partners […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The service will launch in both the U.S. and Australia beginning early in 2022 and will be free for customers who pay on time.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The fintech giant Square is changing its name to Block, effective December 10. The name change, which has been in the works for over a year, is intended to house the company’s various products — including music streaming service Tidal, Cash App, TBD, and of course, Square — under one brand. This announcement comes just […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. It’s Friday, which means the whole crew was aboard for this particular episode. We had Grace and Chris behind the scenes, and Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex on the mics. And, frankly, we […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review! Last week, we took a break from contextualization for some guides to consumption. This week, we’re looking at what’s happening in the mind of one Jack Dorsey. You can get this in your inbox from the newsletter page, and follow my tweets @lucasmtny. the big thing While […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The NFT auction marketplace OpenSea had a blockbuster 2021 and as a result is seeing its private valuation grow more quickly than almost any other startup. The crypto firm announced late Tuesday that it closed a $300 million Series C round led by Paradigm and Coatue. The raise valued the startup at a massive $13.3 […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Late last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his position in order to give his full attention to his other company, Square (now called Block), which had become increasingly invested in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency — just like Dorsey himself. Now we’re starting to see the results of Block’s embrace of crypto, as […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Companies across the board are fighting to recruit and retain employees as the war for talent rages on. Employee benefits are no longer viewed as a cookie-cutter, standard set of offerings — rather, they are valuable tools employers can use to differentiate themselves from competitors and attract top candidates. Forma, which just changed its name […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In 2010, Bastian Gotter invested up to $200,000 into IROKOtv, an African video-on-demand company Jason Njoku, his friend and co-founder, launched in Lagos, Nigeria. For the next couple of years, Gotter, as CFO, was instrumental in turning IROKO — after raising over $30 million from VCs, including Tiger Global — into a household name in […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

How will all of these BNPL-focused providers fare with Apple pounding its way into their market?

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Mandolin, the digital fan engagement platform, launched two new products today with the aim of assisting artists with turning fans into superfans and maximizing revenue. Fan Navigator helps artists collect fan data and teaches them how to engage fans with digital experiences. Mandolin’s Fan Pages also drive fan engagement with a page for the artist […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Block, the company behind Square and Cash App, now supports Apple’s Tap to Pay for iPhone feature for merchants. Existing Square users or new businesses wanting to use Square can now use their iPhones to receive payments while using the fintech company’s financial management software. The Jack Dorsey-led company said that merchants can open the […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A plan which would see a corporate entity trademark the term “Web5” has been put to rest after much backlash. Late Tuesday night, TBD, the Bitcoin-focused division of Jack Dorsey’s payments company Block (formerly Square), announced an ill-thought-out plan to trademark the term, which refers to its vision for a decentralized, privacy-focused iteration of the […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Fintech giant Square says its services are coming back online after a daylong outage left small business owners unable to process payments. The Block-owned company had, up until Friday morning on the U.S. West Coast, been battling a prolonged outage that had downed its services since Thursday afternoon. In a new posting on its status […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Square said there was “no evidence” a cyberattack caused an outage that left customers and small businesses unable to use the payment giant’s technology on Thursday through early-Friday. The payments technology giant said in a post-mortem of the daylong outage that the outage was caused by a DNS issue. DNS, or domain name system, is […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

MobileCoin, the startup known for building Signal’s crypto payments feature, has appointed a new CEO as it works on expanding its encrypted money transfer service to global users in need of a more modern remittance solution. Sara Drakeley is taking the helm as MobileCoin’s new chief executive officer. Replacing her previous role as the firm’s […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Square, the financial services platform, is embracing generative AI in a very visible way. After announcing earlier this year that it would bring AI features to drive retail sales, Square this morning took the wraps off of new 10 — count ’em, 10 — generative AI capabilities focused on customer content creation, onboarding and setup. […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Jack Dorsey’s Block (the company formerly known as Square) announced today that it is releasing its hardware Bitcoin wallet, Bitkey, in 95 countries. However, users can only preorder the device at the moment, with shipping starting in early 2024. The device will cost $150 USD. Block’s pitch to Bitcoin holders is that using a self-custodial […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Block, the company behind Square, Cash App and other services, announced a new program today allowing merchants using Square’s solutions to convert a percentage of their daily sales to bitcoin. The feature, rolling out in the U.S. starting today, will transfer 1-10% of Square sellers’ daily sales to their personal Cash App account. This amount […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Frugal founders and savvy shoppers take heed. TechCrunch Disrupt, which takes place in person on October 18–20 — and online October 21 — can be a serious boon to your business. But our early-bird pricing disappears in a cloud of ruffled feathers on Friday, July 29 at 11:59 p.m. PT. You have just 48 hours […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

We’re T-minus 24 hours until the TechCrunch Disrupt early bird flies south and takes up to $1,300 in savings with it. If you’re serious about realizing your startup dreams, you need to be kind to your bottom line. Disrupt is packed with many long-tail opportunities, but this one ends in just 24 hours. Buy your […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Here’s an exciting reprieve for time-strapped or procrastination-prone early-stage startup founders. We’re extending the application deadline for the Startup Battlefield 200! Take your shot at joining this elite group for a new and awesome opportunity at TechCrunch Disrupt. It’s positively packed with perks and possibilities. Don’t delay: Apply to the Startup Battlefield 200 by August […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It takes a veritable army to make TechCrunch Disrupt — which takes place October 18–20 in San Francisco — the well-oiled experience that savvy startuppers have come to know and love. And we couldn’t do it nearly as well without our incredible volunteers. If you’re looking for a no-budget way to experience Disrupt up close […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

We see how hard early startup community members work to build their dreams. You’re all wicked busy, and that’s why we’re extending our early-bird pricing on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt, taking place on October 18–20 in San Francisco. You get one extra week to save up to $1,300, so shake your tail feathers and buy […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

We’re coming down to the wire, folks. Your chance to save early-bird pricing on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt ends this Friday. Our three-day flagship tech startup conference offers superior ROI at full price, but why spend more when you don’t have to? To-do today: Buy your early-bird pass to TechCrunch Disrupt by Friday, August 5 […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Building a successful startup requires an enormous amount of talent, hard work, money and, frankly, a bit of luck. Translation: You need to grab hold of every opportunity you can to make it happen. Well, heads up, early-stage founders. Your opportunity to join our inaugural cohort — the Startup Battlefield 200 — ends tomorrow. Don’t […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Time is running out on one of the biggest opportunities in Disrupt history. We stop accepting applications to the Startup Battlefield 200 tonight, August 5, at precisely 11:59 p.m. PDT. No more deadline extensions, no last-minute exceptions. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Lollygagger alert: Drop what you’re doing and go apply to the Startup Battlefield 200 right […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Team TechCrunch wants you! Forget the village, people. It takes a battalion of smart, eager people to produce a world-class tech conference as epic as TechCrunch Disrupt. That’s where you come in. We’re looking for volunteers interested in work exchange. You give us 10 hours of your time, and we’ll give you a three-day pass […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up… The scandal-hit company formerly known as Facebook has fought for over four years to keep a lid on the gory details of a third party app audit that its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally pledged would be carried out, back in 2018, as he sought to […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A multi-year investigation into TechCrunch’s parent entity Yahoo — looking at compliance with key transparency requirements of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including in relation to cookie banners displayed on its media properties — has taken a step forward today after Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced that it has submitted a […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yahoo is taking a nearly 25% stake in advertising network Taboola. In exchange for this move, Taboola is becoming Yahoo’s native advertising partner through a 30-year commercial agreement. If you’re not familiar with Taboola, you may have seen its content recommendation widgets on popular news websites, such as USA Today, Insider and The Weather Channel. […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Taboola expects to get bigger, more profitable and more self-sustaining than before thanks to Yahoo.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yahoo is laying off 20% of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its ad tech business. Yahoo is the parent company to TechCrunch. Employees were notified on Thursday that 12% of the company (1,000 employees) would be laid off before the end of the day. In six months, another 8% — or 600 people — […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yahoo today announced that it has acquired Wagr, a three-year-old social sports betting startup based out of Nashville. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. TechCrunch, whose parent company happens to be the now Apollo-owned Yahoo, covered Wagr way back at its inception in 2020 at one of its early investor’s demo days. We noted […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yahoo is introducing new AI tools for Yahoo Mail that are aimed at helping users save time and money, the company announced on Monday. The rollout includes upgrades to several of Yahoo Mail’s existing AI features, and introduces a new Shopping Saver tool. Yahoo is TechCrunch’s parent company. The new Shopping Saver tool surfaces gift […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yahoo, otherwise known as the company that pays my salary (full disclosure: Yahoo owns TC), today announced that it’s spinning off Vespa, the big data serving engine, into an independent venture. Jon Bratseth, previously a VP architect in the big data and AI group at Yahoo and one of the main contributors to Vespa, has […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yahoo is acquiring Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the company announced on Tuesday. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Artifact will no longer operate as a stand-alone app, and its AI-powered personalization technology will be integrated across Yahoo, including the Yahoo News app in […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

News that Yahoo is buying Artifact stirred the technology watercooler yesterday. Artifact was an interesting app, employing AI to help its users find and consume more, and more targeted news. It had some devoted fans, but never reached the sort of scale that would have made it an attractive long-term project. So, the Instagram founders […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yahoo’s AI push isn’t over just yet. The company, also TechCrunch’s parent, recently launched AI-powered features for Yahoo Mail, including its own take on Gmail’s Priority Inbox and AI summaries of emails, and today it’s rolling out an AI-powered version of its Yahoo News app, leveraging technology it acquired from its latest acquisition, Artifact. Still, […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our short-form week-starter in which we go over the weekend, look to the week ahead, talk about some neat funding rounds and dig into what is stuck on our minds. So, by section then: […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It’s no secret that a massive digital transformation is happening within financial services companies and amid the growing number of non-financial outfits that are also adding financial products to their offerings. Still, Sheel Mohnot, who was formerly a general partner at the fintech fund of 500 Startups, and Jake Gibson, co-founder of personal finance startup […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Weezy — an on-demand supermarket that delivers groceries in as fast as 15 minutes — has raised $20 million in a Series A funding led by New York-based venture capital fund Left Lane Capital. Also participating were U.K.-based fund DN Capital, earlier investors Heartcore Capital and angel investors, notably Chris Muhr, the Groupon founder. Although […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

During every economic boom, there are startup investors who appear on the scene from new corners. Some churn out; others earn the respect of the old guard over time. Jake Paul would be happy to be in the latter camp. Then again, the 24-year-old didn’t become a social media star by being conventional. Little wonder […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Coupang early investor Ben Sun shares an inside look into the growth of the Korean e-commerce giant and explains how founder Bom Kim led a pivot when the company was already an established business.

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Like other financial sectors in Latin America, the retail investing space is getting a facelift by local tech startups that are cashing in on the untapped potential for democratizing asset management in the region. One of those startups is Chilean-based Fintual, which today announced a $15 million round led by Kaszek Ventures, the largest fund […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.