Author: TechBrunch

NSO Group, one of the most famous and controversial makers of government spyware, released a new transparency report on Wednesday as the company enters a “new phase of accountability.” But the report, unlike NSO's previous annual disclosures, lacks details about how many customers the company has rejected, investigated, suspended or fired for human rights violations involving its surveillance tools. The report includes promises to respect human rights and put controls in place to require customers to do the same, but provides no concrete evidence to support either. Experts and commentators who have been tracking NSO and the spyware market for…

Internet connectivity collapsed across Iran on Thursday amid nationwide protests, according to a web monitoring company. “I think we are almost completely cut off from the outside world right now,” Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity researcher at the nonprofit Mian Group, told TechCrunch. Doug Madry, director of internet analytics at Kentik, a company that monitors internet traffic around the world, agreed, telling TechCrunch that Iran's internet has been in a “nearly complete blackout” since around 11:30 a.m. Thursday on the U.S. East Coast, or 8 p.m. local time in Tehran. A graph showing how internet traffic dropped in Iran around…

The Illinois Department of Health has confirmed that years of security lapses have compromised the personal information of more than 700,000 state residents. The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) announced in a statement on January 2 that an internal mapping website containing residents' personal information that the agency used to help allocate state resources was inadvertently made available to the public from April 2021, when a security flaw was discovered, to September 2025. Officials said the leaked data included personal information about 672,616 Medicaid and Medicare Savings Program beneficiaries. The data included addresses, case numbers, and demographic data, but…

Investment in consumer technology startups has been stagnant since 2022 as turbulent macroeconomic conditions and rising inflation have made VCs wary of consumer purchasing power. Over the past few years, most AI investments have focused on acquiring enterprise customers that offer fat checks, multi-year contracts, and rapid scale-up paths. But one venture capital firm believes the consumer sector is gearing up for a comeback in 2026. “This is going to be the year of the consumer,” Vanessa Larco, a partner at venture firm Premise and a former partner at NEA, said on this week's episode of the Equity podcast. Even…

After many years leading General Catalyst's seed strategy, Niko Bonatsos has left the company. Bonatsos, known for backing IPO-hopped Discord and $10 billion startup Mercor, told TechCrunch he plans to start a new early-stage VC firm with “friends.” Mr. Bonatsos is the latest investor to leave General Catalyst, which recently expanded beyond the traditional venture model. In recent years, General Catalyst has announced an asset management business, a strategy focused on PE-style AI rollups, and a Customer Value Fund (CVF) that provides non-dilutive financing secured by recurring revenue to late-stage startups. Other recent departures from General Catalyst include Deep Nishar…

Lux Capital, a 25-year-old VC firm known for investing in cutting-edge science and technology, has closed its ninth fund at $1.5 billion, the largest in its history. It's not hard to see why limited partners continue to flock to Luxe, even though 2025 marked the lowest number of new VC funds raised in the U.S. in a decade, according to PitchBook. The company has been investing in defense technology for years before geopolitical changes made the sector one of the most desirable investment categories. Lux was a seed-stage investor in Anduril, which was last valued at $30.5 billion, and Applied…

Wall Street is once again murmuring the possibility of a Discord IPO. Popular chat and community platform Discord has filed confidential IPO documents with the SEC and is hopeful for a March debut, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The company hired leading high-tech IPO banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as underwriters. If the tea leaves continue to be positive about the product, the public could get a peek into Discord's financials next month. But we'll have to wait and see. Even if investors are enthusiastic, it's not yet clear whether 2026 will be a better market for…

Venture capital firms DST Global and Iconiq are joining Swap Commerce, an e-commerce startup based in London and New York. On Wednesday, the startup announced it had raised $100 million in new funding, just six months after raising $40 million in a Series B round led by Iconiq. Founded in 2022, Swap Commerce provides an AI-powered platform that enables brands to build web storefronts and process cross-border transactions, inventory management, and returns. The platform is popular among luxury clothing brands, and the company specifically targets companies looking to sell their products globally. The company declined to comment on the latest…

LMArena, a startup originally launched in 2023 as a research project at the University of California, Berkeley, announced Tuesday that it has raised $150 million in Series A at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion. The round was led by Felicis and UC Investment, the university's fund. The startup landed a $100 million seed round in May at a valuation of $600 million, launching it out of the gate as a commercial venture. This new round means the company has raised $250 million in about seven months. LMArena is best known for its crowdsourced AI model performance leaderboards. The company's…

The founder of a U.S.-based spyware company whose surveillance products allowed customers to spy on the phones and computers of unsuspecting victims has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his company's long-running operations. pcTattletale founder Brian Fleming entered a guilty plea Tuesday in San Diego federal court to charges of computer hacking, selling and promoting surveillance software for illegal use, and conspiracy. The plea comes after a multi-year investigation by investigators from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HSI began investigating pcTattletale in mid-2021 as part of a broader investigation into the consumer…