Author: TechBrunch
At TechCrunch Disrupt, three investors took to the stage to analyze what constitutes a pitch deck and what goes into it. Jyoti Bansal, founder turned investor. Defy's Medha Agarwal. and Jennifer Neundorfer of January Ventures shared their candid thoughts with the audience about what works and what doesn't in pitch decks. What is their biggest complaint? Too many buzzwords. Agarwal said the more a founder says about AI in their pitch, the less likely the company will use it. “People who are doing really innovative things talk about it and it's built in, but it's not the core of their…
It’s been three years since OpenAI released ChatGPT and kicked off a surge in innovation and attention on AI. Since then, optimists have regularly claimed that AI will become a critical part of the enterprise software industry, and so enterprise AI startups mushroomed on the back of immense amounts of investment. But enterprises are still struggling to see the benefit of adopting these new AI tools. An MIT survey in August found that 95% of enterprises weren’t getting a meaningful return on their investments in AI. So when will businesses start seeing real benefits from using and integrating AI? TechCrunch…
It was an ordinary day when Jay Gibson received an unexpected notification on his iPhone. “Apple has detected a targeted spyware attack on your iPhone,” the message read. Ironically, Mr. Gibson once worked for a company that developed the very type of spyware that could trigger such notifications. Still, he was shocked to receive the notification on his phone. He called his father, turned off his cell phone, and went to buy a new cell phone. “I was panicking,” he told TechCrunch. “It was a mess. It was a huge mess.” Gibson is just one of a growing number of…
When Kevin Hertz's security system failed to alert him late one night when an intruder rang his doorbell and tried to enter his San Francisco home, serial entrepreneur Kevin Hertz decided existing solutions weren't enough. His co-founder, Jack Abraham, experienced a similar setback at his home in Miami Beach. In 2024, they launched Sauron, named after the evil, all-seeing eye from “The Lord of the Rings,” to build what they envisioned as a military-grade home security system for the technological elite. The concept resonated in Bay Area neighborhoods, where crime has been a constant topic of conversation during and after…
India's startup ecosystem raised nearly $11 billion in 2025, but investors are writing far fewer checks and becoming more selective about where they take risks, highlighting how the world's third-rich startup market is moving away from the AI-powered capital concentration seen in the United States. The selective approach was most evident in trading. According to Tracxn, the number of startup funding rounds totaled 1,518, down nearly 39% year over year. Total funding declined even more modestly, falling more than 17% to $10.5 billion. That pullback was uneven. Seed-stage funding plummeted to $1.1 billion in 2025, a 30% decline from 2024,…
What does it take to raise a Series A in today’s market? As the AI boom reshapes industries, the goalposts are moving, the stakes are higher, and investors seem more picky than ever. At TechCrunch Disrupt, three investors – Thomas Green of Insight Partners, Katie Stanton of Moxxie Ventures, and Sangeen Zeb of GV – analyzed what they're looking for in the new year. The numbers tell a clear story. While the number of rounds of funding is decreasing, the size of deals is increasing, Green said, citing research. “It's never been easier to start a company, and it's never…
For more than a decade, dozens of journalists and human rights activists have been targeted and hacked by governments around the world. Police and spies in Ethiopia, Greece, Hungary, India, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere use sophisticated spyware to compromise victims' mobile phones, sometimes facing real-world threats, harassment and even death. In recent years, a team of more than a dozen digital security experts, primarily based in Costa Rica, Manila, and Tunisia, has played a key role in the fight to protect these high-risk communities. They work for the New York-based nonprofit organization Access Now,…
Each year, we ask some top investors what they think the next year will bring. Last year, some investors thought the IPO market would be back up and running by now (which didn’t quite happen), while others thought the momentum behind AI was poised to accelerate (and they were right). This year, TechCrunch did the same thing, talking to five investors from various markets about what they are preparing for in 2026. Here is what they said. What will it take for a founder to raise next year, compared to last year? James Norman, Managing Partner, Black Ops VC Raising in 2025 requires a shift…
TechCrunch's stocks team closes out 2025 with our annual predictions episode and moves forward into next year. Hosts Kirsten Kolosek, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Beran join Build Mode host Isabelle Johannesen to break down the year's biggest technology developments, from the surprise mega-AI funding round to the rise of “physical AI,” and give a rallying cry for 2026. The group tackled everything from why AI agents didn't live up to the hype in 2025 (but probably will in 2026) to how Hollywood will push back against AI-generated content to why VCs are facing a severe liquidity crisis. Listen to the…
It's the end of the year. That means it's time to celebrate the best cybersecurity stories we've never published before. Since 2023, TechCrunch has been collectively looking back at the year's best articles in cybersecurity. Even for those who are not familiar with it, the concept is simple. There are currently dozens of journalists reporting on cybersecurity in English. We publish tons of articles about cybersecurity, privacy, and surveillance every week. And many of them are great, so please read them. We are here to recommend the ones we like the most. So please keep in mind that this is…