Author: TechBrunch

On Wednesday night at PlayGround Global in Palo Alto, some very smart people who are building things we don't yet understand will explain what's coming. This is the last StrictlyVC event of 2025 and the line-up is truly ridiculous. The series was sponsored by TechCrunch and broadcast around the world. Steve Case rented a theater in Washington, DC. We spoke with the Greek Prime Minister in Athens. Kirsten Greene hosted us at the Presidio in San Francisco. However, the concept is always the same. Get people working on really important developments in a room before anyone else understands their importance.…

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human…

At least three London councils are responding to an ongoing cyberattack, prompting authorities to shut down networks and phone lines and activate emergency plans. Local authority authorities covering the London boroughs of Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster said they were sharing IT systems as part of a joint agreement and were focused on “protecting systems and data, recovering systems and maintaining essential services for the public”. Hammersmith and Fulham City Council has also been affected by the cyber attack, according to the city's website. The council, which provides public services such as housing, social services and garbage collection, did not explain…

The always fun-filled Slush conference took place in Helsinki last week and, as always, was a show of the growing power of the European ecosystem. Scandinavia in particular is having a moment, this time led by Swedish vibe-coding darlings Loveable. Loveable is seen as an example of a growing ecosystem of successes. Although older names, other standout companies include Klarna and Spotify. This week on Equity, we spoke to Dennis Green-Lieber, founder of AI company Propane, about the rapid growth of the Nordic ecosystem. Green-Lieber is based in Denmark and has been building its ecosystem over the past 15 years.…

Several public websites designed to help courts in the U.S. and Canada manage potential jurors' personal information had simple security flaws that could easily leak sensitive data such as names and home addresses, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. A security researcher, who requested anonymity for this story, contacted TechCrunch for details on the easily exploitable vulnerability and identified at least a dozen jury websites created by government software maker Tyler Technologies, which he said appear to be vulnerable because they run on the same platform. Our locations are located throughout the country, including California, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and…

Italian company Bending Spoons had been operating largely under the radar until last month. Within 48 hours, the company announced its acquisition of AOL and a major $270 million raise, quadrupling its valuation to $11 billion from the $2.55 billion it set in early 2024. Bending Spoons has grown rapidly by acquiring struggling technology brands like Evernote, Meetup, and Vimeo, then increasing profitability through aggressive cost-cutting and price increases. The firm's approach is similar to private equity, with one important difference. That said, Bending Spoons has no plans to sell these businesses. Andrew Dumont, founder and CEO of Curious, a…

Google has partnered with Accel to discover and fund early-stage AI startups in India in a first-of-its-kind collaboration for the Google AI Futures Fund, launched earlier this year. On Tuesday, Accel and Google announced a partnership to co-invest up to $2 million in each startup through Accel's Atoms program, with each company contributing up to $1 million. The 2026 cohort will focus on Indian and Diaspora founders who are building AI products from day one. “The thought process is to not only support AI products built in India for the global market, but to build AI products for billions of…

The Trump administration has disbanded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the controversial federal cost-cutting team previously led by Elon Musk, even though the department still had months left in its term. Reuters first reported over the weekend that DOGE was disbanded, ending a months-long effort by Musk and his associates, many of whom were recruited from various private companies, to curtail allegations of fraud, waste and reduce workforces across the federal government. DOGE was created by an executive order signed by President Trump in January. The effort was expected to last nearly two years. As of early November, DOGE…

Several major U.S. banks and mortgage companies are reportedly rushing to investigate how much customer data was stolen in a cyberattack on a New York financial technology company earlier this month. SitusAMC, which provides technology to more than 1,000 commercial and real estate lenders, acknowledged in a statement over the weekend that it identified the data breach on November 12th. The company said that during the cyberattack, unspecified hackers stole corporate data related to SitusAMC's relationships with bank customers, as well as “accounting records and legal contracts.” The statement added that the scope and nature of the cyberattack “remains under…

Cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike confirmed last month that it had fired a “suspicious insider” who allegedly provided information about the company to a notorious hacking group. A hacking collective known as Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters published screenshots on a public Telegram channel late Thursday and early Friday morning that showed insider access to CrowdStrike systems. A screenshot seen by TechCrunch shows a dashboard with links to company resources, including the user Okta dashboard that employees use to access internal apps. The hackers claimed on their Telegram channel that CrowdStrike was compromised by a recent breach at Gainsight, a customer relationship management company…