Author: TechBrunch
In recent years, some women who have focused on careers and late marriage ages have been pushed to consider maintaining fertility through egg freezing. However, the sudden cost of the procedure, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000 per trial, means that many women cannot afford it in their 20s to early 30s in their most fertile years. CoFertility, a startup founded by former Uber executive Lauren Makler and Health Tech Angel Investor Halle Tecco, offers women's non-cost egg freezes in exchange for donating half of their recovered eggs to those who cannot conceive. Three years ago, the startup raised a $7.25…
A new shipbuilding startup called Blue Water Autonomy was born out of stealth with a promise to develop a naval vessel without a captain. The Boston, Massachusetts-based company has raised $14 million seed rounds from Eclipse VC, Riot and impatience ventures. The startup was founded in 2024 by Irobot, a former member of the US Navy and a leader of Amazon Robotics. Blue Water Autonomy is on a growing list of startups using their splurge on defence investments. Defense technology funding set new records in 2024, led by Andrill's $1.5 billion Series F round and Salonick. The startup says it…
ChatGpt became the world's most downloaded app in March, excluding games and tops regular candidates, Instagram and Tiktok. This is the first time the app has surpassed the monthly download chart and the biggest month of ChatGpt. According to new data, CHATGPT installations rose 28% from February to March to reach 46 million new downloads during March, App Intelligence Provider AppFigures recently reported. This led the app to go slightly ahead of Instagram and drop to second place. Tiktok continued at number 3. Image credits: AppFigures Perhaps helping to drive the installation, ChatGpt saw some notable upgrades in March. This…
YouTube is considering potentially offering the ability to set a daily timer to limit the time users spend on shorts. Recent findings from the beta version of the YouTube app, first reported by Android Authority, suggest that the platform is developing features that help to stop the infinite scrolling of shorts. YouTube told TechCrunch that the feature is not currently available, but it is “exploring this for the future,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. This code indicates that a daily timer allows the user to set a specific number of hours. When the allocated time runs out, the shorts will…
Spotify announced Friday it plans to invest 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) to increase the production of audiobooks in languages other than English, starting with French and Dutch. The investment shows that Spotify is eager to have more English titles in its limited library as it seeks to compete with major players like Audible in the $8.7 billion global audiobook market. Spotify started in these languages, as adoptions were particularly slow in France and the Netherlands. According to the company, less than 3% of French books are currently available in audio format, with only 20,000 audiobooks in France comparing…
TechCrunch Session: AI is coming soon. So, what does that mean to you? That means that the display tables are almost gone – and now it's a chance to grab it before they all sell out. If you have a game-changing product that introduces you to the world of AI, don't be quiet. Show your brand in front of leaders and visionaries in the AI community. On June 5th, 1,200 AI leaders, investors and visionaries will gather at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, California. They are looking for tools, solutions and technologies that will help them move faster and think bigger.…
Mark your calendar – StrictlyVc London is located close by on May 13th. Designed for founders, entrepreneurs and investors, this exclusive gathering promises deep VC insights and high value connections. We are excited to welcome the first pair of Nazomusa, managing director of Paladin Capital Group, and Axel's partner Sonari DeRiker. Meet the speaker There are more speakers going on, but for now it will take a little time to get to know the first two. Visit our Events page for the latest updates and more information about both. Mystic Musa Nazo Moosa is the European Managing Director of Paladin…
In recent years, some women who have focused on careers and late marriage ages have been pushed to consider maintaining fertility through egg freezing. However, the sudden cost of the procedure, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000 per trial, means that many women cannot afford it in their 20s to early 30s in their most fertile years. CoFertility, a startup founded by former Uber executive Lauren Makler and Health Tech Angel Investor Halle Tecco, offers women's non-cost egg freezes in exchange for donating half of their recovered eggs to those who cannot conceive. Three years ago, the startup raised a $7.25…
Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been over two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential replacements, but few aside from Meta’s Threads have achieved the speed of growth Bluesky has reached. As of February 2025, Bluesky has surpassed 30 million users. Its growth stems from several policy changes at X, including a heavily criticized change to the block feature…
Social network Bluesky is rolling out a new version of the software that employs some of the features previously X users have missed. No, it's not an edit button! Instead, open social networks have added support for chat responses to direct messaging features, directing search pages to “exploring”, and directing users to trends, recommended accounts, starter packs and more. Both of these features are inspired by X. This allows users to respond directly to messages using emojis from 2020 onwards. X will expand its functionality in a few years, allowing users to select emojis beyond the default set. Bluesky offers…