Author: TechBrunch
Thirteen years ago, when Chris Farmer founded SignalFire, an early-stage venture company in data analysis at the core of his investment strategy, many were skeptical of his approach. Traditional wisdom has determined that early companies do not have enough data to make their investment algorithms effective. “This was a very radical idea and everyone thought I was crazy,” Farmer (pictured above, on the right, CTO and partner Ilya Kirnos) told TechCrunch. There have been a lot of changes since Signalfire raised its first $53 million fund 2015. Today, more venture companies are adopting data-driven strategies in addition to, or sometimes…
The leak sites used by the Everest Ransomware gang were hacked and tainted this weekend, TechCrunch learned. A leak site that forced the victim to pay ransom demand by publishing stolen files, claiming, “Don't commit a crime.” At the time of writing, the site was still slandered. It is not clear whether the gang experienced a data breach as a result of the hack. Image credit: TechCrunch (screenshot) Everest is a prolific Russian-related ransomware gang that has claimed multiple hacking and data breach credits since its founding in 2020, including the theft of data from more than 420,000 customers from…
How has Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg added to the signal group chat with Trump administration officials discussing plans for airstrikes in Yemen? The simplest explanation: National Security Advisor Mike Waltz saved Goldberg as a mobile contact and accidentally added him. In fact, when Waltz first claimed that Goldberg's phone number was “sucked” by another contact, Goldberg scoffed, “This isn't a 'matrix'.” However, the Guardian concluded that an internal investigation conducted by the White House Information Technology Bureau had more complicated things. Automatic iPhone proposals play an important role. After Goldberg sent an email to the White House to comment on…
For years, US-based tech companies have grown India's vast and growing internet user base. Openai is no exception. However, AI Labs claim that India is one of the fastest growing ChatGpt markets, while third-party data suggests that Openai may be struggling to turn its momentum into revenue. According to Analytics Firm Sensortower, Indian users have spent $8 million on ChatGPT subscriptions through in-app purchases since 2023. This does not include purchases via the ChatGpt web app. But in particular, it's just a small portion of the $330 million Sensol Tower that we users spent on ChatGPT within the app. One…
President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for the Tiktok ban for 75 days. Trump shared a post about Truth Social on Friday. The announcement will be made one day before the ban is scheduled to come into effect. “My administration has worked very hard to save Tiktok, and we have made great strides,” Trump wrote. “This transaction requires more work to ensure that all necessary approvals are signed, which is why we are signing an executive order to keep Tiktok up and running for another 75 days.” Today's announcement marks the second time Trump has extended the deadline for…
A year ago, Bluesky was opening up to the public and was known as one of the many X competitors that emerged after Elon Musk acquired the network formerly known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky’s social network has grown to over 33 million users, while the technology it’s built upon — the AT Protocol (or ATProto for short) — is being used to develop dozens more applications designed to work together as part of an open social web. The developers behind many of these apps attended the first conference dedicated to the AT Protocol, ATmosphere, held in Seattle last weekend. There,…
The temporary restart of the IPO window has already been closed again. The public stock market has fallen free-fall after President Trump announced he had wiped out tariffs, and two of the highly anticipated IPOs in the tech industry are suspended, the Wall Street Journal reports reports from Klarna and Stubhub. Stubhub, both Fintech Klarna and Ticket Marketplace, released public documents for the IPO last month. Both are scheduled to launch roadshows next week, and spoke with potential investors about the IPO, but they have decided to postpone it, a source told WSJ. Both Klarna and Stubhub declined to comment…
On his 50th birthday, Microsoft is teaching the AI-powered Copilot Chatbot some new tricks. Copilot can take action on “most websites,” Microsoft says, allowing you to book tickets and book restaurants. The bot has acquired the ability to remember certain things about you, just like your favorite foods and movies, as well as Openai's ChatGpt. You can also analyze real-time video from your mobile phone and answer questions in the context of “watching.” The upgrade is reportedly Microsoft is pondering the Copilot update. Copilot is often behind rivals ChatGpt and Google's Gemini. As of Friday, Copilot can complete tasks on…
Since IPOS was slow to drip a few years ago, limited partners investing in venture capital funds have had one huge problem. This is a lack of fluidity. The lack of cash revenues is particularly troublesome for the offices of wealthy individuals and their small family who manage wealthy assets, as they invested heavily in VC funds. Locking funds in venture capital has been a major problem for entrepreneur Mike Hearst. After selling the exact (the payment startup he founded) to Citi National Bank in 2018, he invested most of the revenue from the exit into tech stocks and venture…
TechCrunch All Stage, our big event for startup founders at every stage of fundraising (see what we did there?) will be appearing at the Sova Power Plant in Boston on July 15th. And we are pleased to announce that Underscore VC investment partner Chris Gardner will be joining the loaded lineup of speakers by leading a breakout session entitled “Age of Ai: What and Bot and When Not Not.” Spoiler: Expect to learn a lot about using AI for minimal, viable products. Our limited time discount on investors and founder passes will soon be over, each with a discount of…