Author: TechBrunch
These days, it's not easy to become a limited partner investing in a venture capital firm. LPs that fund VCs face a liquid asset class. Fund lives are nearly twice as long as before, emerging managers face life-or-death financing challenges, and billions of dollars remain locked up in startups that may never justify their 2021 valuations. Indeed, at a recent StrictlyVC panel in San Francisco, five prominent LPs representing endowments, funds of funds, and secondary firms that manage more than $100 billion collectively painted an alarming picture of the current state of venture capital, arguing that an area of opportunity…
Nicholas Rudder continued to run into the same tax problem when building his last startup, an education marketplace called ScholarSite. “Every new country means a maze of registrations, applications, deadlines, and risks because marketplaces are required to pay taxes on their entire GMV (gross merchandise value), not just their take rate,” Rudder told TechCrunch. “It was a constant distraction. Instead of building a business, I was spending my time deciphering international compliance regulations, which I didn't want to be an expert on.” He and co-founder Adrian Sarstedt were about to shut down ScholarSite (later called Sphere), so Rudder decided to…
In 2023, Tayla Cannon immigrated to the United States from Australia in search of a job in a city she had never seen before. “I don't have any family, I don't have any friends, I just have a fresh start,” she told TechCrunch. Suffering from chronic back pain, she began her career in physical therapy because she believed it could help make a difference in the lives of others. However, the traditional physical therapy model never quite appealed to her. She moved to interventional cardiology, but her disillusionment grew even greater.She said she uses a physical rehabilitation model that is…
DoorDash has disclosed a data breach that exposed the personal information of an unspecified number of users, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. Despite the fact that hackers stole phone numbers and addresses, DoorDash said that “no sensitive information was accessed by unauthorized third parties and there is no indication at this time that the data was used for fraud or identity theft.” DoorDash said in a post that the breach affected its customers, delivery personnel, and merchants. The company did not respond to requests for comment, including questions about exactly how many users were victims of the…
On Monday, a new model context protocol security startup called Runlayer launched in stealth with $11 million in seed funding from Keith Rabois and Felicis of Khosla Ventures. It was created by its third founder, Andrew Berman (previous companies: baby monitor maker Nanit and AI video conferencing tool Vowel, which was sold to Zapier in 2024). In the four months since Runlayer launched its product in stealth, it says it has signed deals with dozens of customers, including eight unicorns or public companies, including Gusto, Ripling, dbt Labs, Instacart, Opendoor, and Ramp. Berman also told TechCrunch that the company has…
A Russian telecommunications company that develops technology that allows phone and internet companies to monitor and censor the web has been hacked, its website defaced and data stolen from its servers, TechCrunch has learned. Founded in Russia, Prorei makes telecommunications systems for telephone and internet providers in dozens of countries, including Bahrain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Pakistan and much of Central Africa. The company, currently headquartered in Jordan, sells video conferencing technology and internet connectivity solutions, as well as web filtering products such as surveillance equipment and deep packet inspection systems. It's unclear exactly when and how Prorei was hacked, but…
According to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), $580 billion will be spent on AI data centers worldwide in 2025 alone. That's $40 billion more than would be spent on new oil supplies, leading to the conclusion that data centers are the new oil field. But is this a net positive for the environment, or just another type of resource drain? On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Kolosek, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Beran dig into what this spending shift means for the energy grid, climate technology, and whether taxpayers should pay for Big Tech's infrastructure ambitions. Listen to…
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that five people have pleaded guilty to aiding North Korea in defrauding U.S. companies by posing as remote IT workers. The five are suspected of working as “middlemen'' who helped North Koreans find jobs by providing their real identities or the false and stolen identities of more than a dozen Americans. The intermediaries also placed company-issued laptops in homes across the United States to make it appear that the North Korean workers lived locally, according to a Justice Department press release. These measures affected 136 U.S. companies and generated $2.2 million in revenue…
If there's one thing VCs agree on when backing AI startups, it's that AI requires a different investment approach than previous technology changes. “These are funky times,” said Eileen Lee, founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures, on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. The longtime venture capitalist said some AI companies have gone from “zero to $100 million in revenue in a year,” and the rules for investing have changed dramatically. But Lee also pointed out that, based on her firm's research, Series A investors aren't just looking for rapid revenue growth. “It's an algorithm with different variables and different…
In the debut episode of the Build Mode podcast, host Isabel Johannessen speaks with Deon Nicholas, co-founder of Forethought AI, to uncover what it really takes to build a company that lasts, with and for your customers, from day one. Build Mode is TechCrunch's new podcast, a messy, tactical, real-talk version that pulls back the curtain on how startups are actually built. Season 1: Product, Meet Market goes beyond product-market fit to consider all aspects of getting your product into the hands of your customers, from finding the right users and gaining their trust to turning initial traction into lasting…