Author: TechBrunch

Google has made the biggest acquisition in its history. The company's parent company, Alphabet, has acquired cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion. Transactions will require regulatory and other approvals before closing. From what we can see, Google and Wiz have yet to confirm official things. Other outlets also report that transactions have been made. Previously, Google's biggest acquisition was to buy Motorola Mobility in 2011 for $12.5 billion. The deal has been repeated in nearly a year and appears to be revived this week. (Assaf Rappaort, CEO of New York-based WIZ, is currently in Israel.) Last year, Google offered…

Nigerian food procurement startup Bendase supported by Y combinations is changing employee wage structures and seeking fresh capital, TechCrunch learned. This comes after graduating from 44% of the workforce (about 120 employees) and then marking second round of employment cuts in five months a month. According to an internal document seen by TechCrunch, in the latest development, the startup has replaced the employee's traditional payroll with a performance-based pay system. The five-year-old startup, which raised $30 million in the Series A round led by Parttech Africa and TLCOM Capital, said restructuring was needed to navigate profitability. Vendease's new compensation model…

President Donald Trump's widespread tariff hikes have already resulted in reduced growth forecasts amid an uncertain public mood. But on Tuesday, one food e-commerce startup, Grubmarket, seemed impervious to these macroeconomic concerns. It announced a new $50 million share round at a valuation of over $3.5 billion. Funding Round – Series G includes participation from 3spoke Capital, Joseph Stone Capital, Liberty Street Funds, Pegasus Tech Ventures, Pinegrove Capital Partners, Portfolia, and Roc Venture Group. In the food secondary market, which is estimated to be worth around $1 trillion a year, Grubmarket's valuation is rising rapidly behind the growing balance sheet.…

Google's parent company, Alphabet, is giving an advanced talk again to get the Cloud Cybersecurity Startup Wiz. The companies were close to securing the deal at a $23 billion valuation last summer, but the deal was not possible. The prices discussed this time will be higher, people said. A price of approximately $30 billion has been reported by the Wall Street Journal. Thomas Kurian, head of Google's Cloud Division, is once again leading the effort. Google Cloud considers Wiz's cloud security products to be suitable for its customer base, and Wiz's annual recurring revenue (ARR) is also attractive. This was…

One of the more tense rivals in the startup world doesn't wear gloves. On Monday morning, the HR company announced a lawsuit against Deal, another big player in the same space. The dramatic 50-page complaint advocates for supporting and beating assault, misappropriation of trade secrets, unlawful interference, unfair competition, and violations of fiduciary duties. The lawsuit focuses primarily on employees who worked as spies for Deal. Deel denied the allegations in the statement in a similarly glamorous way in a statement to TechCrunch, setting the stage for an even more dirty laundry broadcast. “Weeks after Ripples was accused of violating…

The world is bad at times, but if you can't stop staring closely at the deep by all consumption, the 6-inch screen of your smartphone, you'll feel even worse if you can't chase you through space and time. It untie you with a compact and light build that is compact enough to slip into your pocket and take anywhere. That siren call is so strong that for some reason you can't sleep on the nightstand without a phone. If we get through the fears around us, if you don't pick up your phone dozens of times a day, it may…

If you scrolled too much through the endless feed about nothing, you might have recommended touching the grass. It's a tongue-like suggestion, essentially telling you to log off and go outside. However, one developer took the concept to the next level. Rhys Kentish launched an iOS app called Touch Grass last week. This app locks apps that will literally leave you outside and take a photo of the grass. Image credit: Touchglass (opens in new window) “I struggled with screen time and thought about looking down at my phone for seven years if I didn't change anything,” Kentish told TechCrunch.…

The Fintech segment has grown significantly during and shortly after the pandemic, and has been pretty rough in 2024, ending with a sudden shutdown of the accounting startup bench and an unexpected takeover. The rapid pace of fundraising has slowed down, but some fintechs continue to see growth and continue to expand their teams. To better understand how many fintechs could fit this category, I called last year to ask the fintech companies I employ. After just an hour I got over 12 responses. Over the course of several days, I have heard from over 60 companies. The huge number…

It is risky to create a startup that competes with your previous employer. For example, Apple once sued a former Chip Design executive who founded his own chip startup in a case that was dropped in 2023. Recent cases of Logistics Unicorn Flexport and a new competitor formed by two former employees shed light on those risks. Flexport is suing the pair, claiming they stole thousands of documents along with source code to create their own rival startup, Cargo Mate AI. Both startups use technology to automate complex logistics and shipping processes. Flexport believes that cargo ship Yingwei Zhao has…

Openai will soon begin testing how business customers can connect apps such as Slack and Google Drive to ChatGpt. According to documents viewed by TechCrunch, Openai plans to begin testing a new feature called the ChatGpt connector. ChatGpt Connectors allows subscribers of the ChatGPT team to link their Workspace Google Drive and Slack accounts to ChatGPT, allowing chatbots to answer questions notified from files, presentations, sheets, and Slack conversations on those accounts. Openai plans to extend the ChatGpt connector to other platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint and Box in the future. “This makes it easy to use internal information similar…