Author: TechBrunch
A cybersecurity incident at analytics provider Mixpanel, announced hours before the US Thanksgiving weekend, could set a new standard for how data breaches are not announced. Summary: In a bare-bones blog post last Wednesday, Mixpanel CEO Jen Taylor announced that the company detected an unspecified security incident affecting some customers on November 8th, but she did not say how or how many were affected, only that Mixpanel had taken various security measures to “root out unauthorized access.” Mixpanel CEO Jen Taylor did not respond to multiple emails from TechCrunch containing more than a dozen questions about the company's data breach.…
Simular, a startup developing AI agents for Mac OS and Windows, has raised $21.5 million in Series A led by Felicis, with participation from NVentures (NVIDIA's venture arm), existing seed investor South Park Commons, and others. Simular is an interesting agent startup because, unlike other startups, it seeks to control the PC itself rather than the browser. (Agent AI refers to systems that can autonomously complete complex tasks with minimal human intervention.) “We can literally move a mouse and click on a screen, so we can repeat any human activity in the digital world,” co-founder and CEO Ang Lee told…
The Indian government is expanding anti-theft and cybersecurity efforts to include both new and used smartphones, a move aimed at curbing device theft and online fraud, but the move also raises new privacy concerns. As part of this expansion, India's Ministry of Telecommunications has made it mandatory for businesses buying or trading used mobile phones to verify all devices through a central database of IMEI numbers. This comes in addition to a recent directive directing smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the government's Sanchar Saathi app on all new handsets and push it to existing devices through software updates. Reuters first reported…
A coalition of law enforcement agencies coordinated by Europol announced on Monday the closure of cryptocurrency laundering service Cryptomixer. Europol confirmed the seizure in a press release, stating that Cryptomixer is “the platform of choice for cybercriminals seeking to launder illegal proceeds from a variety of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, arms trafficking, ransomware attacks, and payment card fraud.” Since 2016, cryptomixers have facilitated the laundering of 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in Bitcoin, according to Europol. Hackers and other criminals use laundering services such as Cryptomixer to obfuscate and hide the origin of cryptocurrencies. By design, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin…
OpenAI has taken ownership of Thrive Holdings, whose parent company is Thrive Capital, one of the AI giant's major investors. Thrive Holdings operates like an AI private equity firm, attracting companies it believes could benefit from the technology in areas such as accounting and IT services. Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, but the companies said it will include Thrive's internal engineering, research and product teams that have integrated OpenAI to accelerate AI adoption and drive efficiencies. If these companies are successful, their stake in OpenAI will increase and they will also receive compensation for their services, according…
On Monday, Clipbook, an AI-powered platform that helps companies monitor media coverage, announced a $3 million seed round co-led by Mark Cuban, Commonweal Ventures, and Carpenter Capital. The partnership came about because Clipbook founder Adam Joseph made a fiasco with a cold email that he didn't expect anyone to read, he told TechCrunch. Joseph launched Clipbook in 2023 and has grown it to $1 million in annual recurring revenue, he said. At that point, about a year ago, he felt ready to find investors. “I literally made a list of the top five media investors in the world,” Joseph recalls.…
South Korean e-commerce platform Coupang announced over the weekend that the personal information of approximately 34 million Korean customers had been compromised in a data breach that had been going on for more than five months. The company first discovered the breach of 4,500 user accounts on November 18, but announced that a subsequent investigation revealed that the breach actually compromised approximately 33.7 million customer accounts in South Korea. According to Coupang, the breach affected customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and certain order history. More sensitive data such as payment information, credit card numbers and login credentials…
David Sachs' role as President Donald Trump's artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar could work out very well for his investments and friends, according to a new report in the New York Times. But Sachs fired back in a post on X in which he described a five-month reporting process in which the accusations were “debunked in detail.” “Today they obviously just threw up their hands and put this nothing burger out there,” Sachs said. “If you read the article carefully, you'll see that they've pieced together a lot of anecdotes that don't support the headline.” This is not the first…
When the season ended earlier this month, Angel City FC finished 11th out of 13 teams, a disappointing result for the Los Angeles soccer franchise co-founded in 2020 by venture capitalist Kara Nortman. But the season's struggles are just part of a larger story that is reshaping the way investors think about women's sports. Despite the lackluster performance on the field, Angel City itself became a case study (literally, including within Harvard Business School) on how to best build women's sports facilities. The team's celebrity ownership group, which includes Natalie Portman and Serena Williams, helped generate near-unprecedented buzz. The franchise…
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.…