Author: TechBrunch

Yuka is a popular health app that allows users to scan food barcodes and instantly see a health ranking based on additives, sugar, saturated fat, and fiber. It also scans cosmetics and highlights harmful substances such as endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, allergens, and irritants. Yuka then recommends healthier options and helps consumers make more informed and prudent decisions. Since its introduction in France in 2017, Yuka has uncovered significant issues with major companies regarding harmful ingredients that many customers were unaware they were consuming. For example, French supermarket chain Intermarche changed 900 recipes and removed 140 additives due to pressure from…

Demand for HR technology solutions is growing in Africa, and Senegal's Socium is looking to capitalize on opportunities in the continent's French-speaking countries. Since 2021, Socium has been building HR solutions for users in 21 French-speaking African countries and plans to continue to focus on regions where it enjoys first-mover advantages. Socium co-founder Samba Lo (CEO) revealed these plans to TechCrunch, saying the startup has also raised $5 million in seed funding to fuel its growth plans in the region. “So, for us, developments in Francophone Africa are very interesting because we have the same economic community, we have very…

The union representing Hollywood actors and writers went on strike last year to ensure that AI systems took over their jobs. But Ben Affleck says actors and screenwriters don't need to worry about AI because it currently can't do either job and probably never will. “Movies are going to be one of the last things to be replaced by AI, even if everything is replaced,” Affleck said in an on-stage interview with CNBC last week. “AI can write great copycat poetry that sounds Elizabethan. It can't write Shakespeare.” Affleck, who currently runs a movie studio with Matt Damon, seems to…

After falling sharply in 2023, European technology funding appears to have stabilized in 2024, according to the latest European State of Technology report, but signs continue to point to tougher times ahead. An annual study produced by European venture capital firm Atomico points out that startups in the region are on track to raise $45 billion this year. While this is far from the 50% decline expected in 2023, it is still $2 billion lower than a year ago. (Note: Atomico originally projected $45 billion in 2023, which was later revised to $47 billion in 2023.) Atomico has been producing…

According to reports, the Department of Justice is seeking to force Google to spin off its Chrome browser business. This comes as Bloomberg reported that the Justice Department also plans to recommend to a federal judge that Google face antitrust requirements related to AI and its Android mobile operating system. The enforcement action is the culmination of a landmark, multi-year lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice against Google, which sought to establish that the tech giant had a monopoly on web search in the United States. The Justice Department won the lawsuit in August. Federal Judge Amit Mehta ruled…

Every IPO S-1 prospectus includes a section that lists all sorts of risk factors as to why the stock is not a buy. Many of them are routine warnings, warnings about financial performance, or about wars or acts of nature. However, some of them are company specific. For cloud services startup ServiceTitan, which filed public IPO documents with the SEC on Monday, we have another boilerplate warning that the large-scale language models (LLMs) that help the business grow can also lead to harm. We may be witnessing the birth of ServiceTitan had a 1,150-word risk factor about how the use…

It's no secret that the venture capital industry is facing a liquidity crisis, with few IPOs or other exits even after a record-setting 2020-2021. Now we have numbers that show how bad it has gotten. The U.S. venture capital industry invested $60 billion in startups in 2023, more than it recouped in revenue, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from PitchBook. This is the largest deficit recorded in PitchBook's 26 years of data. According to the data, U.S. venture capital firms returned just $26 billion worth of stock to investors in 2023, the lowest total since 2011. Despite the…

Online grocery shopping is generally convenient, but manually adding items to your cart one by one can be a bit tedious. To address this, food and grocery shopping app DoorDash has launched a new feature that lets you sync your grocery list to the app. The app will suggest what to add to your cart based on the items on your list. iOS users can also import lists from Apple's Reminders app. To use the new feature, first select the store you want to shop at. Next, look for the “Create List” or “Import List” button. Each item has a…

Marlon Nichols took to Afrotech last week to talk about the importance of building relationships when entering new markets. “One of the first things you do when you go to a new market is you have to meet new players,” he said. “For example, what do people need? What's hot right now?” Mr. Nichols is a co-founder and managing general partner of MaC Venture Capital. MaC Venture Capital has just raised $150 million Fund III and has invested more than $20 million in at least 10 African companies. He first invested in the African continent in 2015, before investing in…

From Keith Lavoie to Ethan Kurzweil, many VCs have changed companies or spun out of established VC firms to launch their own funds this year. These employment changes are surprising because unlike many other fields, venture capitalists traditionally don't move around much, especially those who reach the partner or general partner level. The lifecycle of a VC fund is 10 years, and partners have good reason to stay that way. In some cases, a company's fund may have a “key person.” This means that if they exit, the fund's LPs have the right to raise their capital if they wish.…