Author: TechBrunch
New Pitchbook data shows that AI is dramatically dominating startup investments. 2025 will be the first year in which AI accounts for more than half of all VC money invested. According to Bloomberg, Pitchbook reports that the VC has poured $192.7 billion into the industry so far, of its total $366.8 billion. In the most recent quarter, AI accounted for 62.7% of funds invested by US VCs and 53.2% of funds invested by global companies. Most of that money will be named for marquees like Anthropic, which announced the $13 billion Series F in September. Meanwhile, the number of startups…
Earlier this year, Anker, a Chinese company that manufactures Euphoric security cameras, provided the money to users in exchange for packaging and video of theft of the car. The popular internet-connected security camera maker said paying customers $2 per video to train their AI systems will help them better detect thieves stealing cars and packages. “We are looking for videos of both real and stage events to ensure sufficient data. “You can also create events by pretending to be a burglar and donate those events,” the website reads. “You can complete this quickly. Maybe it's efficient and easy as you…
The Social Event Planning app has firmly replaced Partiful, known as the “Hot People Facebook Events,” as its go-to platform for sending party invitations. However, what has in common with Facebook is that it collects tsunamis of user data, which has helped keep that data safe. In particular, the host can create online invitations with the biggest retro atmosphere, allowing guests to make RSVP an event, making it easier for them to order salads on the touchscreen. Partiful Teem is user-friendly and trendy, and aims to drive apps to #9 on the iOS App Store lifestyle chart. Google called Partiful…
Welcome to YC Arena. This is a game suite that gives you a vague sense of what it's like to be a partner in YC, rather than a top secret fight club for the founders of Y Combinator. YC Partner Simulator Game for YC Arena, created by students in Berlin, is released along with the year of the year with published pitch videos from companies that applied to YC. Click Accept or Reject, then check if you made the same selection as YC. Image credit: Ycarena It's much more difficult than it looks. It is estimated that YC will accept…
Space economy is no longer just about rockets and satellites, but also about creating entirely new models for building resilient infrastructure, deploying autonomous systems, and operating and defending off-earth assets. TechCrunch will be held in 2025 at Moscone West, San Francisco on October 27th-29th, and is where these earthquake changes in space innovation will be realized. This week we will be registering as a group and storing it on a large scale. If you register for groups 4-9 at 11:59 pm before today, save up to 20% with your ticket. Or, if you're going solo, save up to $444 by…
TechCrunch's founder and investor bundle sale will be live in 2025, but only until 11:59pm tonight. This is the only chance of this year, savings on the group bundle of founder pass and even bigger discounts on group investors' passes. From today, these transactions have disappeared. The 2025 disruption brings together over 10,000 founders, investors and operators from around the world to tackle the toughest challenges and uncover the biggest opportunities for technology. Image credit: Nomugarai Why is this important to founders? TechCrunch is not just a meeting, it's a startup launchpad. With the Founder Pass, you get: Founder First…
The well-known English-speaking hacking group has launched a website to force victims and threatened to release around a billion records from companies that store customer data in a cloud database hosted by Salesforce. A leisurely organized group known as Lapsus $, publishes a dedicated data leak site on the Dark Web, known as the scattered spiders and Shinyhunters, and called the scattered Lapsus $Hunters. The website, first discovered by threat intelligence researchers on Friday and seen by TechCrunch, aims to pressure victims to pay hackers to prevent stolen data from being published online. “Please contact us to regain control over…
When Jamie Gar graduated from Stanford University in 2007 with a Masters in Aeronatics, there was one place he wanted to go next: the Desert. Specifically, the Mohab Desert. A company called Scaled Composites has spent years developing experimental aircraft on its dry land, and Gall wanted it. He may have tried to get a more traditional aerospace job, but Gar was worried about “working for five years at Latch.” But with scaled composites? “I knew to build something, and I'll do it soon, and I'll be a graduate of a university who owns the actual results,” he said. Two…
Zehra Naqvi, 26, grew up as an obsessive fangirl in the 2010s. This was the time of Tumblr and Twitter. She gets up all night, breaking Marvel movie release dates and analyzing the movements of One Direction members. She eventually gained 250,000 followers on two platforms. “These early internet rabbit holes taught me how magical it felt to contribute to culture, not only to consume it,” she told TechCrunch. She founded the company at the age of 12, studied art history in Colombia, and later became a consumer investor at Headline Ventures. (She also writes the popular consumer newsletter The…
Consumer AI is at a breakout moment. Few startups have won the spotlight like Phia this year. The AI-powered shopping assistant has become one of 2025's most talked about launches, not just the vision for Gen Z Shops, but also the vision of the founder of the powerhouse, which leads Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni. In the 2025 destruction of TechCrunch, which took place in West Moscon in San Francisco on October 27-29, the two share how to build Phia into durable consumer brands, what it takes to expand in one of the most competitive markets of technology, and how…