Author: TechBrunch
Users with iPhone iOS 18 or later can now replace their Flashlight or native camera lock screen shortcuts with the Snapchat camera. When using a shortcut to take a photo or record a video, users must unlock their phone before sharing. Snapchat says that on average more than 55,000 snaps are created every second, and this integration makes it easier for the app to capture moments as they happen. To set up the integration, you need to long-press on your iPhone's lock screen, select the “Customize” option, and tap “Lock Screen.” From there, tap the controls at the bottom of…
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a formal investigation into Alphabet's investment in AI rival Anthropic. The inquiry says the CMA is inviting “stakeholders” to comment on Alphabet's various investments in Anthropic, which were reported at $300 million early last year and a further $2 billion since then. This was carried out three months after the confirmation. The investigation, which has now been launched, is part of a multifaceted investigation aimed at tackling so-called “quasi-mergers”. The merger is taking a new approach to gaining control of young, innovative startups, with big tech companies hiring startups. Not only…
According to multiple sources, Notion is close to launching an email product called Notion Mail. Earlier this year, Notion acquired Skiff, a privacy-focused email service and app. At the time, Skiff said there would be a 12-month termination period to allow users enough time to migrate to another email service. For months, users on Reddit have been sharing hints of what Notion is working on on its email product. Some people have reported finding URLs for development environments, while others have found login pages for email products. As of this writing, when TechCrunch entered mail.notion.so into a web browser, “Notion…
Smashing, the new app that curates the best of the web from Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler, is now generally available. Like Goodreads, this app is also about creating communities around content. But this time, the focus is less on books and more on web content such as news articles, blog posts, social media posts, and podcasts. Additionally, Smashing is introducing an AI questioning feature. This allows you to engage with the content being shared in a variety of ways, such as viewing a news article from different perspectives or asking AI to poke holes in the article. By looking at…
The co-founders who sold their last startup to Spotify are working on new projects. It's an AI-powered education startup called Oboe, backed by a $4 million seed investment. The new company from Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano aims to democratize access to learning the way their previous startup, Anchor, made it possible for anyone to create a podcast. In short, Oboe aims to create user-friendly interfaces that help people accomplish the task at hand. In this case, knowledge is augmented through a combination of AI technology, audio, and video. “This idea is something that Mike and I have been talking…
Boardy, a professional networking startup powered by AI voice technology, announced Thursday the closing of a $3 million pre-seed round. The company was co-founded by CEOs Andrew D'Souza, Matt Stein, Shen Sivananthan, and brothers Ankur Boyed and Abhinav Boyed. They came up with the idea in March, started building it all summer, and just officially launched this month. The mechanism is simple. Users provide their number to Boardy.ai and of course receive a call from an AI voice assistant named Boardy. That person chats with Boardy and tells the AI what he is working on. Boardy then checks to see…
Supply chain disruptions cost the global economy trillions of dollars every year. In a recent McKinsey poll, 9 out of 10 companies said they faced logistical challenges in the past 12 months. Major transportation routes have been disrupted, and the headwinds are only increasing. Attacks on cargo ships continue in the Red Sea. Floods have disrupted car production in Europe. And trade tensions are hampering the movement of manufacturing equipment to Southeast Asia. Not surprisingly, supply chain risk intelligence companies like Interos have had no trouble enrolling customers these days. Earlier this year, Interos secured major contracts with the Department…
Finix has spent years slowly chipping away at Stripe, which processes payments for millions of businesses. But the startup previously helped businesses build their own in-house payment systems before officially becoming a payment processor, similar to Stripe, in 2023. Now, Finix is gearing up for its biggest offensive yet against the fintech giant. In an interview with TechCrunch, CEO and founder Richie Serna said becoming a payment processor was a “huge change” for the business and was a key driver of the $75 million funding announced Thursday. spoke. When Serna founded Finix, he saw it not as a payments business,…
US venture capital giant General Catalyst announces $8 billion in new funding to ramp up investment in multi-sector early-stage startups around the world, with particular focus on the US, Europe and India did. This capital accounts for approximately $4.5 billion in “core VC funds” spanning seed and growth equity financing, while $1.5 billion is for new company formations by repeat or “proven” founders. The funds will be used for so-called “creative strategies” that focus on support. Another $2 billion is for “separately managed accounts,” which are specialized investment vehicles typically created for a single institutional investor. “As a global investment…
Lithuania's Vinted has been given a new valuation of 5 billion euros (approx. 5.4 billion). The deal was led by private equity giant TPG, with additional participants including Baillie Gifford, FJ Labs, Hedosophia, Invus Opportunities, Manhattan Venture Partners, and Moore Strategic Ventures. It's unclear how much Vinted's existing investors have cashed out, but the company said all existing institutional investors, including Accel, EQT, Insight Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners, retained at least some stake. That's what it means. This year is proving to be a bumper year for secondary market deals, as scale-up companies look to free up liquidity for…