Author: TechBrunch
Co-founded by Alex Pall and co-founded by Drew Taggart of the electronic DJ group The Chainsmokers, Mantis Ventures has garnered a $100 million commitment from its third fund. At $100 million, the company's latest fund is 25% larger than Mantis' previous $80 million fund, a notable achievement that many venture companies struggle to maintain the size of their existing funds or secure new capital. Mantis invests in B2B companies such as cybersecurity company Chainguard and AI Financial Analyst startup Rogo. While most celebrities VCs focus on consumer companies, Pall and Taggart told TechCrunch last fall that their main interest lies…
Cameron John Weigenius, a former US soldier, pleaded guilty to attempting to hack the telecom company and force them by threatening to release stolen files, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. According to the DOJ, Wagenius, who came online under the nickname “Kiberphant0m,” stole login credentials, conspired to use brute force attacks and other techniques to fraudulent ten victim companies, used Telegram Group chat to forward stolen credentials and discussed the hack. Wagenius and his co-conspirators have sought to force victims in personal and public places, including hacking forums such as the infamous violation forum. They have committed other scams, including…
META fixed a security bug that allowed Meta AI chatbot users to access and view other users' private prompts and responses generated by AI. Sandeep Hodkasia, founder of security testing company AppSecure, told TechCrunch only that Meta paid him $10,000 in bug prize money for personal disclosure of a bug he filed on December 26, 2024. Meta deployed the fix on January 24, 2025, Hodkasia said, and no evidence of the bug being exploited was found. Hodkasia told TechCrunch that Meta AI has identified the bug after examining how logged in users can edit AI prompts to play text and…
As publishers worry about a decline in traffic from Google, the search giant has begun rolling out an overview of Discover, the main news feed within Google's search app for iOS and Android. Now, instead of looking at the headlines from major publications, users will see logos of multiple news publishers in the top left corner, followed by an AI-generated summary citing those sources. The app warns that these summaries are generated by AI and “can make mistakes.” Image credit: Google This feature has not yet been featured in all news articles within the Google app, indicating that this change…
The Ukrainian hacktivist group BO team claims it was hacked by the network of Russian drone maker Gaskar Group, disrupting its business. In a post on the Telegram Channel, the Bo Team announced the violation and said it carried out the attack along with military intelligence from Ukraine, another Hattivist group operating in Ukraine. According to machine translations of the announcement, the three groups will “conduct large-scale work to seize the entire Gaskar group's network and the entire server infrastructure, gathering valuable information about existing and promising.” [unmanned aerial vehicles]information destruction and disabling this infrastructure continues. ” The Bo team…
When Betsy Fore was five years old, her grandmother got a gift she never forgot. Decades later, the rabbit lent the name to the former venture company Velvetine Venture, which came true on Tuesday. “After nearly 20 years of building a business, I realized that being on the other side of the table can create the biggest ripples of this one precious life,” she told TechCrunch. Her company includes baby food company Tiny Organic (he became the first Native American woman to raise Series A) and app builder Wondermento. “Instead of building one thing, we can help other founders build…
The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone. We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human…
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Joseph Rutakanga spent eight years searching for tools to help businesses collect consumer insights data. Eventually, he decided to build them. Now called Rwazi, his startup has raised a $12 million Series A led by Bonfire Ventures, helping businesses with market intelligence and consumer insights. He founded the company in 2021 with co-founder Eric Swankambo. “Some traces of Canada and Australia, including the US, the UK and some Western Europe, were rich in consumer and market-level data. However, there was nothing available for use when it comes to international markets, including economic giants such as India, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Turkey…
Doge staff with access to millions of American personal information held by the US government reportedly exposed the private API key used to interact with Elon Musk's Xai Chatbot. Independent security journalist Brian Krebs reports that Marco Erez, a special government employee who has worked on sensitive systems for the US Treasury, Social Security, and Homeland Security in recent months, recently published the code on his github, including his private key. Key granted access to dozens of models developed by Xai. Philip Kachuagli, founder of consulting firm Seraris, warned Erez of the leak earlier this week. Elez removed the key…