Author: TechBrunch

$1 billion in venture capital is set to be invested in European defense technologies in 2024, a first for the continent and a five-fold increase since 2018. The investment comes in the wake of growing geopolitical instability and Russia's brutal aggression in Ukraine. Data contained in a new Dealroom report shows that venture capital investment in defense-related technologies across NATO member states and their allies has increased 25% more than any other type of investment, totaling $3 billion since 2018. Since then, the majority of investment in the sector has been captured by German, British and French startups, which together…

Peak XV Partners, India's largest venture fund, has invested about $1.2 billion since splitting with Sequoia last year, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The investor has sold stakes in nearly 10 portfolio companies that have gone public in the past year, including food delivery group Zomato, cosmetics retailer MamaEarth and anti-spam company TruCaller. The company has also sold stakes in privately held startups such as K12 Techno, Pocket Ace and Pinsafe through secondary transactions and M&A. The company's current total cash flow is $2.85 billion. Peak XV declined to comment. The exodus comes as India's stock market…

There are two basic approaches to nuclear fusion power: one is to create a tiny star on Earth, held in place by a strong magnetic field, and the second is to use powerful lasers to create even smaller stars, repeating the process several times per second. Moritz von der Linden thinks the latter is more likely: in a world rushing to move away from fossil fuels, fusion power promises to provide a virtually limitless source of energy, using widely available materials to recreate conditions hotter than the surface of the sun. But most analysts believe fusion power is still at…

OpenAI's chief research officer Bob McGrew and vice president of research Barrett Zoff left the company hours after OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announced her departure. CEO Sam Altman announced the latest resignations and the company's leadership transition plans in a post on X on Wednesday night. “While Mira, Bob and Barrett each made these decisions independently and amicably, given the timing of Mira's decision, it makes sense to do this all at once so we can work together to ensure a smooth transition to the next generation of leadership,” he said. Altman said vice president of research Mark Chen has…

Japan is a strong market for incorporating technology into the food consumption experience, and one of the startups currently leading the way on this idea is attracting investors from across the ocean. Dinii, which allows users to order food from restaurants and shops through a mobile platform, has raised $48 million (7.46 billion yen). Bessemer Venture Partners and Hillhouse Investment Management led the investment, with participation from Ecelectic and Flight Deck Capital. Notably, this is the first time Bessemer has invested in a Japanese startup. Mao Yamada (CEO) and Kazuki Otomo (CTO) founded Dinii in 2018 after working part-time at…

When seed-focused Pear VC raised a $432 million fund last year, co-founder Peyman Nozad said it meant the firm had achieved “unique product-market fit.” Its fourth fund was nearly three times the size of its previous $160 million fund. The 11-year-old firm wants to help emerging venture funds follow in Pear's footsteps, and on Wednesday it announced the Pear Emerging Manager in Residence program, which will bring three promising pre-seed and seed venture funds to Pear's offices for collaboration, including sharing deal flow and due diligence. Pear will also invest in these managers' funds, facilitate LP introductions, and write $250,000…

Y Combinator, the famed Silicon Valley startup accelerator, on Wednesday kicked off a two-day “Demo Day” event to showcase what companies from its latest YC batch, S24, are building. As expected, the focus of the day was AI companies, with startups such as Elayne, which is trying to apply the technology to issues like estate planning and probate, Baseline AI, which is working on automating clinical trial data, and Passage, which helps companies clear goods through customs. Sectors that have dominated YC cohorts in the past, such as fintech, healthcare and Web3, were noticeably quiet or completely absent from Wednesday's…

Following the sudden departure of OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, CEO Sam Altman is reportedly poised to receive his first shares of the company as the company transitions away from the longtime non-profit. Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that OpenAI plans to restructure into a for-profit public benefit corporation, similar to rivals such as Anthropic and Elon Musk's xAI. The nonprofit OpenAI board, which currently oversees OpenAI's commercial operations, will give up control of the new for-profit OpenAI organization but will retain a minority stake. The move is aimed at making the company more attractive to outside investors…

AI has already given us some strange demos, and it's only going to get weirder, folks. As the tech world slams headfirst into the uncanny valley, the lines are blurring and everything is getting weirder and weirder. Take Wednesday's Meta Connect keynote, for example: Meta AI and Llama demos were running constantly throughout the event, but one in particular stood out for its strangeness. Mark Zuckerberg invited creator Don Allen Stevenson III onto the stage, where the Meta CEO picked up the phone and carried on a conversation with the AI-generated Stevenson while the real Stevenson stood between him and…

During its developer keynote at the Meta Connect conference on Wednesday, the company pitched its Quest mixed reality platform as the next big app store to developers, saying that with tech giants like Apple and Google facing tougher regulations over their app store monopolies, Meta is working to make it easier for mobile developers to move over to Meta's Horizon OS. “Today we're happy to announce that if you can develop for Android, you can also develop for Meta Horizon OS in your favorite language and favorite IDE. And to make it available to everyone, we've completed the transition to…