Author: TechBrunch
James McGinnis has been obsessed with decarbonization and the energy grid since he was in high school over a decade ago. Now his startup, David Energy, has the ambitious goal of running the energy grid entirely on clean energy within the next decade. Brooklyn-based David Energy is a software-enabled retail energy provider. The company sells electricity to small businesses and residential customers in select states, including New Jersey and Massachusetts, similar to Southern Company and Pacific Gas & Electric. But unlike those incumbents, the company is entirely focused on clean energy and helping customers optimize their energy usage and reap…
Jump, a French startup that offers a modern take on the umbrella company concept, has raised €11 million (about $12 million at current exchange rates) in a Series A funding round. Jump offers full-time contracts to freelancers looking for the stability and benefits that come with full-time work. The company acts only as a managing partner, while workers remain independent. They can work with multiple clients and negotiate contracts directly. Today's funding round was led by Breega, with participation from Index Ventures and Raise Ventures. The startup raised €4 million (about $4.5 million) in 2021. After signing up, freelancers can…
A new Financial Times profile of Masayoshi Son begins with the SoftBank CEO appearing to have hit rock bottom, staring at his “ugly” face on Zoom and telling himself he's “done nothing to be proud of.” The scene is being portrayed as a harbinger of an expected comeback for Son, who has largely disappeared from the public eye since SoftBank's Vision Fund suffered huge losses on investments including WeWork. Lionel Barber, author of a new Son biography, “Gambling Man,” says Son appeared to be “engaging in asceticism” but was actually “plotting a comeback.” Now SoftBank is betting big on AI,…
Legendary designer Jonathan Ive, who left his full-time role at Apple five years ago, is working on a new startup with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. The collaboration was first reported last year, and Ive confirmed it in a New York Times profile about his post-Apple activities. If the startup has a name, Ive hasn't revealed it, but it was apparently hatched during a dinner with Altman last year, where the two discussed the possibilities of generative AI. Ive's company, LoveFrom, is leading the design, and its profile states its goal is to create “products that use AI to…
The IPO market is not rebounding sharply in 2024 as many investors had hoped — at least not yet. Rising interest rates (despite a 50 basis point cut this week) and uncertainty related to the U.S. election are causing many companies to remain private, waiting for market conditions to improve. However, several companies did go public this spring, including Ibotta, a business rewards platform that builds back-end rewards program infrastructure for corporate clients such as Walmart and Exxon. It listed on the New York Stock Exchange on April 18. The company priced its IPO at $117 per share, above its…
Apple's iOS 18 update was rolled out to all users on September 16. Ahead of the release of Apple Intelligence, the most significant new features are the ability to customize home screen icons, swapping app shortcuts on the lock screen, a redesigned Control Center, support for RCS, and a new Passwords app. But there are lots of other small and fun changes that you might find useful. We've compiled a list of our favorite hidden features that you may have missed. setting Listing all your apps on the main page of the Settings app can lead to a lot of…
The world of cybersecurity is full of jargon and jargon. At TechCrunch, we've been writing about cybersecurity for years, but we still need to refresh our memory from time to time to see what exactly certain words and phrases mean. So we've created this glossary, which contains some of the most common (and not-so-common) words and phrases we use in our articles, along with explanations of how and why we use them. This is a developing overview and will be updated regularly. The ability to execute commands or malicious code on an affected system, often due to a security vulnerability…
With the long-standing tension between proprietary and open source software (OSS) unlikely to resolve anytime soon, a startup with a $3 billion market cap is throwing its weight behind a new licensing paradigm — one packed with new definitions, terminology and governance models, designed to bridge the open and proprietary worlds. Developer software company Sentry recently introduced a new licensing category it's calling “Fair Source,” and Sentry is among the first adopters, along with a half-dozen others, including GitButler, a developer tools company founded by one of the founders of GitHub. The Fair Source concept is designed to help companies…
Speaking at the United Nations Future Summit on Saturday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI as the “most transformative technology ever” and announced a new fund for AI education and training around the world. According to a transcript of his prepared remarks, Pichai noted four big opportunities for AI and sustainable development: giving people access to information in their own language, accelerating scientific discovery, providing warnings and tracking of climate disasters, and boosting economic development. Pichai also acknowledged that AI poses risks such as deepfakes, but did not address the impact AI will have on the climate. He added that…
Budget hotel company Oyo, one of India's largest start-ups, has inked a deal to acquire Motel 6 operator G6 Hospitality. OYO will pay $525 million in all-cash to Blackstone Real Estate in a deal that also includes the Studio 6 extended-stay brand and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. The Indian startup opened its first U.S. location in 2019 and now operates more than 320 hotels across 35 states. OYO has a franchise network of about 1,500 in the U.S. and Canada and is dramatically expanding its presence in North America with the acquisition of…