Author: TechBrunch

Welcome to Startups Weekly, your weekly dose of the can't miss happenings from the startup world. Want to receive it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week proved once again that the startup world is not uniform when it comes to taking risks. This week's most interesting startup stories Image credit: Neurode While post-acquisition layoffs and controversy following risky decisions aren't entirely surprising, there's more encouraging news on the innovation front. Team downsizing: Italy-based app company Bending Spoons is set to lay off 75% of the staff at WeTransfer, the Dutch file-transfer startup it acquired in July.…

Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator plans to increase the number of cohorts it runs each year from two to four starting in 2025, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Y Combinator president Garry Tan told the site that despite the changes, the number of companies going through YC each year will remain roughly the same, meaning each cohort will be about half the size it has been in recent years. Doubling the cohorts will mean doubling the demo days, Tan added, giving investors more time to meet with startups. The upcoming fall program will begin on September 29th, just a few days…

If you're wondering whether your Facebook and Instagram posts are being used to train parent company Meta's AI models, the answer is almost certainly yes. That's probably not all that surprising: Meta has already said it uses user content and data to train its AI, but this week the company's global privacy director, Melinda Claybaugh, acknowledged just how much of that content is actually being used. The topic came up during a question and answer session with Australian lawmakers, with Greens senator David Shoebridge saying, “Meta has decided to remove all photos and text from all public posts posted on…

Telegram has had a tough time in recent weeks. The messaging app’s founder, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in late August on charges of running a company that aided in the distribution of child sexual abuse material, facilitating drug trafficking and organized fraud, and has since been released on €5 million bail. As expected, this has caused the price of the network’s cryptocurrency, Toncoin, to plummet by a third. But there was no gloom in the long line of people waiting to get into a party hosted by TON, a blockchain that runs on Telegram, on Seoul’s upscale Dosan-daero…

Exclusively at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Martin Casado will tackle one of the most pressing issues facing the tech industry today: AI regulation. A pioneer in software-defined networking and a key figure in the venture capital industry, Casado brings his deep expertise in building and investing in transformative technologies to provide insight into why startups, in particular, need to take AI regulation seriously. Having successfully transitioned from entrepreneur to investor, Casado brings a unique perspective to the discussion about the impact of regulatory frameworks in the…

What could be scarier than Friday the 13th? What if we discovered that an AI is still in its awkward adolescent stage? At least, that's what TC Equity pod crew hosts Devin Caldway and Kirsten Kolosec and TC reporters Tim De Chant and Dominique Madri-Davis were there to help us this week. AI is a common topic on Equity, and this week was no exception. AI seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Take Apple, for example. As Coldewey pointed out on the show, Apple isn't dabbling in AI. The tech giant touts its AI capabilities, but…

Vanta CEO and co-founder Christina Cacioppo will take to the SaaS stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to share how Vanta is redefining security and compliance automation to drive innovation through AI. Under her leadership, Vanta achieved a $2.45 billion valuation in just five years and rapidly grew to serve over 8,000 businesses, including SmartRecruiters, Intercom, Miro, and ZoomInfo. At Disrupt, Cacioppo will share her journey from startup founder to unicorn CEO and provide actionable insights on scaling in dynamic markets. Cacioppo also discusses how Vanta is looking to go beyond traditional compliance and turn security management into a strategic advantage…

On Thursday, cybersecurity giant Fortinet disclosed a breach of customer data. In a statement posted online, Fortinet said the intruder accessed “a limited number of files” stored on a company-owned, third-party shared cloud drive that contained data from “less than 0.3%” of its customers. The company said the incident “did not involve encryption of data, deployment of ransomware, or access to Fortinet's corporate network.” Based on the company's most recent full-year revenue, Fortinet has “more than 500,000 customers,” suggesting the breach could affect at least 1,500 of Fortinet's corporate customers. The breach was first reported by Bleeping Computer, which quoted…

Meta has confirmed that it is relaunching efforts to train its AI systems using public Facebook and Instagram posts from its UK user base. The announcement comes three months after Facebook's parent company suspended the plan due to regulatory pressure in the UK. The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has expressed concerns that the company may use UK user data to train AI-generated algorithms. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), Meta's lead regulator in the European Union (EU), has also opposed Meta's plans after receiving feedback from multiple data protection authorities in the EU. There is no word yet on…

Following in the footsteps of other tech giants, Spotify announced on Friday that it will introduce in-app parental controls in the form of “supervised accounts” for listeners under the age of 13. The new feature will initially be available as a pilot program for parents or guardians on a Family plan in select markets, including Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden. Once enabled, parents can manage their young listeners' accounts and block videos, content playback, and even Canvas videos (looping videos that accompany music playback) for content labeled as inappropriate. Additionally, parents can use the new controls to decide whether their…