Author: TechBrunch
As always, more rumors have popped up in the days leading up to the event. Among the more recent (all Apple Watch related) interesting rumours are that the Apple Watch Series 10's blood pressure monitoring feature will not be coming to the Watch Ultra 2, Apple Intelligence features are limited to the Watch but will be integrated into fitness coach-like features in the future, and both models will reportedly have sleep apnea features, though they likely won't be available at launch. Apple will unveil the iPhone 16 at its “It's Glowtime” event on September 9. That much is certain. But…
The data architecture of today's enterprises is completely different from 20 years ago, but monitoring and tracing tools haven't kept up, making it difficult for engineering teams to pinpoint the root cause of errors or latency issues. Israeli developer Eden Federman believes the solution is a more advanced observability method: distributed tracing, but has found that adoption is lower than he expected due to high implementation hurdles. This prompted him to co-found Odigos, a startup that helps companies easily monitor the complex, cloud-native systems that process massive amounts of data, as is often the case today. He and CEO Ari…
The bookkeeping, accounting, and finance startup for small businesses has finally raised $50 million in a Series B funding round and secured a $150 million credit line, as first reported by TechCrunch. The funding comes just seven months after the fintech company announced it had raised $10 million in funding, bringing the total amount the Miami-based company has raised since its founding in 2018 to $305 million in debt ($235 million in credit facilities) and equity ($74 million). Felix Rodriguez came up with the idea after watching his Dominican-born family start businesses in the U.S. He also experienced challenges when…
Car rental giant Avis said the personal information and driver's license numbers of hundreds of thousands of people were stolen in a cyberattack in August. In data breach notification letters filed with several U.S. attorneys general over the past week, the New Jersey-based company said it discovered an intruder in one of its business applications on Aug. 5 and worked to stop the unauthorized access that began two days earlier. Avis has not disclosed the nature of the cyberattack, and details of the incident are unclear. An Avis spokesman did not respond to an email seeking comment about the cyberattack.…
Indian electric scooter maker Ather Energy plans to raise about $370 million in an initial public offering, according to a draft prospectus (PDF) filed on Monday, as the startup seeks to capitalize on growing demand for electric vehicles in the world's third-largest auto market. The Bengaluru-based startup, which competes with recently listed rival Ola Electric Inc., is targeting a valuation of $1.5 billion to $2 billion, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The company plans to sell new shares in the IPO as well as up to 22 million shares from existing investors. Other Energy declined to comment. The…
As European startups continue to search for signs of lasting market confidence beyond the hype surrounding AI companies, Atomico, one of the region's largest and most iconic venture capital firms, has raised more cash to make investments that could signal real market movement. The venture capital firm has raised a new fund totaling $1.24 billion to back early- and growth-stage startups across the region. London-based Atomico is calling it its “largest fundraise to date,” but it's technically spread across two pools of capital: Atomico Ventures VI, a $485 million fund aimed primarily at Series A companies (with some reserved for…
When Apple unveiled its AI plans at WWDC in June, analysts suggested the feature could put the iPhone 16 on track for a new “super cycle.” Industry watchers thought that, like the addition of 5G before it, the arrival of Apple Intelligence might persuade non-iPhone buyers to upgrade their devices. Things will likely get better once the company unveils the iPhone 16 at its “It's Glowtime” event in Cupertino tomorrow, but in the meantime, it's believed that the slow rollout of Apple Intelligence could seriously hurt the chances of a supercycle. In June, Apple showed the world its AI efforts,…
Elon Musk has denied reports that one of his companies, Tesla, is in talks to split revenue with another company, xAI, and allow it to use the startup's AI models. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that, according to a draft deal outlined to investors, Tesla will use the xAI model for its driver assistance software (FSD, or Full Self-Driving). The AI startup will also help develop software for Tesla's voice assistant in cars and for its humanoid robot, Optimus. Musk wrote on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that he had not read the WSJ article, but called…
After weeks of political limbo, France has a new prime minister, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, but parliament remains deeply divided, creating uncertainty for many sectors of the economy, including the country's dynamic startup ecosystem that has so far benefited from popular support. French Tech is not just a term referring to 25,000 startups in France, but also an initiative supported by the French Tech Mission, a French government agency. The mission's director, Clara Chapaz, is stepping down this month at the end of her three-year contract, she told Les Echos. The timing is coincidental, but noteworthy: Chapaz told TechCrunch…
Bending Spoons, the Italian app company that owns Evernote and Meetup, plans to lay off 75% of the staff at file-transfer service WeTransfer, TechCrunch has learned. Bending Spoons acquired the Dutch company in July for an undisclosed amount. The company confirmed WeTransfer's layoff plans to TechCrunch. Employees who will be let go will be notified once Bending Spoons has gone through local regulations regarding layoffs in each country. Dutch media reported that WeTransfer has more than 350 employees. Bending Spoons CEO Luca Ferrari said the company typically researches the organizations it acquires to determine the best vision for the business…