Author: TechBrunch

India's second-largest telecommunications operator Airtel on Friday denied any intrusion into its systems, following reports of suspected security flaws that raised concerns among customers. The telecoms group, which also sells productivity and security solutions to businesses, said it had conducted a “thorough investigation” and found there had been no intrusion into Airtel's systems. The telecom giant, which has around 375 million subscribers in India, dismissed media reports about the alleged leak as “nothing but a desperate attempt by vested interests to tarnish Airtel's reputation.” The company's statement comes following unconfirmed reports of a possible data leak circulating in local media…

According to a recent Deal Room report on the Spanish tech ecosystem, the combined enterprise value of Spanish startups will exceed €100 billion in 2023. In the latest evidence of this upward trend, Madrid-based venture capital fund Seaya has closed Seaya Andromeda, a €300 million climate technology fund from Madrid-based “Article 9”. Article 9 refers to the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which places a responsibility on investment firms to ensure that their investments have a positive impact on society and the environment. Seaya has been in existence for 12 years and focuses primarily on mission-driven startups in Europe and…

Geneva, Switzerland-based startup venture capital firm Forestay has been busy. This week the firm closed its second fund, Forestay Capital II, at a hard cap of $220 million. The firm was relatively unknown in Europe until a few years ago when it began leading funding rounds for enterprise startups, most notably Zurich-based scanning software startup Scandit, which has raised $273 million to date. The Forrestay II fund will target its “sweet spot” of investing in key growth rounds of $10 million to $15 million at companies' transition stages, and will invest across Europe and Israel. To date, the venture capital…

Threads, Meta's Twitter alternative, has just celebrated its first anniversary. Since its launch on July 5 last year, the social network has hit 175 million monthly active users, a remarkable achievement. But a year later, Threads is still finding its own voice, not as newsworthy as Twitter/X, and not as open as Mastodon or Bluesky. At least for now. Over the past year, the Threads team has been rapidly releasing features and soliciting feedback directly from the social network's users. Since launch, Threads has gained support for multiple profiles, a web app, a Tweetdeck-like interface on desktop, trending topics in…

J2 Ventures, a company run largely by U.S. military veterans, said Thursday it has raised $150 million in its second fund. The Boston-based firm invests in startups whose products are purchased by civilians and the U.S. Department of Defense. At a time when many emerging venture capital firms are struggling to raise second funds, J2's latest fund is more than double the size of its first fund of $67.5 million in 2021. At first glance, the company might seem like it is benefiting from growing venture capital interest in defense technology. But J2 isn't interested in positioning itself as a…

Health technology services provider HealthEquity on Tuesday disclosed in a federal regulatory filing that it had fallen victim to a data breach in which hackers stole “protected health information” of some of its customers. In an 8-K filing with the SEC, the company said it had detected “unusual activity from a business partner's personal device” and concluded that someone had compromised the partner's account and used it to access members' information. HealthEquity shared details of the incident with TechCrunch on Wednesday. HealthEquity spokesperson Amy Cerny said in an email that it was an “isolated incident” and not related to other…

Popular online tabletop and role-playing game platform Roll20 announced on Wednesday that it had suffered a data breach that exposed personal information of some of its users. In a post on its official website, Roll20 said it detected that a “malicious actor” had accessed an account on its administrative website for an hour on June 29, after which the company “blocked all unauthorized access and terminated the network breach.” “A malicious actor made changes to one user account that we immediately reverted. During this time, the malicious actor was able to access and view all user accounts,” the company wrote.…

Sidney Scott has decided to quit the venture capital rat race and is now jokingly auctioning off his best pieces, with prices starting at $500,000. Driving Forces' sole general partner announced on LinkedIn this week that he was closing the $5 million fintech and deep tech VC fund he launched in 2020, calling the past four years “eventful.” But the healthy performance of his first small fund wasn't enough: He told TechCrunch he recognized that increased competition for what are essentially a handful of hard tech and deep tech deals would be a challenge for a small fund like his.…

If you've ever moved your hand during a video call and seen thumbs-up bubbles or confetti fly up on your screen, you're not alone. Many people consider this a strange feature for Zoom or WhatsApp, but it's an Apple feature built into iOS and Mac. However, you can turn off the reactions feature to prevent these effects from appearing on your screen during work calls. How to turn off video call responsiveness on Mac While you're in a video call on your Mac, click the video menu in the menu bar. This is the green camera icon at the top…

Hey everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. In AI news this week, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned “Chevron deference,” a 40-year-old ruling on federal agency power that required courts to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of Congressional statutes. The Chevron deference allowed agencies to make their own rules if Congress had left parts of the statute vague. Now courts will be asked to make their own legal decisions, with potentially far-reaching implications. Scott Rosenberg of Axios writes that because agencies can no longer apply basic rules to new enforcement situations, Congress (an institution that is barely functional today) must…