Author: TechBrunch

Switzerland-based privacy-focused productivity app maker Proton has added document creation, editing and collaboration features to its secure cloud storage service, adding another milestone. The release of the new product, branded Docs in Proton Drive, follows the company's acquisition of secure note-taking app Standard Notes in April. Proton launched its end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) cloud storage service, Proton Drive, in September 2022, initially with web support and expanding to mobile later that year. The new collaborative document capabilities will be available within Proton Drive, further extending the company's trademark robust security and making it a key productivity tool for information workers and…

Last month, Telegram introduced Stars, a digital currency that can be used within the app. Now, the company is expanding its use cases to paid content. The chat app also allows channels to convert their Stars into Toncoin, the cryptocurrency that Telegram uses on The Open Network (TON) blockchain. Stars can also be used to receive discounts on channel promotions. The company initially introduced Stars as a way to pay for digital goods offered by bots and apps within Telegram, but now content creators can post content that users can unlock using Stars. The app also allows channel owners to…

The past few years have seen an acceleration of innovation in new materials development, and French startup Altrove is set to play its role in this innovation cycle. The deep tech startup has already raised 3.7 million euros (about $4 million at current exchange rates). If you are interested in developing new materials, you may have noticed that several teams have shared important breakthroughs with the research community when it comes to materials prediction. “Historically, over the last 50 years, research and development to find new materials has moved at a very slow pace,” Altrove co-founder and CEO Thibaud Martin…

Koo, an Indian social media platform that was positioned as a rival to Elon Musk's X, is shutting down after last-ditch acquisition talks with Daily Hunt fell apart. Despite securing over $60 million in funding from prominent investors such as Tiger Global and Accel, Koo faced significant challenges in growing its user base and generating revenue over the past two years. TechCrunch exclusively reported in February that Koo was in talks with Daily Hunt, an internet media startup valued at $5 billion, about a possible sale. Koo's founders said Wednesday that the talks had not resulted in an agreement. “We…

European regulations are transforming ESG reporting from a “nice to have” to a “must have,” creating new momentum for start-ups such as Paris-based Apiday, which offers a platform to target private equity funds and blue-chip companies that need to track and pilot sustainability efforts. Asset managers, particularly in Europe, are a prime target for Apiday. With the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), it's not just impact funds that are closely monitoring sustainability metrics: all kinds of companies are now paying attention to ESG reporting. This has created a different environment than when Apiday was founded in 2021, and a backlash…

Google has published its 2024 Environmental Report, an 80+ page document that explains all the efforts the giant is making to apply technology to environmental issues and reduce its own environmental footprint. But it doesn't address the question of how much energy AI uses at all, probably because the answer is “a lot more than we'd like to say.” You can read the full report here (PDF) and, frankly, it's full of interesting takeaways. It's easy to forget that a company as big as Google has multiple tasks on its hands, but there's some really noteworthy stuff here. For example,…

The situation surrounding the data breach that is affecting a growing number of fintech companies is getting even stranger. Evolve Bank & Trust announced last week that it had been hacked and confirmed that the stolen data had been posted to the dark web. Now, Evolve has sent a cease and desist letter to the newsletter writers who have been reporting on the ongoing situation. Jason Mikula, author of industry publication Fintech Business Weekly, told TechCrunch that he received cease and desist letters from banks ordering them to stop sharing dark web files with fintech companies that were allegedly affected.…

Mastodon, an open-source, decentralized alternative to X (formerly Twitter), is rolling out new features to make the app more appealing to users who use it to get news and information from writers and journalists. Starting Tuesday, the company will add clickable author signatures to link posts, directing Mastodon users to the author's account on the Fediverse (if active), helping journalists get more exposure and grow their following. The new signature goes beyond the typical @username reference that often accompanies link posts from news publications or links to other written content on WordPress blogs, Substack, etc. Instead, the change displays the…

Formerly Twitter X may bring back the ability to downvote posts, a feature it tested in 2021 before Elon Musk's acquisition of the social network. At the time of the initial experiment, Twitter was testing both upvote and downvote buttons, similar to how users can vote on social forum site Reddit. But now, code references found in X's iOS app indicate that the company may be considering adding downvoting just to improve the ranking of replies. The code was first spotted by reverse engineer Aaron Peris (@aaronp613 of X), who regularly finds new features for apps before they're released. The…

Alternative investment platform Yieldstreet is the latest company to disclose that its clients were affected by the recent data breach at Evolve Bank and Trust, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. On Tuesday, Yieldstreet spokesperson Claire Burrows confirmed to TechCrunch that “some Yieldstreet customer information may have been affected” as a result of the Evolve breach. “We have communicated this to all potentially impacted customers and continue to follow best practices regarding third-party cybersecurity incidents,” Burrows said in an email. Burrows declined to say what type of customer information was stolen or how many customers were affected. Last week, Evolve, a financial…