Author: TechBrunch
Fabric Cryptography, a hardware startup founded by husband-and-wife MIT and Stanford dropouts Michael Gao and Tina Zhu, wants to democratize modern encryption techniques like zero-knowledge proofs (which allow you to prove what you know without revealing exactly what you know) and fully homomorphic encryption (which allows you to manipulate encrypted data without decrypting it). The co-founders argue that their work can ease the fundamental tension between trust and privacy at a time when companies are collecting increasingly more data on consumers but are less able to protect it. To prove this, the team developed a custom RISC-V-based chip optimized to…
Life sciences investment firm BEVC is raising a $25 million fund targeting climate startups, according to an SEC filing. BEVC is a newcomer, having only launched last year in Berkeley, California. All three co-founders have backgrounds in life sciences, as did its first two investments, Radar Therapeutics and Insamo. But the new filing suggests that its first formal fund will be targeted at climate tech startups. This dual focus makes BEVC the latest life sciences investor to broaden its scope beyond human health to include planetary health: Last year, veteran life sciences investor RA Capital hired a planetary health team,…
As TikTok Shops gain popularity, YouTube is expanding its partnership with Shopify to bring even more brands into its YouTube Shopping Affiliates Program, the company announced on Tuesday. The expanded partnership gives creators access to thousands of new brands they can tag in their shopping videos, up from the few hundred they have access to today. As part of the expansion, all eligible Shopify Plus and Advanced merchants in the U.S. can now sign up for the Shopping Affiliate Program. The YouTube Shopping Affiliate Programme gives creators a way to earn money through their videos and help their viewers discover…
Until recently, saving the world wasn't a profitable endeavor. But as the planet warms, a range of startups and investors have emerged that have made a clear business case for reducing humanity's impact on the planet. We are excited to have Rebecca Hu, co-founder and CEO of Glacier, Allison Wolff, co-founder and CEO of Vibrant Planet, and Hyuk-Jeen Suh, co-founder of Venx and general partner at SkyRiver Ventures, join us on the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place October 28-30 in San Francisco. During a panel titled “How Startups Can Save the World,” the investor and two founders…
The countdown continues! There are only 4 days left to purchase discounted tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Don't miss your chance to save up to $600. Offer expires August 23 at 11:59PM PST. Join 10,000+ passionate startup leaders, founders, and investors at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. Why should you join? Participate in over 300 roundtable and breakout sessions designed to foster interaction and collaboration with other attendees. Learn from industry leaders in the startup and VC world across six dynamic stages covering AI, SaaS, Fintech, startups, venture capital, space and more. Take advantage of a variety…
On Monday, the US government formally accused Iran of hacking Donald Trump's campaign. In a joint statement issued by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the three agencies said the intelligence community believes the recently disclosed hacks and leaks against the Trump campaign were perpetrated by Iran. ” [Intelligence Community] “We believe Iran is using social engineering and other means to attempt to gain access to individuals with direct access to presidential elections of both parties. These activities, including theft and leaks, are intended to influence the…
Construction companies deal with so much paperwork that it's difficult to process and manage it all. According to a recent survey, one-third of construction professionals find access to documentation a challenge in completing projects, and one-quarter say inaccuracies in project documentation contribute to construction delays. Sarah Buchner knows this all too well: a former carpenter who founded Trunk Tools, a startup that provides automated tools for organizing unstructured construction documents. “I grew up poor in a small village in Austria and started working as a carpenter at age 12,” Büchner told TechCrunch. “After many years as a carpenter, I moved…
The Rounds, a startup that offers scheduled deliveries of groceries and household essentials in reusable packaging, announced a $24 million Series B funding round on Monday. The new capital will be used for product development, hiring, and expanding its services to additional markets. Alongside the funding announcement, The Rounds also introduced new features for customers, such as one-time purchases and flexible delivery date options, and enhanced its AI-powered algorithms to better predict when customers need to restock their products. Launched in 2019, The Rounds allows consumers to order weekly bundles for a $10 subscription. Items range from household essentials and…
The U.S. Department of Defense is a massive organization. Not only does it employ millions of military personnel and hundreds of thousands of civilians, it also has the world's largest military budget, with more equipment purchased and maintained than can be contained in a single paragraph. There's a lot to coordinate. Operators across the Defense Department's various agencies must decide how to plan operations, coordinate resources and stay within budget for potentially contested events, like hurricanes or hostile forces. Two years after it was founded, Virginia-based startup Defcon AI has raised a $44 million seed round to solve this intractable…
As the AI industry continues to release a plethora of new models, companies hoping to stay competitive are racing to adopt them for their own purposes. In fact, according to technology consulting firm Searce, roughly 10% of companies plan to spend a whopping $25 million on AI initiatives this year. But while a lot of money is being spent on AI, the ROI is unclear: According to Gartner, half of AI leaders don't know how to calculate or demonstrate the value of their AI projects. Former Airbnb data scientist Chetan Sharma argues that calculating AI ROI isn't that difficult with…