Author: TechBrunch
Molly Alter wears many hats. She's a mockumentary filmmaker working on a project about an alternate reality where charades are big business. She's a Caesar salad expert who ranks different restaurant endeavors on her blog, JULIUS. She's also Northzone's newest partner. Alter's path to venture capital was far from obvious: the daughter of journalist parents, she grew up indulging in creative passions like theater and improvisational comedy. These interests formed the basis for the company she started at Harvard University filming a cappella concerts and dance recitals, and ultimately led her to venture capital. She told TechCrunch that she only…
Molly Alter wears many hats. She's a mockumentary filmmaker working on a project about an alternate reality where charades are big business. She's a Caesar salad expert who chronicles rankings of different restaurant endeavors on her blog, JULIUS. She's also Northzone's newest partner. Alter's path to venture capital was far from obvious: the daughter of journalist parents, she grew up indulging in creative passions like theater and improvisational comedy. These interests formed the basis for the company she started at Harvard University filming a cappella concerts and dance recitals, and ultimately led her to venture capital. She told TechCrunch that…
Microsoft has a long and complicated relationship with OpenAI, having reportedly invested $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker as part of a long-term partnership. As part of the deal, Microsoft runs OpenAI's models across its enterprise and consumer products and is OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider. But the tech giant called the startup a “competitor” for the first time in an SEC filing on Tuesday. In Microsoft's annual 10K, OpenAI joined a long list of competitors in the AI space alongside Anthropic, Amazon, and Meta. And thanks to OpenAI's new SearchGPT feature announced last week, OpenAI is now listed as a…
Knowde, an online marketplace for chemicals and polymers, has just closed a Series C funding round, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. The San Jose-based startup raised $60 million, lower than the $500 million valuation it received in its most recent round, according to people familiar with the matter. The round values the company at more than 20 times ARR, according to sources familiar with the deal. New investors in the round included Blue Cloud Ventures and Point72 Private Investments, in addition to existing backer Sequoia. Noudet declined to comment. The company has now raised more than $150 million in venture funding…
Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation is aiming to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding as it pushes ahead with commercializing driverless cars by the end of 2024. Aurora, which went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition merger, is pursuing a driver-as-a-service model in which carriers buy trucks equipped with Aurora Driver technology and then serve shippers through those trucks. But the company plans to enter the market as a carrier, offering up to 20 packers and Volvo self-driving trucks to shippers by the end of the year. Aurora is poised to sell up to $420…
X (formerly Twitter) is no longer accessible from the Mac App Store, suggesting that it has been officially delisted. Searching for both “Twitter” and “X” on Apple's platform no longer brings up the app, and the URL no longer works – instead, users see a pop-up message stating its unavailability, meaning new users can no longer download the service and will have to rely on the browser-based version. Some people who already have the app installed have reported that it still works, while others have reported that the iPad version can have its own issues when used with MacOS. X…
Growing up in China, Xiaoying Qu was obsessed with learning how to make paper airplanes that could flip in the air, but her parents didn't have the aerodynamics expertise to support her new passion, and her teachers couldn't give her the attention she needed. “That's why I wanted to build an AI that could provide each child with a personal coach and playmate who can chat with them and help them learn,” Qu told TechCrunch. Ku is the founder of Heeyo, a startup that provides kids ages 4 to 9 with an AI chatbot and over 2,000 interactive games and…
Google announced on Thursday that it is introducing new Gemini-powered features to the desktop version of Chrome, including desktop lens, tab comparison for shopping assistants, and natural language integration for search history. After years of being introduced and evolving on mobile, Google Lens is finally coming to desktop. Rolling out to users globally over the next few days, Lens will appear in your address bar and three-dot menu, and when clicked, it will allow you to select parts of the page and ask more questions to get more results. You can also tap on an object, like someone's backpack, in…
Google is holding its Cloud Next conference in Tokyo this week, with a focus on tailoring its database for AI workloads (because at this point in 2024, AI is all these big tech companies want to talk about), which includes updates to its Spanner SQL database, adding support for graph and vector searches, as well as enhanced full-text search capabilities. This wouldn't be a Google announcement without Gemini-powered features, which include Gemini for BigQuery and Looker to assist users with data engineering and analytics, governance and security tasks. Google argues that while the majority of companies believe generative AI is…
Rad Power Bikes, a Seattle-based electric bike startup that has raised more than $300 million from investors, has made another round of staff cuts in July, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. This marks the fifth round of staff reductions since the company cut 100 employees in April 2021. Rad's latest job cuts follow cuts made a year ago, when the electric bike maker pulled out of Europe and laid off about 40 employees. Rad has laid off staff twice in 2022. The layoffs at the popular e-bike startup come after another popular venture-capital-backed e-bike company, VanMoof, declared bankruptcy last year. The…