Author: TechBrunch

Adam Mosseri, head of Threads and Instagram, today announced that Threads is launching a new feature that lets you filter out words and phrases from your feed and mentions. The “Hidden Words” feature automatically mutes common words, phrases, and emojis that may be offensive to users. In addition to these preset filters, users can add their own custom words and phrases to the settings. Users can turn off these settings at any time. Earlier this week, dating app Hinge launched its own “Hidden Words” feature (yes, it's the same name) that blocks requests with comments containing unwanted words. Image credit:…

Fintech giant Stripe continues to inch its way back into the crypto market. The company announced Thursday that it will begin accepting cryptocurrency payments, initially only in Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon, with customers starting with one currency in particular, the USDC stablecoin. This is the first time Stripe has used cryptocurrency payments since 2018, when it stopped supporting Bitcoin because it was too volatile. Stripe made its first re-entry into the cryptocurrency market in 2022 by announcing payments (not payments) in USDC, with Twitter as the service's primary customer. Thursday's news did not name the customer. Stripe co-founder and president…

Open banking may be a global trend, but implementation is fragmented. Fintech startups gearing up to do just that in smaller markets could become M&A targets for incumbents like Visa. One of them is Fintoc, a Y Combinator alumnus. Fintoc is his B2B fintech startup that he raised $7 million in a Series A round to strengthen its presence in his native Chile and Mexico, where he expanded a year ago. Fintoc's product is an API that allows online businesses to accept instant payments directly from their customers' bank accounts. This method, known as account-to-account (A2A), provides an alternative to…

This week, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to ban non-compete agreements. The FTC estimates that nearly one in five U.S. workers is subject to non-compete agreements, but these agreements are a big problem in Silicon Valley because they are unenforceable in California. do not have. This is perhaps one of the region's competitive advantages, allowing employees (in most cases) to start something new without having to worry about having to fight their former employer in court for years to come. Because you can. This ban allows the FTC to extend the same freedom to employees across the United States.…

RevenueCat is the top subscription management platform for apps that monetize through in-app purchases, and is currently receiving an influx of new funding as it expands into the web. The company completed its $12 million Series C led by Adjacent following the launch of RevenueCat Billing, a new product that allows web app developers to integrate subscription purchases into any website. Later, we plan to support Roku as well. The timing of this product's launch is noteworthy. The announcement comes amid the implementation of the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulation, forcing Apple to open up its iPhone and App…

Paystand has acquired spend management software startup Teampay to build what the companies call a “fee-free B2B digital payments and spending powerhouse.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Teampay has raised $65 million since his founding in 2016. The combined company serves more than 1 million participants in more than 1 million businesses operating on commercial blockchains. The company claims to have processed more than $10 billion in transactions, representing nearly 2% of annual business-to-business payments in the United States. “Teampay represents this new class of fintech companies,” Paystand CEO Jeremy Almond told TechCrunch exclusively. “The company is…

On April 24, US President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if owner ByteDance does not sell the app. The bill requires ByteDance to close the transaction within nine months, with a 90-day extension available to complete the transaction. After this deadline, the US will prohibit app stores from listing the app. TikTok will challenge this decision in court, leading to a lengthy legal battle. However, many countries around the world had already banned the app, and ByteDance had no chance to reinstate it. These moves impacted ByteDance's operations, creators, and startups related to the creator economy…

Ding, ding, ding! Dinner is ready. Fresh out of a cold can. Petlibro, a pet tech startup that designs automatic food and water dispensers for cats, launched its first refrigerated smart feeder on Thursday. The company's new Polar Wet Food Feeder aims to solve a widely known problem among pet owners: how to keep wet food fresh while your cat is away. Although dry cat food can be kept outside for extended periods of time, scientists theorize that cats prefer wet food because it resembles their natural diet. Some pet parents also avoid dry kibble because of its high carbohydrate…

Carv, a data layer platform that enables Web3 gaming, AI companies, and gamers to control and monetize their data, has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. Carv's new round comes about five months after it received a strategic investment led by HashKey Capital. The company has not disclosed its valuation or the total amount of funding raised so far. In 2022, Carv was valued at around $40 million when it raised a seed round led by Vertex Ventures, Temasek's VC arm. Carv will initially focus on two key industries: gaming and…

Two veteran security experts are launching a startup aimed at helping other cybersecurity product manufacturers improve their ability to protect Apple devices. Their startup is called DoubleYou, and the name is taken from the initials of co-founder Patrick Wardle, who worked for the National Security Agency from 2006 to 2008. Wardle then worked for years as an offensive security researcher before transitioning to independent research for Apple. Defensive security for macOS. Since 2015, Wardle has been developing free, open-source macOS security tools under the Objective-See Foundation, which also hosts the Apple-focused Objective By The Sea conference. His co-founder is Mikhail…