Author: TechBrunch

The year-long wait is almost over! In just four days, TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 will take over San Francisco's Moscone West and take over the future of technology. This is your last chance to join the founders, investors, and innovators shaping the future before ticket prices go up. From October 27th to 29th, connect with more than 10,000 members of the global startup community and enjoy three action-packed days of breakthrough ideas, live startup pitches, hands-on learning, and career connections. Time is running out. Your passing rate will increase quickly. Now you can save up to $444. Save 60% on passes…

This week's episode of StrictlyVC Download features Hans Swildens, founder of Industry Ventures, talking about his company's deal with Goldman Sachs in Industry Ventures' 25th anniversary year. Mr. Swildens traces the evolution of his relationship with Goldman over two decades, from LP investor to wealth platform partner to minority shareholder in 2019, and explains why the firm decided now was the right time to fully join Goldman's external investment group. He discusses how secondaries have become the “new IPO” for venture-backed companies, shares insights from managing one of the world's largest portfolios of over 150 seed-stage venture funds, and explains…

Have you ever wondered if you're talking to a real person online or just another bot? With bots increasingly outnumbering humans online and deepfakes and AI-powered fraud exploding, one company has developed a near-science fiction solution: scanning your iris to verify your identity. Today on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan spoke with Adrian Ludwig, chief security officer and chief architect of Tools for Humanity, the company that developed the World's Eye Scan Orbs that are popping up all over the world. Bellan and Ludwig discuss building privacy-first identity, open source approaches to biometric technology, and why proving your humanity is…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 will be held at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 27th to 29th, bringing together more than 10,000 leaders, venture capitalists, operators, and innovators who are shaping the future of technology. To celebrate the final countdown, we're giving you one last chance to save big. Save up to $444 when you purchase a pass, plus 60% off a second ticket for co-founders, partners, friends, and team members. This offer at this low rate ends when doors open on October 27th. Lock your 2 discount passes now. Image credit: Kimberly White/Getty Images Disrupt 2025 ticket types built…

It's the 5th. 120 hours. That's all that sets us apart from the most exciting startup event of the year. TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 will be held in San Francisco from October 27th to 29th. Last day to save before prices go up. Get your pass now and save up to $444, or bring your plus-one, co-founder, or teammate for 60% off tickets. Sign up now and start the countdown to 3 days that could redefine your trajectory. Is the whole team together? Check out our 15-30% discount group rates. Image credit: TechCrunch Don't miss the biggest moments in the startup…

Justin Wenig recalls his days at Y Combinator in 2019. At the time, he was working with his first startup, Coursedog. The company was looking to provide more modern tools to higher education facilities, including those working with state governments. He quickly learned that his colleagues didn't like working with the public sector – there was too much bureaucracy. Just finding out basic information, such as what the district had purchased in the past year, required a lot of paperwork. “Out of hundreds of startups, only a handful were trying to modernize the way government and education work,” Wenig told…

Sesame, a conversational AI startup and smart glasses maker, announced Tuesday that it has raised $250 million in a Series B round and will open a beta version to a select group of testers. The startup, led by former Oculus co-founder and CEO Brendan Iribe and Ankit Kumar, former CTO of AR startup Ubiquity6, is working to develop personal AI agents that interact with users using natural human voices. The company plans to embed a personal AI agent into lightweight glasses designed to be worn all day, and which users can control using voice. The startup first came out of…

Codi, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz and founded by Christel Rooh and Dave Schumann, is launching what is being hailed as the first AI-powered platform to fully automate office management. Codi was founded in 2018, pre-pandemic, with a mission to help companies find flexible office space. As TechCrunch previously reported, it was more of a marketplace, matching businesses with buildings that offer flexible office arrangements. Cody then assisted with the move-in process. Rooh, the company's CEO, said that at the time, she and her team were manually managing office space and vendors for their clients, but recent advances in…

Earlier this year, a developer was shocked to see a message on his personal phone that read, “Apple has detected a targeted spyware attack on your iPhone.” “I was panicking,” Jay Gibson, who asked that his real name not be used for fear of retaliation, told TechCrunch. Mr. Gibson, who until recently was building surveillance technology for Western government hacking tools maker Trenchint, may be the first documented case of someone building exploits and spyware themselves becoming the target of spyware. “What the hell is going on? I really didn't know what to think,” Gibson said, adding that she turned…

Exclusively at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, the Disrupt Stage features the tech industry's biggest bets, broadcast live and unfiltered. This is where startup dreams turn into $100,000 in prize money at the Startup Battlefield 200, and where the industry's leading players reveal what's next. The industry's biggest voices take center stage This year, we'll be joined on stage by Astro Teller, Head of Moonshot at Alphabet, Kevin Scott, Microsoft CTO, Elizabeth Stone, Netflix CTO, and Vinod Khosla (who never minces words). Sequoia's Roelof Botha reveals the future of the venture, Slate Auto showcases the company's first fully customizable electric truck, and…