Author: TechBrunch

AI mortgage startup LoanSnap is facing a flurry of lawsuits from creditors, forcing it out of its Southern California headquarters and leaving employees worried about the company's future, TechCrunch has learned. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Carl Jacob and Alan Carroll, LoanSnap has raised about $100 million since its seed round in 2017, with $90 million of that coming between 2021 and 2023, PitchBook reported. Investors include Richard Branson's Virgin Group, The Chainsmokers' Mantis Ventures, Baseline Ventures and Reid Hoffman, according to LoanSnap. The startup also has about $12 million in debt, according to PitchBook estimates. Despite the funds it has…

Instagram confirmed that it was testing unskippable ads after screenshots of the ads began circulating on social media. According to informational text appearing in the Instagram app, these new ad breaks will feature a countdown timer and will prevent users from viewing other content in the app until the ad appears. The change would bring the social network closer to the free version of YouTube, which requires users to watch ads before and during videos. It would make sense for Instagram to consider moving in this direction, given that in recent years it has transitioned from a place to share…

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) forced Apple to allow third-party app stores for iOS in Europe, leading several developers to launch alternative stores such as AltStore and MacPaw's Setapp (currently in closed beta). The latest entrant is long-established Android app store startup Aptoide, which is launching a games store in Europe. The company announced today that its game store will be available for users to download and use on iOS starting June 6th. Aptoide is initially launching its store with six titles, with plans to add more later. The company says that over 100 developers plan to release games on…

Cloudera, once a fast-growing Hadoop startup, raised $1 billion and went public in 2018 before being acquired by private equity for $5.3 billion in 2021. Today, the company announced it was acquiring Verta, an AI startup that helps customers manage machine learning models, including large-scale language models used in generative AI. Cloudera launched a SaaS data lakehouse the year after it was acquired, but to stay relevant in today's market, it needed the power of AI. Cloudera CEO Charles Sansbury certainly recognized that. “The future of data management is AI and the two go hand in hand. Cloudera is acquiring…

The global spend management sector is experiencing something of a tailwind. While North America is undoubtedly the largest market in the sector, rising internet penetration, technological advancements, and businesses' increased focus on smart spending are increasing the demand for spend management companies around the world. In fact, according to Grand View Research, the sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% through 2030, with adoption expected to increase in other regions such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as businesses increasingly adopt expense management tools to gain greater visibility into how their funds…

As the EV market stagnates under increasing pressure from Chinese competitors, major U.S. and European automakers are racing to reduce the cost of producing EVs to achieve price and profit margin parity with internal combustion engine vehicles. But to do that, they must find ways to make the design process faster and more efficient. Now, a spinout company from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) has raised $27 million in a Series B funding round to apply AI to solve that very problem. Simply put, Neural Concept enables designers to model how a component will behave before…

The StrictlyVC road trip continues! After sold-out events in London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, we'll be teaming up with Revolution to bring the show to Washington DC for a cozy, VC-packed evening on Tuesday, June 11th at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre. StrictlyVC events are known for providing exclusive insights and fostering meaningful connections among top investors, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders. Attendees can expect inspiring discussions, insightful perspectives, and plenty of opportunities to network while enjoying complimentary drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Featured Speakers at DC Event Lina Khan — Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission Session: Reining in Big TechFTC…

Benjamin Entz's path to becoming an entrepreneur was long and unconventional. Entz worked as an R&D engineer at FX companies Industrial Light & Magic and DreamWorks on films like “Transformers” and “How to Train Your Dragon,” before leaving the film industry in 2012 to join venture capital firm Social Capital as engineer in residence, where he co-founded Choir, an iOS mental health app. A few years later, Entz joined construction productivity software startup PlanGrid as director of engineering, responsible for leading and managing the company's core programming projects. At Plangrid, much of Entz's time was spent on recruiting, Entz said.…

Monzo has published its financial results for 2024, revealing its first full-year pre-tax profit. The company also confirmed that it is in the early stages of expanding into the wider European market through a new base in Ireland. The news comes shortly after the UK-based neobank raised $430 million (£340 million) in March and another $190 million last month, bringing its valuation to $5.2 billion. Most of the funding was raised to spearhead a push into the US market, a market the company has been trying to break into for several years. Last October, it appointed a new CEO for…

Last week, TechCrunch paid a visit to Apple’s Austin, Texas manufacturing facilities. Since 2013, the company has built its Mac Pro desktop about 20 minutes north of downtown. The 400,000 square foot facility sits in a maze of industry parks, a quick trip south from the company’s in-progress corporate campus. In recent years, the capital city has transformed into a hot bed for tech innovation, largely owing to a massive talent pool generated by nearby University of Texas at Austin. Construction on a new $1 billion campus commenced in 2019. Shortly after the first phase was finished in 2022, the…