Author: TechBrunch
Spotify is introducing a new “Basic” streaming plan in the U.S., the company announced on Friday. The new plan will cost $10.99 per month and include all the perks of the Premium plan but won't include any monthly audiobook minutes. The launch of the new streaming plans comes just weeks after Spotify increased the price of its premium plan from $10.99 to $11.99. Bloomberg reported at the time that the increase would help the streaming service cover the cost of audiobooks. The new basic plan will set users back the $10.99 price, but only gives access to music and podcasts.…
In early February, Meta announced that it would begin labeling photos on its social network that were created with its AI tools. Since May, Meta has routinely labeled some photos as “Made with AI” on Facebook, Instagram, and its Threads app. But the company's photo labeling techniques, which label photos as “created with AI” when they weren't created using AI tools, have sparked outrage from users and photographers. There are many examples of Meta automatically labeling photos that weren't created by AI, like this photo of Kolkata Knight Riders winning the Indian Premier League cricket tournament: Notably, the labels only…
Tune in to a jam-packed episode of Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast about the business of startups! This week, co-hosts Mary Ann Azevedo and Haje Kamps are joined by the insightful Kirsten Korosec to dive into the latest happenings in the startup world. If you're looking for sharp analysis, witty commentary, and startup quip, this episode has it all. First, the host outlined the three biggest deals of the week. First up, there's Waabi, a self-driving truck startup that just raised $200 million in a Series B round. Kirsten spoke at length about how Waabi's AI-first approach sets it apart in…
Change Healthcare confirmed that its systems were hit by a ransomware attack in February, causing widespread disruption to the US healthcare system for several weeks and resulting in the theft of the medical records of a “significant proportion of Americans.” Change Healthcare said in a statement Thursday that it has begun the process of notifying affected individuals whose information was stolen during the cyberattack. The medical technology giant, owned by US insurance conglomerate UnitedHealth Group, processes insurance and billing for patients across the US healthcare sector for thousands of hospitals, pharmacies and clinics, giving it access to vast amounts of…
Google today said it has globally paused an experiment aimed at allowing new types of real-money games on its Play Store, citing challenges in some regions caused by the lack of a central authority to approve such apps. The company said in January that it would begin broadly allowing real-money apps in India, Brazil and Mexico in June. Notably, pilot programs for fantasy sports and rummy apps are running in India from 2022 and Mexico from November 2023. The company said that apps that were part of the pilot program will continue to be allowed to continue operating on the…
According to PitchBook data, venture firms raised $9.3 billion in the first quarter, meaning this year is unlikely to match or surpass the $81.8 billion total for 2023. Emerging managers are feeling the cooling in the fundraising market the most, but some emerging VCs, such as A*, are well-known and well-established enough to still thrive. A*, led by former Eventbrite founder Kevin Hertz, former Coatue partner Bennett Siegel and former Opendoor and Uber operator Gautam Gupta, has raised $315 million in its oversubscribed Fund II. The firm will continue to focus on leading seed rounds and doubling down on its…
According to PitchBook data, venture firms raised $9.3 billion in the first quarter, meaning this year is unlikely to match or surpass the $81.8 billion total for 2023. Emerging managers are feeling the cooling in the fundraising market the most, but some emerging VCs, such as A*, are well-known and well-established enough to still thrive. A*, led by former Eventbrite founder Kevin Hertz, former Coatue partner Bennett Siegel and former Opendoor and Uber operator Gautam Gupta, has raised $315 million in its oversubscribed Fund II. The firm will continue to focus on leading seed rounds and doubling down on its…
Starting June 24, Google will make all of its reviews of movies, TV shows, books, albums, and games publicly available on a single profile page. These profiles will also be searchable in Google Search, meaning users can be profiled based on their likes and dislikes, according to an email Google sent to users last month. The company first introduced the ability to post movie reviews for users based in India in 2017. Over the years, the feature has expanded globally. Last year, the company told TechCrunch that it had made review profiles public and searchable in select regions, starting with…
Mumbai-based startup Zepto has raised a massive $665 million in a new funding round, more than doubling its valuation from $1.4 billion to $3.6 billion in less than a year, as the company steps up its efforts to capture India's competitive quick commerce market. Zepto sells and delivers everything from groceries to electronics to urban Indian consumers on short notice, a fast-delivery model that has thrived in India even as most startups in the space have failed in developed markets. Glade Brook, Nexus and StepStone Group co-led the “significantly oversubscribed” Series F round, according to Zepto. Avenir, Lightspeed, Avra (former…
The AI-powered language learning app Speak is a huge hit. Speak has grown to more than 10 million users since entering its first market, South Korea, in 2019, CEO and co-founder Connor Zwick told TechCrunch. User numbers have doubled every year for the past five years, and Speak now has customers in more than 40 countries. Investors, eager to see Speak continue to expand, have now committed to putting additional capital into the startup. The company closed a $20 million Series B round this week led by Buckley Ventures, with participation from OpenAI Startup Fund, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator co-founder…