Author: TechBrunch

After three years of fundraising, the Global Fund has finally closed its first fund of 300 million euros, which is 50 million euros short of its 2021 target, but against the backdrop of war and economic uncertainty. , it is still a considerable amount. The VC was originally born out of the founders of Ecosia, an independent search engine where search inquiries fund tree planting. If you want to compare, Norsken VC is a $130 million impact VC covering climate, while Demeter Partners last raised €250 million in funding focused on climate. The Global Fund is supported by the European…

It's unclear publicly how much exactly Microsoft is paying all of Inflection AI's investors as part of a bizarrely structured deal that fleeces its co-founders, much of its staff, and the rights to use its technology. It has not been. And Microsoft declined to comment when contacted. However, anonymous sources say the company is shelling out around $650 million. That includes $620 million in non-exclusive license fees for the technology (meaning Inflection is free to license it elsewhere) and an agreement not to sue Microsoft for poaching it. Inflection's $30 million. It also includes co-founders Mustafa Suleiman and Karen Simonian.…

It's so easy to craft the perfect venture capital pitch that there's an entire industry of consultants out there to help founders deck out their decks. TechCrunch has a long-running Pitch Deck Deconstruction series to help founders, and you can find countless Twitter threads on the subject. It's easy? in that case. Not only do venture capital expectations change with the market, but also different types of startups in different industries and at different stages of development are appropriately highlighting their strengths and momentum against implicit venture expectations. I would like to confirm. As a result, pitching advice is rarely…

Many of those building Web3 feel that the traditional web ecosystem leverages users and their data. While this benefits many companies, data miners, and even his AI models, some consider it a step too far. Some of the problems with the web as it currently exists (some Web3-centric people are calling it Web2.0) is that it's centralized, says Edge and Node CEO and co-founder said Tegan Kline on TechCrunch's Chain Reaction podcast. “A small number of large companies own and control everything we see online, own our data and digital footprint, and can deplatform us. And so many companies want…

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. Get a roundup of TechCrunch's biggest and most important cryptocurrency articles delivered to your inbox every Thursday at 12pm PT. Subscribe here. Hello. Welcome to the TechCrunch Crypto Newsletter. This week, Starbucks ended its Odyssey NFT program launched in 2022, Solana continues its meme coin momentum, and India faces further challenges in the cryptocurrency space due to a government crackdown. Please see below for details. this week's web3 Cryptocurrency Exchange OKX Suspends Services in India Solana Leads New Round of Meme Coin Mania How Cryptocurrency Exchange Backpack Climbed its Path to…

In its wide-ranging antitrust lawsuit against Apple and its iPhone business, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating how Apple's large financial operations, specifically its use of Apple Pay, to prohibit competition and reap huge profits in the process. They have set specific goals for what they are doing. Annual revenue is in the billions. The Department of Justice says this not only stifles competition among payment services, but also that the fees banks and others pay to use Apple Pay make it difficult for other types of services that could compete with Apple. They argue that this potentially inhibits…

Threads has officially entered the Fediverse.meta announced On Thursday, it was announced that a beta experience for sharing Threads accounts to the Fediverse is now open to users 18 and older with public profiles. This integration can only be launched in three countries, including the United States, Canada, and Japan. The company previously announced in December that it was testing the feature on networks that support Mastodon and other ActivityPub protocols. To opt in to the integration, go to your account settings and toggle fediverse sharing on. A pop-up will appear explaining what Fediverse is. The company describes Fediverse as…

A lawsuit filed Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice against Apple cites the iPhone maker's fight against Beeper, an app aimed at providing iMessage to Android users. Beeper abandoned its mission late last year when Apple blocked its app efforts. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department cited the dispute as an example of Apple controlling “the actions and innovations of third parties to protect itself from competition.” Beeper, launched by Pebble smartwatch founder Eric Migicovsky, has successfully reverse-engineered the iMessage protocol and brought support for end-to-end encrypted blue bubble iMessage chats to Android users. Beeper functioned as a true…

The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) released a statement Thursday supporting the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Apple. This group includes many major app makers, including Epic Games, Spotify, Deezer, Match Group, and Proton. “With today's announcement, the Department of Justice is committed to Apple's stranglehold on the mobile app ecosystem that stifles competition and harms American consumers and developers alike,” said CAF Executive Director Rick VanMeter. We will take a strong stance against this,” he said. “The Justice Department's complaint alleges Apple's longstanding illegal practices of abusing App Store guidelines and developer agreements to jack up prices, charge exorbitant…

Shares of social forum giant Reddit opened at $47 per share on Thursday, but quickly soared to around $55, up about 60% from its IPO price of $34 per share. It recovered to stabilize at around $50 per share. The company had indicated a target range of $31 to $34 per share for its public market debut, but ultimately settled on the higher end of that range. The highest stock price at the time of this writing was $57.80, but it is currently a few dollars below that price and down a few percentage points. With $804 million in revenue…