Author: TechBrunch
Accurate weather forecasts are vital to industries like agriculture, and for preventing and mitigating damage from severe weather and natural disasters. But producing accurate forecasts is incredibly difficult, which is why WeatherXM's founders have spent the last 12 years working to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts. In 2012, Manolis Nikiforakis, Stratos Theodorou and Nikos Tsiligaridis launched an app that allowed community members to provide grassroots-level weather forecasts. They then worked as consultants for corporate clients in weather-dependent industries, such as Athens Airport. Now they are building WeatherXM, a network of community-monitored weather stations that collect and share local weather…
US-made consumer spyware app pcTattletale has been hacked and its internal data published on its own website, according to the hacker who claimed responsibility for the intrusion. Hackers posted a message on pcTattletale's website late Friday, claiming to have hacked the server on which pcTattletale operates. The spyware maker's website briefly linked to files from the company's servers that appeared to contain stolen victim data. TechCrunch is not linking to the site due to the ongoing risk to victims whose personal information has already been exposed by the spyware. pcTattletale founder Brian Fleming did not respond to an email seeking…
Last year, the world of fintech startups, the main players in 2021's venture capital heyday, began to unravel as venture capital funding tightened. Now, as we move into mid-2024, much of the sector is in turmoil, especially the banking-as-a-service sector, which ironically was what experts were talking about as a bright spot last year. The collapse of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) fintech company Synapse is perhaps the most dramatic thing happening right now. It's not the only bad news of course, but it shows how dicey things can get in the often interdependent world of fintech when one of the major players…
To shine a much-deserved and long-overdue spotlight on women researchers and others focused on AI, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews highlighting notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. As the AI boom continues, we'll be publishing these stories throughout the year, shining a spotlight on important research that often goes unrecognized. Find the other profiles here. Sarah Myers West is Managing Director of the AI Now Institute, a US research institute that explores the social impacts of AI and policy research addressing the concentration of power in the tech industry. She previously served as Senior…
Keeping up with an industry that changes as quickly as AI can be a challenge. Until AI can do it for you, here's a roundup of recent buzz in the world of machine learning, along with notable research and experiments that we wouldn't have covered on our own. By the way, TechCrunch will be launching an AI newsletter soon. Stay tuned. In the meantime, we're increasing the semi-regular cadence of our AI columns from twice a month to weekly, so keep an eye out for upcoming issues. In AI news this week, OpenAI announced it had inked a deal with…
Evan, a high school sophomore in Houston, was stuck on a calculus problem. He fired up Answer AI on his iPhone, took a photo of the problem from his advanced math textbook, and ran it through the Homework app. Within seconds, Answer AI generated the answer, along with instructions on how to solve the problem. A year ago, Evan would comb through lengthy YouTube videos to work through his homework assignments, and he also had private tutors who charged $60 an hour. Now, the rise of AI bots is threatening established tutoring franchises like Kumon, a 66-year-old Japanese tutoring giant…
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje's weekly roundup of the must-reads from the startup world. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday. Well, folks, there seems to be a new twist in the Techstars drama. CEO Mael Gavet is stepping down and co-founder David Cohen is coming back to save the day. At least, he tries to. Gavet's three-and-a-half-year tenure was riddled with controversy, from mass employee turnover to the closure of its accelerator program faster than you could say “pivot.” Despite the fact that an $80 million deal with JP Morgan turned into a Titanic-level…
Last year's investors' dreams of a robust IPO pipeline for 2024 are fading, if not disappearing entirely, as we approach the halfway point of the year. 2024 looked like it might finally generate the momentum investors were hoping for in 2023, with four venture-backed tech IPOs in March and April – Reddit, Astera Labs, Ibotta and Rubrik. But despite the success of these four, secondary investors and IPO lawyers recently told TechCrunch that the IPO market won't fully reopen until 2025 or later, given macro conditions such as the looming presidential election and rising interest rates. This year is expected…
Terra One aims to reduce the quantity of clean energy created significantly and then lost from the German grid owing to a lack of storage capacity. Lacking storage capacity is an entirely pressing need and one desperate for solutions, so it’s great to see companies thinking up ways to fix it and going after the funding to make it happen. Fresh from its April fundraiser, where it raised $7.5 million to scale its battery storage system, Germany-based Terra One has shared its pitch deck with TechCrunch for a teardown. Let’s get in there and see how it won over its…
To shine a much-deserved and long-overdue spotlight on women researchers and others focused on AI, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews highlighting notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. As the AI boom continues, we'll be publishing these stories throughout the year to shine a spotlight on important research that often goes unrecognized. Find more profiles here. Chinasa T. Okoro is a Fellow in the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation. Previously, she served on the Ethics and Social Impact Committee that helped develop Nigeria's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and has…