Author: TechBrunch

Welcome to Elon Musk’s Twitter (now X), where the rules are made up and the check marks don’t matter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO announced his bid to buy Twitter in April 2022, zealously driven to rid the platform of spam bots and protect free speech; now, it’s the one-year anniversary since he made his dramatic entrance to the company in October 2022, and the platform has changed so much that even its name is different. “This is just my strong, intuitive sense that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the…

Last time we checked on Zaver, the Swedish B2C Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) provider in Europe, the company raised a $5 million funding round in 2021. The company has now completed its $10 million extension of its Series A funding round. , the total Series A will be $20 million. The total investment amount so far reaches $30 million. In Europe, Zaver competes in BNPL with Klarna, PayPal, and incumbents such as Santander and BNP Paribas. However, Zaver claims that its risk assessment algorithm can assess the risk of BNPL cart sizes up to €200,000 in real time. Other he BNPL providers,…

Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. This is the final version of this newsletter. I would like to personally thank everyone for reading this. If you want to stay in touch, follow me on X. here For future updates. With that, the show continues. This week saw the sentencing of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried, who was found guilty in November on seven charges related to money laundering and fraud, and Borderless Capital's acquisition of CFT Capital. , WorldCoin faces new bans in Europe, and more. Please see below for details. this week's web3 Sam Bankman…

YouTube is releasing a members-only version of Shorts that allows creators to share short videos only to paying viewers. This new feature gives paid subscribers access to their current membership benefits, plus additional content such as custom emojis, badges, and live streams. YouTube's member-only short videos can encourage viewers to sign up for a paid membership. YouTube says creators can use new options to share special announcements, product drops, or limited-time sales. Creators can use members-only Shorts for Q&A, behind-the-scenes, clips of upcoming content, and more. The announcement comes after TikTok recently began offering subscriptions to more creators. Earlier this…

This morning, Skyflow announced that it has raised $30 million in Series B extension funding led by Khosla Ventures. This deal is interesting on many fronts, including the structure of the round and how Skyflow has been impacted by the growth of AI. The new funding comes after Skyflow expanded its data privacy business last year to support new AI technologies. Skyflow co-founder and CEO Anshu Sharma said in an interview with TechCrunch that the company's AI-related software products have quickly become a significant part of its overall business. The startup has recently grown its revenue from usage related to…

The U.S. government has announced that it will extend its bounty for information on key leaders of the ALPHV/BlackCat cybercriminal organization to its affiliated members. One of them was credited with a massive ransomware attack against a US medical technology giant last month. In a statement Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said it would offer up to a $10 million reward for information identifying or locating anyone associated with ALPHV/BlackCat, including “its persons, activities, or relationships with foreign governments.” He announced that he would provide money. Russia-based ALPHV/BlackCat is a ransomware-as-a-service operation that recruits affiliates (de facto contractors who earn…

Every parent knows that raising children is expensive. Especially at a young age when clothes and toys outgrow them so quickly that parents end up in a never-ending cycle of buying new ones when the old ones are hardly worn or used anymore. . Enter Kidsy, a new e-commerce startup based in Chicago. Kidsy aims to give consumers more access to discounted baby and children's products by partnering with leading brands, retailers, and clearing companies for excess and returned inventory. It also says it can prevent excess inventory and disposal items (such as children's clothing) from ending up in landfills,…

Ibotta has confidently filed an S-1 filing with the SEC for the purpose of listing its stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The 13-year-old cashback startup has returned to profitability and aims to make its public debut in 2023 after recording impressive revenue growth. The company reported revenue of $320 million in 2023, a 52% increase from 2022, when it had revenue of $210 million. Ibotta's gross profit increased 68% from his $164.5 million in 2022 to his $276 million in 2023. The Denver-based company started as an app for consumers to receive cash back on purchases through Ibotta…

As the election cycle heats up, Instagram and Threads will likely reduce the amount of political content entering many users' feeds. These changes, which limit the scope of political content from accounts users don't already follow, will be enforced by default. If you already want to know how to get such content back into your feed, follow our guide to changing Instagram's political settings here. Meta has worked to reduce the reach of news and political content across its platforms. Especially when it comes to content that is recommended by algorithms rather than surfacing from a direct connection to a…

Sam Bankman Fried, co-founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and trading company Alameda Research, was sentenced to prison in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) about five months after his conviction. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison by Judge Lewis Kaplan. During his trial he was charged with all seven counts related to fraud and money laundering. “When he wasn't lying, he was tearing his hair out, making excuses and trying to get prosecutors to rephrase their questions,” Kaplan said Thursday, according to Inner City Press. “I've been doing this job for almost 30 years.…