Author: TechBrunch

By any benchmark, Accel is one of India's top venture companies. Accel's track record with nearly 20 Indian unicorn startups, including several category leaders, speaks for itself. But still, the partners leading the company's early-stage accelerator program, called Atoms, are unusually reflective about what they've learned and the changes they've made to improve their chances of success. “One of the fundamental beliefs we have is that at some point, all VC firms look the same to the founders. It's just money,” says Prayank Swaroop, partner at Accel. he said in an interview. Also, all VC firms in recent years have…

Amazon on Wednesday invested an additional $2.75 billion in growing AI powerhouse Anthropic, taking over the option it left in September last year. I wonder if the $1.25 billion he invested at the time is paying off, or if he realizes he doesn't have any other horses to back it up. The September deal invested $1.25 billion in the company in exchange for a minority stake and certain retaliation deals, such as Anthropic, to continue using AWS for a wide range of computing needs. Amazon reportedly had until the end of the first quarter to decide whether to increase its…

LinkedIn is testing a new short-form video feed similar to TikTok, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday. With this new test, LinkedIn joins a number of other popular apps, including Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Netflix, which have launched their own short-form video feeds in response to TikTok's growing popularity. The feed was first discovered by Austin Null, director of strategy at influencer agency McKinney. Null is the new app's navigation bar[ビデオ]We posted a short demo on LinkedIn that showcases the new feed you'll see in your tabs. When you tap the new video button, you'll see a vertical feed…

The 3D hologram, dubbed “The Eternally Changing Statue,” will be on display at the Rise by Barclays workspace in New York until April 4th. Sipping wine and nibbling burrata, a group of government officials, reporters and founders gathered for the launch, with holograms flashing on displays and top British unicorns like food co-founder Tessa Clarke I watched as images of the founders alternated. Alexander and Oliver Kent-Braham, founders of waste startup Olio and insurance startup Marshmellow. The exhibition celebrated the UK as the third trillion-dollar high-tech economy after the US and China. Although Brexit has affected the economy, British authorities…

When entrepreneur Stephen Chen's mother began to approach retirement age, she was forced to borrow money from Chen and Chen's younger brother to make ends meet. They wanted to help, but they also wanted to find a more sustainable, long-term solution so her mother could retire without financial worries. Chen tried to get guidance from financial advisors, but no one was willing to accept her mother as a client because her mother's net worth was not considered high enough. So Chen started building spreadsheets and financial models on her own, doing her best to figure out how her mother could…

In the lead-up to the summer holidays, Google is announcing a series of travel updates that place you directly in the travel planning process and provide more insight into purchase intent in the travel space. First, Google is rolling out an update to its Search Generative Experience (SGE) that lets users create travel itineraries and travel ideas using AI, the company announced Wednesday. This new feature is currently available in English only to users in the United States who are enrolled in Search Labs, a program to try out the early Google search experience and share feedback. This feature collects…

Google is rolling out a new update that will make it easier for users to find personalized shopping results, the company announced Wednesday. This new feature allows users to rate different products and get style recommendations when shopping for apparel, shoes, and accessories. The update comes as Google continues to compete with companies like Amazon and Walmart, which have released AI-powered features that rival Google's shopping features. When you search for things like “men's polo shirts” on Google, you'll see a new section called “Recommended Styles,” where you can rate your options with thumbs up or thumbs down. You can…

Robinhood's new credit card was announced Tuesday, and while it's only available to Robinhood Gold members, the Gold card has a feature that's making headlines. It is a feature that allows you to invest your cashback bonus into investments. The announcement comes eight months after it acquired startup X1 for $95 million, and coincidentally one of X1's biggest features was the ability to invest in cashback rewards. Coincidence? Obviously not! Robinhood says this bonus, plus a number of other perks, including the ability to add family members as cardholders, even if they're young and don't have a Social Security number,…

Troy Sheets started making music at the age of 15 in his home studio using a keyboard synthesizer, drum machine, and 4-track cassette recorder. He’s a great setup for a high school sophomore. But young up-and-coming musicians rarely have access to advanced equipment (other than free apps on their phones). And most young people can't afford it. Additionally, synthesizers can be difficult to use for beginners. That's why Sheets decided to create the $199 Blipbox, an affordable children's synthesizer designed for ages 3 and up. “We saw an opportunity to create a simplified toy-like device that would allow more people…

The summer after his freshman year at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an engineering school in Worcester, Massachusetts, Cyvl.ai co-founder and CEO Daniel Pelaez needed a job. He returned home and worked for the local public works department, where he discovered there was little software for tracking road repairs. He was told to go out and drive the car, find the problem and solve it. “I was filling holes, fixing signs, cutting down trees. And while I was there, I quickly saw that they didn't have any data.” Pelaez told TechCrunch. He saw an opportunity to become Cyvl.ai, a company that helps…