Author: TechBrunch

On March 11, a carbonated startup announced it had raised $67 million at a $1.4 billion valuation and reported 2023 sales of $263 million. Did you think this startup was canned water company Liquid Death? Liquid Death has now raised more than $267 million in venture funding, despite being in a category that many investors aren't interested in. The beverage industry is capital-intensive, making it a tough industry for VCs. You need a knack for choosing companies that sell well in retail stores and other direct-to-consumer channels. You can attract repeat customers instead of one-time customers. Michael Jones, managing director…

Every week seems to bring with it a new AI model, and the technology has unfortunately outpaced anyone’s ability to evaluate it comprehensively. Here’s why it’s pretty much impossible to review something like ChatGPT or Gemini, why it’s important to try anyway, and our (constantly evolving) approach to doing so. The tl;dr: These systems are too general and are updated too frequently for evaluation frameworks to stay relevant, and synthetic benchmarks provide only an abstract view of certain well-defined capabilities. Companies like Google and OpenAI are counting on this because it means consumers have no source of truth other than…

Stability AI founder and CEO Emad Mostaq has stepped down from his top role and the unicorn startup's board of directors, the high-profile company announced Friday night, the second major shake-up this week. It has become a popular AI startup. Stability AI, which is backed by investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue Management, does not have an immediate permanent replacement for the CEO role, but has appointed COO Shan Shan Wong and CTO Christian Laforte as interim co-founders. He was appointed CEO, the magazine said. Blog post. Stability AI said Mostak is leaving to pursue decentralized AI. In a…

With the Vision Pro finally available, many consumers are interested in Apple's AR/VR headset and the apps that come with it. Some are from familiar companies like Disney+, Max, TikTok, Zoom, and Reddit, but there are also many independent developers who have launched apps optimized for visionOS. From spatial puzzle games to apps that let you view your interior design projects in 3D, here are some VisionOS apps from small developers that you can try out once your headset arrives. We will add more to this list as they are released. game soul spire Image credit: Soul Assembly Soul Spire…

With the Vision Pro finally available, many consumers are interested in Apple's AR/VR headset and the apps that come with it. Some are from familiar companies like Disney+, Max, TikTok, Zoom, and Reddit, but there are also many independent developers who have launched apps optimized for visionOS. From spatial puzzle games to apps that let you view your interior design projects in 3D, here are some VisionOS apps from small developers that you can try out once your headset arrives. We will add more to this list as they are released. game soul spire Image credit: Soul Assembly Soul Spire…

In an era where data is king and its volume and complexity are exploding, Protecto aims to solve the age-old dilemma businesses face between ensuring data privacy and harnessing the power of AI. That's what I'm aiming for. As the adoption of generative AI tools like ChatGPT proliferates, it becomes easier to find, manipulate, and play tricks on wayward data. Protecto's APIs are designed to protect sensitive data throughout the AI ​​lifecycle while maintaining its usefulness. The company announced it has raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Together Fund with contributions from Better Capital, FortyTwo VC,…

US regulators have accused Apple of operating like a monopoly, and the implications of the case go far beyond iOS and the iPhone itself. Apple's antitrust scrutiny is at its peak. The U.S. Department of Justice announced a lawsuit Thursday accusing the company of acting like a monopoly, locking in iPhone customers and restricting competitors from developing hardware and software. The case comes on the heels of significant antitrust litigation against Apple outside the United States, and while it is a wide-ranging and complex case, we will discuss the details of the Justice Department's case, the industry's response, and the…

Welcome to Startups Weekly — a weekly roundup of must-sees from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Friday. Hello, startup geeks! I spent most of this week in San Jose wandering around his world of AI startups and tech giants at GTC. There are tons of fun stories from that, so stay tuned for all of them. In the meantime… take a look at the exciting good happenings in TechCrunch startup coverage from the past week! This week's most interesting startup stories Let’s talk about the microbiome… Image credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg…

Three years after hackers first teased AT&T's alleged grand theft of customer data, a compromising vendor leaked the complete data set online this week. This includes the personal information of approximately 73 million of his AT&T customers. New analysis of the complete leaked dataset, including names, home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and dates of birth, shows that the data is real. Some AT&T customers have confirmed that the leaked customer data is accurate. However, AT&T has not yet disclosed how its customers' data ended up online. The hacker first claimed to have stolen millions of AT&T customer data…

UK-based limited partners Venrex and Samos Investments are this week helping launch a new venture capital firm aimed at investing in startups primarily led by Ukrainians in the war-torn country and abroad. . LP is best known as an early institutional investor in the successful early-stage startup funds Seedcamp and Entrepreneur First. 1991 Ventures is the brainchild of Ukrainian brothers Denis and Viktor Gursky, who are well known for running incubation and accelerator programs in the country. The UK-based venture capital firm has launched a £15 million ($18.8 million) fund to invest in startup talent in both Ukraine and Central…