Author: TechBrunch

DNA testing service 23ANDME filed for bankruptcy protection in March, raising concerns about what will happen to the genetic data of its 15 million customers. Pharmaceutical Giant Regeneron announced in May that it was purchasing a genetic testing company for $256 million, following its bankruptcy auction. The company said it will maintain 23andMe privacy practices, but it said it will use 23andMe data to help it discover new drugs. More recently, the TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit led by 23AndMe co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki, has been announced as the winner in a new round of bids. When 23AndMe…

Apple's plan to improve App Store discovery using AI tagging techniques is now available in the Developer Beta build of IOS 26. However, the tag is not yet visible in the public app store and does not inform the public store's App Store search algorithm. Image credit: App Store screenshots (Developer Beta 1, iOS 26) Of course, there is speculation about how the changes will affect your app's search rankings with future App Store updates. For example, a new analysis by App Intelligence Provider Appfigures suggests that metadata extracted from app screenshots affects rankings. The company theorized that Apple was…

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The bewildered genetic testing company 23AndMe announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement to sell itself to a nonprofit led by the company's co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki. After a massive cyberattack and a settlement of related lawsuits in 2023, 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, and Wojcicki resigned to become an independent bidder for the company. However, Pharmaceutical Company Regeneron was announced as the company's acquirer with a bid of $256 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wojcicki's non-profit TTAM Research Institute resumed the bidding process with an unsolicited bid earlier this month, with Regeneron…

It is certainly unusual for meta transactions to partially acquire AI startup scales to grant ownership of 49%. The officially announced size is that to value a company with a transaction exceeding $29 billion, and to “distribute” it means to “distribute” it to shareholders, allowing the shareholder (aka employees) to grant it as shareholders to continue as shareholders while granting it “substantial liquidity.” Meta also hires Scale's well-known founder CEO, Alexandre Wang. He dropped out of MIT at the age of 19 and built a company, providing human-verified AI training data. This may sound like Meta is buying shares from…

Google Search is experimenting with audio overviews for specific search queries, the company announced Friday. This feature was first featured in Notebooklm, Google's AI-based note-taking and research assistant. Tech Giant says the audio overview uses the latest Gemini models to provide an alternative way for users to absorb and understand information. “Audio overviews can provide a convenient, hands-free way to absorb information, whether you prefer an audio experience even in multitasking,” Google explained in a blog post. This feature will be available from today on Labs, Google's experimental program. The company says that if Google considers it useful based on…

A year ago, Bluesky was opening up to the public and was known as one of the many X competitors that emerged after Elon Musk acquired the network formerly known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky’s social network has grown to over 36.5 million users, while the technology it’s built upon — the AT Protocol (or ATProto for short) — is being used to develop dozens more applications designed to work together as part of an open social web. The developers behind many of these apps attended the first conference dedicated to the AT Protocol, ATmosphere, held in Seattle in late March…

For founders, time is one resource that you cannot lift. Therefore, TechCrunch All Stage, which took place on July 15th at the Sowa Power Plant in Boston, is designed to count every minute. Whether you're on the whiteboard sketching v1 of your product or understand how to lead a team of 50, TechCrunch every stage will meet you where you are – and give you access, insights and connections to move forward faster. Plus, if you move straight away, you'll get a $210 discount on your tickets now. It's not just talking to founders that day – it's built around…

On Wednesday's Y Combinator's Spring 2025 demo day, almost all startups had something to do with AI. They are developing AI agents or creating tools to facilitate development. In fact, it appears that some founders are removing the leaf from the pages of some successful AI startups. Approximately six startups have announced variations of “Cursor of X.” For example, Den is constructing a “cursor for knowledge workers” and Vessence is moving forward to create a “cursor for lawyers.” However, it wasn't just AI. I've noticed that some startups are working on robotics. Below are some of the startups that caught…

VC Tech World was Abuzz on Thursday when Neobank Chime successfully became a public company. Chime raised $864 million with a $27 share price. This wasn't the biggest IPO of the year. CoreWeave, for example, raised $1.5 billion in March, and its market capitalization on the first day reached around $14 billion. (Its stock price and valuation have skyrocketed since then). However, Chime's cap table includes the absolute Who's Who of Silicon Valley investors. This includes Yoonkee Sull from Iconiq. He and his venture investment partner Greg Stanger spent two years looking at the chimes before writing a check, Sull…