Author: TechBrunch
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! Sorry for being absent last week. I'm sick with a cold, but I'm back to talk about the fact that startup shutdowns are big business, Stripe's new valuation, Klarna's latest AI update, and more. Get TechCrunch's roundup of the biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT. Subscribe here. big story Last week, I wrote about Sunset and SimpleClosure, two startups that help other startups shut down funding. We took a deep dive into how and why this business has become so popular with investors.…
To give female academics and others focused on AI their well-deserved and overdue spotlight time, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews highlighting notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. Start. As the AI boom continues, we'll be publishing several articles throughout the year highlighting key research that may go unrecognized. Click here for a detailed profile. Francine Bennett is a founding member of the Ada Lovelace Institute Board of Directors and currently serves as the Institute's interim director. Prior to that, she worked in the field of biotechnology using AI to find treatments for rare diseases. She…
Amid speculation and volatility in crypto land such as casinos, there is still a segment of individuals who support the potential of blockchain to decentralize various aspects of human activity for the greater good. . Taiko founder Daniel Wang is one of these idealistic founders. Wang, a serial entrepreneur, initially wanted to bring decentralization to social platforms. He believes decentralized networks like blockchain can help resist censorship through decentralized data storage and community-based content moderation. “I hope the next generation will grow up free and be able to say anything on the internet,” he told me at the Ethereum developer…
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello. Welcome to Equity, the startup business podcast. Uncover the numbers and nuances behind the headlines. This is an interview show where we sit down with our guests to think about their work and find out the rest. This week, we spoke to David Vélez, co-founder and CEO of Nubank, a $50 billion digital bank based in São Paulo, Brazil that provides consumers with credit cards, checking accounts, and life insurance. I heard. How Nubank was able to increase its market capitalization by over 40% in 8 months and post $1 billion…
To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish several pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles here. Karine Perset works for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she runs its AI Unit and oversees the OECD.AI Policy Observatory and the OECD.AI Networks of Experts within the Division for Digital Economy Policy. Perset specializes in AI and public policy. She previously…
We are excited to work with some of the most influential players in the startup ecosystem to create an exceptional experience at TC Early Stage 2024. Our purpose is to provide new and aspiring founders with the necessary tools, insights, and connections essential to building successful startups. . We are particularly pleased to announce the involvement of leading venture capital firm SOSV. SOSV will host breakout sessions during the event, providing valuable resources and strategies for founders looking to scale their businesses. In addition to SOSV's breakout, check out HomeHQ.ai's session to provide insight into leveraging custom AI assistants and…
Last night, for an evening hosted by StrictlyVC, this editor sat down with Trae Stephens, a former government intelligence analyst turned early Palantir employee turned investor at Founders Fund, where Stephens has cofounded two companies. One of these is Anduril, the buzzy defense tech company that is now valued at $8.4 billion by its investors. The other is Sol, which makes a single-purpose, $350 headset that weighs about the same as a pair of sunglasses and that is focused squarely on reading, a bit like a wearable Kindle. (Having put on the pair that Stephens brought to the event, I…
Rabbit co-founder and CEO Jesse Lyu isn't afraid of death…at least not of his company. He told TechCrunch that while the company is a startup whose fate can be dictated by the whims of multibillion-dollar rivals, that's no reason to give up and go home. Appearing on stage at StrictlyVC LA, Lyu explained his rather philosophical approach to the threat of Google, Microsoft or Apple coming to crush them. (Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.) Rabbit's r1, the pocket AI assistant that garnered a lot of attention after its debut at CES, is certainly an original proposition. Half the…
The tech-wide reckoning that began in 2022 and ran throughout into 2023 has continued into this year. And while 2024’s losses are not at that scale, they’re still significant, driven by big names like Pixar, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok. It remains to be seen if this year’s layoff trends follow last year’s, in which layoffs slowed down in the summer, before cuts began ramping up yet again toward the winter. Momentum for a tech sector rebound remains slow to build, outside of bright spots within artificial intelligence and adjacent companies, resulting in tech companies continuing to cut back on…
venture capital funding It has never been a solid company for women or black and brown founders. Alongside Crunchbase, we have been tracking funding levels to pinpoint moments of progress and setbacks for marginalized entrepreneurs. For example, Black founders had a strong year in 2021 with record funding amounts, but as the market cools and many DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) measures roll back. has decreased significantly. Women, on the other hand, have received stable funding over the past few years, hovering around 2%. But funding for mixed-gender teams has been steadily increasing, suggesting that female founders believe they can…