Author: TechBrunch
Travel and tourism is once again in the spotlight for consumers and the business community. And now, underscoring that surge, one of the startups building software in this space has closed a major funding round. Guesty, a platform that allows lodging managers to manage their businesses online, including platforms like Airbnb and his Vrbo, has raised $130 million. Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that the Series F values Guesty at about $900 million post-money. The New York-based company, which has Israeli roots, said its revenue has increased fivefold over the past three years and it expects to be profitable this year.…
Almost 10 years ago, Brian Frist, Nick Alexander, and Daniel Hunter came up with the idea of bringing technology to the automotive industry. They launched the Yoshi Mobility app, which delivers gas on the day of your choice for $20 a month to consumers in the San Francisco area using the first gas entry point. “The auto industry has never been an industry that has anything to do with innovation,” Frist told TechCrunch. “In the days of Amazon, when everything was delivered, we had this idea of never going to a gas station again.” The trio brought Yoshi to Y…
Proton, the Swiss-based privacy-focused company behind end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) webmail ProtonMail and other apps, has acquired Standard Notes, a note-taking app founded in 2017. . The company offers a similarly robust privacy promise. By also applying E2EE, it will reach more than 300,000 users. In a press release announcing the move, Proton highlighted the companies' “shared values” including the use of E2EE. Commitment to open source technology. And how neither relies on venture capital to fuel growth. E2EE is considered the gold standard in security technology because the service provider does not hold the encryption keys. This means that they…
Caller ID company Truecaller today announced Truecaller for the Web, a web version that offers SMS and chat mirroring, call notifications, and number lookup capabilities. At launch, it will be available only to his Android users in India, but it is planned to expand to other regions as well. All Truecaller for Android users can link their device to the web client on a PC or Mac via a QR code. Currently, users can only link to one web client. If you do not use Truecaller for the web he has a 30 day timeout period. Users can also manually…
According to a study by the World Resources Institute, global demand for wood could increase by 54% between 2010 and 2050. While some building materials, such as steel, are consistently recycled into the supply chain, wood is not. Cambium wants to solve that. Cambium aims to create a supply chain that prevents wood waste by connecting people who already have used wood with the companies and people who need it. Cambium co-founder and CEO Ben Christensen recently told TechCrunch's Found podcast that only 5% to 10% of wood is currently recycled, with most ending up in landfills. He said he…
Bot creators now have a new way to make money with Poe, Quora's own AI chatbot platform. The company on Monday introduced a revenue model that allows creators to set a per-message price for their bots, allowing them to earn money every time a user sends a message. This addition follows his October 2023 release of a revenue sharing program that gives bot creators a cut of the revenue if users subscribe to Poe's premium products. First released by Quora in February 2023, Poe gives users the ability to sample various AI chatbots from ChatGPT makers OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and…
Meta announced Tuesday that it is rolling out features that will allow Messenger users to create shared albums within chats, send photos in high resolution, and share large files up to 100MB. With these new features, Messenger is targeting people who tend to create shared albums and share HD images through services like Google Drive. Previously, users could only see a list of photos shared in a particular Messenger chat, without being able to group or organize them. To organize photos from your recent spring break or your grandma's girlfriend's 80th birthday celebration, users can now create photo and video…
One of the highlights of Early Stage is the fan-favorite roundtable session. These intimate gatherings, guided by experts, delve into targeted themes designed to enlighten, energize, and strengthen your entrepreneurial endeavors. Additionally, they also serve as a great opportunity to build connections with like-minded people. Networking, anyone? Check out this year's event's roundtable roster featuring top VC and founder leaders. Seed funding details Sponsored by Latham & Watkins LLPLatham & Watkins LLP Partner Spencer Ricks and Associate Naomi Smith Adapt and Thrive: Master the Chameleon Mindset Sponsored by Prepare 4 VCWith Christopher Dube, Chief Innovation Officer, and Jason Kraus, CEO…
If this had been announced just a week ago, it could easily have been mistaken for a corporate April Fool's Day. But Dyson assures us that augmented reality vacuum cleaners are real and will arrive in June, sadly a bit late for spring cleaning. Once launched during the summer, CleanTrace will be available on Dyson Gen5detect systems. The press photos betray the technology a bit, as it's aimed at mobile phones rather than things like the Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest headset. While this kind of heads-up AR seems possible, it ultimately begs the question of how many people…
Microsoft has resolved a security flaw that exposed internal files and credentials to the open Internet. Security researchers Can Yoleri, Murat Özfidan, and Egemen Koçhisarlı worked with SOCRadar, a cybersecurity company that helps organizations find security weaknesses, to find out which stores internal information related to Microsoft's Bing search engine. We discovered an open public storage server hosted on Microsoft's Azure cloud service. Azure storage servers stored code, scripts, and configuration files containing passwords, keys, and credentials used by Microsoft employees to access other internal databases and systems. However, the storage server itself was not password protected and could be…