Author: TechBrunch
Jenny Button first remembered Em during the coronavirus lockdown. She used the Oura ring and Whoop monitoring band to gain insight into her body, but no device could provide her with data on one of the most important aspects: her reproductive and menstrual health. “That seemed crazy to me, because these are things that all women want to be able to track and understand more deeply,” she told TechCrunch. This is what she thought. Why not create a wearable device that could tell someone more about reproductive health? She wrote to one of Dyson's engineers, made a connection, and started…
Venture capital firm Atomico's annual European Technology Status Report has been published, showing an upward trend in investment. But this year's edition goes beyond the usual assessment of the technology ecosystem. It is part of an advocacy that reflects broader changes. European startups and investors are increasingly turning to lobbying. “It's no longer enough to show how far we've come; it's also important to use those insights to chart the path forward,” said report author Tom Wehmeyer, partner and head of intelligence at Atomico. It includes four policy recommendations with the descriptive names: “Removing Friction,” “Financing the Future,” “Developing Talent,”…
AI data center provider Lambda announced Tuesday that it has raised $1.5 billion in a round led by TWG Global, a relatively new $40 billion investment firm founded by billionaire Thomas Tull, former owner of Legendary Entertainment, and Mark Walter, founder and CEO of Guggenheim Partners. TWG holds various assets of the billionaire, including his stake in the Los Angeles Lakers and the new Cadillac F1 racing team. The company also has a $15 billion fund investing in AI backed by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Capital. TWG previously invested in a partnership with Elon Musk's xAI and Palantir to sell AI…
These days, it's not easy to become a limited partner investing in a venture capital firm. LPs that fund VCs face a liquid asset class. Fund lives are nearly twice as long as before, emerging managers face life-or-death financing challenges, and billions of dollars remain locked up in startups that may never justify their 2021 valuations. Indeed, at a recent StrictlyVC panel in San Francisco, five prominent LPs representing endowments, funds of funds, and secondary firms that manage more than $100 billion collectively painted an alarming picture of the current state of venture capital, arguing that an area of opportunity…
Nicholas Rudder continued to run into the same tax problem when building his last startup, an education marketplace called ScholarSite. “Every new country means a maze of registrations, applications, deadlines, and risks because marketplaces are required to pay taxes on their entire GMV (gross merchandise value), not just their take rate,” Rudder told TechCrunch. “It was a constant distraction. Instead of building a business, I was spending my time deciphering international compliance regulations, which I didn't want to be an expert on.” He and co-founder Adrian Sarstedt were about to shut down ScholarSite (later called Sphere), so Rudder decided to…
In 2023, Tayla Cannon immigrated to the United States from Australia in search of a job in a city she had never seen before. “I don't have any family, I don't have any friends, I just have a fresh start,” she told TechCrunch. Suffering from chronic back pain, she began her career in physical therapy because she believed it could help make a difference in the lives of others. However, the traditional physical therapy model never quite appealed to her. She moved to interventional cardiology, but her disillusionment grew even greater.She said she uses a physical rehabilitation model that is…
DoorDash has disclosed a data breach that exposed the personal information of an unspecified number of users, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses. Despite the fact that hackers stole phone numbers and addresses, DoorDash said that “no sensitive information was accessed by unauthorized third parties and there is no indication at this time that the data was used for fraud or identity theft.” DoorDash said in a post that the breach affected its customers, delivery personnel, and merchants. The company did not respond to requests for comment, including questions about exactly how many users were victims of the…
On Monday, a new model context protocol security startup called Runlayer launched in stealth with $11 million in seed funding from Keith Rabois and Felicis of Khosla Ventures. It was created by its third founder, Andrew Berman (previous companies: baby monitor maker Nanit and AI video conferencing tool Vowel, which was sold to Zapier in 2024). In the four months since Runlayer launched its product in stealth, it says it has signed deals with dozens of customers, including eight unicorns or public companies, including Gusto, Ripling, dbt Labs, Instacart, Opendoor, and Ramp. Berman also told TechCrunch that the company has…
A Russian telecommunications company that develops technology that allows phone and internet companies to monitor and censor the web has been hacked, its website defaced and data stolen from its servers, TechCrunch has learned. Founded in Russia, Prorei makes telecommunications systems for telephone and internet providers in dozens of countries, including Bahrain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Pakistan and much of Central Africa. The company, currently headquartered in Jordan, sells video conferencing technology and internet connectivity solutions, as well as web filtering products such as surveillance equipment and deep packet inspection systems. It's unclear exactly when and how Prorei was hacked, but…
According to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), $580 billion will be spent on AI data centers worldwide in 2025 alone. That's $40 billion more than would be spent on new oil supplies, leading to the conclusion that data centers are the new oil field. But is this a net positive for the environment, or just another type of resource drain? On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Kolosek, Anthony Ha, and Rebecca Beran dig into what this spending shift means for the energy grid, climate technology, and whether taxpayers should pay for Big Tech's infrastructure ambitions. Listen to…