Author: TechBrunch
Today, the technology world is paying an incredible amount of attention to AI and its applications, but it's not just artificial intelligence that's making progress. If you're really into the weeds, keep an eye out for advances in quantum computing, as revealed recently by announcements from Microsoft and Quantinuum. The companies have achieved what TechCrunch described as a “major advance in quantum error correction,” which could make quantum computing systems much easier to use than before. The point is that he encoded multiple physical qubits into one logical qubit, making it easier to detect and correct errors. Error rates in…
BoAt, India's largest audio and wearables brand, is investigating a possible data breach after hackers advertised a cache of customer data online. Samples of purported customer data were uploaded to known cybercrime forums and included names, phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, and order numbers. Some of the data reviewed by TechCrunch appears to be authentic based on matching it with publicly available phone numbers. The hacker said the breach occurred in March and the data of more than 7.5 million customers was compromised. In a statement emailed to TechCrunch, BoAt said it was investigating the issue, but did not…
Hello. Welcome to Equity, the startup business podcast. Uncover the numbers and nuances behind the headlines. This is a Monday show where we dig into the weekend and take a peek at his week ahead. Now that Y Combinator's demo day is finally over, you can dive into the latest news, while Friday's show is still worth listening to. So this morning on Equity Monday, we saw an opportunity that the US could pass an actual data privacy law. There are moves to report it, but it is still very far from becoming law. Elsewhere, there's a new deal between…
Uber Eats is launching a TikTok-like short-form video feed to encourage discovery and allow restaurants to showcase their food. Uber Eats senior director of product Awaneesh Verma told TechCrunch exclusively that the new feed is being tested in New York, San Francisco, and Toronto. The company plans to launch the feed globally in the future. With this launch, Uber Eats joins a number of other popular apps (including Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Netflix, to name a few) that have launched their own short-form video feeds in response to TikTok's growing popularity. I did. TechCrunch also recently learned that LinkedIn has…
Microsoft has announced a new London hub for its recently announced Consumer AI division. The company will be led by Jordan Hoffman, an AI scientist and engineer recently hired from Inflection AI, a high-profile AI startup that Microsoft invested in last year. The news comes as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a new consumer AI division led by the founders of Inflection AI, including Mustafa Suleiman, co-founder of AI company DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014. This was announced about three weeks after the announcement. At the time, Nadella said that “several members of the Inflection team” were also joining…
Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of technology conference WebSummit, will return to his role as CEO after stepping down in October over controversial comments he made on social media last year about the Israel/Gaza war. . Rumors of his return began to surface over the weekend.Mr Cosgrave confirmed the move. Post on X today. Notably, Cosgrave made no mention in his announcement of the political comments he made that led to his resignation seven months ago, including a social media post he wrote at the time. have also been deleted). Instead, Cosgrave is trying to ease tensions with a plan to shift…
Avendus, India's leading venture investment bank, is looking to raise about $300 million for its private equity arm, three people familiar with the matter said. Backed by US private equity giant KKR, the Mumbai-based company worked with popular growth-stage startups like Zepto, LensKart, XpressBees, CaratLane, and Atomberg in its funding round last year, making it one of India's top has established itself as a financial advisor. Avendus is a third private equity fund with plans to write larger checks more frequently, one of the people said. The company raised a second round of funding of approximately $185 million in 2021.…
Spotify has already seen success with its popular AI DJ feature, but now the streaming music service is bringing AI to playlist creation. The company on Monday introduced AI Playlists into beta, a new option that allows users to generate playlists based on written prompts. The feature will initially be available to users of Android and iOS devices in the UK and Australia, and will continue to be available over the coming months. In addition to more standard playlist creation requests, such as those based on genre or time frame, Spotify uses AI to help users create songs like “Songs…
Welcome to TechCrunch FinTech! This week, we look at how many fintech companies joined Y Combinator's Winter 2024 cohort, how much funding they lost in Q1, and more. Get TechCrunch's roundup of the biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT. Subscribe here. big story Y Combinator held a demo day for its winter cohort this week. As always, the TC team gave it their all. One of the things that struck me was how much fintech representation in their group has decreased. Of the 260 companies included in the latest cohort,…
Mahbod Moghaddam, the controversial and never-tiring Genius and Everypedia co-founder and angel investor, died last month at the age of 41 from “complications from a recurrent brain tumor,” his family said. According to a post by and published on Genius. The startup world seems to have caught wind of Moghaddam's death just this weekend, with numerous tributes pouring in on the X Platform, including former TechCrunch writer-turned-investor Josh Constine. He previously interviewed Moghadam and its founders when Genius was being founded. Still in a relatively early stage, he has been called a rap genius. Constine wrote: “Rest in peace, Mr.…