Author: TechBrunch

When you attend a conference, whether it's a sales and marketing exercise or an executive presentation, there are costs associated with it. In the former case, in addition to the cost of the space and booth, there are costs for hotels, transportation, and meals for the employees staffing the booth. For executives, it costs time away from the office, ticket costs to attend, and travel costs. How do companies justify the cost of participating in these events? While it has been quite difficult to do so in the past, early-stage company Sproxxy is creating a platform to manage conference-related activities…

Tinder is expanding its identity verification program to users in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico, the company announced Tuesday. The program serves as an extra step for users to verify the authenticity of their profiles on dating apps and receive a blue verified checkmark. Tinder plans to make the feature available in the US and Mexico by summer, and in the UK and Brazil by spring. This enhancement comes as artificial intelligence is finding it increasingly difficult to determine what is real and what is fake. It also comes as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported last…

Phil Graves becomes the company's new chief executive officer after the company named Meaty Foods chief financial officer in early February. Co-founder Tyler Huggins will move into the role of chief innovation officer as Meaty, which makes alternative protein cutlets and steaks from mycelium (mushroom roots), further rolls out mushroom root products in 2024. , who will oversee the company's brand refocus. The company also said it would cut its workforce by 13% as Meaty is working to “build a financially sustainable business,” Graves exclusively told TechCrunch. “To do that, you need to have the right organizational structure and team…

The impact of AI must be front of mind for enforcers of merger control policy, the European Union’s antitrust chief and digital EVP, Margrethe Vestager, said yesterday, warning that “wide-reaching” digital markets can lead to unexpected economic effects. Speaking during a seminar discussing how to prevent tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta from monopolizing AI, she gave a verbal shot across the bows of Big Tech to expect more — and deeper — scrutiny of their operations. “We have to look carefully at vertical integration and at ecosystems. We have to take account of the impact of AI in…

1Password, the password management software developer owned by AgileBits, today announced that it has acquired Kolide, an endpoint security platform, for an undisclosed sum. Kolide founder and CEO Jason Meller and all 30 Kolide employees will join 1Password “as an intact team,” according to 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner. Meller became 1Password's vice president of products. “A hybrid workforce that can work anywhere, on any device is here to stay, and the result of this change is having a major impact on security,” 1Password CEO Jeff Shiner told TechCrunch in an email interview. . . “Employees are working with a mix…

Sometimes, to move faster, you don't need to break things, you just need to get them. So does Nuview, a startup aiming to use LiDAR to map the world from space, today announcing the acquisition of analytics platform Astraea. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nuview CEO Clint Grauman also declined to say in a recent interview how many Astraea employees will be joining the company. Nuview is relatively new to acquisitions. Mr. Grauman founded the company in January 2022, At least $15 million to date. But Grauman said in his experience, companies that try to build every corner…

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has been in talks in recent weeks about a potential acquisition of Dunzo, a hyperlocal delivery startup backed by Reliance Retail, three people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. But complications surrounding Dunzo's ownership structure are making it difficult for the two companies to reach a deal, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. All three sources said talks are still ongoing. The acquisition talks come after a tumultuous year for Dunzo, which has struggled to raise capital and pay employees. The startup, once valued at $500 million, has ceded much of the hyperlocal delivery…

Food tech investing may have declined along with venture capital overall, but Bluestein Ventures has no plans to slow down. The Chicago-based early-stage venture capital firm has completed his $45 million capital commitment to Fund III. Andrew Bluestein, co-managing partner of Bluestein Ventures, founded the firm in 2014 and brought on fellow co-managing partner Ashley Hartman eight years ago. They join other venture capital firms such as Cost Capital, Supply Change Capital and Joyful Ventures, which have recently raised new funds to invest in food technology. Bluestein Ventures has invested pre-seed up to Series A and amassed a portfolio of…

Richard Hong found it easy to reach international customers while expanding his men's personal care brand's e-commerce brand. The challenge arose when trying to get the goods to them. “We found that there was no localization technology in logistics pack compliance, product compliance, and marketing,” Hong told TechCrunch. “We had to build a lot of these capabilities in-house to be able to scale.” Through his e-commerce company, Pangea Holdings, Mr. Hong has been able to scale it to the point where the majority of its revenue (well over nine figures) comes from outside the United States. Hong and Pangea co-founder…

Walmart-backed PhonePe plans to launch an Android app store this week with zero in-app purchase fees for developers. The app store is based on technology from Indus OS, which PhonePe acquired in 2021. In this article, we look at why developers are seeking alternative stores and what the market opportunity is for these stores. How developers interact with Google In September 2020, Google temporarily removed Indian fintech giant Paytm's app from the Play Store because it violated the platform's rules. At that time, Paytm offered his Paytm First, a fantasy sports app, which was also listed on the Play Store.…