Author: TechBrunch

Inspired Capital celebrates its fifth anniversary with the closing of Inspired Capital Fund III with a capital commitment of $330 million. This new amount brings the firm's total assets under management to nearly $900 million. The early-stage New York-based venture was founded in 2019 by entrepreneurs Alexa von Tobel and Penny Pritzker. They raised $200 million for their debut fund and $281 million for their second fund in 2021. Partner Lucy Deland and chief operating officer Mark Batsyan are also co-founders. Fund III is backed by institutional investors including major endowments, pensions and foundations. “For me, this is a real…

Today's numbers confirmed A long-standing rumor that they raise more money than God. The Bay Area-based robotics company announced a $675 million Series B round, valuing the startup at $2.6 billion post-money. The lineup of investors is equally impressive. This includes Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, Nvidia, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Jeff Bezos (via Bezos Expeditions), Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest. That's a daunting amount for a young startup with 80 employees. This last part will almost certainly change this round. Figure already had a lot to work on. Founder Brett Adcock, a serial entrepreneur, initially…

Want to make a splash at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024? Our side event initiative is a great opportunity to engage with Boston's tech community in a dynamic and memorable way. Plus, we'll help you promote your event for free. Submit your event here by March 20th. Host your own side event at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 What is a Side Event? Side Events is hosting its own event as part of “Early Stage Week” from April 21st to April 27th to host 1,500 conference attendees and local Boston residents. You'll have the opportunity to grow your brand and network with…

Listing tasks and to-dos is a very personal process. Some users prefer apps with complex features so they can better manage their tasks, while others get frustrated by the overload of features.That's why software developers adam whitcroft I created a very simple to-do app called Twodos that doesn't remind you of pending tasks. Whitcroft, who has worked at a16z-backed Rewind and Shopify, wanted a noise-free app for his tasks. “I tend to default to Apple's native apps most of the time (Notes, Mail, Calendar, etc.), but I've never been a big fan of Reminders. Or you can move to a…

Some Internet-connected doorbell cameras have security flaws that allow hackers to take control of them with the simple press of a button, among other problems, according to a Consumer Reports investigation. On Thursday, the nonprofit Consumer Reports released a study that detailed four security and privacy flaws in cameras made by Shenzhen, China-based EKEN. The company makes cameras under the EKEN brand, but apparently also makes cameras under Tuck and other brands. These relatively inexpensive doorbell cameras were available on online marketplaces like Walmart and Tem, but were discontinued after Consumer Reports contacted the companies to report the issue. However,…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is touring Asian countries this week, spoke Thursday with South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol, saying Meta will offset geopolitical risk issues in Taiwan, where TSMC is located. Therefore, he said that he would like to strengthen cooperation with Samsung Electronics regarding AI chips. is the world's largest contract chip manufacturing company and is headquartered in Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Yoon also discussed ways to expand cooperation in the artificial intelligence and augmented reality industries, a South Korean presidential official said in a briefing (in Korean) today. AI processors (manufacturing and sourcing, and the development of…

Since Hong Kong legalized crypto trading in June last year, blockchain projects in Western countries have attracted more attention to the Asian financial hub. Aptos, the blockchain network supporting A16Z developed by a group of former Meta employees, is one of them. Aptos was started by some of the original creators of the Meta-abandoned crypto payments project Diem. host DeFi event to be held in Hong Kong in April this year. Decentralized finance (DeFi), which seeks to replace traditional banking intermediaries with decentralized technology, has so far been a prominent use case for the blockchain space. “I went to Hong…

Silence Laboratories, a startup building infrastructure using multiparty computation (MPC) to help businesses keep data private and secure, raises $4.1 million in funding round It was announced that. Pi Ventures and Kira Studio co-led the recent funding with angel investors, bringing the total raised to $6 million. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its team size and strengthen its R&D pipeline. The startup's infrastructure uses MPC, a subset of cryptography. This allows two or more parties to jointly process confidential or personal information without exposing it to other parties. Founded in 2021 by Dr. Jay Prakash (CEO),…

Bfree, a technology-enabled debt collection startup based in Nigeria, is facing an ethical crisis after its founders witnessed the use and negative impact of aggressive collection methods such as incessant phone calls and debt scams by predatory digital lenders. was established to automate and implement the debt collection process. . After launching in 2020, the startup has a number of scalable debt collection methods, including a self-service platform where borrowers can set up new payment plans, and conversational AI tools (chatbots and callbots) as part of the collection. Introduced. -Providing services. These tools provide borrowers with humane after-sales service and…

Decentralized social network Mastodon has updated its official app for Android to make it easier for users to share their profiles via QR code. This could be useful for exchanging profiles in noisy places such as events or hotel lobbies, the company said in a blog post. To share a QR code, users go to their profile tab and tap the QR icon next to their name to get a code related to their profile that other users can scan. The organization also strives to make Fediverse easy to understand for users. To that end, we've added a domain name…