Author: TechBrunch

Sequoia Capital plans to fund up to three open source software developers per year as a continuation of a program it launched last year. The Silicon Valley venture capital firm announced the Sequoia Open Source Fellowship last May, initially by invitation only, with only one candidate eligible so far. Going forward, Sequoia is inviting developers to apply for scholarships that cover up to one year of costs so they can work on the project full-time without giving up capital or ownership. lack of funds It's no secret that open source software suffers from chronic underfunding issues, and this fact only…

The concept of knowledge management was born in the 90s. The idea is that the company's memory is locked inside its employees, who know the ins and outs of various systems. The problem was to record and update that knowledge. Scribe, a San Francisco-based startup, has figured out a way to easily capture and document internal processes in an automated way. The company says the idea is clearly resonating with customers, with revenue increasing by a whopping 400% last year. Growth like this will no doubt attract the attention of investors, and the company today announced a $25 million Series…

TikTok has released a “reimagined” app natively on Apple Vision Pro, the company announced Thursday. Vision Pro launched on February 2nd and already has over 1,000 apps designed specifically for this new device, including one of today's most popular social platforms. Vision Pro allows you to watch his TikTok videos via your browser, but the new native app allows for a more immersive viewing experience. The TikTok Vision Pro app moves the navigation bar and Like button off-screen so you can watch the entire video, and the comments section and creator profile appear as an extension next to your feed.…

Today is the shocking conclusion to TechCrunch's early stage audience voting! We carefully fielded a large number of applications from experienced founders and startup luminaries vying for attention in our Audience Choice program. After careful sifting, only six remain. The clock is ticking. Secure your tickets to the show in Boston on April 25th at a discounted early bird rate before they're gone. Audience Choice voting is coming to an end in just a few hours and ends tonight, February 15th at 11:59pm Pacific Time. Today is your last chance to make an impact and decide which candidates will grace…

Hydrogen suffers from the classic chicken and egg problem. That means there isn't enough demand to get suppliers into the game, and there isn't enough supply to drive enough demand. One startup thinks there's a solution for both sides. Chicago-based Celadyne has developed a nanoparticle coating that can be applied to existing fuel cell and electrolyser membranes. Gary Ong, the company's founder and CEO, said the material has the potential to significantly improve the durability of existing fuel cell designs while increasing hydrogen production efficiency by 15-20%. He said there is. Celadyne recently raised a $4.5 million seed round, according…

API company Kong today announces an open source AI gateway. It is an extension to the existing API Gateway that allows developers and operations teams to integrate their applications with one or more Large Language Models (LLMs) and access them through a single API. In addition to this, Kong will release several AI-specific features such as prompt engineering, credential management, etc. “We see AI as an additional use case for the API,” Kong co-founder and CTO Marco Palladino told me. “APIs are driven by use cases like mobile, microservices, and AI just happens to be the newest thing. When we…

There are a lot of things that can go wrong with GenAI, especially third-party GenAI. It makes things. It's biased and harmful. And it may violate copyright rules. According to a recent study by MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group, more than 55% of AI-related failures in organizations are caused by third-party AI tools. So it's not entirely surprising that some companies are still cautious about adopting this technology. But what if GenAI came with a guarantee? It's a business idea that entrepreneur and electrical engineer Kartik Ramakrishnan came up with a few years ago while working as…

Gemini, Google’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, is here. Is it any good? While it’s a solid option for research and productivity, it stumbles in obvious — and some not-so-obvious — places. Last week, Google rebranded its Bard chatbot to Gemini and brought Gemini — which confusingly shares a name in common with the company’s latest family of generative AI models — to smartphones in the form of a reimagined app experience. Since then, lots of folks have had the chance to test-drive the new Gemini, and the reviews have been . . . mixed, to put it generously. Still, we at…

Taylor Swift fake porn. Realistic yet fictionalized images of Gaza. The list of bewildering deepfakes continues, and as deepfake creation tools become easier and cheaper to use, the waves of fakes are hitting faster and harder. According to a recent Pew Center poll, nearly two-thirds (66%) of Americans say they at least sometimes encounter altered videos or images that are meant to mislead, and 15% answered that they encounter it frequently. In a separate Axios/Syracuse University survey of AI experts, 62% said misinformation is the biggest factor in maintaining news credibility and authenticity in the age of AI-generated content. I…

406 Ventures, a Boston-based venture firm that invests in enterprise-focused startups in healthcare, data and AI, and cybersecurity, has closed its fifth fund with $265 million in capital commitments. The company is partnering with Liam Donahue, founder of Boston venture firm Arcadia Partners, and two others, including Maria Cirino, co-founder of managed security services firm Gardent, and former Razorfish CFO Larry Begley. Founded by partners. The new fund is supported by a group of new and existing limited partners including university endowments, foundations, pension plans and strategic investors. Including the new fund, the 18-year-old firm has raised more than $1.4…