Another top Amazon unit exec leaves

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Monday, December 11, 2023

In today's top story, Manish reports that Amazon loses a second AWS India and South Asia top executive. Vaishali Kasture was in the role for less than a year. Get the scoop. Meanwhile, venture capitalists continue to pour hundreds of millions into artificial intelligence. Romain covers Mistral AI's $415 million funding round that brings its valuation to $2 billion. The Paris-based company is an OpenAI rival working on foundational models. Read more. And Carly writes about another healthcare data breach. This time it involves U.S. healthcare giant Norton, which confirmed that hackers stole millions of patients' data during a ransomware attack. Learn more. Image Credits: Getty Images

More top reads TikTok duet: TikTok plans to invest $1.5 billion in GoTo's Indonesia e-commerce business. Meanwhile, the social media giant becomes the first non-game app to reach $10 billion in consumer spending. Can Tesla block resales?: The vehicle maker is definitely trying to in the form of a $50,000 threat to Cybertruck resellers. Read more. Who will reign supreme?: The U.S.–China tech war is heating up over electric vehicle battery dominance. Here's what's at stake. M&A: We've got two acquisitions for you today: Docker acquires AtomicJar, a testing startup that raised $25 million in January. And PwC is acquiring Surfaceink, the hardware designer that was once a close partner of Apple's. Your invitation is in the email: Arc browser launches its Windows client in beta. Check it out. Personnel party: After a yearlong search, Strava appoints YouTube exec Michael Martin as its new CEO. Meet Michael. Guess who's back? Back again: It's been a wild weekend for Beeper Mini. Late last week, Apple cut off the company, which was reverse-engineering iMessage for Android users. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren was paying attention and called out Apple for doing that. Well, today, Beeper Mini is back in operation. Getting a charge: Vammo, which just raised $30 million in new funding, aims to scale e-motorcycle battery swapping across Latin America. Read more. Everything in order: With regulation looming, Citrusx helps ensure AI models are in compliance. It is also now flush with $4.5 million. X marks the Spaces: Elon Musk says X is bringing video to Spaces soon. And guess who's been allowed back on X? Tumblr somersaults: Tumblr's parent says plans for a "fediverse" integration are still in the works. And that's not all. What's eating you?: I take a look at venture capital investment into the food tech industry. No surprises, there is still a decline. Revel in the rivalry: With Shein going public and Temu seeing massive revenue results, Alex says we should all be paying more attention to the Pinduoduo-Alibaba rivalry. Read more. (TC+) Weekend warriors you may have missed: The possibility of regulation hangs on the horizon over generative AI (TC+) SumUp taps €285M more in growth funding to weather the fintech storm Deal Dive: Making the clean energy transition, well, cleaner (TC+) Do you believe in job after job? (TC+) Image Credits: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

Improve operational efficiency with a simple approach to IoT Sponsored by T-Mobile for Business Is your business grappling with inventory inaccuracies, disruptive maintenance schedules, and inefficient resource management? Join us to learn how our IoT solutions can optimize your business processes, enhance productivity, and drive growth. Watch Now

On the pods Today on Equity, the end of tech earnings is in sight as Adobe and Oracle report this week. Elsewhere, Mistral raises again while the EU gets its regulatory plan in place for AI, TikTok loves e-commerce, and fintech is far from dead. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Mid Full Stack Software Developer at Gene by Gene, Ltd (Houston, TX, USA) Cloud Engineer Lead at Itemize Corp. (Anywhere) Cloud Engineer at AAOS (Rosemont, IL, USA) Marketing Automation Specialist at Recognition Media (New York, NY, USA) Epic Business Intelligence Analyst (Product Owner) at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

How ex-Uber exec Joe Sullivan went from breach finder to breach hider

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Friday, December 08, 2023

In today's top story, Carly writes about Joe Sullivan, a former Uber executive who was convicted in 2022 after the government alleged he was part of a cover-up of a breach of Uber's systems in 2016. Speaking at the cybersecurity conference Black Hat Europe, Sullivan describes the ordeal and how he "had to get over" the shock of the conviction in order to move on. Get the scoop. Meanwhile, Romain reports that Amo wants to arm its users with an easy way to take and share a photo. That's right, even easier than the way we all do it now with our smartphone's camera app. With Amo's second app, called Capture, users take a photo and it is instantly shared with Amo friends. See how it works. And Manish writes that the venture capital investment downturn has reached India. Top VCs from the region face fresh obstacles, such as spotting fund-returning opportunities. More here. Image Credits: Courtesy of Joe Sullivan

More top reads Hashtags without the hashtags: That's what Threads is rolling out globally. Not so fast, though. You can only make one tag per post. Now you know what VTuber is: The animated VTuber Ironmouse won Content Creator of the Year at the Game Awards. Meet the virtual YouTuber. And the beat goes on: The U.K.'s competition agency is looking at whether the Microsoft and OpenAI tie-up is a "relevant merger." Can't wait to see how this develops. We're fine, nothing to see here: Startups are doing fine, but scale-ups and unicorns are in deep water. Read why an early path to IPO was a good strategy for some. (TC+) Oh, Snap: Snapchat+ keeps growing and growing as net revenue tops $20 million for the first time. Get the scoop. Take note: Google's AI-assisted NotebookLM note-taking app is now open to users in the U.S. Here's what it does. X marks the Grok: X's AI chatbot Grok is now "rolled out to all" U.S. Premium+ subscribers, according to Elon Musk. English language users are next. New job alert: OpenAI taps the former Twitter India head to set up a local team in the country. See what Rishi Jaitly will be up to. Dirty dog: Mulch memes and the enduring appeal of internet absurdism. Read on. Even more for your Friday: Play Our 2023 TechCrunch Pub Quiz! Backed by Cresta founders, Trove's AI wants to make surveys fun again Keep your business model simple (TC+) Anthropic's latest tactic to stop racist AI: Asking it 'really really really really' nicely Image Credits: Threads

Meet enterprise demands at the speed of 5G Sponsored by T-Mobile for Business As a business leader, are you looking for ways to improve speed to market and foster innovation to gain a competitive edge? Join us to explore the unique advantages America's largest and fastest 5G network provides. Watch Now

On the pods This week on Equity, Simply Homes raised $22 million for an interesting property play, SoftBank bought a majority share of connected-vehicles company Cubic Telecom, and OurSky raised $9.2 million for its space-viewing software system. The crew also parsed through troubles in fintech, from ZestMoney to Navan, and discussed how tech earnings are sending mixed signals to startups and VCs. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Mid Full Stack Software Developer at Gene by Gene, Ltd (Houston, TX, USA) Cloud Engineer Lead at Itemize Corp. (Anywhere) Cloud Engineer at AAOS (Rosemont, IL, USA) Marketing Automation Specialist at Recognition Media (New York, NY, USA) Epic Business Intelligence Analyst (Product Owner) at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Early users of Google’s Gemini aren’t impressed

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Thursday, December 07, 2023

Yesterday, we brought you new details about Google's new generative AI model called Gemini. In today's top story, Kyle writes that as people experiment with the AI, early impressions of Google's Gemini aren't great. Get the scoop. Meanwhile, Romain reports on French startup Pimento grabbing some seed funding to use generative AI in an interesting way: Turning creative briefs into visual mood boards. Read more. And Tage writes about Bujeti, an African corporate card and spend management startup that raised $2 million. Learn more. Image Credits: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto / Getty Images

More top reads Keep it weird, Austin: During the global pandemic, Austin was one of the cities identified as a burgeoning tech hub. However, now people are not moving to Austin as much, and in many cases, are moving away. Mary Ann questions if this Texas boom town is losing its luster. Find out for yourself. Today and Tomorro: After e-signatures, Tomorro, now flush with $11.9 million in new funding, believes e-contracts will be the next thing. Read more. Non-developers rejoice: Ex-Google and Coursera employees start Lutra AI to make AI workflows easier to build. No technical expertise needed. Robinhood and the merry investors: Following its expansion into the U.K., Robinhood brings crypto trading to the European Union. Read more. Full-service: European neobroker Scalable Capital raises $65 million on a flat $1.4 billion valuation. Here's how it got there. More layoffs: Tidal is cutting 10% of its staff as parent company Block seeks to reduce headcount. Get the scoop. Cyber jewel: Opal Security, which helps companies manage access and identities, raises $22 million. Read more. No no to Venmo: Next month, Amazon will no longer accept the Venmo app as a payment option. Here's what you still can use. Addressing affordable housing: Simply Homes lands $22 million in new funding to continue leveraging AI to tackle the affordable housing crisis. Knock knock. AI battle ensues: As a new AI-driven coding assistant is launched, the battle for AI-mindshare moves to developers. Read more. Even more for your Thursday: Everything you know about the podcast industry is a lie Coinbase’s and Robinhood's break belies good news for a host of fintech startups (TC+) Zelda Ventures' new pre-seed fund backs serial entrepreneurs Google launches migration tool ahead of Google Podcasts' 2024 shutdown Block releases Bitkey hardware wallet to 95 countries…kinda Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 Call for Content Webinar Sponsored by TechCrunch Want to speak at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024? Get the insider scoop on how to optimize your submission at this free, online event on Thursday December 7 @11am PT. TechCrunch staff will walk you through everything you'll need to know before you apply.

On the pods For this week's episode of Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was a part of Apple's system software product marketing group. We discussed the state of the crypto VC environment, areas he's focusing on for investments and what he thinks investors are missing. Listen here. Also check out the TechCrunch+ interview. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Mid Full Stack Software Developer at Gene by Gene, Ltd (Houston, TX, USA) Cloud Engineer Lead at Itemize Corp. (Anywhere) Cloud Engineer at AAOS (Rosemont, IL, USA) Marketing Automation Specialist at Recognition Media (New York, NY, USA) Epic Business Intelligence Analyst (Product Owner) at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103