timef 02/12/2025

When cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and AWS launched cloud software marketplaces a decade ago, it opened up a new sales channel for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies to get in front of potential enterprise customers. These marketplaces effectively enabled SaaS companies to bypass the traditional, lengthy sales cycles. But rarely is the seller-side experience a walk […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Security experts often describe identity as the “new perimeter” in the world of security: in the world of cloud services where network assets and apps can range far and wide, the biggest vulnerabilities are often leaked and spoofed log-in credentials.  A startup called SGNL has built a new approach that it believes is better at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

More and more legal professionals are embracing AI, surveys show. Per a recent poll from legaltech company Clio, 79% of firms used some form of AI for casework last year, up from just 19% in 2023. Despite some skepticism of the tech, in-house counsel has shown an interest, as well, with one survey suggesting that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Brands are constantly trying to streamline how they source packaging materials and ingredient suppliers for their products in order to quickly meet consumer demand. However, even today this process can involve some laborious wandering around trade shows. Keychain is an AI-powered platform that aims to quickly connect the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry with manufacturing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Firefly's Standard plan costs $9.99 per month, the Pro plan will run users $29.99 a month, and there's a more extensive Premium tier in the works. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

E-commerce startups built around food continue to gobble up funding as investors look for sticky consumer concepts that can scale without breaking the bank. On Wednesday, Germany’s Lanch — which taps social media and influencers to develop popular food brands alongside retail networks for distributing them — closed funding of €26 million ($27 million) to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The company buys marginal and degraded farmland, plants them with native trees, and harvests the resulting carbon credits. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A long stalled bid to beef up European Union rules around online tracking technologies — and put penalties on a similar footing to the bloc’s data protection framework, GDPR, which allows for fines of up to 4% of annual turnover for breaches — has been withdrawn by the Commission after co-legislators failed to reach agreement […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Lucidity, an Indian startup allowing enterprises to automate expansion and shrinking of their cloud storage, has raised $21 million in a Series A round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

If you’re working for a small company and want to build a client portal or an internal tool, it can be difficult to find the budget and resources to allocate a developer to that small project. That’s why more than 600,000 people, including project managers, HR employees and marketing people, have been trying Softr’s no-code […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As per an investigation by the Associated Press (AP), Tesla has won a defamation lawsuit against one individual called Zhang Yazhou, who in February 2021 was a passenger in a Tesla Model 3 car that allegedly crashed due to faulty brakes, resulting in a four-day hospital stay for both her parents. Following the accident, Zhang […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Notably, the image tools are not available in countries and regions like India, Indonesia, the EU, and the U.K. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Consumer demand for credit options varies across regions, and for fintechs, understanding these differences is key to survival. In developed markets, where credit cards are common, consumers often view buy now, pay later (BNPL) offerings positively because of their flexible installment options. But in emerging markets like the Middle East, where credit card penetration is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Federal workers are suing DOGE and its creator, Elon Musk to cut off the new agency's access to their personal data. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Founders Fund is on track to conclude fundraising of its third growth fund at the end of March, according to people close to the firm. The Peter Thiel-founded outfit is raising $3 billion, a source told TechCrunch and  Axios also reported. The fund, which is intended primarily for additional investments in its successful late-stage portfolio […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple Maps will soon rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, following similar changes made by Google this week, in order to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order that officially changed the name. U.S.-based Apple users may see the “Gulf of America” as soon as Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot platform, may not be as power-hungry as once assumed. But its appetite largely depends on how ChatGPT is being used, and the AI models that are answering the queries, according to a new study. A recent analysis by Epoch AI, a nonprofit AI research institute, attempted to calculate how much energy a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Remember that Christmas movie “Miracle on 34th Street,” where Macy’s in-store Santa, Kris Kringle, sends a frazzled shopper to a competitor’s store to find the Christmas present her son wanted because Macy’s was out of stock? Now, Amazon is doing the same thing online. The retailer announced on Tuesday the test of a new Amazon […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In the wake of Meta’s decision to remove its third-party fact-checking system and loosen content moderation policies, Google searches on how to delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads have been on the rise. People who are angry with the decision accuse Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg of cozying up to the Trump administration at the expense of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google Tuesday confirmed that its annual developer conference is set for May 20-21, 2025. The event will be held at the usual spot, Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheater, a few minutes — depending on traffic — from Google HQ. The two-day event is a mix of both public- and developer-facing content. CEO Sundar Pichai will kick […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Microsoft has added another 389 megawatts of renewable power to its portfolio as the tech giant scrambles to meet the power demands required to match its AI ambitions.  The additional renewable power spans three solar projects developed by EDP Renewables North America — two in southern Illinois and one outside Austin, Texas. Microsoft is buying […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Shopify took down Kanye West’s online store after the musician sold t-shirts with the swastika symbol. West, who also goes by Ye, advertised his online store in a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday, directing viewers to his website, where the only item listed was the swastika t-shirt. Though Shopify removed a policy banning sellers from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google has removed events such as Black History Month and Pride Month from being listed on the calendar by default.  Other events that were removed from the default calendar include Jewish Heritage, Indigenous People Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Hispanic Heritage Month.  Google spokesperson Madison Cushman Veld confirmed the changes to TechCrunch, saying that in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Army has granted upstart weapons maker Anduril control of one of its highest-profile and long-troubled projects known as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, founder Palmer Luckey announced in a blog post Tuesday. IVAS was initially awarded to Microsoft in 2018 to develop augmented reality headsets for soldiers based on a ruggedized version of Hololens. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse — the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen. As it turns out, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

On Monday, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, offered to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The unsolicited buyout would be financed by Musk’s AI company, xAI, and a consortium of outside investors, per a letter sent to California and Delaware’s attorneys general. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly dismissed Musk’s bid, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech!  This week we’re looking at how fintech heavyweights such as Klarna and Stripe are incorporating crypto into their strategies, which companies are planning for IPOs, one fintech’s Super Bowl ad, Stripe’s new lead of startups and venture capital, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple Tuesday announced the long-awaited debut of Powerbeats Pro 2. The new headphones arrive nearly six years after the original Powerbeats hit the market. The new model maintains the familiar ear hook for workouts, while delivering upgraded sound, better battery life, and a wireless charging case. The earbuds also mark a major next step in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In an interview at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed Elon Musk’s unsolicited $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit as “an attempt to slow [OpenAI] down.” “[Musk] obviously is a competitor,” Altman said. “He’s raised a lot of money for [his AI company] xAI, and they’re trying to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Stripe is in talks for another shareholder sale that could value the company at “at least” $85 billion, according to multiple reports and a source familiar with the matter. The Information first reported the news that the payments infrastructure giant is working to sell employee-owned stocks. The move would help workers gain some liquidity as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Bluesky users on Android now have access to a new app that works more like Instagram than X. On Tuesday, an app called Pinksky launched an Android version of its photo-centric social networking experience built on top of Bluesky. The app is now one of many attempting to court former Instagram users by offering a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Four people have so far come forward as victims of the Paragon spyware campaign targeting WhatsApp users, including one journalist and three activists. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

According to a report published Tuesday by The Information, Apple is partnering Alibaba to bring its Apple Intelligence platform to China. The deal is said to arrive after the iPhone maker reportedly explored – but ultimately rejected – a potential partnership with uber-buzzy AI startup, DeepSeek, as well as with Bytedance. Apple initially selected Baidu […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Mast enables reforestation without landowners needing to wait decades to harvest timber or claim carbon credits. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

BuzzFeed, the media site known for its celebrity news and quizzes, announced on Tuesday that it’s developing its own social media platform, in a move to counter the current negativity on the internet. Semafor first reported BuzzFeed’s plan for the platform this past week. Details on the new platform are not yet public. However, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.