Apple confirmed a Screen Time bug is impacting its devices, allowing children to go over the previously set time limits imposed by parents to continue to use their apps and games. The company acknowledged the bug in a comment published by The Wall Street Journal over the weekend, but didn’t offer a timeline for a fix. Screen Time settings are a series of controls that allow parents and guardians … [Read more...]

Homes are always in need of repair, providing home service businesses with no shortage of opportunity. However, managing inbound requests with actually doing the work and taking payments can be difficult. In recent years, startups have come online with technology solutions to help small home service businesses juggle all of that. Topline Pro is one of them, infusing generative AI into its platform … [Read more...]

Cyble, a cybersecurity startup that styles itself as a “threat intelligence provider,” today announced that it raised $24 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Blackbird Ventures and King River Capital with participation from Spider Capital, January Capital, Summit Peak Ventures and others.  The new cash will be put toward Cyble’s general R&D, co-founder and CEO Beenu Arora says, … [Read more...]

Vineet Rao, co-founder and chief executive of Indian social commerce DealShare, has stepped down from the top role, the Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global-backed startup said Monday. Rao will work with the startup’s board to identify the next chief executive, the Monday statement added. The startup, which did not say why Rao was stepping down, has been scrambling to find ways to find stickiness in … [Read more...]

After weeks of changes to its social handles, branding on its interface, a redirect on the web, and lots of chatter from its owner, Twitter the app has finally changed its name on the App Store to X. The single-letter name may have an exception: Apple typically doesn’t allow developers name their apps as a single character. Last week, Twitter rebranded its iOS and Android apps, replacing the old … [Read more...]

Steven Tamm Contributor Steven Tamm is a technology adviser to Spin.AI and a former Salesforce CTO with extensive experience in cloud computing, e-commerce, virtualization, developer tools, cybersecurity, compliance and SaaS. Managing security across multiple SaaS cloud deployments is becoming more challenging as the number of zero-day and ransomware attacks continues … [Read more...]

Italy’s competition authority has settled a probe of Google focused on data portability after accepting commitments from the tech giant that look set to make it easier for users to take their data elsewhere, the AGCM said today. The watchdog opened the investigation last summer, acting on a complaint by a local company which operates a direct marketing platform, called Weople. Its owner, Hoda, had … [Read more...]

The battle between two of China’s largest e-commerce firms is heating up, as they take the cutthroat tactics that have long been around in the country to the international markets they both covet. Chinese e-commerce deals giant Pinduoduo’s affiliate, Temu, which is aggressively expanding overseas, recently filed a court document in the U.S. accusing fast fashion giant Shein of anti-competitive … [Read more...]

Social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) has reinstated the account of Kanye West (who legally goes by Ye) after he was banned last year for posting a picture of Swastika merged with the Star of David. Last December, months after Elon Musk took over the platform, Ye created a tweetstorm by posting a series of antisemitic comments along with a picture that violated the social network’s … [Read more...]

Fidelity has slashed the estimated worth of its holding in SaaS startup Gupshup by over 20% in a month and by more than 50% since the original investment in the latest brutal markdown across private markets. The U.S. asset manager valued its holding in Gupshup at $8.08 million at the end of June, down from $10.15 million a month prior, according to a monthly disclosure. Fidelity originally … [Read more...]

Walmart paid $1.4 billion to buy out Tiger Global’s remaining holding of Flipkart shares as the retail giant further expands its stake in the Indian e-commerce startup. The transaction took place in recent days and Tiger Global, which has cashed most of its Flipkart shares earlier, overall made a return of $3.5 billion on an investment of $1.2 billion, the New York-headquartered hedge fund told … [Read more...]

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free.  Welcome back to The Station, your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B. Hey frens! I’m back from vacation and who-wee — a lot … [Read more...]

Lately I’ve been thinking about media publishing startups (think Semafor and Puck) and their fundraising rounds. Semafor recently raised a $44 million seed round, and Puck raised a $7 million Series A in 2021. The Messenger, among the newest in the industry, recently raised $50 million. Publishing media jobs are uncertain, pushing those with an entrepreneurial spirit to start their own companies, … [Read more...]

Automakers appear to have had an awakening last week: Electric vehicles are the future, and if they want to continue selling cars, they have to think beyond the car. I’m not talking about subscriptions, though; I’m talking about charging. For years, major auto manufacturers were happy to leave the infrastructure to someone else. Tesla was the lone exception, building a globe-spanning network of … [Read more...]

In this week’s edition of The Interchange, we get into M&As in the fintech space as AngelList nabbed a startup and Uplift got bought for less than it raised in venture funding. We get into those deals and much more. Want to receive this in your inbox every Sunday? Sign up here. Shopify’s credit bet, Jeeves’ update and AngelList’s second buy Last week, Shopify announced a new offering — Shopify … [Read more...]

If you’re adventurous with your food, or just like to keep up with the fast-moving food tech industry, here’s a roundup of this week’s stories and some notable news we weren’t able to cover. Supply Change Capital The venture capital fund madness we’ve seen all year has made its way to the food sector. This week, I wrote about Supply Change Capital, which closed on $40 million in capital … [Read more...]

Hey, friends, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s roundup of the week in tech news. Life getting in the way of your daily TechCrunch habit? Not to worry. WiR will get you caught up in no time. This week, WiR covers the improving quality of AI porn generators and the ethical dilemmas they raise; Twitter rebranding to “X”; and hackers infecting Call of Duty with self-spreading malware. … [Read more...]

Welcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Today, a look at Israel from three different angles: drug discovery, AI-enabled cybersecurity threats, and investor reactions to the political crisis. — Anna From spatial biology to … [Read more...]

“Founders first” is the TechCrunch credo — this is the way — and you’ll find the very best and brightest minds in the startup ecosystem gathered at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, taking place September 19–21 in San Francisco. This year, our programming spans nine stages, seven industries and dozens of breakout sessions and roundtable discussions (for starters). Disrupt is where founders go to grow, … [Read more...]

Building a startup is hard enough but growing one in a category marred with Theranos-sized stigma is a new level of challenge. Vital Bio seems up for the test. The Toronto-based startup is building a machine, VitalOne, that can perform more than 50 blood tests — covering nearly all of those considered routine — and get patient results back in 20 minutes, not multiple days. Co-founder and CEO Vasu … [Read more...]