The Okta breach was worse than we thought

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Wednesday, November 29, 2023

In today's top story, we have an update for you on the Okta breach, first announced in October, where the company said a hacker broke in to steal sensitive files that could be used to access customer networks. At the time, it said just 1% of customers were affected. However, Carly writes that the company now admits the breach actually affected all of its customers. Over on TechCrunch+, Alex wants to know why venture funding into cybersecurity is "so tepid" even when it's clear the demand is so strong. Find out the answer. Meanwhile, General Motors continues to put the brakes on Cruise. Kirsten reports that while the automaker is committed to offering a self-driving product, it will slash spending at Cruise by "hundreds of millions of dollars" next year. Get the scoop. And Manish has a pair of Byju’s updates. The first is that the Indian edtech giant's investment firm, Prosus, slashed the company's valuation to under $3 billion. Byju’s is also the focus of an investigation looking into whether it breached the nation's foreign exchange rule; however, the company expects minimal or no fine from this allegation. Image Credits: Michael Vi / Getty Images

More top reads Nope, can't make me say it: Apple and Google avoid naming ChatGPT as their "app of the year," picking AllTrails and Imprint instead. We think it was deliberate. AWS re:Invent Day 2: Our team was there for the second day of keynote speeches, adding some new features to the roundup, including that Amazon finally releases its own AI-powered image generator. Take note: A new Mac app called Type is a bare-bones note-taking app that utilizes the command bar. See how it works. Driving force: South African startup GoMetro gets £9 million for its fleet management optimization software. Read more. What does your Spotify Wrapped say about you?: For me, I listen to way too many scary movie soundtracks. If you haven't yet checked out yours, Spotify Wrapped 2023 adds an AI DJ and Blend to its annual personalized insights. Meanwhile, the new Sound Town feature, which shows who around the world shares our listening habits, had us wondering what's up with Burlington, VT? Fund frenzy: Tola Capital, investing in AI-enabled enterprise software, closes its third — and largest — fund at $230 million. Get the scoop. Speaking of funds, we learned that the Fearless Fund grant program was already "at risk" before its lawsuit. Do you like travel and chatbots?: Layla takes in new capital as it leverages artificial intelligence and creator content to build a travel recommendation app. Where will you go? It's all Relativ-ity: Relativity Space CEO discusses why building a backlog isn't "worthless," but rather is the path to product market fit. Read more. Not just big, but Immensa: Immensa, an additive manufacturing and digital inventory platform operating in the Middle East, raises $20 million. Read how it boosts the energy sector. Generative AI keeps going and going: Together grabs a $102.5 million investment to grow its cloud for training generative AI. Here's how. Go go gadget smartphone: Squint brings in $13 million in a new round of funding, led by Sequoia, for augmented reality to interact with physical objects. See how it works. Cloudy with a chance of apps: DuploCloud lands $32 million to make provisioning cloud apps easier. Read more. Even more for your Wednesday: WSJ says the Goldman-Apple deal is dead. Apple says not yet Innovation or folly? The Cybertruck will test whether anyone still trusts Tesla Netflix gets a major win with GTA: The Trilogy coming to its mobile games roster Elon Musk is now taking applications for data to study X — but only EU researchers need apply… Discord expands its plans to sell custom avatars and other virtual items Image Credits: Apple

Venture Debt Remains Strong Amidst Slowdown in VC Investment Sponsored by Bridge Bank, a division of Western Alliance Bank. Member FDIC. Economic uncertainty has dramatically changed the venture capital landscape, yet venture debt lenders remain a strong partner for many technology startups, explains Mike Lederman, senior managing director in Bridge Bank's Technology Banking Group. Read More

On the pods On Equity, Alex spoke with Anu Hariharan, who previously led YC Continuity and has partnered with two of her former colleagues and former Brex executive Lucas Fox to launch a new fund, Avra. The fund aims to raise about $350 million and operate a program that some are referring to as a "YC for growth." In light of the new fund news, we're throwing it back to a conversation we had with Anu earlier this year: Alex and Anu dug into what makes a “great” founder and how those founders are successfully guiding their companies toward cash flow positivity. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Epic Business Intelligence Analyst (Product Owner) at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA) Business Systems Supervisor at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (King of Prussia, PA, USA) Temporary IT Associate at City of Newport (Newport, OR, USA) IT Network and Telecommunications - Journey at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA) Staff Software Engineer at Slang.ai (New York, NY, 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

Dataminr is the latest unicorn to announce layoffs

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Tuesday, November 28, 2023

In today's top story, Ingrid writes about Dataminr laying off 20% of its staff, or 150 people. The big data startup, worth about $4 billion, cited "the impact of the economic environment, operational efficiencies and the recent rapid advancements of our AI platform." The layoffs happened just as Dataminr prepares to double down on artificial intelligence. Get the scoop. Meanwhile, speaking of AI, generative AI is in full force over at Pika Labs. Kyle reports that the startup, building AI tools to generate and edit videos, is the recipient of a $55 million capital infusion. This comes six months after the company launched its new suite of videography tools. Time to animate. And we have a team on the ground this week at Amazon's AWS re:Invent event. Here's everything from today's keynote. Image Credits: Getty Images

TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 It's Cyber Monday all week for TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 passes. On April 25 in Boston, expert-led, hands-on sessions give new and aspiring founders help, not hype. Now through November 28 at 11:59 p.m. PT, buy a founder or investor pass for just $99!

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 explore the unique advantages America's largest and fastest 5G network provides. Join us to learn how our IoT solutions can optimize your business processes, enhance productivity, and drive growth. Watch Now

More top reads Smooth landing: Plane takes on Jira with an open source project management tool for software teams. With some new funding to boot. Good dog: As pet owners turn to mobile insurance apps, Lassie raises $25 million in Series B capital. Read more. Arrested development: Europol arrests hackers who were allegedly behind a string of ransomware attacks. Here's what happened. For those who have free time: Vimcal, a calendar app, raises $4.5 million to expand its team. See how it works. Augment-ing your skills: French startup Augment, which recently raised $6 million, provides an MBA-like program — exclusively online. Get the scoop. When B2B is H-O-T: Venture capital firm NXTP closes its largest fund to date with $98 million for early-stage B2B founders in Latin America. Learn about its third fund. That's one way to pay: Candex lands a $45 million infusion to grow its procurement management business. Here's how. Just when they thought they were out: Meta's new European Union ad-free subscription faces some early privacy challenges. Read more. Game on: YouTube launches more than 30 "Playables" — minigames for Premium users. Here's how to play. ABCs of IP: Solve Intelligence takes in new capital to help attorneys draft patents for intellectual property analysis and generation. Court is in session. Your favorite songs, by Apple: Apple Music Replay is here. However, it's still no Spotify Wrapped. Listen up. IPO yeah!: Now that Shein and Reddit made their intentions known to join the league of publicly traded companies, Alex lays out what the 2024 IPO cohort will look like. (TC+) Tabs on talent: Nvidia is on a major recruitment mission across China, looking for talent to boost its autonomous driving endeavors. Read more. Even more for your Tuesday: Webull leaps into Mexico with acquisition of stock trading app Flink Why 2024 could be a hot year for startup founders (TC+) Oxford study says internet use doesn't harm mental health, but its research has limits Paris-based startup studio Hexa raises some funding to launch even more startups Wind.app makes DeFi accessible to the average consumer Image Credits: The Image Bank / Getty Images

On the pods Medicaid is in its regulatory moment. Today on Found, we're joined by Neil Batlivala from Pair Team, which is building the infrastructure that will help the most vulnerable populations get the clinical and social care they need through the Medicaid expansion. Dom and Becca talked to Neil about how his previous health tech experience led him to start a company solely focused on connecting care facilities like food pantries and shelters to clinical training and care through Medicaid funding. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Epic Business Intelligence Analyst (Product Owner) at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA) Business Systems Supervisor at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (King of Prussia, PA, USA) Temporary IT Associate at City of Newport (Newport, OR, USA) IT Network and Telecommunications - Journey at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA) Staff Software Engineer at Slang.ai (New York, NY, 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

TikTok parent begins mass layoffs in gaming unit

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Monday, November 27, 2023

In today's top story, there is trouble over at ByteDance — TikTok's parent company. Rita reports that after two years, ByteDance is starting mass layoffs in its gaming business unit. No one is giving numbers other than the unit was around 3,000 people as far back as 2021. Find out why it was such a surprise. Meanwhile, Sarah has your look at Amazon's new thin hardware for accessing virtual desktop environments, and why it looks just like a Fire TV Cube. And Lorenzo has an update on the cyberattack that plagued Fidelity National Financial last week, writing that homeowners and buyers have been left wondering what's going on. And wanting to know where their money is. Image Credits: Andry Djumantara / Getty Images

More top reads Out of stealth: PhysicsX launches with $32 million for AI to power engineering simulations. Learn about the problem it is tackling. Doing the splits: Mozaic grabs $20 million in new funding to build a payment-splitting solution for creators. Read more. Movement at the top: Byju's taps Jiny Thattil as CTO following the departure of Anil Goel. Meet Jiny. Slip me some skin: Dbrand, a company that makes gadget skins, is suing Casetify over stolen designs. Find out what happened. EverExperimenting: Evernote pushes users to upgrade with the test of a free plan limited to only 50 notes. See how this affects users. All zeros and ones: Haje built a tool that uses AI to parse through pitch decks. Most of the time the machine did its job. However, when it didn't, it was bad. Here's why Haje says your pitch deck needs to be machine-readable. (TC+) Cyber fought the law and cyber won: A cyberattack on a legal tech provider is causing widespread disruption to U.K. law firms. Learn what happened. I think they let it Lapse: Lapse, a photo app that forced users to invite friends, is seeing that business model run out of steam. Here's why. Digital doctor: RepeatMD lands capital to grow its aesthetics and wellness booking business. Read more. Unicorn down: Prefab home builder Veev is reportedly shutting down after reaching unicorn status last year. Get the scoop. Your daily AI update: Now that we've had time to digest what's happened at OpenAI, Kyle is here to tell you that contrary to reports, OpenAI probably isn't building humanity-threatening AI. Meanwhile, there are reasons to be wary of Grok, Darrell writes. With all these AI chatbots out there, will Elon Musk and the ultra-rich replace the masses? Weekend warriors you might have missed: What startup founders need to know about AI heading into 2024 (TC+) Reflections on Web Summit: Out of the frying pan, and out of the fire? Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain implant startup, quietly raises an additional $43M Black Friday online buying hits a record $9.8B in the US, $70.9B globally Fate of US venture capital in China teeters on uncertainty Stories that posted while you were busy eating: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway exits Paytm at a 40% loss Adobe: Thanksgiving US online sales nudge up to $5.6B; Salesforce: $31.7B spent globally Saviu Ventures' second fund reaches €12 million first close to back Francophone Africa startups I'm trying so hard not to gush over Teenage Engineering's latest gadget If I'm being honest, I didn't have what it takes to be a founder (TC+)

TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 It's Cyber Monday all week for TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 passes. On April 25 in Boston, expert-led, hands-on sessions give new and aspiring founders help, not hype. Now through November 28 at 11:59 p.m. PT, buy a founder or investor pass for just $99!

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Business Systems Supervisor at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (King of Prussia, PA, USA) Temporary IT Associate at City of Newport (Newport, OR, USA) IT Network and Telecommunications - Journey at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA) Staff Software Engineer at Slang.ai (New York, NY, USA) Cloud & IT Security Engineer at AAOS (Rosemont, Illinois, 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