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  • UK drops safety from its AI body, now called AI Security Institute, inks MOU with Anthropic
    techcrunch.com
    The U.K. government wants to make a hard pivot into boosting its economy and industry with AI, and as part of that, its pivoting an institution that it founded a little over a year ago for a very different purpose. Today the Department of Science, Industry and Technology announced that it would be renaming the AI Safety Institute to the AI Security Institute. With that, it will shift from primarily exploring areas like existential risk and bias in large language models, to a focus on cybersecurity, specifically strengthening protections against the risksAIposes to nationalsecurityand crime.Alongside this, the government also announced a new partnership with Anthropic. No firm services were announced but the MOU indicates the two will explore using Anthropics AI assistant Claude in public services; and Anthropic will aim to contribute to work in scientific research and economic modeling. And at the AI Security Institute, it will provide tools to evaluate AI capabilities in the context of identifying security risks.AI has the potential to transform how governments serve their citizens, Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei said in a statement. We look forward to exploring how Anthropics AI assistant Claude could help UK government agencies enhance public services, with the goal of discovering new ways to make vital information and services more efficient and accessible to UK residents.Anthropic is the only company being announced today coinciding with a week of AI activities in Munich and Paris but its not the only one that is working with the government. A series of new tools that were unveiled in January were all powered by OpenAI. (At the time, Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for Technology, said that the government planned to work with various foundational AI companies, and that is what the Anthropic deal is proving out.)The governments switch-up of the AI Safety Institute launched just over a year ago with a lot of fanfare to AI Security shouldnt come as too much of a surprise.When the newly installed Labour government announced its AI-heavy Plan for Change in January, it was notable that the words safety, harm, existential, and threat did not appear at all in the document.That was not an oversight. The governments plan is to kickstart investment in a more modernized economy, using technology and specifically AI to do that. It wants to work more closely with Big Tech, and it also wants to build its own homegrown big techs. The main messages its been promoting have been development, AI, and more development. Civil servants will have their own AI assistant called Humphrey, and theyre being encouraged to share data and use AI in other areas to speed up how they work. Consumers will be getting digital wallets for their government documents, and chatbots.So have AI safety issues been resolved? Not exactly, but the message seems to be that they cant be considered at the expense of progress.The government claimed that despite the name change, the song will remain the same. The changes Im announcing today represent the logical next step in how we approach responsible AI development helping us to unleash AI and grow the economy as part of our Plan for Change, Kyle said in a statement. The work of the AI Security Institute wont change, but this renewed focuswill ensure our citizens and those of our allies are protected from those who would look to use AI against our institutions, democratic values, and way of life.The Institutes focus from the start has been on security and weve built a team of scientists focused on evaluating serious risks to the public, added Ian Hogarth, who remains the chair of the institute. Our new criminal misuse team and deepening partnership with the national security community mark the next stage of tackling those risks.Further afield, priorities definitely appear to have changed around the importance of AI Safety. The biggest risk the AI Safety Institute in the U.S. is contemplating right now, is that its going to be dismantled. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance telegraphed as much just earlier this week during his speech in Paris.TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter!Sign up hereto get it in your inbox every Wednesday.
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  • Google Gemini now brings receipts to your AI chats
    techcrunch.com
    Googles Gemini AI chatbot can now tailor answers based on the contents of previous conversations, the company announced in a blog post on Thursday. Gemini can summarize a previous conversation youve had with it, or recall info you shared in another conversation thread.This means you wont have to repeat information youve already shared with Gemini or comb through old threads for additional info.Geminis ability to recall conversations is rolling out today to English-speaking subscribers of Googles $20-a-month AI chatbot subscription, Google One AI Premium. In the coming weeks, Google says the recall feature will roll out additional languages and for users with enterprise accounts.The features aim is to make Gemini more fluid and personal but not every user will be thrilled with the notion of the platform storing old information.To address privacy concerns, Google says its allowing users to review, delete, or decide how long it will keep your chat history. Users can turn off the recall feature altogether by going to the My Activity page in Gemini. Google also notes that it never trains AI models based on user conversation histories.That said, several AI chatbot providers have been experimenting with memory and recall.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has previously noted that improved memory is among ChatGPTs most requested features.Google and OpenAI have both enabled more general memory features for their AI chatbots in the past year. These allow ChatGPT and Gemini to remember details about you, such as how you like to be addressed, your food preferences, or that you prefer riding a bike to driving a car.However, these existing memory features dont remember and recall your full chat history by default.TechCrunch has an AI-focused newsletter!Sign up hereto get it in your inbox every Wednesday.
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  • Meta CTO says staff should quit if they dont like Metas new policies
    techcrunch.com
    In BriefPosted:2:16 PM PST February 13, 2025Image Credits:MetaMeta CTO says staff should quit if they dont like Metas new policiesMetas CTO Andrew Bosworth has choice words for Meta employees frustrated with the tech giants latest policies: they are free to quit, Business Insider reported.The report cites an internal chat where an employee criticized Meta for cutting DEI programs and allegedly silencing internal dissent, among other issues.Bosworth responded that any staffer who thinks its OK to leak to the media because of policy disagreements should consider working elsewhere.An employee followed up that blaming leaks was not the answer, and that Meta workers felt disrespected. (Meta began layoffs this week for what it has controversially termed low performers.)Bosworth responded that, You should quit if you feel that way, I mean it.The tense conversation reflects some degree of internal turmoil at Meta as it implements significant policy changes, from rolling back DEI efforts to loosening moderation standards.Meta didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.Topics
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  • Tim Cook teases Apple product news for February 19 likely the iPhone SE
    techcrunch.com
    In BriefPosted:11:23 AM PST February 13, 2025Image Credits:Gabby Jones / Bloomberg / Getty ImagesTim Cook teases Apple product news for February 19 likely the iPhone SEApple CEO Tim Cook took to X Thursday to tease the newest member of the family, set to arrive February 19. The safe money is on a fourth-generation iPhone SE. The budget-minded handset had previously been tipped for a potential release a week prior, but we got new Beats headphones instead.Its been three years since Apple released the last iPhone SE at $429. Its an oversight for a product that plays such an important role for the company in massive markets like China and India. This time out, Apple is likely to ditch the Touch ID home button once and for all in favor of Face ID authentication.The upcoming handset is also rumored to sport the same chip that powers the iPhone 16, allowing it to run the companys generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence. The handset would arrive shortly after Alibaba confirmed that it is working with Apple to bring AI to the iPhone in China.Topics
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  • Elon Musks full offer letter to buy OpenAI reveals five key details
    techcrunch.com
    A consortium of investors led by Elon Musks x.AI offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion this week. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has dismissed the proposal, which would gum up OpenAIs planned conversion from a non-profit, something Musk is attempting to block in a lawsuit.Altmans lawyers argued in a Wednesday filing that Musk cant have it both ways: attempt to buy OpenAIs assets and also try to stop it from changing its non-profit status. Musks team responded thatit would withdraw the bid if OpenAI ceased its attempts to convert itself from a non-profit.Meanwhile, as a part of these filings, the full letter of intent from Musks team to buy OpenAI was made public.Heres 5 key details we learned from that letter and other legal filings to shed light on this ongoing, and rather messy, dispute.Clear deadline setThe unsolicited offer from Musks group comes with a specific expiration date: May 10, 2025. There are exceptions to the deadline if the deal is finalized beforehand, both sides agree to end discussions, or OpenAI formally rejects the offer in writing.Despite Altmans public dismissals, including a joking counteroffer to buy X for a tenth of the price, OpenAIs board hasnt formally rejected the offer yet as boards are typically required to legally evaluate such offers, even from competitors.All-cash transactionMusks consortium, which includes VCs like Joe Lonsdales 8VC and SpaceX investor Vy Capital, is offering exactly $97.375 billion to buy out OpenAI, and says in the letter 100% of the purchase price would be paid in cash.This is notable since Musk hasnt shied away from using debt in the past, borrowing $13 billion from banks to buy Twitter (now X) in 2022. His net worth has increased substantially since then, floating around $400 billion, according to some estimates, since the election of his new ally Donald Trump.However, the letter names seven investors, including Musks AI company X.AI as well as unnamed others, meaning Musk isnt using his personal fortune to finance this.Full access to books and personnelPrior to forking over all that cash, the buyers want to examine OpenAIs financial and business records, along with access to OpenAI staff for interviews. That means everything from assets, facilities, equipment, books, and records, according to the letter.While this is a normal part of due diligence, especially for an offer as big as $97.4 billion, this could also give Musks x.AI an OpenAI competitor access to sensitive internal information. And once theyve seen it all, their diligence could also provide them with a reason to withdraw their offer.The offer could undermine Musks lawsuitThe $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI contradicts Musks legal claims that the startups assets cant be transferred away for private again, OpenAI lawyers argued in a court filing in the lawsuit on Wednesday.OpenAI suggested the offer isnt serious, but an improper bid to undermine a competitor. However, Musks consortium says their offer is indeed serious and that its cash would go to OpenAIs non-profit to further its mission.Musk may withdraw if OpenAI stays a non-profitMusks legal team says he will drop his bid to acquire OpenAI if the board commits to keeping it as a non-profit, according to a court filing on Wednesday.The filing argues that Musks buyout offer is a genuine one, stating that the non-profit should receive fair market value for its assets based on what an independent buyer would pay.This seems to validate what some pundits have alleged: that the offer was intended to drive up the price Altman would have to pay to take the company private.In a statement, the lawyer representing OpenAIs board said Musks bid doesnt set a value for [OpenAIs] non-profit and that the non-profit is not for sale.
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  • Another robotaxi operation heads to Texas and Archer scores $300M for its defense mission
    techcrunch.com
    Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free just click TechCrunch Mobility!Raise your hand if youre exhausted by the firehose of information coming from every direction. Yeah, me too.At TechCrunch, were focused on helping readers (thats you!) become informed; thats different than blasting information your way. Instead, we work to answer the Why should I care? question and provide important context.Take the Department of Transportations decision to pause funding for a $5 billion EV charging infrastructure program. As senior reporter Sean OKane notes in his coverage, this is more than just the latest attempt from the Trump administration to hack away at federally funded renewable energy projects around the country, which has been a stated priority of the president.It also illustrates the growing conflict between Elon Musks politics and his car companys goal of advancing the transition to sustainable energy. Tesla, which Musk runs and is the largest shareholder of, received $31 million in funding from the program.In other how-we-are-keeping-you-informed actions, we also monitor certain topics of interest and provide updates when warranted. Reporter Rebecca Bellan has been keeping track of Teslas Dojo program, updating it on the regular. Check it out.A little birdImage Credits:Bryce DurbinA little bird reached out to me recently to share this nugget, which was confirmed via a LinkedIn post. Brian Lerner, a former Apple software engineer who spent the past four years at Built Robotics, was hired as director of factory software at Ford.Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean OKane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.Deals!Image Credits:Bryce DurbinDual-use technology meaning it can be used by civilians and military attracted quite a bit of investment in 2023 and 2024. This year is shaping up to be even bigger as founders take advantage of President Donald Trumps platform.Archer Aviation, the developer of electric vertical and take-off vehicles, is the latest company to tweak its mission in order to capture those sweet, sweet dual-use dollars.Archer Aviation, which went public in September 2021 via a special purpose acquisition merger, raised $300 million from institutional investors, including BlackRock and Wellington. The funds will mainly be used to accelerate the work Archer is doing with Anduril to build a hybrid craft (VTOL).The raise brings Archers total funding to around $3.36 billion. And as reporter Rebecca Bellan noted, this fresh capital comes off the back of a $430 million round in December to fund its new Archer Defense program.Reminder: It wasnt too long ago that Archers go-to-market strategy was an air taxi network across several cities in the U.S. and abroad.Other deals that got my attentionAuto Hauler Exchange, the Michigan startup that developed a digital marketplace for vehicle transportation, raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by MHS Capital. Golden Ventures, which led Auto Hauler Exchanges seed round, also invested in the Series A round.Endera, an electric bus manufacturer in Ohio, raised $49 million in equity and debt. The round included a $36 million equity investment led by Magnetar. Pulse Fund also participated. The total also included a $13 million credit facility.GreenSpark Software, a New York City-based startup building software for the metal recycling industry, disclosed last month it raised $9.4 million from investors Zero Infinity Partners, Third Prime, Bienville Capital, and several unnamed strategic investors. We now know that BMW i Ventures is one of them.Innoviz, the lidar company, raised $40 million from institutional investors at a share price of $1.39 a discount that caused its stock price to fall steeply. As of Wednesday, the companys stock had fallen 37% since its Friday closing price of $1.59.JLR is expanding its U.S. technology hub in Portland with a $180 million investment that will be spread out over the next decade. The hub is developing the next generation of connected cars and what it described as autonomous driving technologies in future JLR vehicles. History lesson: JLR opened its tech hub in 2014 and expanded the facility in 2016, 2017, and 2024.Revel, the electric shared moped-turned-EV-charging-infrastructure startup, secured a $60 million loan from New Yorks clean energy investment fund NY Green Bank to more than triple its current public fast-charging network in New York City.Self Inspection, a startup based in San Diego that has developed an AI-powered vehicle inspection service, raised $3 million in a seed round co-led by Costanoa Ventures and DVx Ventures, the firm run by former Tesla president Jon McNeill. Joining the round was Westlake Financial, which handles more than 1 million vehicle transactions annually.Notable reads and other tidbitsImage Credits:Bryce DurbinADASBYD unveiled Gods Eye, an advanced driver-assistance system that will be installed on its entire model lineup, including its $9,600 Seagull hatchback.Tesla won a defamation lawsuit against 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. Tesla has finally released telemetry data from her car, which apparently showed that the brakes had functioned as intended.Autonomous vehiclesAurora Innovationis still on track to commercially deploy its autonomous trucks beginning in April 2025, according to its Q4 shareholder letter. Aurora was supposed to launch at the end of 2024 but pushed back the timeline to validate its self-driving technology.Lyft plans to bring fully autonomous robotaxis, powered by Mobileye, to its app as soon as 2026 in Dallas, with more markets to follow. Lyft isnt spilling details about which carmaker it will partner with; we do know that Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate with experience managing fleets, will own and finance the Mobileye-equipped vehicles that will show up on the Lyft app.The Lyft-Mobileye deal got me thinking about Texas. It wasnt that long ago that California and Arizona were the main hotbeds of robotaxi activity. But Texas is quickly becoming a hub, not just of testing, but also of commercial operations. Austin is one Texas AV hot spot: Tesla is planning to launch its driverless ride-hail service in the city this coming June, and Waymo and Uber are set to launch a service soon. Avride has also set up shop in Austin. Meanwhile, self-driving truck companies Aurora and Kodiak Robotics also have a footprint in Texas. This TechCrunch article from 2023 posed a question that we may finally answer in 2025.May Mobility launched its first fully driverless commercial service in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. May has a different operations strategy than Waymo or Zoox. This isnt a free-wheeling service that goes anywhere. Instead, it has (for now) eight pre-determined stops.Waymo continues to expand its robotaxi service areas, this time in Los Angeles. The company has added 10 square miles to include Westchester and parts of Inglewood and Crenshaw, giving customers access to popular destinations like SoFi Stadium and HHLA Entertainment.Electric vehicles, charging, & batteriesMercedes-Benz is taking its EV charging network to Canada, starting with Vancouver this year and then to stations in metro Toronto in 2026. The German automaker has 300 charging stalls in operation and under construction in 11 U.S. states. In total, more than 2,500 charging stalls will be deployed between Canada and the U.S.Rivian will sell its commercial electric vans to any U.S. business that wants one more than a year since ending an exclusivity deal with backer Amazon.PeopleJonathan Morrison, an Apple executive, has been picked to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Morrison was chief counsel for NHTSA during Trumps first term. He was previously president of Auto Advisory Services and director of legal and regulatory affairs at the California New Car Dealers Association.Ride-hailing and gig economyEarnings season is here, and the two top ride-hailing companies, Lyft and Uber, have reported their fourth-quarter and full-year earnings. Heres a quick breakdown:Lyft reported record growth and its first full-year GAAP profitability for 2024 with a net income of $22.8 million, compared to a net loss of $340.3 million in 2023. Thats good news, but investors paid more attention to the companys lower-than-expected guidance for gross bookings in the first quarter.Lyft says Q1 is just a slower season, but the company also anticipates bookings to be negatively affected by the loss of its partnership with Delta, which Uber has snagged. Another interesting tidbit: Lyfts board authorized $500 million in share buybacks, the companys first time doing such a program.Meanwhile, Uber beat revenue expectations in the fourth quarter, growing its revenue 20% to $11.96 billion. Its adjusted EBITDA was $1.84 billion for Q4 and $6.84 billion for the full year. Still, shares fell after the company reported that it missed analyst expectations on EPS and offered soft guidance.The company expects gross bookings to hit between $42 billion and $43.5 billion in Q1, which would be less than the $44.2 billion Uber recorded in Q4 2024. Uber CFO Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah cited currency headwinds and impact from the recent Los Angeles fires and extreme weather in January.This weeks wheelsThis newsletter is getting long, so no this weeks wheels! Stay tuned for new vehicles in the coming months.What is This weeks wheels? Its a chance to learn about the different transportation products were testing, whether its an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.
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  • Phase raises $13M to speed up the UX design process with its no-code platform
    techcrunch.com
    UX and UI designers work closely with engineers throughout product development to build and implement design concepts and wireframes for functional user interfaces. Regular communication, feedback and testing are required for the collaboration to work smoothly and deliver a user experience that aligns with the intended design goals.Nick Budden, a serial entrepreneur who used to work as a UI/UX designer, wanted designers to spend their days solely on design work rather than handoffs or meetings with engineers. To address a few inefficient steps in the design process, Budden founded Phase in 2017.Implementing UI is an expensive, time-consuming manual process involving designers, product managers and engineers, Budden said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. Comprehensive user testing is also delayed until after that process is complete.The Taipei and Berlin-based startup is building a no-code platform that helps UI/UX designers create fully interactive prototypes, and it said on Thursday that it has raised $13 million in funding from Gobi Partners, New Economy Ventures, Palm Drive Capital, Shilling VC, SquareOne, WI Harper, 42CAP and 500 Global.Today, the startup released its first product, a UI animation tool that will compete with Adobe After Effects and Figma. Phase says its software lets UI/UX and product designers create interactive website or app simulations without manual coding or [using] error-prone AI plugins. It can also export UI code thats ready for production, speeding up the design process.Budden said Phases product is much easier for a UI/UX designer to use than other tools like Adobe After Effects or Figma. The key differentiator to Figma is the completeness of the prototype. So in Figma, you can build a prototype that does, maybe 20% or 30% of what the real website does, and then the other 70% or 80% that the prototype doesnt do, you then have to communicate with the engineers, product managers, and people have to figure that out, Budden mentioned. Our product is being built to do 100% of what a real website or app does.This is supposedly the first in a series of launches, and there are plans to introduce three more UI design and code tools of its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) platform this year and next year to streamline all the manual work required for UI/UX design, Budden told TechCrunch. The three new features will be: UI advanced prototyping, UI design and UI code export.We dont see UI animation as a standalone market for long its a go-to-market opportunity today, but that window will close once tools like Figma integrate animation as a built-in feature, Phases CEO told TechCrunch. Our strategy is to gain only initial traction in animation now, and move down our roadmap into larger markets before that shift happens.Soft launch in South KoreaPhase first introduced its platform in South Korea in May after finding a reliable local partner to help with the launch.Designers adopt new tools by observing their peers discussing and using them, leading to the widespread adoption of design tools, Budden explained, but he pointed out that this influence is often hyper-local. For example, designers in London are primarily influenced by others in their area.Because of this local dynamic, we launched region by region, allowing us to engage deeply with each design community and build momentum, Budden told TechCrunch.South Korea has about 100,000 designers, and Phase says that within a few weeks of launching its product, more than 10,000 had tested it. This hands-on approach successfully kickstarted community growth at least in South Korea but it hasnt worked out as well as the company hoped in other regions.Larger markets had more dispersed design communities, making it harder to gain traction. After months of struggling to recreate Koreas success, we shifted gears and opened a global beta, Phases CEO said. With adjustments to our go-to-market strategy, we saw rapid and sustained growth [] That momentum, combined with product stabilization, is why were moving out of beta now.Phase aims to enter the U.S. and European markets as its next priority.
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  • Startup Battlefield 200: The competition starts on the waitlist
    techcrunch.com
    Is your pre-Series A startup solving big problems with game-changing potential? Do you have the drive to compete against the worlds top early-stage startups? Or know a founder whose vision deserves to be seen?TechCrunchs Startup Battlefield 200 is where the most innovative early-stage startups battle it out in front of world-renowned VC judges in a high-stakes pitch competition. With over 1,500 alumni like Trello, Mint, Dropbox, Discord, and Getaround, this is the platform to showcase groundbreaking ideas, happening from October 27-29 at Disrupt 2025 in San Francisco.The startup battle starts before applications even open. Add your startup (or refer one) to the waitlist and be at the front of the line when its time to apply.Startup Battlefield benefitsStartup Battlefield isnt just a one-time opportunityour alumni still benefit from it today. Check out the Startup Battlefield 200 page to see how it can help your startup, explore key perks, and get your questions answered.Gain exposure on a global stageGet feedback from the biggest investors in techNo cost to participatejust pure competitionA chance to win $100,000 in equity-free fundingDirect access to top investors and the biggest names in tech mediaExhibit table (all 3 days at Disrupt 2025)4 complimentary ticketsBranding/listing in the Disrupt event app2-minute fast-pitch on the Showcase Stage in the Expo HallInvites to exclusive networking eventsAccess to masterclass sessionsBegin the startup battle todayIn a competition this big, every second counts. Add your startupor refer oneto the Startup Battlefield 200 waitlist and get notified the moment applications go live. Apply early, stay ahead, and take your shot at startup glory! Waitlist here.
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  • Alibaba confirms Apple deal bringing AI features to iPhones in China
    techcrunch.com
    Alibaba on Thursday confirmed recent reports of a partnership with Apple thats set to bring AI features to iPhones sold in China. The deal is an important one for Apple, as iPhone sales have dropped precipitously in the worlds largest smartphone market. The handset experienced an 11% year-over-year drop in China, according to Apples most recent earnings report.Apple talked to a number of companies in China, Alibaba chairperson Joseph Tsai stated during Dubais World Government Summit. In the end they chose to do business with us. They want to use our AI to power their phones. We feel extremely honored to do business with a great company like Apple.According to reports, Apples earlier deal with Chinas Baidu has been plagued with issues adapting the search giants AI offering. Apple is also believed to have explored partnerships with ByteDance and DeepSeek, prior to settling on Alibaba. These sorts of partnerships are key to U.S. companies like Apple as they work for regulatory approval in China. Both Alibaba and Apple have reportedly submitted relevant materials to local authorities.Ahead of the companys most recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook cited the absence of Apple Intelligence, the companys in-house generative AI solution, as a contributing factor in slowing international sales.During the December quarter, we saw that in markets where we had rolled out Apple Intelligence, that the year-over-year performance on the iPhone 16 family was stronger than those markets where we had not rolled out Apple intelligence, the executive told CNBC.The company has banked on Apple Intelligence to drive the next major iPhone super cycle a term referring to a dramatic uptick in device sales. Apples speed and strategy in rolling out its own generative AI solution hampered its growth, as Google continues to deliver new Gemini features by way of Samsung phones, Pixel devices, and various other Android offerings.Increased domestic competition has also eaten into Apples China market share. Vivo took the lead in the fourth quarter of last year, with 17% of the market, according to figures from research firm, Canalys. Huawei, which has seen a massive rebound following sanctions from the first Trump administration, grew shipments 37% year over year, scoring a second-place finish at 16% market share. Apple, which commanded 24% of the market the same time last year, dropped to 15%, putting it in a third-place dead heat with Xiaomi and Oppo.Apple is banking on the Alibaba deal to help regain some of that marke, but even if the partnership passes regulatory scrutiny, Apples China future isnt crystal clear. Tariffs and trade tensions are likely to further impact sales in the key market.The company has notably been cozying up to Donald Trump during the Presidents second term. Cook donated $1 million to Trumps inaugural committee in January. More recently, Apple followed Googles lead by changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on its Maps app.TechCrunch has reached out to Apple for additional comment on the Alibaba deal.
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  • CyberArk snaps up Zilla Security for up to $175M
    techcrunch.com
    Identity security company CyberArk has acquired identity governance and administration (IGA) platform Zilla Security in a deal worth up to $175 million. The transaction consists of a $165 million cash portion and an additional $10 million earn-out which is payable upon meeting certain milestones it can be seen as an incentive for the founders or other key personnel to hang about through the transition phase.Founded in 1999, Boston-based CyberArk specializes in access management, including privileged access security which helps organizations protect sensitive data and critical infrastructure from external (and internal) threats. CyberArk has made eight known acquisitions previously, the largest by some distance being the $1.54 billion it paid for machine identity company Venafi last year. Zilla, for its part, is another Boston-based security company operating in the identity and access management realm. But given that it was founded in 2019, Zilla is a nimbler cloud-native player that has been adding more automation and AI-enabled features to the mix, making it an alluring proposition for a much larger company founded in the days before SaaS or cloud computing had taken hold. What worked 20 years ago clearly doesnt work today, Zilla CEO and co-founder Deepak Taneja said in a statement. Zilla had raised around $19 million since its inception six years ago, with backers including FirstMark, Pillar VC, and Tola Capital. Reshaping identity governanceThe long and short of all this is that CyberArk wants to bolster its own products with tools purpose-built for the cloud, with AI at its core and easy integrations for hybrid- and multi-cloud environments. By expanding the CyberArk Identity Security Platform with Zillas modern IGA capabilities, we will reshape identity governance with scalable automation that delivers compliance and helps maximize security for the modern enterprise, CyberArk CEO Matt Cohen added in a statement. Thats not to say that CyberArk hasnt already been modernizing, though. The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2014, and its shares currently sit more than 1,000% up on its IPO price in the past year alone, its valuation has surged 41% to more than $18 billion. Earlier today, the company posted its Q4 results that revealed a year-on-year revenue hike of 41%. Specifically, its subscription revenue in particular grew by 62%, with its annual recurring revenue (ARR) surpassing the $1 billion mark.As a result of the transaction, CyberArk will offer key Zilla services including Zilla Comply and Zilla Provisioning as standalone products through the CyberArk identity security platform. Additionally, Zillas co-founders Deepak Taneja and Nitin Sonawane and their team will be joining CyberArk.
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  • Data center tweaks could unlock 76 GW of new power capacity in the U.S.
    techcrunch.com
    Tech companies, data center developers, and power utilities have been panicking over the prospect of runaway demand for electricity in the U.S. in the face of unprecedented growth in AI.Amidst all the hand wringing, a new paper published this week suggests the situation might not be so dire if data center operators and other heavy electricity users curtail their use ever so slightly.By limiting power drawn from the grid to 90% of the maximum for a couple hours at a time for a total of about a day per year new users could unlock 76 gigawatts of capacity in the United States. Thats more than all data centers use globally, according to Goldman Sachs. To put that number into perspective, its about 10% of peak demand in the U.S.If data centers were to curtail their use more, they could unlock progressively more capacity.Such programs arent exactly new.For decades, utilities have encouraged big electricity users like shopping malls, universities, and factories to curtail their use when demand peaks, like on hot summer days. Those users might turn down the air conditioning or turn off thirsty machines for a few hours, and in return, the utility gives them a credit on their bill.Data centers have largely sat on the sidelines, instead opting to maintain uptime and performance levels for their customers. The study argues that data centers could be ideal demand-response participants because they have the potential to be flexible.There are a few ways that data centers can trim their power use, the study says. One is temporal flexibility, or shifting computing tasks to times of lower demand. AI model training, for example, could easily be rescheduled to accommodate a brief curtailment.Another is spatial flexibility, where companies shift their computational tasks to other regions that arent experiencing high demand. Even with data centers, operators can consolidate loads and shut down a portion of their servers.And if tasks are mission critical and cant be delayed or shifted, data center operators can always turn to alternative power sources to make up for any curtailment. Batteries are ideally suited for this since even modestly sized installations can provide several hours of power almost instantaneously.Some companies have already participated in ad hoc versions of these.Google has used its carbon-aware computing platform, originally developed to trim emissions, to enable demand response. Enel X has worked with data centers to tap into the batteries in their uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to stabilize the grid. And PG&E is offering to connect data centers to the grid quicker if operators agree to participate in a demand response program.These tweaks wont completely eliminate the need for new sources of power. But they might turn a potentially catastrophic situation in which half of all new AI servers are underpowered into one thats more easily solved.
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  • Apptronik, which makes humanoid robots, raises $350M as category heats up
    techcrunch.com
    Apptronik, a University of Texas spin-out that was quietly building humanoid robots before it became quite so fashionable, on Thursday announced a $350 million Series A round of financing. B Capital and Capital Factory co-led the round, which also featured participation from Google, whose DeepMind division is partnering with Apptronik to deliver embodied AI for bipedal robots.What 2025 is about for Apptronik and the humanoid industry is really demonstrating useful work in these applications with these initial early adopters and customers, CEO Jeff Cardenas tells TechCrunch. And then true commercialization and scaling happening in 2026 and beyond. Thats what this raise is designed to do.The Austin-based startup had raised a relatively modest $28 million combined prior to this round. Cardenas says the previous goal was to generate more revenue than money raised a goal he says the eight-year-old startup achieved during that time. That revenue came by way of pilot deals including with Mercedes and GXO Logistics and by selling robots outright. For now, however, the goal of generating more revenue than fundraising is going to have to go on-hold for a while.Apptroniks humanoid work dates all the way back to 2013, three years prior to its founding. It was then that members of the University of Austin at Texass Human Centered Robotics Lab competed in the NASA-DARPA Robotics Challenge, an effort that centered around a humanoid robot called Valkyrie. Since then, the space agency has maintained a partnership with Apptronik as the company has readied its own generation of humanoids, including its current humanoid, Apollo.Cardenas points to that decade-plus of humanoid experience as a primary differentiator between Apptronik and competitors like Figure, 1X, and Tesla. Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics have long histories, as well, but Apptronik is a seasoned veteran in the category compared to much of the competition.Google DeepMindThat history may explain why Googles DeepMind AI team has been working with Apptronik to build robot behavioral models. Their strategic partnership is similar in nature to others in the industry. Last week, Boston Dynamics announced a tie-up with The Robotics & AI institute. That followed a similar deal between the Spot-maker and Toyota Research Institute thats aimed at improving how robots learn.All are indicators of a much bigger trend, including OpenAIs multiple deals in the space. The ChatGPT-maker has invested in both 1X and Figure. Last August, Figure announced that it would further leverage OpenAI models to develop natural speech conversations for its own 02 robot, though last week, the outfit announced new plans; going forward, it will move all of its AI development in-house.We found that to solve embodied AI at scale in the real world, you have to vertically integrate robot AI, Figure CEO Brett Adcock told TechCrunch last week. We cant outsource AI for the same reason we cant outsource our hardware.Apptronik may ultimately make the same choice, but for now, a Google DeepMind partnership makes far more sense for the startup than the additional funding required to build bespoke humanoid AI models in-house. We believe that right now, Google is at the top of the game, and building some of the best models in the world, Cardenas says.Putting robots to workImage Credits:ApptronikScaling and production are the magic words for Apptroniks A round. Apptroniks current headcount is just north of 170 people, and its planning a 50% increase over the next year.Still, Cardenas is pragmatic about timelines in a category that can be fast to overpromise and underdeliver. Cardenas tells TechCrunch that Apptronik has yet to move beyond the pilot stage with any of its partnerships. For all of the excitement around humanoids, its still key for companies to take a measured approach to the category, addressing things like safety concerns and reliability prior to scaling the technology in a meaningful way.In the meantime, the company has a handful of ongoing pilots, including Mercedes, which makes for a natural choice. Automotive manufacturing has been the leading use case for these kinds of pilots, requiring tote moving and other manual tasks on the factory floor. Boston Dynamics has similarly been working with its parent company, Hyundai; Figure has deployed robots with BMW; and Teslas Optimus will eventually get to work on the companys own EVs.Bringing it all back homeImage Credits:ApptronikLike many of its rivals, Apptronik is also looking for ways to put Apollo to work outside of factories and warehouses. The day could arrive when these robots come home to help with groceries, cook, fold laundry, and other tasks buyers might want to offload onto an automaton. Cardenas is even more excited about age tech as an important avenue for advanced robotics. As the population ages and more older adults prefer to live independently, humanoids could eventually help.The holy grail for me is [age-tech], says Cardenas. As humans, he says he asks himself, where could we apply this technology that improves the human condition?The holy grail will have to wait, however.For now, Apptronik, like most humanoid manufacturers, is focused on industry. Factories and warehouses are a good first step, as corporations have the money and other resources required for pilots. Scaling manufacturing for these projects will continue to drive the price point down, but as it stands, the systems are far too expensive for the home or even care facilities to be a practical route. Apollos target price is below $50,000, says Cardenas. But Apptronik isnt there yet.Were in the window where the economics now make sense, says Cardenas. And we know how to get to much more affordable systems.
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  • Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team steers toward nature-based carbon credits
    techcrunch.com
    Few fans would associate Formula 1 racing with sustainability, but perhaps incongruously for a sport that glorifies combustion, the league has a goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.For F1 teams, its not as simple as burning sustainable fuels in their race cars engines. In fact, the cars are responsible for less than 1% of a teams carbon footprint. The vast majority comes from everything else, including race-oriented logistics, business travel, office space, computers and so on.To offset some of the more challenging sources, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team is buying 5,500 metric tons worth of carbon credits from Chestnut Carbon, which plants forests on degraded farmland in the southeastern U.S.The credits are slated to be delivered in 2027 through 2030. In total, they represent about 10% of the teams emissions in 2023. Mercedes-AMG Petronas aims to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and hit net-zero carbon emissions in 2040.Though Mercedes-AMG Petronas new carbon credit purchase is small, the team also has inked a deal with Frontier, the advanced market commitment organization backed by Stripe, Google, Meta, Shopify, and others.Chestnut Carbon recently closed a deal with Microsoft for 7 million metric tons of carbon credits, and it raised $160 million in a Series B round to expand its operations. The startup is aiming to deliver 100 million carbon credits by 2030.
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  • Chinas Salt Typhoon hackers continue to breach telecom firms despite US sanctions
    techcrunch.com
    Security researchers say the Chinese government-linked hacking group, Salt Typhoon, is continuing to compromise telecommunications providers, despite the recent sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on the group.In a report shared with TechCrunch, threat intelligence firm Recorded Future said it had observed Salt Typhoon which the company tracks as RedMike breaching five telecommunications firms between December 2024 and January 2025.Salt Typhoon made headlines last September after it was revealed that the group had infiltrated several U.S. phone and internet giants, including AT&T and Verizon, to gain access to the private communications of senior U.S. government officials and political figures. Salt Typhoon also hacked into the systems that law enforcement agencies use for court-authorized collection of customer data, potentially accessing sensitive data such as the identities of Chinese targets of U.S. surveillance.Recorded Future declined to name Salt Typhoons latest victims, but said they include a U.S.-based affiliate of a prominent U.K. telecommunications provider; a U.S. internet service provider, and telecommunications companies in Italy, South Africa and Thailand.The hackers also performed reconnaissance the practice of covertly discovering and collecting information about a system on multiple infrastructure assets operated by Myanmar-based telecommunications provider, Mytel, according to Recorded Future.To carry out these attacks, Salt Typhoon exploited two vulnerabilities (tracked as CVE-20232-0198 and CVE-2023-20273) to compromise unpatched Cisco devices running Cisco IOS XE software.The hacking group has attempted to compromise more than 1,000 Cisco devices globally, focusing particularly on devices associated with telecommunications providers networks, Recorded Future said.Recorded Future said it had also observed Salt Typhoon targeting devices associated with universities, including the University of California and Utah Tech. The researchers said the hacking group possibly targeted these universities to access research in areas related to telecommunications, engineering, and technology.The U.S. government has sanctioned companies linked to the group. In January, the U.S. Treasury Department itself targeted by Chinese government hackers recently said it had sanctioned a China-based cybersecurity company known as Sichuan Juxinhe Network Technology, which it says is directly linked to Salt Typhoon.Recorded Futures researchers say despite this action, it expects Salt Typhoon to continue targeting telecommunications providers in the U.S. and elsewhere.
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  • Elon Musk will withdraw bid for OpenAIs nonprofit if its board agrees to terms
    techcrunch.com
    In a court filing on Wednesday, a lawyer for Elon Musk said the billionaire will withdraw his $97.4 billion bid for OpenAIs nonprofit if the ChatGPT makers board of directors preserve the charitys mission and halt its conversion to a for-profit corporation.The filing, submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims that Musks offer to buy OpenAIs nonprofit is serious, and that the nonprofit must be compensated by what an arms-length buyer will pay for its assets. Should [] the charitys assets proceed to sale, a Musk-led consortium has submitted a serious offer [] that would go to the charity in furtherance of its mission, the filing reads. [However, if] OpenAI, Inc.s Board is prepared to preserve the charitys mission and stipulate to take the for sale sign off its assets by halting its conversion, Musk will withdraw the bid.The filing is the latest development in a saga that began on Monday, when Musk, his AI company, xAI, and a group ofinvestors offered to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI for $97.4 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and the companys boardquickly dismissed the unsolicited proposal. In astatement, Andy Nussbaum, the counsel representing OpenAIs board, said Musks bid doesnt set a value for [OpenAIs] nonprofit and that the nonprofit is not for sale.Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, last year brought a lawsuit against the company and Altman that alleges that OpenAI engaged in anticompetitive behavior and fraud, among other offenses.OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit before it transitioned to a capped-profit structure in 2019. The nonprofit is the sole controlling shareholder of the capped-profit OpenAI corporation, which retains formal fiduciary responsibility to the nonprofits charter.OpenAI is now in the process of restructuring this time to a traditional for-profit company, specifically a public benefit corporation. But Musk, via the lawsuit, is seeking to enjoin the conversion.In a filing earlier on Wednesday, attorneys for OpenAI called Musks move to take control of the company an improper bid to undermine a competitor, and a contradiction of his position in court that a transfer of the startups assets through restructuring would breach its mission as a charitable trust.
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  • Coinbase eyes re-entry to India
    techcrunch.com
    Coinbase is working on its re-entry to India more than a year after it officially ceased operations in the worlds most populous nation.The American crypto exchange is engaging with various Indian authorities, including the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an Indian government agency that scrutinizes financial transactions, according to two sources familiar with the matter who requested anonymity as deliberations are ongoing and private.Coinbases work on its comeback follows a tumultuous history in the South Asian market. Binance, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange, resumed operations in India last August after registering with the FIU following a seven-month regulatory halt. The move established a precedent for foreign crypto exchanges seeking to operate in India.Coinbases previous attempt to launch services in India ended abruptly in 2022. The exchange launched with much fanfare in April of that year, introducing support for the widely used United Payments Interface (UPI) system. The company had to suspend the service just three days later after Indias National Payments Corporation, which oversees UPI, refused to acknowledge Coinbases operations.Brian Armstrong, Coinbases chief executive, later disclosed that the outfit faced informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of India, which had led to the trading halt. Though cryptocurrency trading isnt illegal in India, lenders largely refuse to do business with virtual asset firms in the country to avoid upsetting the central bank, according to many entrepreneurs, investors and other officials.The timing of Coinbases potential relaunch depends on how long it takes to secure necessary approvals, including a license to operate from the FIU. The agency previously ruled that many exchanges, including Kraken and Binance, were illegally operating in India. (Many of these firms have since complied with the FIU, which requires broader disclosures on user activities.)Coinbase is excited by the opportunities in the Indian market and intends to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch, declining to share any update on the FIU registration.The crypto exchanges interest in India comes as it explores broader international expansion, per comments made by Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas at a recent Goldman Sachs conference. Additionally, Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, this week joined the board of directors of U.S.-India Business Council, part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.Im honored to join the USIBC Board to help strengthen the bridge between India and the U.S. in shaping the future of finance, he said in a statement shared by USIBC. India has one of the largest and fastest-growing web3 ecosystems in the world, with a booming developer community, pioneering startups, and bold institutional adoption. Since 2018, its share of global web3 developers has quadrupled to 12%, the highest growth among emerging markets.Even as India is a key overseas market for U.S. tech giants, the crypto market remains small in part because the local government implemented a 30% tax on crypto income and a 1% deduction on each transaction in 2022.A reentry to India could help fill the void left by the implosion of the Indian exchange WazirX after the firm lost about half of its reserves in a heist. Now, CoinSwitch and CoinDCX are the top Indian crypto exchanges, and both are backed by Coinbase.
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  • Elon Musks X will pay Trump $10M to settle lawsuit over 2021 ban
    techcrunch.com
    In BriefPosted:4:42 PM PST February 12, 2025Image Credits:Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post / Getty ImagesElon Musks X will pay Trump $10M to settle lawsuit over 2021 banElon Musks X has agreed to pay President Donald Trump $10 million to settle a lawsuit from the days when the company was still called Twitter and owned by Jack Dorsey, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.The lawsuit took issue with Twitters decision to ban Trump after January 6, when Trumps supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.Trumps team reportedly considered letting its lawsuit against X peter out because of the presidents relationship with Musk, which has only grown closer over the past two years.Musk reinstated Trumps Twitter account in 2022, then spent more than $250 million on Trumps 2024 presidential campaign. This week, Musk and Trump held a joint press briefing from the Oval Office.Despite the relationship with Musk, Trump moved forward with the settlement anyways. In January, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a related lawsuit.Topics
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  • Getaround abruptly shuts down US car-sharing operations
    techcrunch.com
    Getaround, a company that helps vehicle owners rent out their cars, trucks and SUVs to other peers, is shutting down its U.S. operations one year after cutting 30% of its North American workforce as part of a restructuring. Its HyreCar business, which it acquired in 2023 for $9.45 million, is also closing. The company said in a Wednesday regulatory filing as well as in an email sent to U.S. customers it is now focused on its European business where it operates in six countries, including Norway, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria. The email, which TechCrunch has viewed, urged customers to return car rentals by the end of Wednesday to avoid any coverage gaps and said it is at risk of no longer being able to provide liability insurance coverage in the U.S.If you dont, you may be personally responsible for ensuring it has the required liability insurance coverage, the email reads. Getaround said its car protection program will no longer apply to any vehicle not returned by the end of the day, meaning customers would be responsible for any damages. Getaround, which was founded in 2009 in San Francisco and was a TechCrunch Startup Battlefield finalist in 2011, has had a roller coaster history. The company was a VC darling, raising more than $750 million from high-profile investors, including $300 million in a 2018 round led by Softbank Vision Fund. Other Getaround investors have included Menlo Ventures, PeopleFund, Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus Reinvent Capital, and VectoIQ partners Steve Girsky, Mary Chan and Julia Steyn to name a few.Getaround used that money to expand into other cities and eventually Europe with its $300 million acquisition of Drivy and Norweigan car rental company Nabobil, both in 2019. The company went public in 2022 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, but soon ran into trouble. Within months of going public it received a delisting warning notice from the New York Stock Exchange. It also went through layoffs in 2023 and 2024. Orderly wind downThe board approved February 7 an orderly wind down of the car-sharing business in United States, which includes laying off all U.S. employees, according to its regulatory filing posted Wednesday. The majority of those workers will end their employment February 14, with a few remaining to help close the business.Getaround estimates that it will incur charges of between $1.5 million to $2 million in connection with the reduction in force.This orderly wind down may seem chaotic to any customers who had existing or planned Getaround rentals. In an email to customers, Getaround said it would support rentals (including insurance coverage) until the end of Wednesday, leaving customers with little time to return vehicles. The company has also canceled any future U.S. rentals. We are working closely with hosts and drivers to return vehicles as soon as possible, the email reads. Any outstanding claims or balances will be handled through the wind-down process.Interim CEO and COO AJ Lee, who will be stepping down from the position, said in a statement that it has been an incredibly difficult decision, one that was not made lightly and only after careful consideration of various strategic options. Lee added that despite significant improvements in overall profitability and extensive restructuring efforts, the Company has faced an ongoing lack of liquidity which has made U.S. operations no longer viable.
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  • Ulu Ventures sticks to its diversity strategy, raises $208M
    techcrunch.com
    In BriefPosted:4:54 PM PST February 12, 2025Image Credits:Intpro / Getty ImagesUlu Ventures sticks to its diversity strategy, raises $208MWhile large corporations like Google and Meta are curbing their DEI programs, Ulu Ventures, which just raised a fourth fund at $208 million, doesnt plan to change its strategy of investing in diverse founders, the firm told The Wall Street Journal.Co-founded by Miriam Rivera, a Latina and former vice president and deputy general counsel at Google, Ulu uses a data-driven investment approach to filter out biases. The 17-year-old firm, which invests in seed startups, is mindful that continuing diversity efforts may raise risks under the new administration. If you are going to be standing strong on DEI today, you have to be incredibly buttoned-up, one of the firms partners told WSJ, implying that investing based on data doesnt mean the firm favors specific founder demographics.Ulus limited partners seem to be onboard with its approach to diversity. The firms fourth fund is 50% larger than its $138 million third fund raised in 2021.Topics
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  • US pharma giant Merck backs healthcare marketplace HD in Southeast Asia
    techcrunch.com
    Big Tech and pharmaceutical companies are accelerating the implementation of artificial intelligence in the healthcare industry. Just last month, AWS and General Catalyst announced their partnership to speed up the development and deployment of healthcare AI tools. GE Healthcare teamed up with AWS to build generative AI for medical use in 2024. Now, a Thailand-based healthcare startup, HD, has built a marketplace, HDmall, to digitize the fragmented medical industry in Southeast Asia. The startup helps users find healthcare providers like hospitals and clinics. It also assists people in finding specific surgeries and health check-ups, aggregates services to lower costs and provides users with installment payment options.The startup has secured $7.8 million in equity funding to enhance its marketplace and invest further in its AI technology. The recent funding marks the first investment of U.S. pharma giant Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) in a healthtech startup in Asia Pacific. (MSD is the brand that Merck uses to operate outside the U.S. and Canada, and it launched an accelerator called IDEA Studios last June.) Other participants in HDs funding included SBI Ven Capital, M Venture Partners, FEBE Venture, and Partech Partners also participated in the latest financing.MSD, which produces the HPV vaccines, reached out to [us] because we were already selling a lot of HPV vaccines online that were being administered at the hospitals and clinics we work with, co-founder and CEO of HD Sheji Ho said in an exclusive interview with TechCrunch. And if you look at the numbers, we [offer] the largest number for vaccines online in the markets.The five-year-old startups marketplace has over 30,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) from more than 2,500 hospitals and clinics and a handful of pharmaceutical partners and 400,000 paying customers across Thailand and Indonesia, generating $100 million in annual gross transaction volume, Ho noted. It aims to reach 5,000 healthcare providers and 600,000 patients in 2025.The latest financing, which brings HDs total funding to $18 million, comes less than a year after it raised a $5.6 million round.In early 2024, HD started building an AI chatbot, Jib AI, which has been trained on anonymized healthcare product data, transaction data, and chat commerce data sets using advanced large language models. After implementing generative AI technology in its marketplace, almost 60% of customer interactions are managed by AI agents, which deliver high-quality, instant 24/7 response to customers, Ho said.image credits: HD Jib AI helps healthcare professionals like nurses, doctors, and surgeons focus on providing quality patient care by handling most initial triaging and care navigation tasks.Over the next 12 months, the company aims to improve its AI agent capabilities by adding order and refund processing, assisted checkouts, scheduling, electronic health record checking, and medical information retrieval with the Jib AI Health Assistant and via AI-powered asynchronous virtual care with expert physicians.The startup also says it plans to expand its network of external partners over the next two years, focusing on insurance and pharmaceutical companies, as well as employers and educational institutions.While US healthcare companies such as Transcarent and Accolade started directly with B2B care navigation, we see a unique opportunity in Southeast Asia to adopt a B2C2B strategy as defined by Andreessen Horowitz, Ho told TechCrunch. This approach leverages our existing B2C success to transition into B2B, effectively pursuing enterprise monetization from the outset.Healthcare in Southeast AsiaMost venture-backed healthcare startups in Southeast Asia, including Singapores Doctor Anywhere, Halodoc and Alodokter in Indonesia, primarily focus on telehealth and virtual health services. But Ho says the approach is not sustainable in Southeast Asia. Post-pandemic, telehealth as a business model in SEA has encountered significant challenges and is rapidly losing favor among both consumers and investors.The company now positions itself as a mix of Amazon One Medical in the U.S., Chinese outpatient healthcare platforms like JD Health and Alibaba Health, and the Indian inpatient healthcare platform Pristyn Care.The healthcare industry is quite different in emerging Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Without a family doctor system like in Western countries, patients often go straight to hospitals or clinics. This makes it difficult for patients to find the right healthcare services, know where to go, and understand how to handle the costs, Ho told TechCrunch.Due to 40% of healthcare costs being paid by individuals and low levels of private health insurance coverage, people are more sensitive to prices and feel more pressure when making decisions. This leads to a growing demand for platforms that offer clarity, transparency, and ease of comparison among various providers, Ho continued.HDs platform operates more like the Amazon of healthcare. Instead of listing individual GPs or offering physician appointment scheduling, it enables healthcare providers to sell productized services. Our offerings range from health check-ups, cancer screenings, and IVF procedures to root canal treatments, HPV vaccinations, and surgeries like thyroid and hemorrhoid surgeries. This approach aligns with how most people in the region begin their healthcare journeysby searching for specific services rather than individual doctors, Ho said.HD provides its services in Thailand and Indonesia, and it plans to enter Vietnam and eye Myanmar because of their similar healthcare systems.Their healthcare model is quite similar in some ways to Mainland China. So its a high cash payment, around 40%. There is no family doctor system, so people go straight to hospitals or clinics; thereafter, government social security coverage comes into play, Ho told TechCrunch. But those budgets are getting smaller and smaller. This means that more of the pressure to cover healthcare is shifting towards the private sector, whether its through cash or private insurance. This is why insurance going forward presents a big opportunity for us.Moreover, there is a rising trend towards self-empowerment in terms of user behavior in these markets. They are getting more accustomed to using tools such as Google Search or ChatGPT to search for healthcare-related subjects. This aligns well with what HD provides, as it empowers individuals to make their own healthcare choices, according to Ho. Topics
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  • Reddit hints at expanded AI-powered search
    techcrunch.com
    Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the online forum site plans to launch an upgraded search experience in 2025 designed to help users navigate the social network and be able to answer subjective hard, [and] interesting questions.The company plans to achieve this by integrating Reddit Answers a feature that allows visitors to ask questions and receive curated summaries of relevant responses and threads from across its platform into its existing search.[In Reddit] conversations, for 20 years, our users have left this absolutely massive corpus of information, so were starting to unlock that with Answers, Huffman said during Reddits Q4 2024 earnings call on Wednesday. Well continue to iterate on this product.Reddit CFO Drew Vollero added during the call the company is recruiting engineers to build a small search team focused on these capabilities.Reddit has embraced AI as it seeks to grow. Last year, the platformbroughtAI-powered translation to dozens of new territories, with more planned for this year, and rolled out AI-powered insights for brands. Reddit also began testing AI-powered search results pages, which summarize and recommend content across different Reddit communities.Investors were disappointed in Reddits fiscal Q4 results, which were impacted in part by changes to Googles search algorithm. Daily active unique users on Reddit were up 39% year-over-year to 101.7 million users, missing investors estimates of 103.1 million uniques.Huffman hinted at making Reddit search a part of the platform onboarding process to drive growth, retention, and ultimately revenue.I think helping the user be able to search directly on Reddit, refine their queries on Reddit, eventually come directly to Reddit for those types of queries, and even integrating search into something like onboarding over time I think [these are] really interesting things, he said. Its amazing for us to pick up on that signal [] and of course, that signal [has] incredible monetization potential.
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  • Founded by DeepMind alumnus, Latent Labs launches with $50M to make biology programmable
    techcrunch.com
    A new startup founded by a former Google DeepMind scientist is exiting stealth with $50 million in funding.Latent Labs is building AI foundation models to make biology programmable, and it plans to partner with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to generate and optimize proteins.Its impossible to understand what DeepMind and its ilk are doing without first understanding the role that proteins play in human biology. Proteins drive everything in living cells, from enzymes and hormones to antibodies. They are made up of around 20 distinct amino acids, which link together in strings that fold to create a 3D structure, whose shape determines how the protein functions. But figuring out the shape of each protein was historically a very slow, labor-intensive process. That was the big breakthrough that DeepMind achieved with AlphaFold: it meshed machine learning with real biological data to predict the shape of some 200 million protein structures.Armed with such data, scientists can better understand diseases, design new drugs, and even create synthetic proteins for entirely new use-cases. That is where Latent Labs enters the fray with its ambition to enable researchers to computationally create new therapeutic molecules from scratch.Latent potentialSimon Kohl (pictured above) started out as a research scientist at DeepMind, working with the core AlphaFold2 team before co-leading the protein design team and setting up DeepMinds wet lab at Londons Francis Crick Institute. Around this time, DeepMind also spawned a sister company in the form of Isomorphic Labs, which is focused on applying DeepMinds AI research to transform drug discovery.It was a combination of these developments that convinced Kohl that the time was right to go it alone with a leaner outfit focused specifically on building frontier (i.e., cutting-edge) models for protein design. So at the tail-end of 2022, Kohl departed DeepMind to lay the foundations for Latent Labs, and incorporated the business in London in mid-2023.I had a fantastic and impactful time [at DeepMind], and became convinced of the impact that generative modelling was going to have in biology and protein design in particular, Kohl told TechCrunch in an interview this week. At the same time, I saw that with the launch of Isomorphic Labs, and their plans based on AlphaFold2, that they were starting many things at once. I felt like the opportunity was really in going in a laser-focused way about protein design. Protein design, in itself, is such a vast field, and has so much unexplored white space that I thought a really nimble, focused outfit would be able to translate that impact.Translating that impact as a venture-backed startup involved hiring some 15 employees, two of whom were from DeepMind, a senior engineer from Microsoft, and PhDs from the University of Cambridge. Today, Latents headcount is split across two sites one in London, where the frontier model magic happens, and another in San Francisco, with its own wet lab and computational protein design team.This enables us to test our models in the real world and get the feedback that we need to understand whether our models are progressing the way we want, Kohl said.Latent Labs London team (L-R): Annette Obika-Mbatha, Krishan Bhatt, Dr. Simon Kohl, Agrin Hilmkil, Alex Bridgland and Henry Kenlay.Image Credits:Latent LabsWhile wet labs are very much on the near-term agenda in terms of validating Latents technologys predictions, the ultimate goal is to negate the need for wet labs.Our mission is to make biology programmable, really bringing biology into the computational realm, where the reliance on biological, wet lab experiments will be reduced over time, Kohl said. That highlights one of the key benefits to making biology programmable upending a drug-discovery process that currently relies on countless experiments and iteration that can take years.It allows us to make really custom molecules without relying on the wet lab at least, thats the vision, Kohl continued. Imagine a world where someone comes with a hypothesis on what drug target to go after for a particular disease, and our models could, in a push-button way, make a protein drug that comes with all of the desired properties baked in.The business of biologyIn terms of business model, Latent Labs doesnt see itself as asset-centric meaning it wont be developing its own therapeutic candidates in-house. Instead, it wants to work with third-party partners to expedite and de-risk the earlier R&D stages.We feel the biggest impact that we can have as a company is by enabling other biopharma, biotechs and life science companies either by giving them direct access to our models, or supporting their discovery programs via project-based partnerships, Kohl said.The companys $50 million cash injection includes a previously unannounced $10 million seed tranche, and a fresh $40 million Series A round co-led by Radical Ventures specifically, partner Aaron Rosenberg, who was formerly head of strategy and operations at DeepMind. The other co-lead investor is Sofinnova Partners, a French VC firm with a long track-record in the life sciences space. Other participants in the round include Flying Fish, Isomer, 8VC, Kindred Capital, Pillar VC, and notable angels such as Googles chief scientist Jeff Dean, Cohere founder Aidan Gomez, and ElevenLabs founder Mati Staniszewski.While a chunk of the cash will go toward salaries, including those of new machine learning hires, a significant amount of money will be needed to cover infrastructure. Compute is a is a big cost for us as well were building fairly large models I think its fair to say, and that requires a lot of GPU compute, Kohl said. This funding really sets us up to double-down on everything acquire compute to continue scaling our model, scaling the teams, and also starting to build out the bandwidth and capacity to have these partnerships and the commercial traction that were now seeking.DeepMind aside, there are several venture-backed startups and scaleups looking to bring the worlds of computation and biology closer together, such as Cradle and Bioptimus. Kohl, for his part, thinks that were still at a sufficiently early stage, whereby we still dont quite know what the best approach will be in terms of decoding and designing biological systems.There have been some very interesting seeds planted, [for example] with AlphaFold and some other early generative models from other groups, Kohl said. But this field hasnt converged in terms of what is the best model approach, or in terms of what business model will work here. I think we have the capacity to really innovate.Topics
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  • OpenAI pledges that its models wont censor viewpoints
    techcrunch.com
    In BriefPosted:1:47 PM PST February 12, 2025Image Credits:OpenAIOpenAI pledges that its models wont censor viewpointsOpenAI ismaking clearthat its AI models wont shy away from sensitive topics, and will refrain from making assertions that might shut out some viewpoints.In an updated version of its Model Spec, a collection of high-level rules that indirectly govern OpenAIs models, OpenAI says that its models must never attempt to steer the user in pursuit of an agenda of [their] own, either directly or indirectly.OpenAI believes in intellectual freedom, which includes the freedom to have, hear, and discuss ideas, the company writes in its new Model Spec. The [model] should not avoid or censor topics in a way that, if repeated at scale, may shut out some viewpoints from public life.The move is possibly in response to political pressure.Many of President Donald Trumps close allies, including Elon Musk and crypto and AI czar David Sacks, have accused AI-powered assistants ofcensoring conservative viewpoints. Sacks hassingled outOpenAIs ChatGPT in particular as programmed to be woke and untruthful about politically sensitive subjects.Topics
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  • VC industry reacts to Trump nominating a16zs Brian Quintez for regulatory role
    techcrunch.com
    Brian Quintenz, who leads policy for Andreessen Horowitzs crypto team, announced on Wednesday that hes being tapped to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to his X post. And many in the VC industry appear to be thrilled about it.The CFTC regulates the trading of commodity futures, options, and swaps, otherwise known as derivatives. It is also involved in the enforcement of regulations impacting some crypto.He previously served as a commissioner for the CFTC during the first Trump administration, according to his a16z biography and, prior to that, he founded the investment firm Saeculum Capital Management.He joined a16z in 2021 as an advisory partner before becoming head of policy for its crypto arm.His appointment received support from some big names in the industry. On X, many working for the a16z crypto arm sent their congratulations. Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, who reportedly met with President Trump to discuss staff appointments, posted an X welcoming Quintenz to the CFTC. Bobby Franklin, president of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), a lobbying group, released a statement in support of Quintenzs nomination, saying his government and venture experience will provide valuable perspectives as he helms a top regulatory body for the crypto market. His pending appointment comes at a time when the CFTC has been mired in controversy. The acting chair, Caroline Pham, recently removed the head of HR, and the agency released a statement that made allegations against this person. This after Bloomberg reported that there were internal investigations going on at the agency.Quintenz is the latest affiliate of a16z to find his way to the White House. The firm has become so involved with the Trump administration that co-founder Marc Andreessen, an ardent Trump supporter, is said to be quietly helping with government staff recruitment.Elsewhere, Sriram Krishnan, former general partner at a16z, is now a White House senior policy advisor; Scott Kupor, one of the firms managing partners, was tapped to lead the Office of Personnel Management, and Jamie Sullivan, another investor at the firm, is rumored to be advising DOGE.
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  • ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
    techcrunch.com
    ChatGPT, OpenAIs text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
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  • Apples TV app, TV+ streaming service, and MLS Season Pass launches on Android
    techcrunch.com
    Apple on Wednesday announced that its Apple TV app, including its Apple TV+ streaming service and MLS Season Pass, is arriving on Android devices. While the company previously offered a version of its app for Google TV, the newly released app will support a broader range of Android-based devices, including phones, tablets, and even foldables. In addition, Google customers on both living room and mobile platforms will now be able to subscribe to Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass through Google Play billing.Before, Google TV users would have to have an existing account on Apple TV+ before using the app. Now, users will be able to create an Apple account on their device and pay for the service as they do on Apple devices. The pricing will remain the same at $9.99 per month. The expansion of the TV app will allow Apples streaming service to reach a wider user base, particularly in non-U.S. markets where Android devices are more heavily utilized. Apples TV+ service brings with it a number of top shows, like Severance, Slow Horses, The Morning Show, Presumed Innocent, Shrinking, Hijack, Loot, Palm Royale, Masters of the Air, and Ted Lasso, among others. Apple Original films like Wolfs, The Instigators, The Family Plan, Killers of the Flower Moon, CODA, and more are also included.The Android version of the TV app will also offer access to commonly used features, like offline downloads, saved watchlists, and a continue watching feature that syncs your watch history across devices. The latter will work even if you use a mix of devices in your household, like an Android phone or tablet combined with an Apple TV streaming box, for instance.Android TV app users will also be able to see when new episodes or TV seasons drop. However, the app doesnt yet offer native notifications to alert users to updates and new arrivals. As users browse through the TV+ content, theyll be pointed to some of the most well-received and popular TV+ content, which they can add to their watchlist or stream instantly.Friday Night Baseballs live sports broadcast is also available to Android users. MLS Season Pass is available as an optional add-on ($12.99/mo or $79/season), with all 30 MLS clubs available starting the weekend of February 22. Users can follow their favorite teams for personalized recommendations, including those within a dedicated supporters section in the app. One key difference between the Android and Apple versions of the app is that Android users will not have access to the in-app Store, where users can rent and buy movies and shows. Optimized for Android, the new app uses Androids Material Design principles, including adaptive layouts that adjust to different screen sizes like phones, tablets, and foldables. The app arrives five years after the tech giant launched Apple TV+ worldwide, its first foray into original streaming content. Apples premium streaming service has garnered a reputation for having high-quality content, particularly in categories like drama and sci-fi. Its the first streamer to land an Academy Award for Best Picture with its 2022 win for CODA and more recently saw its original shows nominated for 2024 Emmys in all the major categories, pulling in 10 wins (including Creative Arts awards.)Apple TV for Android is rolling out to Google Play users starting Wednesday.
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  • Security compliance firm Drata acquires SafeBase for $250M
    techcrunch.com
    Drata, a security compliance automation platformthat helps companies adhere to frameworks such as SOC 2 and GDPR, has acquired software security review startup SafeBase for $250 million. SafeBase co-founders Al Yang (CEO) and Adar Arnon (CTO) will retain their roles, and SafeBase will continue to offer a standalone product while bringing its core solutions to Dratas platform.This partnership isnt just about combining complementary products, Yang wrote in a post on SafeBases official blog Tuesday. Its a union of two customer-obsessed companies with aligned missions and cultures, focused on delivering the tools enterprises need to succeed.Yang and Arnon founded SafeBase in 2020 after meeting at Harvard Business School. Incubated by Y Combinator, the company helps customers fill out security questionnaires the reviews that organizations normally kick off before purchasing a new piece of software. SafeBase employs AI models specifically trained on security documentation use cases to read, interpret security information and questions, and then automatically respond to security questionnaires. Beyond the custom models, SafeBase provides an engine that allows a company to assign rules-based behavior for customer access, as well as dashboards that show insights and analytics on the companys security posture.SafeBase, which is headquartered in San Francisco, managed to raise $53.1 million in venture capital from investors including Zoom Ventures, NEA, and Comcast Ventures prior to its exit. According to Yang, SafeBase has over 1,000 customers today, including LinkedIn, Palantir, and CrowdStrike.As Drata co-founder and CEO Adam Markowitz noted in a post on Tuesday, Dratas acquisition of SafeBase comes as the demand for so-called trust management solutions rises. Cloud apps and AI have increased organizations reliance on third parties that have access to sensitive data. At the same time, new regulations like the Digital Operational Resilience Act in the EU are imposing new security requirements on vendors.With SafeBase, Markowitz aims to create a seamless ecosystem of trust, governance, risk, and compliance offerings. Together with SafeBase, were more committed than ever to empowering our customers to build and scale trust, unlock growth, and achieve success, Markowitz said in the blog. Just in time for Dratas fourth anniversary, this milestone marks the start of an exciting new chapter.Founded in 2020, Drata has grown rapidly over the years, securing well over $300 million in funding and acquiring over 7,000 customers including Notion and Tenable. It counts Iconiq Growth and Salesforce Ventures among its backers, in addition to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner.Last year, Dratas revenue grew 100% year-over-year, and the San Diego-based company said that it was adding 650 new customers each quarter. Drata also made its first acquisitions, snapping up governance and automation firm Harmonize.io in April and cloud security platform Oak9 in May.A PR rep for Drata told TechCrunch via email that Drata is nearing $100 million in annual recurring revenue.But the aggressive growth strategy hasnt consistently paid off. Last September, Drata laid off around 40 people, or 9% of its workforce. At the time, the company alluded to sustainable growth; Dratas headcount grew a whopping 52% from 2023 to last year.Topics
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  • Las Vegas just got a Netflix restaurant
    techcrunch.com
    In BriefPosted:10:10 AM PST February 12, 2025Image Credits:NetflixLas Vegas just got a Netflix restaurantYou can now dine out on dishes inspired by Netflix movies and shows at Las Vegass newest restaurant. Netflix Bites is open as of this week in the MGM Grand Hotel & Casio, where it will operate for a year. The restaurant offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner options like a Bridgerton-inspired tea service, Stranger Wings, nachos crafted by Wednesdays Thing, DIY Nailed It! cakes, and an assortment of drinks, like a Love is Blind cocktail where you combine flavors for a surprise.This isnt the first time Netflix has gotten into food service a Netflix Bites restaurant was previously open as a pop-up for a month in L.A. in 2023. But this new year-long residency in a travel hotspot will offer broader reach and more marketing opportunities.Netflix has been expanding more into in-person experiences in recent years, including with live events like The Queens Ball: A Bridgerton Experience; Stranger Things: The Experience; and Squid Game: The Experience, now open in New York, Madrid, and Sydney. Another, Netflix House, is coming to Dallas and Philadelphia in 2025Topics
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  • SGNL snags $30M for a new take on ID security based on zero-standing privileges
    techcrunch.com
    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 securing how identities are used to access apps and more it is based on the emerging concept of zero-standing privilege, where user access is conditional rather than standing and today its announcing $30 million on the back of strong growth.The funding, a Series A, is being led by Brightmind Partners, a new VC focusing on cybersecurity (it has yet to announce its first fund: that is due to come later this year). Also participating are Costanoa, which led SGNLs seed round in 2022, and strategic investors Microsoft (via M12) and Cisco Investments, whose contribution to this latest round actually dates from 2023.SGNL has now raised $42 million, and while PitchBook data notes a valuation of $100 million our sources tell us this is inaccurate (and too low). The company has not disclosed any details on the valuation front, but SGNL is growing and claims to have multiple major enterprise customers, including one that has major media, entertainment, and technology operations and is using SGNL to streamline access management across its cloud environments.The startup does not disclose its customer list but notes that examples of the kinds of breaches that have resulted from holes in identity posture the kind that would be better plugged by using technology like SGNLs include the breaches at MGM ($100M), T-Mobile ($350M), AT&T, Microsoft, and Caesars.SGNL is the brainchild of Scott Kriz (CEO) and Erik Gustavson (CPO), who had previously co-founded another ID access management company called Bitium. Google acquired that startup in 2017 and there, Kris said, he and his team were tasked with not only directory services for products like Google Workspace and Google Cloud Platform, but also building and maintaining ID access management for the company itself, specifically how employees at Google were able to access data.It was there that Kriz and Gustavson saw a gap in how ID services were being managed across enterprise ID access tools at the time, including their own.Essentially, we realized that there was a missing solution in identity security that was not just unique to Google, but across the industry, he said. There was this desire for companies to get to a place where there was no standing access.In a nutshell, Kriz said, ID access requires a level of context: you need passwords, but also access privileges, for each app. But even in [services] where that was being done Okta was one, Microsoft was another they were very good at opening doors. What they werent very good at was closing that door.In other words, once one circumstance changed employment status being the most obvious, but also others like whether a particular job was finished access was not getting closed off. That, in turn, created potential vulnerabilities for malicious actors to exploit.Kriz said that a couple of factors have kept security companies from being able to close off that access, until now. The first has been a lack of agreement between vendors for a standard. The breakthrough for that came from another ex-Googler called Atul Tulshibagwale, who was the inventor of CAEP (the continuous access evaluation protocol), which is what underpins SGNLs platform. CAEP has been adopted by the OpenID Foundation, and Tulshibagwale is now SGNLs CTO.Its not proprietary to us, but, we are the ones that you know originated that, and now it has adoption in Microsoft, in Apple, in Cisco, in the largest companies, Kriz said.The second development, unique to SGNL, is how it has built what Kriz describes as the rich context that it uses to build its access management. This lets, essentially, companies set up multiple access policies, plus a number of conditions that additionally have to be met, in order for someone to be able to access a particular app or other data.SGNL has created not just the structure for how access can be permitted (or closed off) but also what it describes as the data fabric, an identity graph that lets the system work without depending on individual data sources being up to date. Kriz noted that one of its customers had 400,000 employees and 30,000 roles within AWS, and it helped it to reduce that down to six policies (plus multiple conditions connected to them). (As for the AI in its name, it uses AI to build and manage this data fabric.)There are multiple large companies doing more around zero-standing privilege, including CyberArt and SailPoint, alongside a number of startups; but that isnt deterring investors.I love the fact that theyve founded and exited a company, and theyve spent a decent amount of time at Google. Those things are very important. They understand how large enterprises work, said Stephen Ward, one of the founders of Brightmind (and himself a former CISO of HomeDepot and ex-government security specialist). Its not a popular venture thing to say but, with an idea this big, you can create a big moat just from building the platform.
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  • Suger helps companies list and scale up on cloud marketplaces
    techcrunch.com
    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 in the park. Getting software listed on these marketplaces requires multiple engineers, and the overhead burden only increases as a company scales. Jon Yoo and Chengjun Yuan know the problem well from their respective times working at Salesforce and Confluent. The pair decided to launch a company, Suger, to lessen the operational challenge associated with selling via cloud marketplaces.Suger is a toolkit that automates SaaS product listing across various marketplaces and manages these listings as they scale up. The platforms unified APIs integrate with a companys billing, customer relationship management, and other existing tools. Yoo said that Suger can help with a variety of cloud marketplace-related tasks, including flexible pricing, revenue reports, and delivering buyer insights.We built a workflow so that we can orchestrate all these actions that these people do as a day-to-day job, Yoo told TechCrunch. Lets automate each part in the lifecycle of a transaction, like each node, so that we can help them transact at scale. Thats really starting to play out. We look at our data and we see that our customers, on average, 3x their marketplace volume when they switch over to us from an in-house solution or a competitor product.Suger launched at the end of 2022. Since then, the companys customer base has grown to more than 200 companies including Snowflake, Notion, and Intel.Suger recently raised a $15 million Series A round led by Threshold Ventures with participation from existing investors including Craft Ventures, Intel Capital, and Y Combinator. Yoo said the company received multiple term sheets pretty quickly, as many of the investors Suger spoke with have portfolio companies struggling to wrangle cloud marketplaces.Some prospective investors told Yoo that Suger would struggle to raise in this funding environment because it wasnt marketing itself as an AI company. Clearly, that didnt dissuade many backers.We leverage AI internally in our product, but AI is just technology, Yoo said. AI can be the underlying technology, but what is the actual value that we are providing to our customer? At the end of the day, they want to make sure that we are helping them do their jobs and supplementing the work theyre doing, versus kind of this marketing fluff.The use of cloud marketplaces continues to be a growing part of enterprise sales. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that in its second quarter of fiscal 2025, three of Salesforces top ten largest deals were closed through AWS cloud marketplace.Yoo added that many young AI startups are looking to cloud marketplaces as a sales channel right off the bat.Its a massive market, Yoo said. Its started to become not just a nice-to-have channel, but really a must-have channel if you are selling to enterprises.There is competition in Sugers sector, to be clear. Some companies build their own cloud marketplace listing systems in-house, while others turn to startups like Tackle, which has raised more than $148 million in venture funding and offers capabilities similar to Sugers.Yoo said Suger has the advantage of being a second mover. (Tackle launched a few years prior.) Suger also goes beyond just the listing process, Yoo added, where Tackle is mainly focused.Yoo said Suger will put its fresh funds toward building out its product and expanding its engineering bandwidth. Eventually, Suger hopes to build tools for the buyer side, as well, helping enterprises procure software and manage their spend.[Were] really excited for the future, and also not just the future of the company, but also the future of cloud marketplaces, Yoo said. We really want to bring that consumer experience to B2B sales, because it just does not make sense to me that it takes two years for an enterprise sales cycle.
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