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Upwind, an Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup, is raising $100M at a $850-900M valuation, say sources

Cybersecurity continues to command a lot of attention from enterprises looking for better protection from malicious hackers, and VCs want in on the action. In the latest example, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Upwind — a specialist in assessing and securing cloud infrastructure — is closing in on a $100 million round at a […]

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Benchmark, Index, others are in a wild unsolicited bidding war over Anysphere, maker of Cursor

There isn’t a shortage of AI-powered coding assistance startups. They include Augment, Codeium, Magic, and Poolside. However, Cursor has become one of the most popular. Its developer, Anysphere, has seen its revenue grow from $4 million annualized recurring revenue (ARR) in April to $4 million a month as of last month, according to a person

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‘Whatever you want Ben’: Inside Ben Horowitz’s cozy relationship with the Las Vegas Police Department

When Skydio, a young maker of drones in San Mateo, California, sent a customer proposal in 2023 to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, its chief of staff, Mike Gennaro, forwarded the email to VC Ben Horowitz. “Which deployment are you looking to do?” Horowitz wrote back. “Whatever you want, Ben,” Gennaro replied, according to

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Ben Horowitz’s cozy relationship with the Las Vegas Police Department aided a16z portfolio company Skydio

When Skydio, a young maker of drones in San Mateo, California, sent a customer proposal in 2023 to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, its chief of staff, Mike Gennaro, forwarded the email to VC Ben Horowitz. “Which deployment are you looking to do?” Horowitz wrote back. “Whatever you want, Ben,” Gennaro replied, according to

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Monarch Tractor lays off 10% in restructuring towards software and licensing AV tech

Monarch Tractor has laid off around 10% of its workforce as part of a restructuring that will see it prioritize non-agricultural customers, license its autonomous technology, and boost sales of its AI-powered farm management software, TechCrunch has learned. Around 35 employees were cut this week by the Livermore, California-based autonomous electric tractor startup that has

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UnifyApp’s AI-powered app integration platform grabs $20M from ICONIQ Growth

These days, it seems like every company either wants to or is already offering an AI product or service. For startups building an AI product in this space, it’s a really good time, but they aren’t without their challenges — the tech is still early, and though many companies are interested in trying generative AI

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How AI startup Conflixis is protecting hospitals from corrupt doctors 

After a career as an incident investigator with risk management firms like Kroll and FTI Consulting, Aaron Narva was working with a big international bank client at compliance software maker Exiger. He was responsible for monitoring that client’s legal compliance after it had made headlines a decade earlier for a money-laundering scandal. “While I was

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Former Raya, Dispo exec has a new fund for the biggest out-of-favor tech: consumer

The idea of one day becoming a venture capitalist always loomed in the back of TJ Taylor’s mind. After all, he had an extensive tech background. He co-founded a stock app and worked in community at the dating app Raya and the photo-sharing app Dispo. After leaving Dispo at the end of 2022 he found

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Hacker says they banned ‘thousands’ of Call of Duty gamers by abusing anti-cheat flaw

In October, video game giant Activision said it had fixed a bug in its anti-cheat system that affected “a small number of legitimate player accounts,” who were getting banned because of the bug.  In reality, according to the hacker who found the bug and was exploiting it, they were able to ban “thousands upon thousands”

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Glint Solar grabs $8M to help accelerate solar energy adoption across Europe

Solar energy is booming, which is good news for Glint Solar. The Norwegian software-as-a-service startup has built a platform that’s helping energy giants and large solar developers such as E.ON, Recurrent Energy, and Statkraft cut the time it takes to plan and pre-design solar installations to accelerate the transition to renewables. Glint’s software pulls in data

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