Lagos-based Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s most active early-stage investors, has raised $64 million so far for its second fund, targeting a final close of $75 million, founding partner Kola Aina tells TechCrunch. Among the investors is the Nigerian government, through its Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program, which marks the first time […]
Andreessen Horowitz is pausing its Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund and program, according to four sources familiar with the matter, including more than one founder in the program. The firm announced TxO in 2020 to support founders who do not have access to traditional venture networks. Many of TxO’s participants were women and minorities who, overall, receive very slim amounts of venture
a16z pauses its famed TxO Fund for underserved founders, lays off staff Read More »
Peter Williams, the former general manager of Trenchant, a division of defense contractor L3Harris that develops surveillance and hacking tools for Western governments, pleaded guilty last week to stealing some of those tools and selling them to a Russian broker. A court document filed in the case, as well as exclusive reporting by TechCrunch
How an ex-L3 Harris Trenchant boss stole and sold cyber exploits to Russia Read More »
Adam, one of the most viral startups in Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 batch, has raised a $4.1 million seed round to power its next steps, TechCrunch learned exclusively. After generating over 10 million social media impressions with the launch of its text-to-3D model app, the AI startup had its pick of investors. “We were getting
YC alum Adam raises $4.1M to turn viral text-to-3D tool into AI copilot Read More »
On Monday, researchers at cybersecurity giant Kaspersky published a report identifying a new spyware called Dante that they say targeted Windows victims in Russia and neighboring Belarus. The researchers said the Dante spyware is made by Memento Labs, a Milan-based surveillance tech maker that was formed in 2019 after a new owner acquired and took
Indian automotive giant Tata Motors has fixed a series of security flaws that exposed sensitive internal data, including personal information of customers, company reports, and data related to its dealers. Security researcher Eaton Zveare told TechCrunch that he discovered the flaws in Tata Motors’ E-Dukaan unit, an e-commerce portal for buying spare parts for Tata-made
Tata Motors confirms it fixed security flaws, which exposed company and customer data Read More »
Developers hate (bad) marketing, but they still need a way to find useful tools and services. That’s why you’ll find a preponderance of developers on forums and sites like Hacker News, Reddit and Stack Overflow discussing their dev kits and why some tools are better than others. That buying intent is the signal that Israeli
Israeli intelligence vets raise $20M to track developer buying signals Read More »
When Manuele Aufiero was a child, his parents would take him hiking along a reservoir in northern Italy. It wasn’t a typical reservoir, though. This one drained and refilled constantly, with pumps raising the water level when electricity was cheap. When nearby cities needed electricity, the pumps would reverse, turning into generators as the water
One startup’s quest to store electricity in the ocean Read More »
Fal.ai, a startup that hosts image, video, and audio AI models for developers, has closed a new round valuing the company at over $4 billion, four people familiar with the deal said. The company raised approximately $250 million, two of the people said. Major investors in the round are Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, according to
Sources: Multimodal AI startup Fal.ai already raised at $4B+ valuation Read More »
Earlier this year, a developer was shocked by a message that appeared on his personal phone: “Apple detected a targeted mercenary spyware attack against your iPhone.” “I was panicking,” Jay Gibson, who asked that we don’t use his real name over fears of retaliation, told TechCrunch. Gibson, who until recently built surveillance technologies for Western
Apple alerts exploit developer that his iPhone was targeted with government spyware Read More »
