They thought they were joining an accelerator — instead they lost their startups How Newchip’s bankruptcy threatened the cap tables of thousands of startups Lacey Hunter thought all was well as she put her startup through the three-month Newchip accelerator. Then the organization filed for bankruptcy in May 2023. Things …...Read More

AI startups face a different set of challenges from your typical SaaS company. That was the message from Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner at Glasswing Ventures, last week at the TechCrunch Early Stage event in Boston. Seseri made it clear that just because you connect to some AI APIs, …...Read More

Hyundai has agreed to spend nearly $1 billion on Motional, an investment that will give the automaker a majority stake while providing the self-driving startup with the necessary capital to keep operating. The Korean automaker invested $475 million directly into Motional as part of a broader deal that includes buying …...Read More

Four months behind bars and a massive fine, that’s what CZ is getting from the government for his crypto exchange’s misdeeds. Regardless of how you view the verdict — too much, too little, just right — his sentencing is a big deal for web3. Potentially in a positive way. There’s …...Read More

After months of testing, Google is today rolling out labels in the Play Store to denote official state and federal government apps in more than 14 countries. This new label will help users rule out apps that masquerade as official apps to steal money or data. The company said that …...Read More

Here’s your shot across the bow — there’s a little over one month left to nominate your startup for Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt. Join this elite group for a new and awesome opportunity at TechCrunch Disrupt. It’s positively packed with perks and possibilities to get your company to the …...Read More

Spotify has apparently found a new way to push its free users to a paid subscription: It’s putting lyrics behind a paywall. Following various reports citing frustrated posts from users on Reddit, the company is quietly confirming the change — but without a direct statement. Instead, the company told TechCrunch …...Read More

Ahead of the U.S. presidential election, Google is bringing passkey support to its Advanced Protection Program (APP), which is used by people who are at high risk of targeted attacks, such as campaign workers, candidates, journalists, human rights workers, and more. APP traditionally required the use of hardware security keys, …...Read More

In an effort to capture more ad dollars, despite the looming U.S. ban, TikTok is introducing new advertising products and opportunities that will allow marketers to better control what sort of content their ads appear against. The company says it will use generative AI to curate trending, brand-safe content; expand …...Read More

Apple is tweaking how it applies a new fee that can apply to iOS developers in the European Union as it continues to configure its approach to the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA): Developers of free apps will be able to avoid the fee entirely under changes it announced Thursday, …...Read More