Felix Capital’s Julien Codorniou to join 20VC as general partner

Just a few weeks after 20VC announced its third investment vehicle, TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources that the relatively new VC firm based in London is gaining a new general partner. Julien Codorniou is leaving Felix Capital, where he has been a founding advisor since 2015 and a partner …...Read More

Aave protocol developer secures $31 million for Lens, a high-performance blockchain for social apps

Avara, the company behind Aave, Lens and Family, is announcing a $31 million funding round led by Lightspeed Faction. With Lens, Avara is building a decentralized protocol that could serve as the infrastructure for social and consumer apps. This funding announcement comes a few weeks after Lens unveiled a completely …...Read More

WeTransfer’s free plan now has a monthly limit of 10 transfers

File transfer service WeTransfer is now limiting users to 10 transfers per month with its free plan. The company is already applying the new limit to users, as per a support page. At the same time, WeTransfer is adding some perks to the free plan, including increasing the overall file …...Read More

AI is burying company web sites in search results, but Otterly.AI thinks it can help

Many sites saw their organic traffic decline in 2024, in big part due to the rise of AI-generated search results. Many queries no longer lead to click-throughs, and even when users click, it is hard for companies to get more context on searches made within apps like ChatGPT or Perplexity. …...Read More

Threads is testing a post scheduling feature

Meta’s social network Threads is experimenting with a feature that will let you schedule posts, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said. Users who will get to test this feature won’t be able to schedule replies. “We want to balance giving people more control to plan their Threads posts while still encouraging …...Read More

'It's dumb to IPO this year': Databricks CEO explains why he's waiting to go public

Databricks just closed one of the largest funding rounds ever, raising a staggering $10 billion in fresh capital. Naturally, technology investors were quick to ask what this means for the company’s highly anticipated IPO. During an event in San Francisco on Tuesday night, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi explained why he’s …...Read More

The DOJ wants a Perplexity executive to testify in its Google antitrust case

A U.S. court ruled in August that Google has a search monopoly, and while Google appeals, the Justice Department is figuring out what kind of potential penalties to impose — like breaking off Chrome. As part of this process, the DOJ wants to call on a specific witness, according to …...Read More

Insight VC describes Databricks' wild $10B deal and the bad advice the CEO ignored

It’s been a wild week for investors clawing their way into Databricks’ record-breaking $10 billion fundraising, one of the VCs leading the deal told TechCrunch. “There were calls that went well late into the night, and that’s okay, that’s how good opportunities emerge,” George Mathew, managing director at Insight Partners, …...Read More

OpenAI says it has no plans for a Sora API - yet

OpenAI says it has no plans to release an API for Sora, its AI model that can generate reasonably realistic videos when provided with a text description or reference image. During an AMA with members of OpenAI’s dev team, Romain Huet, head of developer experience at OpenAI, said that a …...Read More

AI boom masks fundraising struggles for non-AI startups

Earlier this year, IVP general partner Tom Loverro proclaimed that the post-pandemic downturn is over, and companies that made it this far should prioritize growth over cost-cutting. Yet, the companies still struggling to raise their next round of financing at a higher valuation or survive altogether could still be in …...Read More