TechCrunch

The fight over Fisker’s assets is already heating up

Sean O'Kane — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 20:40:03 +0000

Fisker is just a few days into its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the fight over its assets is already charged, with one lawyer claiming the startup has been liquidating assets “outside the court’s supervision.” At issue is the relationship between Fisker and its largest secured lender, Heights Capital Management, an affiliate of financial services company […]

Hacker claims to have 30 million customer records from Australian ticket seller giant TEG

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 20:00:00 +0000

A hacker is advertising customer data allegedly stolen from the Australia-based live events and ticketing company TEG on a well-known hacking forum. On Thursday, a hacker put up for sale the alleged stolen data from TEG, claiming to have information of 30 million users, including the full name, gender, date of birth, username, hashed passwords […]

Tesla makes Musk best-paid CEO of all time and Fisker bites the dust

Haje Jan Kamps — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 19:05:00 +0000

Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje‘s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Elon Musk just convinced Tesla shareholders to approve his $56 billion pay package, making him the highest-paid CEO in history — assuming he can dodge a […]

Dot’s AI really, really wants to get to know you

Sarah Perez — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 18:53:41 +0000

Dot is a new AI companion and chatbot that thrives on getting to know your innermost thoughts and feelings.

E-fuels startup Aether Fuels is raising $34.3 million, per filing

Tim De Chant — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 18:31:31 +0000

The e-fuels startup is working on producing fuel for aviation and maritime shipping using carbon dioxide and other waste carbon streams.

Fisker faced financial distress as early as last August

Sean O'Kane — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:37:14 +0000

Fisker was facing “potential financial distress” as early as last August, according to a new filing in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, which the EV startup initiated earlier this week. The admission provides a clearer picture of Fisker’s troubles in 2023 as it struggled to ramp up deliveries of its flagship Ocean SUV, despite CEO […]

Cruise clears key hurdle to getting robotaxis back on roads in California

Rebecca Bellan — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:21:13 +0000

Cruise, the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, has agreed to pay a $112,500 fine for failing to provide full information about an accident involving one of its robotaxis last year. The settlement with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) not only avoids litigation, it puts Cruise in a position to restart operations in the state. […]

Pitch Deck Teardown: Feel Therapeutics’ $3.5M seed deck

Haje Jan Kamps — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:15:00 +0000

Feel Therapeutics has a pretty original deck, with some twists we rarely see; the company did a great job telling the overall story.

OpenAI buys Rockset to bolster its enterprise AI

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:55:15 +0000

The Rockset buy fits into OpenAI's broader recent strategy of investing heavily in its enterprise sales and tech orgs.

US government sanctions Kaspersky executives

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:55:04 +0000

The U.S. government announced sanctions against 12 executives and senior leaders of the Russia-based cybersecurity giant Kaspersky. In a press release, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it designated the 12 company executives to protect internet users against malicious cyber threats. “Today’s action against the leadership of Kaspersky Lab […]

Style DNA gets a generative AI chatbot that suggests outfit ideas based on your color type

Lauren Forristal — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:15:04 +0000

Style DNA, an AI-powered fashion stylist app, creates a personalized style profile from a single selfie. The app is particularly useful for people interested in seasonal color analysis, a process used to determine the best colors to complement an individual’s skin tone. This service can be expensive, with experts charging upwards of $300. However, the […]

Khosla-backed Marble, built by former Headway founders, offers affordable group therapy for teens

Marina Temkin — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:00:59 +0000

Rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts are surging among U.S. teens. A recent report from the Center of Disease Control found that nearly one in three girls have seriously considered suicide, and a significant number, 13% have actually attempted it. Psychologists have various theories about what’s causing adolescent mental health crises. Some blame the […]

A new startup from Figure’s founder is licensing NASA tech in a bid to curb school shootings

Brian Heater — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:55:00 +0000

Cover says what sets it apart is the underlying technology it employs, which has been exclusively licensed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Spotify launches a new Basic streaming plan in the US

Aisha Malik — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:31:13 +0000

Spotify is introducing a new “Basic” streaming plan in the United States, the company announced on Friday. The new plan costs $10.99 per month and includes all of the benefits of a Premium plan but without the monthly audiobook listening time. The launch of the new streaming plan comes a few weeks after Spotify increased […]

Meta is tagging real photos as ‘Made with AI,’ say photographers

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:25:11 +0000

Photographers say the social media giant is applying a ‘Made with AI’ label to photos they took, causing confusion for users.

Squarespace sells restaurant reservation system Tock to American Express for $400M

Paul Sawers — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:03:20 +0000

Website building platform Squarespace is selling Tock, its restaurant reservation service, to American Express in a deal worth $400 million — the exact figure that Squarespace paid for the service three years ago. Separately, AmEx will be buying Rooam, a mobile payments and ordering platform that integrates with point-of-sale systems. Terms of the Rooam deal […]

Change Healthcare confirms ransomware hackers stole medical records on a ‘substantial proportion’ of Americans

Zack Whittaker — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 13:30:10 +0000

The February ransomware attack on UHG-owned Change Healthcare stands as one of the largest-ever known digital thefts of U.S. medical records.

Google pauses its experiment to expand real-money games on the Play Store

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 13:14:34 +0000

Google said today that it globally paused its experiment that aimed to allow new kinds of real-money games on the Play Store, citing the challenges that come with the lack of a central authority to approve such apps in some regions. In January, the company said it would start allowing real-money apps widely in June […]

Kevin Hartz’s A* raises its second oversubscribed fund in three years

Rebecca Szkutak — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Venture firms raised $9.3 billion in Q1 according to PitchBook data, which means this year likely won’t match or surpass 2023’s $81.8 billion total. While emerging managers are feeling the fundraising market’s frost the most, some emerging VCs like A* have enough name recognition, and a good enough track record, to still find success. A*, […]

Google is making your movie and TV reviews visible under a new profile page

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 09:35:36 +0000

Google is making reviews of all your movies, TV shows, books, albums and games visible under one profile page starting June 24, according to an email sent to users last month. These profiles are also searchable through Google searches, which can lead to users’ being profiled based on their likes and dislikes. The company launched […]