Category: Uncategorized

General Catalyst, the powerhouse venture firm, is considering an IPO, Axios reported Friday morning, citing “multiple sources.” TechCrunch has reached out to the firm’s managing partner, Hemant Taneja, for comment. In the meantime, those following General Catalyst’s trajectory won’t be surprised by the prospect. Founded 25 years ago as a small Cambridge, Mass.-based venture firm,… Read more

Google co-founder Sergey Brin sent a memo to employees this week urging them to return to the office “at least every weekday” in order to help the company win the AGI race, The New York Times reports. Brin told employees that working 60 hours a week is a “sweet spot” for productivity. While Brin’s memo… Read more

SymbyAI, a SaaS platform that uses AI to streamline scientific research, announced a $2.1 million seed round with participation from Drive Capital and CharacterVC, among others.  Launched just last year by Aisha Livaudais and Michael House, the platform provides organized workspaces for researchers to access papers, code, data, and experiences within one place. It helps… Read more

Biograph, a company co-founded by longevity guru Peter Attia and a prominent Silicon Valley VC, has emerged from stealth. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Read more

OpenAI intends to eventually integrate its AI video generation tool, Sora, directly into its popular consumer chatbot app, ChatGPT, company leaders said during a Friday office hours session on Discord. Today, Sora is only available through a dedicated web app OpenAI launched in December, which lets users access the AI video model of the same… Read more

Amnesty International said that Google fixed previously unknown flaws in Android that allowed authorities to unlock phones using forensic tools. On Friday, Amnesty International published a report detailing a chain of three zero-day vulnerabilities developed by phone-unlocking company Cellebrite, which its researchers found after investigating the hack of a student protester’s phone in Serbia. The… Read more

Google is giving Sheets a Gemini-powered upgrade that is designed to help users analyze data faster and turn spreadsheets into charts using AI. With this update, users can access Gemini’s capabilities to generate insights from their data, such as correlations, trends, outliers, and more. Users now can also generate advanced visualizations, like heatmaps, that they… Read more

Instagram alternative Flashes publicly launched its Bluesky-based photo-sharing app on the App Store this week, gaining nearly 30,000 downloads in its first 24 hours. The app offers a classic Instagram-like experience, allowing users to upload up to four photos and videos of up to a minute in length. Built by Berlin-based developer Sebastian Vogelsang, Flashes… Read more

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Hype can be good or bad. This week, we’ve seen startups on both sides of that fence — and being on the good side warranted large funding… Read more

Digital banking services provider Alkami Technology is acquiring Mantl, which has been described as “the Shopify of account opening,” for $400 million. Mantl, founded in 2016 by Nathaniel Harley and Benjamin Conant, developed software to make it easier for people to open accounts digitally at community banks and credit unions. The end goal is that… Read more