The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Apple over allegedly monopolistic smartphone practices.
The federal agency is not alone in the matter, bringing 15 states and the District of Columbia into the mix as well.
Regulators and tech companies, name a more iconic duo.
But as we’re about to see with Apple, big tech companies are not going to go down without a fight.
For more on Apple’s antitrust lawsuit, check here:
Investors’ pledge to fight spyware undercut by past investments in US malware maker Cyber investors announced commitments to fighting spyware, but at least one firm previously invested in an exploit maker.
Now, some investors have announced that they too are committed to fighting spyware.
More recently, the government has imposed economic sanctions not only on companies, but also directly on the executive who founded Intellexa.
To hear some of these investors talk, you’d think that spyware has no place in a free and open society.
Gula Tech and Paladin’s investment in Boldend — effectively a U.S.-based exploit and hacking software maker — and the two investment firms’ commitment to not invest in spyware companies might seem at odds.
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed that it’s launching a formal “phase 2” investigation into the planned merger between Vodafone and Three UK.
The CMA says that the deal could lead to higher prices for consumers, while also impact future infrastructure investments.
However, the CMA has given both parties a token five working days to address its concerns with “meaningful solutions” before it formally progresses the investigation.
Such a scenario is precisely why the U.K. introduced the National Security and Investment Act back in 2022, with previous form in blocking deals between U.K. entities and Chinese companies.
“This case has more moving parts than the CMA’s other recent big decisions, and is arguably more important for the U.K. economy,” Smith said.
Reddit sold $203 million worth of contracts to AI companies for access to its data earlier this year.
In the wake of a compression in tech valuations since the implosion of the 2021-era asset bubble, few tech companies have tested public markets.
Early trading results do not always augur a trouble-free public market life, however.
Secondaries investors recently told TechCrunch that they weren’t sure that a successful Reddit IPO would be enough to bring life back into the IPO market in 2024.
But with Astera Lab’s impressive performance yesterday and Reddit’s strong showing today, maybe there will be more life in the IPO market this year than many thought.
VCs double down on fintech Coast, which aims to be the Brex for ‘real-world’ industriesThe expense management arena is a crowded one, with well-funded players such as Brex, Ramp and Navan all clamoring for market share.
While Coast declined to divulge hard revenue figures, CEO Simon told TechCrunch that it saw about 550% increase in annualized revenue and payment volume growth in 2023.
That growth prompted its existing investors to double down on the company, while attracting a new backer as well.
Today, Coast is announcing that it has raised an additional $25 million in venture capital and $67 million in debt financing.
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The U.S. Department of Transportation announced its first industry-wide review of data security and privacy policies across the largest U.S. airlines.
Those airlines include Allegiant, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and United.
Wyden has raised alarms about the sharing and sale of sensitive U.S. consumer data to data brokers — companies that collect and resell people’s personal data, like precise location data, often derived from their phones and computers.
In recent months, Wyden has warned that data brokers sell access to Americans’ personal information, which can identify which websites they visit and the places they travel to.
In remarks, Wyden said: “Because consumers will often never know that their personal data was misused or sold to shady data brokers, effective privacy regulation cannot depend on consumer complaints to identify corporate abuses.”
Giant Ventures in January closed two new funds totaling $250 million that it will invest in startups on both sides of the Atlantic, and today, TechCrunch has learned exclusively that Frontline Ventures has also raised $200 million across two funds, named Frontline Growth and Frontline Seed.
Frontline has historically invested in both Europe and North America, and its new funds will continue to follow that strategy, betting on B2B software companies.
The new seed fund will favor European ventures, while the growth fund will focus on U.S. startups.
Expansion roadmapO’Donnell told TechCrunch that when it helps portfolio companies navigate expansion to another market, Frontline focuses on four aspects: timing, go-to-market strategy, talent, and organizational design and location.
That’s by order of importance, and a company’s location should be a derivative of the previous three aspects, O’Donnell said.
Plenty of major corporations have announced net-zero emissions targets.
Those are the companies Greenly has targeted.
It takes that information and, coupled with its own data and algorithms, calculates carbon emissions by category and scope for customers.
It came into the round with an advantage: it’s applying SaaS to climate tech, and SaaS a business model that’s well understood.
But it does suggest that venture investors are warming to climate tech more broadly, proving that there’s a market for businesses focused on sustainability.
Electric boat maker Candela is approaching cruising speed with $25 million in new funding and the first commercial deployment of its new P-12 ferry, in New Zealand.
The P-12, a ferry design that can handle up to 30 passengers, made its debut late last year.
Like any other industry, you have to know when to buy and when to build, and big boating companies are happy to buy — or invest.
Candela’s boats use hydrofoils with electric engines mounted on the bottom to effectively fly above the surface of the water once they get past a certain speed, vastly reducing energy consumption — historically and understandably a sticking point for electric boating.
Theh $25 million round was led, as mentioned, by Beneteau, with participation from EQT Ventures, Ocean Zero LLC, and Kan DelaAB.
One path, which is particularly well trodden, is to start a venture fund.
Instead of launching a VC fund, they’re starting with an incubator called Montauk Climate, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
Montauk Climate is one of the latter.
Montauk Climate will remain shareholders in its spinout companies and have seats on their boards.
As the number of incubated companies expands, Montauk Climate expects to raise its own venture fund to help support them.
