Snowflake’s security problems following a recent spate of customer data thefts are, for want of a better word, snowballing.
TechCrunch earlier this week found online hundreds of Snowflake customer credentials stolen by password-stealing malware that infected the computers of employees who have access to their employer’s Snowflake environment.
It’s not yet known how many Snowflake customers are affected, or if Snowflake knows yet.
Snowflake said it has to date notified a “limited number of Snowflake customers” who the company believes may have been affected.
Snowflake declined to say what role, if any, the then-Snowflake employee’s demo account has on the recent customer breaches.
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech!
One thing that stood out to me was just how much fintech representation in their cohorts is shrinking.
So there was one-third the percentage of fintech companies this year compared to two years ago.
Analysis of the weekFintech funding slid by 16% quarter-over-quarter during the three-month period ended March 31, according to CB Insights’ Q1 2024 State of Venture Report.
During the three-month period, 904 investments were made into fintech startups, which was higher than 786 in the previous quarter, signaling smaller deal sizes.
Well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator held one of its two yearly demo day events this week, showcasing hundreds of startups that recently went through its program.
Judging from our coverage of the two-day event, TechCrunch found lots to like in the presenting companies.
There was lots more than just AI on display, so for today’s TechCrunch Minute I compiled a few trends and vibes from the shindig for your enjoyment.
Accelerators play an important role in the startup world, giving founders early capital and advice as they get off the ground.
Y Combinator competes with Techstars and other platforms globally.
What a week, everyone.
Two full days of Y Combinator demo day activity kept us busy, but the latest accelerator cohort’s launch was far from the only big story in startup-land.
Then to close out, we chatted through the impending Ibotta and Rubrik IPOs.
The latter deal could provide a fascinating heat-check for unprofitable unicorns that need to find some sort of exit, and quickly.
All told we chatted through startups from their very earliest form all the way through their most mature.
I really wanted to hate the $2,000 earbuds I tried at CES Instead, I need to hide my credit card away so Breggz won't bankrupt meLook, anyone who is saying they’re going to start selling a pair of $2,000 studio monitor-quality in-ear headphones had better show up with the receipts.
I spoke with Breggz Audio‘s CFO, Jeroen van Els, to figure out what it was about these in-ear headphones that was so special.
From there, the company fell into a rabbit hole of creating the best possible in-ear headphones.
After the (admittedly brief) demo, van Els showed me the “transparency” mode, which meant he was able to talk to me while I was still wearing the earphones.
For professional artists needing lower latency, we’re working on solutions to be introduced later,” van Els shares.
I’ve spent much of the past year discussing generative AI and large language models with robotics experts.
It’s become increasingly clear that these sorts of technologies are primed to revolutionize the way robots communicate, learn, look and are programmed.
Well-funded Oregon-based startup Agility has been playing around with the tech for a while now using its bipedal robot, Digit.
Agility notes, “Our innovation team developed this interactive demo to show how LLMs could make our robots more versatile and faster to deploy.
MIT CSAIL’s Daniela Rus also recently told me, “It turns out that generative AI can be quite powerful for solving even motion planning problems.
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