Matrix is rebranding its India and China entities, becoming the latest venture firm to distance its international franchises. The U.S.-headquartered venture capital firm will retain its name, while Matrix Partners India will rebrand to Z47 and Matrix Partners China will rename itself MPC. The unexpected rebranding takes effect July 1. Notably, Matrix’s announcement referred to … Read more
Google’s trying to make waves with Gemini, its flagship suite of generative AI models, apps and services. So what’s Google Gemini, exactly? How can you use it? And how does Gemini stack up to the competition? To make it easier to keep up with the latest Gemini developments, we’ve put together this handy guide, which … Read more
Many VC firms are struggling to attract new capital from their own backers amid a tepid IPO environment. But established, brand-name firms are still able to raise large funds. On Friday, Kleiner Perkins announced that it closed on more than $2 billion in fresh capital across two funds, a slight increase from the 52-year-old firm’s … Read more
The blockbuster $5 billion deal between Volkswagen Group and Rivian is just days old. But it turns out, VW Group was tapping into Rivian’s software expertise months before the partnership was announced. VW Group’s struggling software arm Cariad has hired at least 23 of the startup’s top employees over the past several months, a TechCrunch … Read more
Ultra low cost ecommerce giants Shein and Temu have only recently been confirmed as subject to centralized enforcement of the strictest layer of the European Union’s digital services regulation, the Digital Services Act (DSA), but on Friday the Commission announced it’s sent a bunch of requests for information (RFI) to both platforms vis-a-vis to their … Read more
Hannah Sieber knows just how transformative batteries can be. At her previous startup, EcoFlow, she used them to replace generators, whether for powering homes after a bad storm or RVs at a campsite. The experience made her wonder what else batteries could do, especially smaller ones. “What are the other industries that could dramatically change?” … Read more
TeamViewer, the company that makes widely used remote access tools for companies, has confirmed an ongoing cyberattack on its corporate network. In a statement Friday, the company attributed the compromise to government-backed hackers working for Russian intelligence, known as APT29 (and Midnight Blizzard). The Germany-based company said its investigation so far points to an initial … Read more
YouTube is adding several new features for Premium users, including smart downloads and support for picture-in-picture mode for Shorts, as well as a wider rollout of its “Jump Ahead” feature for navigating through videos. The Google-owned video streaming platform already allows background play and picture-in-picture mode for long-form videos so you can consume content while … Read more
AI big shot Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, a startup incubator that backs small teams of experts looking to solve key problems using AI, plans to raise upwards of $120 million for its second tranche. A filing with the SEC shows that the AI Fund’s second fund, AI Venture Fund II, has so far amassed $69.75 … Read more
The FCC wants to make it significantly easier for consumers to unlock their phones from their carriers, proposing that all devices must be unlockable just 60 days after purchase. How this will mesh with current plans and phone buying trends, however, is something the agency is hoping to learn before putting such a rule into … Read more
