Don't invest in abusive spyware: An international coalition of countries and investors is budding to combat commercial spyware that can be used to target repressed groups, journalists, dissidents and others. TechCrunch has learned that one of those venture investors, Paladin Capital, had previously put capital into a spyware company, but the firm confirmed recently that it had already exited the investment. Notably, Paladin has now teamed up with other venture investors to produce a voluntary set of principles for investing in startups that "enhance the defense, national security, and foreign policy interests of free and open societies." Good! Read More
Does Spotify want to be a music company anymore? After a big podcast push and foraying into audiobooks, Spotify is now looking at digital learning. Starting in the United Kingdom, Spotify is bringing video courses to its platform. The move to expand into other areas makes sense for Spotify, since its music business has modest margins and isn't growing that fast... Read More
Reviewing AI models is hard. We're doing it anyway: It's really hard to tell good AI apart from the rotten eggs because of rapid update cycles that deprecate tests quickly. It also doesn't help that many publicly competitive benchmarks aren't very applicable to consumers. Despite those issues, TechCrunch is embarking on a review project because "a qualitative analysis of these systems has intrinsic value simply as a real-world counterweight to industry hype," Devin Coldewey writes... Read More
Hey look, a profitable unicorn: Valued at $3.2 billion after raising $95 million last year to go after VR and AI-enhanced tutoring, GoStudent is a very well funded and valuable startup. And it now has the financial results to back up its price tag: The company has become EBITDA profitable and is enjoying positive operating cash flow. That's very impressive and augurs well for edtech in general... Read More
How Protecto pitched data privacy in the era of AI: Continuing his long-running series of pitch deck teardowns, TechCrunch's Haje Jan Kamps is taking his magnifying glass to Protecto this week. The startup recently raised a $4 million round, and if you are curious how seed deals are getting done, this one is for you... Read More
U.S. tech giants in trouble (again) in the EU: Under the EU's new DMA, the European Commission is investigating Google and Apple for their policies that steer users towards their own products, and Meta is under fire for making users choose between paying it monthly or getting ads... Read More
Mallard Bay is cashing in on hunting trips: This story is definitely not going to help U.S. citizens' reputation for being nuts about guns. Mallard Bay, a startup that offers guided hunting and fishing tours, kind of like Airbnb, is cashing in on a simply massive market, and it has raised a good $4.6 million to do so. This is a pretty good idea, frankly, and I can see it taking off... Read More
