Indian central bank defends ‘proportionate’ action on Paytm
India’s central bank said Thursday it takes supervisory actions and imposes business restrictions only after “persistent non-compliance” with rules, its first comment after a clampdown on Paytm last week has posed existential questions about the future of the leading financial services firm. Shaktikanta Das, the Reserve Bank of India governor,
Read moreGoogle starts blocking users from sideloading certain apps in Singapore
To reduce financial scams, Google has started a new program to prevent users from sideloading certain apps in Singapore. The company is looking to block sideloaded apps that abuse Android permissions to read one-time passwords received through SMS and notifications. Google said there are four sets of permissions that bad
Read moreBrita snaps up smart water bottle startup, Larq
Smart water bottle-maker Larq this week announced that it has been acquired by filtration giant, Brita. More specifically, Brita GmbH, the German company founded in 1966, which spun off and sold its North/South American wing to Clorox in 1988. Brita GmbH maintains the brand in the rest of the world,
Read moreAccounting software startup Pennylane becomes France’s latest unicorn
Just like clockwork, Pennylane is raising another €40 million ($43 million at today’s exchange rate). This new funding round comes after the accounting startup raised €4 million in 2020, €15 million in 2021, another €15 million in 2021 again, €50 million in 2022 and €30 million in 2023. You might
Read morePakistan suspends phone and internet services on election day
Pakistan has temporarily suspended mobile phone network and internet services across the country to combat any “possible threats,” a top ministry said, as the South Asian nation begins its national election. In a statement, Pakistan’s interior ministry said the move was prompted by recent incidents of terrorism in the country.
Read moreAttentive.ai snags $7M to boost automation in landscaping, construction services
Attentive.ai, a startup building vertical software for landscaping and construction services in the U.S., has raised $7 million in a new funding round as it looks to enhance its AI-led offerings and expand them to more businesses. Led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, the all-equity Series A round,
Read moreOpenAI forms a new team to study child safety
Under scrutiny from activists — and parents — OpenAI has formed a new team to study ways to prevent its AI tools from being misused or abused by kids. In a new job listing on its career page, OpenAI reveals the existence of a Child Safety team, which the company
Read moreEpic Games and Disney partner up on a Fortnite ‘entertainment universe’
Lego Fortnite is only two months old, but Epic Games is already out with an even bigger collaboration. Epic and Disney announced today that the companies will partner on an “all-new games and entertainment universe” that will bring characters from Disney’s deep catalogue to life through Fortnite. The scope of
Read moreHow Twitter’s descent into chaos is paving the way for a new web
The post-Twitter era has spurred the development and further growth of numerous social networks that prioritize brief posts, from open source standbys like Mastodon to new decentralized concepts like Bluesky, and those from smaller startups like Post, Spill, and Spoutible, to those from tech giants like Meta, which launched the
Read moreEx-Blue Origin leaders’ secretive lunar startup Interlune has moonshot mining plans
Interlune, a stealth startup headed by ex-Blue Origin executives, is focused on mining the moon for a rare isotope of helium that could be used to scale quantum computing and eventually even fusion power, TechCrunch has learned. Regulatory filings reported here last week showed that the company recently closed $15.5
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