Tech

Teenagers are trying to figure out where they fit in a world changing faster than any generation before them. They’re bursting with emotions, hyper-stimulated, and chronically online. And now, AI companies have given them chatbots designed to never stop talking. The results have been catastrophic. One company that understands this fallout is Character.AI, an AI role-playing startup that’s facing lawsuits …

Mogul, the film studio fantasy platform created by the movie theater subscription service MoviePass, on Wednesday launched out of private beta, the company announced. The platform is now available as a public beta for everyone. Designed specifically for the Hollywood industry, players own their own film studio and draft a team of actors, directors, and movies to earn points based on …

India’s free digital payments revolution has upended how money moves — but not how fintechs make it. Now, Flipkart’s fintech arm Super.money is partnering with Kotak811, the digital offering of one of India’s top commercial banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank, to change that, bundling UPI payments, savings, and secured credit into a single account aimed at turning usage into profit. The …

On Monday, researchers at cybersecurity giant Kaspersky published a report identifying a new spyware called Dante that they say targeted Windows victims in Russia and neighboring Belarus. The researchers said the Dante spyware is made by Memento Labs, a Milan-based surveillance tech maker that was formed in 2019 after a new owner acquired and took over early spyware maker Hacking …

LG Uplus, one of the largest telecom operators in South Korea, has confirmed to TechCrunch that it has reported a suspected data breach to Korea’s national cybersecurity watchdog KISA, but did not say when the results of its investigation would be available. All three major South Korean telecom providers, SK Telecom, KT Telecom, and now LG Uplus, have reported cybersecurity …

Indian automotive giant Tata Motors has fixed a series of security flaws that exposed sensitive internal data, including personal information of customers, company reports, and data related to its dealers. Security researcher Eaton Zveare told TechCrunch that he discovered the flaws in Tata Motors’ E-Dukaan unit, an e-commerce portal for buying spare parts for Tata-made commercial vehicles. Headquartered in Mumbai, …

After two days full of live demos and pitches, it’s time to announce the five finalists at this year’s Startup Battlefield. These finalists were selected from an initial pool of thousands of applicants, with TechCrunch’s editorial team narrowing the field down to the 200 companies that all joined us here at Disrupt, with the Top 20 competing on the Disrupt …

If you were wandering the Expo Hall at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, or watching our pitch stage earlier Tuesday, you might have noticed a familiar face from Pied Piper. Thomas Middleditch, who starred in HBO’s popular “Silicon Valley” show that prominently featured Disrupt back in 2014, had a planned takeover of Australian startup (and Battlefield 200 competitor) Othelia’s presentation at the …

Self-driving truck startup Waabi shared Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt the launch of a new autonomous truck made in partnership with Volvo, the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck. The unveiling comes eight months since the Uber- and Nvidia-backed startup announced it was partnering with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to build a custom-built truck based on Volvo’s autonomy platform using Waabi’s software stack. Waabi …

Katie Hill’s dream home isn’t on the market — but one day, it will be, and she wants dibs. That, and a bit of neighborly envy, is how she got the idea for her startup, Unlisted Homes, which is a Top 20 Startup Battlefield finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. “I’ve always imagined myself as an old lady with a big …