BioNTech’s $550M acquisition of African AI startup InstaDeep is paying off. InstaDeep, known for its cutting-edge AI applications, continues to operate independently while boosting BioNTech’s biotech capabilities. In just over a year, the AI company has accelerated BioNTech’s drug and vaccine development, improving processes like tissue analysis by 5x. Their collaboration now includes breakthrough projects like AI-driven protein design and cancer-fighting innovations. Despite the biotech focus, InstaDeep is still making waves outside pharma, solving industrial challenges like railway scheduling and locust outbreak detection in Africa. With over 400 employees globally, InstaDeep is thriving under BioNTech’s wing and pushing the frontier of AI innovation across industries. Read our interview with InstaDeep's CEO Karim Beguir at the link in the bio 👆 Article by Tage Kene-Okafor Image Credits: InstaDeep; BioNTech #TechCrunch #technews #artificialintelligence #startup #founder #venturecapital

If you’ve heard that a VPN provider can help protect your privacy and security online, don’t believe the hype. The truth is that most people don’t actually need a VPN. If you’re in the majority who don’t need to use a VPN, there are still easy and effective ways to reduce the trail of data that you leave behind as you browse the web. Some of these ways include the use of simple tools in your browser that can automatically prevent online trackers from collecting information about you to begin with, and encrypting your web browsing traffic that makes it more difficult for anyone to snoop on the sites and services you access. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions or a panacea for absolute privacy. Instead, all of these simple steps can provide additional and meaningful privacy as you use the web, and we’ll explain how. Read all the steps to protecting your privacy online, without a VPN, at the link in the bio 👆 Article by Zack Whittaker Image Credits: Kaspars Grinvalds #TechCrunch #technews #privacy #cybersecurity #VPN

Turns out we have a surprising amount to learn from our logs. Throne is an Austin-based health startup. It sells a camera. That clips onto the side of a toilet bowl. It takes pictures of your poop. Throne calls its underlying technology “artificial gut intelligence.” That AI is “trained by physicians to help you understand what your waste is trying to tell you about your health,” per the company. The doctors are looking for various signs of health found in waste matter, including “nuances” in urine to determine hydration levels. The company is quick to note that the images are “anonymized.” “We only capture images of the contents of your toilet bowl,” Throne writes. “Any other data is irrelevant to our mission and could compromise our ability to provide accurate health insights. We use image recognition technology to automatically delete any non-relevant images. This ensures that only toilet-related data is retained.” Read more on Throne at the link in the bio 👆 Article by Brian Heater Image Credits: Throne #TechCrunch #technews #artificialintelligence #startup #founder

Farewill, a U.K.-based end-of-life services provider that offers online tools for writing wills, organizing probate, and arranging cremation, has been acquired by funeral service provider Dignity in an all-shares deal valuing the startup at £12.9 million ($16.8 million). Founded in 2015, Farewill is one of several startups to emerge in a category dubbed “death tech.” This includes apps to memorialize loved ones and social platforms to support the grieving process. Some have raised significant amounts of venture capital funding, too, such as Empathy which emerged from stealth back in 2021 with $13 million for its digital assistant for bereaved families — going on to raise a further $47 million just a few months ago. Read more on Farewill at the link in the bio 👆 Article by Paul Sawers Image Credits: Katarzyna Bialasiewicz / Getty Images Pro; Farewill #TechCrunch #technews #startup #founder #acquisition #deathtech

Bigger isn't always better 🤷 One of the lessons that the wild Silicon Valley venture funding environment of the past few years has clearly taught is this: Bigger valuations are not always better. “I think we’ve all kind of seen the negative impact of having a valuation too high from the last, call it, three years,” Elizabeth Yin, co-founder of Hustle Fund said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt last week. When a VC bull market hits and startups are able to easily raise a lot of money before they have real, provable businesses, they’ve set themselves up for difficult times. Because “the bar is higher for that next round,” she said. If the company fails to grow into a lofty valuation, it could wind up burning its most valuable employees, said VC Renata Quintini, co-founder of Renegade Partners. Read more on why startups shouldn’t always take the highest valuation at the link in the bio 👆 Article by Julie Bort Image Credits: Barak Shrama/ Slava Blazer Photography / Flickr #TechCrunch #technews #startups #founders #VCs #funding #venturecapital

Election Day is here, and if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or gone in for early voting, you might need a ride on November 5. We're rounded-up all the freebies, discounts, and information on getting to the polls that transportation companies are offering. - Lime is offering free rides to and from your polling place to vote early or on Election Day. Riders can use the promo code VOTE2024 to get two free 30-minute rides in the U.S. - Bird and Spin are also offering two free rides as part of their Roll to the Polls initiative. Riders can use the code RockTheVote2024 in the app. - Lyft is dishing out 50% discounts (but capping out at $10 — classic) to riders heading to the polls. Users can preload the ride code VOTE24 on or before November 5. And this not only goes for ride-hail, but also bikeshare (like Citi Bike) and scootershare. - Uber is also offering riders 50% off trips (again, only up to $10) to their polling places when they click on the “Go Vote!” tile in the Uber app. Head to the link in the bio for the full list of companies offering freebies, discounts, and information this Election Day 👆 #TechCrunch #technews #ElectionDay #transportation #Google #Uber #Lyft

The CEO of AI search company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, has offered to cross a virtual picket line and provide services during a strike by New York Times tech workers. The NYT Tech Guild announced its strike Monday, after setting November 4 as its deadline months earlier. The workers represented provide software support and data analysis for the Times, on the business side of the outlet. Picketers demonstrated in front of the NYT building in New York as negotiations continued. Meanwhile, on X, formerly known as Twitter, Perplexity’s CEO offered to step in for the striking workers. Many on X immediately castigated Srinivas for acting as a scab — a derogatory term for people willing to perform the jobs of striking workers. It is widely considered a disreputable behavior in matters of labor and equity. Read more on Perplexity CEO's offer at the link in the bio 👆 Article by Devin Coldewey Image Credits: Kimberly White for TechCrunch / Getty Images #TechCrunch #technews #artificialintelligence #Perplexity #NYT #strike

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Is the AI hype cycle eating itself? Take a closer look at SoftBank and OpenAI's new joint venture on our latest Equity podcast episode via the link in our bio.

The driving force behind Shin Starr's autonomous, mobile kitchen isn't the tech, it's the ability to deliver a legitimately great meal on the go — and we got a peek at it during Disrupt 2025!