Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch PM. Today, I am breaking the rules and will have five stories in the Top 3. That’s because two of the stories have a mate. We also bring you an update on the Google layoffs, what UnitedHealth’s CEO had to say about security post-hack and new features for your favorite apps. Let’s go!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Getty Images

Innovaccer seeks $250M: Manish Singh got the scoop that Innovaccer, a health tech startup that aggregates patient data across systems and care settings, is in advanced stages of talks with investors to raise as much as $250 million in a new financing round. This follows the raise of $150 million at the end of 2021. Read More

Meet Rovo: In the quest to retain as much knowledge as possible, Atlassian brings us Rovo, a new AI assistant. It can take data from first- and third-party tools and make it easily accessible through a new AI-powered search tool and other integrations into Atlassian’s products. The best part? The Rovo Agents can be used to automate workflows in tools like Jira and Confluence. Read More

Speaking of Jira, Atlassian also said it was combining Jira Software and Jira Service Management into a single product under the Jira brand. Jira started out as Atlassian’s flagship project management tool for developers, which has evolved into versions for other teams. Read More

LinkedIn launches gaming: Because The New York Times shouldn’t have all the fun, right? Queens, Crossclimb and Pinpoint — testing your abilities in logic, trivia and word association, respectively — are now available globally. Read More

Also, Sarah Perez reminds us that LinkedIn is often the forgotten social media platform. Probably because of its work-related vibe. When Elon Musk took over Twitter, a handful of competitors came forth to take in users who didn’t like how the platform was evolving. However, all this time, we should have been watching LinkedIn. Read More

Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: JHVEPhoto / Getty Images

Google layoffs update: We now know that 200 people were laid off. Read More

UnitedHealth CEO goes to Washington: UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty went in front of senators today to say how the company was bolstering its systems after a recent cyberattack against its subsidiary Change Healthcare. Read More

Anthropic eyes businesses: Meet Team, the generative AI startup’s new paid plan for businesses. Developed with highly regulated industries in mind, like healthcare, finance and legal, it gives customers higher-priority access to Anthropic’s Claude 3 family of generative AI models plus additional admin and user management controls. Read More

U.K. regulator looks at OnlyFans: The regulatory body that looks at the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries suspects that OnlyFans is failing to prevent children from accessing pornography through the platform. Hmmmm. Read More

Microsoft is doubling down on robotics: In February, the enterprise tech giant led a $675 million Series B into humanoid robot maker Figure. Now it is collaborating with its competitor, Sanctuary AI, best known for its humanoid robot, Phoenix. Read More

Mapping wildfires: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute are building drones capable of navigating through wildfire smoke, providing firefighters with maps and escape routes, while drawing attention to danger zones. Read More

Aikido lands $17M: Belgium’s Aikido lands a $17 million Series A for its "no BS" security platform aimed at developers. Read More

New features from your favorite apps:

Airbnb released a few updates for group booking along with a new category called “Icons,” which are experiences hosted by celebrated names in music, film, TV and sports. Read More

Calendly has redesigned its browser extension in a bid to improve its schedule management features and make scheduling faster. Read More

Snapchat set up its My AI chatbot to do more for users, including set in-app reminders. It’s also rolling out editable chats, AI-powered custom Bitmoji looks, map reactions and emoji reactions. Read More

Amazon’s Audible is testing a way for users to receive recommendations for what to listen to next, based on their Prime Video viewing behavior. I just watched “Sleepy Hollow” for like the 20th time in the past 30 days. Can’t wait to see what recs I get. Read More

Communities users in WhatsApp will see a new way to organize events, like get-togethers, directly in WhatsApp. And if you are going to an event, you can see who else in your group is going and get reminders that the event is coming up. Read More

Substack writers can now choose to paywall their entire Chat or specific threads to paid or founding members only. Read More

Around the web

Image Credits: Getty Images/Patra Kongsirimongkolchai / EyeEm

Get out the claw cracker: Red Lobster’s endless shrimp turned out to be a bad idea. As Business Insider reports, this was not the only thing to bring down the seafood restaurant chain. As Jonathan Maze, the editor-in-chief of Restaurant Business magazine, said, “[T]he Endless Shrimp deals are probably as much a symbol of just either desperation or poor management or both." Read More

It hit us like a wrecking ball: All the Tesla layoffs, that is. Electrek has some views, as does Bloomberg, which reports that the electric vehicle maker’s head of HR has also left. Read More

The Rabbit R1 reviews are in: And we are seeing a lot of talk calling it an Android app. This caused the Rabbit CEO to go on the defensive. Read More.

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TechCrunch Minute

Razer’s Zephyr mask lands it in regulatory hot water: Not what comes to mind when you think of the word “Razer,” right? Alex Wilhelm writes that you probably associate the brand with gaming keyboards and mice. He even has a Razer mouse plugged into his work computer right now. It’s great. But the company’s masks were not, and that’s a problem. Hit play and let’s chat!