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Stellantis, the car-making giant behind Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and other brands, has confirmed a data breach involving customers’ personal information.  In a statement published Sunday, Stellantis said it experienced a breach of a “third-party service provider’s platform that supports our North American customer service operations.”  The statement said “contact information” was taken, but Stellantis spokesperson Kaileen Connelly declined to answer TechCrunch’s questions about what specific types of customer data were taken in the breach. Stellantis’ spokesperson also declined to say how many customers it was notifying that their information was taken. Bleeping Computer reports that Stellantis’ data breach…

Edward Woodford, founder and CEO of crypto infrastructure firm zerohash.Courtesy: zerohashCrypto infrastructure startup Zerohash has raised $104 million in funding with backing from financial firms including Morgan Stanley and SoFi, CNBC has learned.The Series D round was led by Interactive Brokers, the global automated trading firm, and includes strategic investors who are also clients of Zerohash, founder and CEO Edward Woodford told CNBC in an interview. The company is valued at $1 billion, he said.”We wanted to raise from the largest, most trusted brands in the world and have that be the bridge into this new technology,” he said.Funds managed…

Ahead of the curve — he practically lives there. Before most of the world had even asked ChatGPT its first question, Elad Gil was writing early checks into companies like Perplexity, Character.AI, and Harvey. That’s just a slice of his story. His track record spans seed and Series A investments in over 30 unicorns and involvement with some of the most iconic names in tech, including Stripe, Airbnb, Coinbase, Instacart, Notion, Figma, Flexport, GitLab, and many more. This October, Gil takes the Disrupt Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 in San Francisco for a one-on-one fireside chat. He’ll cover his approach…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 📍 October 27–29, Moscone West, San Francisco🎟️ Register now — Regular Bird savings of up to $668 end September 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT Why join this conversation on the Builders Stage? This honest and tactical conversation will cover what really matters when raising your first institutional check — from telling a compelling story to building trust without traction. Charles Hudson and Wesley Chan will share the traits they consistently look for in zero-to-one founders, the red flags that raise eyebrows, and the most common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make when fundraising. Image Credits:Haje Kamps / TechCrunch Betting…

There’s a classic Simpsons episode in which the sly businessman Mr. Burns recruits real Major League Baseball players to join his company softball team in order to win a bet. But when the championship is on the line, Mr. Burns pulls eight-time National League all-star Darryl Strawberry for a substitute, Homer Simpson. “You’re a left-hander, and so is the pitcher. If I send up a right-handed batter, it’s called playing the percentages,” Mr. Burns says to Strawberry. “It’s what smart managers do to win ballgames.” High-level baseball is very mathematically-driven, with teams hiring dozens of data engineers to study granular…

One year ago, Stellantis announced plans to add an electrified 4xe plug-in hybrid Jeep Gladiator to North America by the end of 2025. The electrified Jeep Gladiator never made it into production. The automaker will no longer include an electrified Gladiator in its Jeep lineup as it reassesses its product strategy, the company told TechCrunch in an emailed statement. The company cited changing customer preferences as a primary driver of its decision. “The Jeep Gladiator carries its rugged styling and authentic design into 2026 while adding incredible new content straight from the factory,” the statement reads. “It will continue to…

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore $500 million in federal grant funding that it froze at the University of California, Los Angeles.U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction on Monday, saying the government likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires specific procedures and explanations for federal funding cuts. Instead, the government informed UCLA in generalized form letters that multiple grants from various agencies were being suspended but offered no specific details.In August, UCLA announced that the Trump administration had suspended $584 million in federal grants over…

Meta announced on Monday that it’s bringing an AI assistant to Facebook Dating. This chatbot is intended to help users find matches who are more closely tailored to what they are looking for. For example, Meta might suggest users ask it to find “a Brooklyn girl in tech” or a user could ask the AI to help refine their profile. Meta also says that it’s “helping people avoid swipe fatigue” with a new feature called Meet Cute, which gives users a weekly “surprise match” chosen based on its algorithm. The company says Facebook Dating matches among adults ages 18 to…

Seven years after unveiling Mirror at TechCrunch Disrupt 2018, Brynn Putnam is returning to the stage where it all began. The serial entrepreneur who turned a fitness concept into a $500 million acquisition by Lululemon will debut her latest venture at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 at San Francisco’s Moscone West in October. Putnam’s path from that breakthrough Disrupt moment to today is a story of very smart timing. Mirror, the connected fitness device that brought boutique workout classes into homes, launched just as the pandemic created unprecedented demand for home fitness solutions. The timing proved so prescient that Lululemon acquired the…

Crypto neo-bank Shield announced on Monday that it has raised a $5 million seed round led by Giant Ventures.  The company launched in 2022 and pivoted to payments in 2024. It allows exporters and importers to conduct cross-border transactions in U.S. cryptocurrencies, while also providing compliance screenings, such as addressing sanctions and money-laundering threats.  Emmanuel Udotong, co-founder and CEO, said he and his team started Shield because they were “disappointed by the lack of competing mainstream use cases for crypto.” Meanwhile, “bad actors” kept filling the space — and the headlines.  “We wanted to help bring blockchain technology into the…