Author: GT

As visa crackdowns and diplomatic tensions block traditional study-abroad routes, India’s Leverage Edu is helping students reroute their dreams — from Canada to Germany, and from India to Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. That agility is paying off: The startup has doubled its revenue, turned profitable, and is now expanding its global footprint. Over the past several months, students across emerging markets have faced growing uncertainty around international college admissions. Shifting visa rules and diplomatic tensions — from the 2023-2024 standoff between India and Canada to new strains in India-U.S. ties over tariffs and immigration policy — have disrupted application timelines…

Venmo and PayPal — two of the most popular apps for digitally sending money to friends, family, or businesses — have never been natively compatible. But according to Venmo, this is changing in November. “Venmo users and PayPal users will be able to pay each other in the U.S. and worldwide,” Venmo wrote in an email to customers. “That means that PayPal users will be able to find and pay you using your phone number, and later using your email address.” For years, customers have used convoluted workarounds to transfer money between the services. This has long been a pain…

At its annual hardware event, Amazon introduced a new lineup of Echo devices, built specifically for its AI assistant, Alexa+, which has already rolled out to millions of customers through its early access program. To showcase the AI’s capabilities, Amazon is releasing four new Echo devices with improved processing power and memory: the Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11. Key to the devices are the Alexa+ integrations, allowing the speakers to respond to more queries than earlier models, offering support for natural language conversations, more complex questions, and soon, more add-ons and capabilities. This…

When people think about space, the first images that come to mind are usually rockets, satellites, and astronauts floating in orbit. But the future of space is just as much about algorithms and compute power as it is about propulsion systems and spacecraft. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, the Aerospace Corporation is pulling back the curtain on how artificial intelligence is reshaping the space economy — through bold startups and cutting-edge research. This year, Disrupt is home to two major aerospace-driven sessions that highlight just how much is at stake in orbit and beyond. Together, they offer a front-row seat to…

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, speaks at a cloud computing conference held by the company in 2019.Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesGoogle has laid off more than 100 employees in design-related roles, CNBC has learned.Earlier this week, the company laid off employees within the cloud unit’s “quantitative user experience research” teams and “platform and service experience” teams, as well as some adjacent teams, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC.The roles often focus on using data, surveys and other tools to understand and implement user behaviors that inform product development and design.Google has halved some of the cloud…

Asahi Group Holdings, the brewery giant that produces the Japanese beer Asahi and other beverages, was hit by a cyberattack Monday that forced the company to stop production in its Japanese factories. The disruption is reportedly still ongoing, but with no timeline for recovery. Asahi Group disclosed the attack in a press release, saying it was experiencing “a system failure” that forced the company to suspend order and shipment operations, as well as its call center operations.   “At this time, there has been no confirmed leakage of personal information or customer data to external parties,” the press release read.…

After teaming up with Google on agentic commerce this month, payments giant PayPal announced Tuesday it’s adding new features to its PayPal Honey browser extension. The features will provide AI chatbot users, who are researching items they want to purchase, Honey’s product recommendations, pricing, and access to deals. When users ask their preferred AI chatbot a shopping-related question, PayPal Honey’s extension will display links to the products the AI chatbot recommends, along with real-time pricing, merchant options, and offers, PayPal says. The system can also identify when the AI’s own recommendations may have left out major retailers and surface those additional options to the…

Amazon on Wednesday expanded its private-label grocery lineup with the launch of a new brand aimed at “price-conscious” shoppers, with most products priced under $5.The brand is called Amazon Grocery and includes more than 1,000 items, ranging from dairy, fresh produce, meat and seafood to snacks and baking essentials, the company said in a release. Amazon said the new offering unites its Happy Belly and Amazon Fresh brands under one label.”During a time when consumers are particularly price-conscious, Amazon Grocery delivers more than 1,000 quality grocery items across all categories that don’t compromise on quality or taste – from fresh…

This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos and StrictlyVC’s Alex Gove spoke with with Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of Replit, fresh off the company’s $250 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation. They discussed Replit’s remarkable journey from hovering around $2.8 million in ARR for years to hitting $150 million — and how a controversial pivot away from professional developers made it all possible. Masad explained why targeting non-technical users actually requires more compute power than serving experienced coders, and how his company survived a viral production database disaster that briefly threatened to derail everything. They…

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s official: AOL’s dial-up internet has taken its last bow.AOL previously confirmed it would be pulling the plug on Tuesday (Sept. 30) — writing in a brief update on its support site last month that it “routinely evaluates” its offerings and had decided to discontinue dial-up, as well as associated software “optimized for older operating systems,” from its plans.Dial-up is now no longer advertised on AOL’s website. As of Wednesday, former company help pages like “connect to the internet with AOL Dialer” appeared unavailable — and nostalgic social media users took to the internet to say…