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Paul Sawers

Senior Reporter, TechCrunch

Paul Sawers is a senior writer based in London, focused largely on the world of UK And European startups. However, he also writes about other subjects that he’s passionate about, such as the business of open source software.

Prior to TechCrunch, Paul gained more than a decade’s experience covering consumer and enterprise technologies for VentureBeat and The Next Web.

Pitches on: paul.sawers [at] techcrunch.com

Paul Sawers

Humane, the company behind the hyped Ai Pin that launched to less-than-glowing reviews last month, is reportedly on the hunt for a buyer.

Humane, the creator of the $700 Ai Pin, is reportedly seeking a buyer

Scale AI has raised a $1 billion Series F round from a slew of big-name institutional and corporate investors including Amazon and Meta.

Data-labeling startup Scale AI raises $1B as valuation doubles to $13.8B

London-based fintech Vitesse has closed a $93 million Series C round of funding led by investment giant KKR.

Vitesse, a payments and treasury management platform for insurers, raises $93M to fuel US expansion

Zen Educate, an online marketplace that connects schools with teachers, has raised $37 million in a Series B round of funding. The raise comes amid a growing teacher shortage crisis…

Zen Educate raises $37M and acquires Aquinas Education as it tries to address the teacher shortage

The U.K.’s self-proclaimed “world-leading” regulations for self-driving cars are now official, after the Automated Vehicles (AV) Act received royal assent — the final rubber stamp any legislation must go through…

UK’s autonomous vehicle legislation becomes law, paving the way for first driverless cars by 2026

Dating app maker Bumble has acquired Geneva, an online platform built around forming real-world groups and clubs. The company said that the deal is designed to help it expand its…

Bumble buys community building app Geneva to expand further into friendships

Featured Article

Microsoft dodges UK antitrust scrutiny over its Mistral AI stake

Microsoft won’t be facing antitrust scrutiny in the U.K. over its recent investment into French AI startup Mistral AI.

7:21 am PDT • May 17, 2024
Microsoft dodges UK antitrust scrutiny over its Mistral AI stake

Strava announced a slew of features, including AI to weed out leaderboard cheats, a new ‘family’ subscription plan, dark mode and more.

Strava taps AI to weed out leaderboard cheats, unveils ‘family’ plan, dark mode and more

Private equity giant Thoma Bravo has announced that its security information and event management (SIEM) company LogRhythm will be merging with Exabeam, a rival cybersecurity company backed by the likes…

Thoma Bravo’s LogRhythm merges with Exabeam in more cybersecurity consolidation

AWS has confirmed its European “sovereign cloud” will go live by the end of 2025, enabling greater data residency for the region.

AWS confirms it will launch European ‘sovereign cloud’ in Germany by 2025, plans €7.8B investment over 15 years

Sona, a workforce management platform for frontline employees, has raised $27.5 million in a Series A round of funding. More than two-thirds of the U.S. workforce are reportedly in frontline…

Sona, a frontline workforce management platform, raises $27.5M with eyes on US expansion

Squarespace is being taken private in an all-cash deal that values the company on an equity basis at $6.6 billion.

Permira is taking Squarespace private in a $6.9 billion deal

CoreWeave has formally opened an office in London that will serve as its European headquarters and home to two new data centers.

CoreWeave, a $19B AI compute provider, opens European HQ in London with plans for 2 UK data centers

Featured Article

Fairgen ‘boosts’ survey results using synthetic data and AI-generated responses

The Israeli startup has raised $5.5M for its platform that uses “statistical AI” to generate synthetic data that it says is as good as the real thing.

8:00 am PDT • May 9, 2024
Fairgen ‘boosts’ survey results using synthetic data and AI-generated responses

Monzo has raised another £150 million ($190 million), as the challenger bank looks to expand its presence internationally — particularly in the U.S. The new round comes just two months…

UK challenger bank Monzo nabs another $190M as US expansion beckons

Bankruptcy lawyers representing customers impacted by the dramatic crash of cryptocurrency exchange FTX 17 months ago say that the vast majority of victims will receive their money back — plus interest. The…

FTX crypto fraud victims to get their money back — plus interest

Microsoft and OpenAI have announced a $2 million fund to combat the growing risks of AI and deepfakes being used to “deceive the voters and undermine democracy.” This year will…

Microsoft and OpenAI launch $2M fund to counter election deepfakes

WSO2, a company that provides API and identity management services for enterprises, has been acquired by EQT for more than $600M.

EQT snaps up API and identity management software company WSO2 for more than $600M

Featured Article

UnitedHealth data breach should be a wake-up call for the UK and NHS

The ransomware attack that has engulfed U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group and its tech subsidiary Change Healthcare is a data privacy nightmare for millions of U.S. patients, with CEO Andrew Witty confirming this week that it may impact as much as one-third of the country. But it should also serve as a wake-up call…

8:43 am PDT • May 3, 2024
UnitedHealth data breach should be a wake-up call for the UK and NHS

Peloton, the exercise equipment maker, said it is laying off 15% of its workforce as part of cost-cutting measures.

Peloton to lay off 400 employees as CEO Barry McCarthy departs

Digital fraud detection company BioCatch has a new majority shareholder in the form of U.K private equity firm Permira.

Digital fraud detection startup BioCatch hits $1.3B valuation as Permira buys majority stake

Ofcom is investigating OnlyFans for failing to prevent children from accessing pornography through the platform.

OnlyFans hits UK regulator’s radar for age-verification failures around porn access

Featured Article

With Backstage, Spotify’s getting serious about its enterprise and dev tools business play

You know that mildly jarring experience whenever that well-known celebrity shows up in an entirely different context — e.g. a musician making a horror flick cameo; an NFL player rearing their head in a comedy series; or a Hollywood movie icon selling mobile phone plans on TV? Well, it’s starting to feel like that with…

7:00 am PDT • April 30, 2024
With Backstage, Spotify’s getting serious about its enterprise and dev tools business play

Featured Article

MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria talks AI hype and the database evolution as he crosses 10-year mark

A lot has happened since Dev Ittycheria took the reins at MongoDB, the $26 billion database company he’s led as president and CEO since September 2014. Ittycheria has taken MongoDB to the cloud, steered it through an IPO, overseen its transition from open source, launched a venture capital arm, and grown the customer base from…

8:00 am PDT • April 28, 2024
MongoDB CEO Dev Ittycheria talks AI hype and the database evolution as he crosses 10-year mark

Jeff Lawson, co-founder and recently departed CEO of Twilio, is the proud new owner of satirical online newspaper The Onion.

Area man, Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, buys The Onion

Darktrace is set to go private in a deal that values the U.K.-based cybersecurity giant at around $5 billion. 

Thoma Bravo to take UK cybersecurity company Darktrace private in $5B deal

The UK is launching initial enquiries into Amazon and Microsoft over partnerships with AI companies Mistral, Anthropic, and Inflection.

UK probes Amazon and Microsoft over AI partnerships with Mistral, Anthropic and Inflection

Conversational AI platform Parloa has nabbed $66 million in a Series B round, a year after it raised $21 million from a swathe of European investors to propel its international…

Parloa, a conversational AI platform for customer service, raises $66M

Featured Article

French startup FlexAI exits stealth with $30M to ease access to AI compute

With the current iteration of its product going through its paces with a handful of beta customers, FlexAI will launch its first commercial product later this year.

10:37 pm PDT • April 23, 2024
French startup FlexAI exits stealth with $30M to ease access to AI compute

Vector databases are all the rage, judging by the number of startups entering the space and the investors ponying up for a piece of the pie. The proliferation of large…

Why vector databases are having a moment as the AI hype cycle peaks