Happy Wednesday Crunch, our crunchiest of friends. It’s been a busy morning of tech news, so let’s hop right to it! — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Seized: Carly reports that the FBI took down Genesis Market, a notorious hacker marketplace for stolen logins. They arrested about 120 people and conducted 200 searches. In case you don’t remember, Genesis Market has been around since 2017 and has sold stolen credentials, cookies and digital browser fingerprints gathered from compromised systems.
• In mourning: The tech world is reeling after finding out that a fatal stabbing victim in San Francisco turned out to be Bob Lee, creator of Cash App and former CTO of Square. Romain includes some heartfelt responses, including this one by Block CEO Jack Dorsey, who wrote, “It’s real. Getting calls. Heartbreaking. Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App. STL guy.”
• Car porn: Our audience really liked cars today. Mainly because of Patrick’s report on the 2024 Hyundai Kona, which looks to “be one the most affordable cars with over-the-air updates.” Its dashboard interface looks really cool, in case you are into that kind of thing. Meanwhile, if trucks are your thing, Kirsten goes over all the things to drool over on the 2025 all-electric Ram 1500 Rev, including its “absolutely massive battery.”

Startups and VC

Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that has launched the likes of Instacart, Stripe and Airbnb, has broadened its investing lens in recent years, backing companies all over Africa and India, and beyond. As the tech downturn has continued, though, Y Combinator has shrunk its cohort size, stepped back from late-stage investing, and brought on a new chief executive: entrepreneur and co-founder of Initialized Capital, Garry Tan. Natasha M takes a look at the status of YC.

Brian found a clever new bit of kitchen tech. Sepura recently introduced its eponymous home appliance, which sits under a sink in place of a garbage disposal, turning your under-sink situation into a composter.

Six more!

• It sees right through you: OXOS Medical just raised $23 million in Series A funding with the intention of delivering a “radiology department in a box,” Haje reports.
• Tough as (upcycled) leather: Gen Phoenix’s upcycled leather woos luxury brand investors, reports Harri.
• Moar dry powder for climate tech: Tage reports that Equator secures $40 million in commitments for fund targeting climate tech startups in Africa.
• Building on initial success: Dominic-Madori reports that construction insurance company Billy raises additional $2.5 million.
• But where will they put their $10 million?: Ronbow nabs $10 million to deliver custom cabinets in as short as 3 weeks, Rita reports.
• Shedding talent (TC+): The US is losing crypto talent as blockchain devs seek safer havens, Jacquelyn reports on TechCrunch+, our membership site.

As YC launches new batch, here’s how the early-stage venture market is faring today

Drawing on data from Carta’s “First Cut — State of Private Markets: Q1 2023” report, Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm crunched the numbers to get a feel for the early-stage VC landscape.

Taking into account “median round sizes and deal values,” they found that pre-money valuations for seed-stage startups fell slightly, but Series A, B and C rounds “seem to be showing signs of recovery.”

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

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Big Tech Inc.

Guess who’s using generative AI now? Meta says it wants to use generative AI to create ads, Ivan reports. You might remember that the Facebook parent created a new team specifically to make tools for that feature. “While Meta’s metaverse efforts haven’t panned out as expected, it still seems to be pushing on the idea of creating virtual worlds through generative AI,” Ivan writes.

If you chose not to get HBO Max but are dying to watch “Westworld,” you can now do it from your Roku. Aisha reports that Roku is where many canceled HBO shows are finding a second home.

And we have five more for you:

• Be safe: Snapchat is creating some new safeguards around its AI chatbot, Ivan reports.
• Stripe seeing stars: Ingrid read through Stripe’s annual letter so you don’t have to. Some highlights: It processed $817 billion in transactions in 2022, but growth has definitely slowed.
• Power user: Apple is the latest Big Tech company to meet Germany’s test for antitrust abuse controls. Natasha L explains what this means.
• AI gets the OK: Manish reports that India is going to let AI do its thing there, calling the technology “significant and strategic.”
• Everything’s better with friends: Blockchain builder Ava Labs partners with SK Planet to expand the web3 infrastructure in Asia, Kate reports.

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