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Who is Asha Sharma? A closer look at Microsoft’s surprise pick to lead the Xbox business

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Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming, at Microsoft Ignite 2025. (Dan DeLong Photo for Microsoft)

“And the thing about games is, if you get good at one game, you can be good at any game. … They’re all hand-eye coordination and observing patterns.”

That’s a line from Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin’s 2022 novel about two friends who build a video game company from nothing — struggling with the tension between art and commerce, and ultimately with the challenges of operating a business at scale.

This describes almost perfectly what Asha Sharma will be attempting to do in her new role leading Microsoft’s Xbox and video-game business: She’ll need to take all the patterns she’s observed as an executive with Facebook, Instacart, Seattle startup Porch, and Microsoft’s AI platform, and apply them to a world she hasn’t played in before.

And get this: it’s one of her favorite books.

Speaking last year on Lenny Rachitsky’s podcast, Sharma mentioned she had read the novel every year for the past three years. “I love it so much,” she said, calling it a “beautiful story.”

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She didn’t mention on the podcast speed round that it’s a story about video games. It wasn’t really relevant at the time. But it is now, given the news Friday that Sharma will succeed 38-year Microsoft veteran Phil Spencer as CEO of Microsoft Gaming, in a shakeup that also saw Xbox President Sarah Bond — previously seen as Spencer’s likely successor — decide to leave.

Sharma was a surprise pick, in part because she has no prior video-game industry leadership experience, and limited background as a gamer, which is creating skepticism in gaming circles already. However, she has experience running large tech platforms, the clear trust of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and a belief in the potential of AI to reshape every business.

On that last point, she quickly offered some reassurance to Microsoft employees and the broader universe of Xbox gamers in her introductory memo last week.

“As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop,” she wrote. “Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”

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Sharma laid out three priorities in the memo: great games above all else, a recommitment to Xbox’s core console fans, and what she called the “future of play” — new business models and a shared platform where developers and players can create together. 

She vowed not to treat the company’s iconic franchises as “static IP to milk and monetize,” and said she wants to return to “the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place.”

Her first act was promoting longtime studio chief Matt Booty to executive vice president and chief content officer, pairing her platform background with his decades of gaming credibility. 

“My first job is simple,” she wrote. “Understand what makes this work and protect it.”

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The challenge ahead

There’s a lot to protect, and plenty of work to do.

Microsoft has been in gaming for decades, from early PC titles like Flight Simulator to the launch of the original Xbox console in 2001. 

Under Spencer, the company made massive bets on expansion, acquiring ZeniMax Media and its family of studios — including Bethesda — for $7.5 billion in 2021, and then closing the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023, the largest gaming deal in history. That brought Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, Diablo, and Overwatch under Microsoft’s roof, making it the third-largest gaming company in the world by revenue. 

Spencer also expanded Xbox’s reach across PC, mobile, and cloud gaming, and built Game Pass into a major subscription service, transforming the division’s business model.

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But the financial picture has been rough. Microsoft’s gaming revenue fell 9% in the most recent quarter, with hardware revenue down 32%. The division represents about 7% of the company’s total revenue, and has faced pressure in recent years to meet aggressive profit targets.

Xbox’s challenge has not been a lack of talent or popular franchises. GeekWire gaming contributor Thomas Wilde observed that the biggest problem has been instability: waves of layoffs and studio closures that left even successful teams uncertain about their future.

In his memo about the transition, Nadella said Sharma brings “deep experience building and growing platforms, aligning business models to long-term value, and operating at global scale.”

The implication in the selection is clear: Xbox spans console, PC, mobile, and cloud platforms, requiring an operator who knows how to make all the pieces work together. 

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That’s the job Sharma has done everywhere she’s been.

From Wisconsin to Redmond

Sharma’s career and biographical details have been widely scrutinized over the past few days, as the video game and business press have scrambled to figure out who this person is, who arrived seemingly out of the blue to lead one of Microsoft’s biggest consumer brands. 

Now 37, she grew up in Wisconsin and started working at 17, with an early role at SC Johnson, according to a 2014 MarTech profile. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, and by the time she left college had worked at Cargill, Deloitte, and Microsoft, and lived abroad in Hungary.

As of last fall, she was a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo, explaining to Rachitsky on his podcast that the discipline is “more mental than it is physical.”

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She has been at Microsoft for two years, running the CoreAI product organization, the team behind Azure AI Studio, the company’s AI model catalog, and the developer tools for Microsoft Copilot. She was previously COO of Instacart, and before that VP of product at Meta, where she ran Messenger and Instagram Direct. She’s on the Home Depot and Coupang boards.

What’s lesser known is that she got her start at Microsoft, interning at the company and then working in marketing right out of college before leaving to help build Porch, the Seattle home services company, where she was COO during the company’s early years.

In a 2024 interview with GeekWire at Microsoft’s Build developer conference, not long after rejoining the company, Sharma talked about what brought her back. After years working across different types of organizations, she said, the lesson she drew from her career was the importance of working with great people on problems that matter. 

She described feeling fortunate to be working on “some of the most important technology of our lifetime” at a critical juncture, with people embracing a growth mindset.

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Winning over the gamers

Part of what made Spencer so beloved among Xbox fans was that he was one of them — a lifelong gamer with a prolific achievement history and a habit of wearing gaming T-shirts under blazers at industry events. 

Sharma knows she can’t replicate that overnight, but she’s clearly trying to close the gap.

Over the weekend, she began engaging directly with Xbox fans on social media, sharing her gamertag (AMRAHSAHSA, her name spelled backwards) and listing her top three games as “Halo, Valheim, Goldeneye” — Microsoft’s flagship franchise, a popular survival game, and classic title that first launched on the Nintendo 64 in 1997.

When one fan accused her account of being run by AI, she replied: “Beep Boop Beep Boop.”

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She’s also getting public support from inside Xbox. Longtime exec Aaron Greenberg, the division’s VP of marketing, wrote on X that after spending time with Sharma during the past week, he was “incredibly optimistic about the opportunity ahead under her leadership,” describing her as “exceptionally bright, eager to listen and learn from others, no ego.”

The activity history in Sharma’s Xbox profile, which IGN and Windows Central quickly dissected, shows she’s played about 30 titles since mid-January, gravitating toward narrative-driven indie games like Firewatch, Gone Home, and What Remains of Edith Finch — the kinds of games you’d play if you wanted to understand games as art, not just entertainment.

She unlocked her first achievement Jan. 15, about five weeks before the announcement of her new role. It was a Halo: Master Chief Collection milestone, fittingly titled “Your Journey Begins.”

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Nvidia’s Q4 results could make or break confidence in the AI hardware market

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Nvidia has become shorthand for the AI market itself. In the years since generative models reshaped computing, the company’s GPUs have powered everything from large-scale training clusters to real-time inference infrastructure.

That dominance helped Nvidia’s stock surge over 1,500 percent from 2022 into 2025 and made it one of the most valuable tech firms in history.

Yet as its newest earnings report approaches, investors aren’t just asking whether revenue is growing, they’re asking whether the AI boom still has room to run.

Scaling AI isn’t just about silicon anymore

Analysts expect Nvidia to post another blockbuster quarter, with revenue forecasts between roughly $65 billion and $66 billion and adjusted gross margins near 75 percent.

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That kind of performance would mark continued strength in demand for high-end AI accelerators, particularly from cloud providers and hyperscalers that underpin much of the industry’s infrastructure.

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On the surface, those numbers look almost routine at this point, after all, Nvidia has beaten estimates for revenue and earnings for more than a dozen straight quarters. But markets have shifted, and so has investor psychology.

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The question now isn’t just “how much growth?”, but “for how long?” and “toward what?”

One reason for that shift is the growing push by major AI users to develop or adopt alternatives to Nvidia’s hardware.

Meta, Google and other hyperscalers are investing heavily in custom silicon or alternative accelerators designed to cut costs, optimize specific workloads, or gain strategic independence from Nvidia’s ecosystem.

Those moves don’t immediately undercut Nvidia’s sales, but they signal a longer-term competitive environment that didn’t exist a few years ago.

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This isn’t entirely new, the chip industry has always been cyclic and competitive, but it matters more now because so much of global AI infrastructure hangs off a single architecture. When customers start hedging that exposure, it naturally ripples through valuations and strategic forecasts.

Investor expectations are part of the story

Another reason this earnings cycle feels different is the backdrop in broader markets. AI names have led the rally in tech stocks, but sentiment has softened.

Over the first weeks of 2026, Nvidia’s share price has barely budged compared with steep gains in previous years, even as other industries waver under economic uncertainty.

Some analysts read this as a sign that markets are increasingly focused on profitability timelines and real-world deployment metrics rather than narrative alone.

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Part of that recalibration reflects broader anxiety about what some observers call an “AI bubble,” where valuations in the sector may be disconnected from underlying economic fundamentals.

Whether or not that label is fair, it reflects genuine investor nervousness about sustainability, return on investment, and how soon large companies will convert AI hype into consistent revenue growth.

What Nvidia can and must deliver

For Nvidia, this means earnings won’t be judged simply on topline figures. The market will be listening closely to a few specific signals:

  • Demand trajectory from hyperscalers and cloud providers. Are capex cycles still accelerating, or showing signs of plateauing?
  • Guidance on future quarters. Vague or cautious outlooks could spook markets that have priced high growth into Nvidia’s valuation.
  • Comments on competitive strategy, particularly around partnerships, software ecosystems, and how the company plans to respond to custom silicon trends.
  • Supply chain and geopolitical risks, including memory pricing and export restrictions that affect where Nvidiacan sell its most advanced chips.

A strong earnings beat with confident guidance could reassure markets that AI spending isn’t slowing and that Nvidia remains the core engine of that demand. A modest beat or mixed signals, however, might validate some of the more cautious narratives and lead to broader tech sell-offs.

Nvidia’s report matters because it has become the default bellwether for AI infrastructure spending, and by extension, for how investors value growth in technology sectors.

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If the company shows that demand and pricing power remain robust, it supports a broader bull case for AI adoption. If not, we may see a re-rating of AI as an investment theme, with implications far beyond one company’s earnings call.

In that sense, this quarter isn’t just about chips or quarterly revenue. It’s about confidence: in AI’s staying power, in enterprise capex cycles, and in the narrative that has driven one of the most remarkable growth stories in recent market history.

You can find the financial report here

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NYC transit workers hit by Qilin ransomware – thousands of members possibly affected

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  • Qilin ransomware group claims breach of TWU Local 100 in New York
  • Data allegedly leaked to dark web; union represents 41,000 workers and 26,000 retirees
  • Stolen PII could fuel phishing and fraud; members urged to stay vigilant

The dreaded Qilin ransomware operators has added the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) Local 100 chapter to its data leak site, saying it broke into the organization and has already leaked everything it stole onto the dark web.

The Local 100 chapter of the TWU is the local union which represents tens of thousands of transportation workers in and around New York City, including people who operate and maintain the subways, buses, and other transit services, as well as workers at some private bus and ferry companies.

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3 Garage Essentials You Should Think Twice About Buying From Costco

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We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Costco is a popular membership-based club that offers warehouse-style shopping with discounted prices on bulk-packaged products. Costco offers two annual membership levels, Gold Star for $65 and Executive for $130. 

Whichever membership level you choose you’ll have access to Costco gas stations, which could actually save you money if you buy enough fuel, discounted name-brand items, and the private-label Kirkland Signature store brand. Inside Costco and online, you’ll find a variety of household needs like food and drinks, personal items like clothes and shoes, and automotive essentials including car tires and batteries.

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With a selection like that it’s no surprise that Costco offers a number of handy finds to upgrade your garage. However, as with most shopping experiences, not every Costco aimed at fulfilling a need in the garage is perfect for everyone. Some items fail to meet the expectations of Costco’s invested buyers, or there are simply better options available at other retailers where you don’t have to buy a membership to buy their products.

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Iris 45-quart clear storage bins

Among the garage essentials with the lowest Costco customer ratings is the Iris 45-quart clear storage bin six-pack (item 1410576). With 2,066 reviews to date, the set of bins holds a 3.6-star rating. The storage bins, member-priced at $44.99, are not available inside your local Costco. Instead, you’ll have to order them online and they’ll ship to your door via free standard shipping or express, which promises arrival a few days earlier for an additional $38.94.

While having the bulky storage bins shipped straight to your door seems like an advantage, many of the negative reviews left by Costco members report the bins suffered damage during shipping. To make matters worse, as an online-only item, the bins cannot be returned to a local Costco according to reviews, they must be re-packaged and returned to the online warehouse.

As an alternative, HDX storage containers from Home Depot have better ratings, the clear 12-gallon flip-top version for example has a 4.2-star rating. While they are more expensive than the Iris bins at $13.98 each, they’re available inside your local Home Depot or shipped to your door for free, and you don’t need to buy a membership to get them.

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Saferacks storage bin rack

Whichever storage bins, containers, or totes you decide to use to organize items in your garage, you’ll want a way to store and access them that doesn’t require unstacking and restacking them all just to access the one near the bottom. Costco’s Saferacks storage bin rack is one solution, but you should carefully consider some of its features before making the purchase.

The Saferacks storage bin rack is priced at $79.99, features tool-free assembly, and has a 250-pound weight capacity with 50 pounds on each shelf. Per the product page on Costco’s website, the rack is “designed specifically for Greenmade 27 gallon bins,” comes in either black or silver, and measures 23 inches wide, 31 inches deep, and 68 inches to the top shelf.

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While Costco’s Saferack storage bin rack holds a 4.6-star rating on its site, negative reviews point to missing welds, assembly difficulties, missing hardware, and its incompatibility with storage bins other than the Greenmade 27-gallon containers. In a video review by the Mother Daughter Projects DIY YouTube channel, the pair points out some of the storage rack’s flaws. One thing they didn’t appreciate was the awkward access to removing and replacing bins. The bins sit on side rails under the outside edge of the tote, requiring lifting and pulling from the end until it’s out far enough to lift it. While the design appears to allow access to bin contents without removing them, it didn’t work that way for the mother and daughter team.

As an alternative, Harbor Freight has accessories to help you organize your garage. Consider the Yukon 5-tier shelf priced at $59.99. Each shelf is rated to hold 150 pounds, and Harbor Freight customers give it a 4.6-star rating.

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Proslat PVC slatwall kit

Slatwalls are among the budget-friendly ways to organize your garage items. They have a similar function to pegboard while offering a cleaner look and come in a variety of materials, including wood, metal, and PVC.

Costco’s Proslat PVC slatwall kit includes a set of 10 black hooks for $159.99. The kit holds a 4.0-star rating with just 15 reviews. While reviewers generally report acceptable quality of the components, what kills its overall rating are broken or missing pieces and lost shipments. 

The Proslat kit from Costco provides materials to cover wall surfaces 48 inches high by 80 inches wide, an area of 26.67 square feet. In addition to the 10-piece set of hooks, the kit contains all the slats, trim, and hardware to complete the installation. While it’s only available for purchase online, shipping and handling are included in the price, and it’s estimated to arrive in seven days from the time it’s ordered. However, keep in mind that you need a Costco membership to buy this product, which is effectively an added cost. If you’re not a member, buying the cheapest subscription along with this slatwall pushes the price to $224.99, or $8.44 per square-foot.

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If you don’t already have a Costco membership, the Proslat PVC 8-feet by 4-feet slatwall kit from Home Depot is a better value, even at $199.99. While you’ll have to buy the hooks separately, Home Depot sells a variety-pack of 25 slatwall hooks for $29.82. Home Depot’s slatwall kit covers 32 square feet, has a 4.3-star rating with 458 reviews, and ships to a local store or your door for no additional charge in as little as five days. For $229.81, the Home Depot combo delivers a bigger slatwall and more hooks, averaging $7.18 per square-foot.

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Why we’re thinking twice about these garage essentials from Costco

We picked these specific examples due to poor ratings or reviews found at Costco and YouTube, or ones we felt represented a poor value for the money. However, these items are just a few examples of garage essentials we should think twice about before we buy them from Costco, especially if it’s the only reason you’re buying a membership.

We’re not saying that Costco membership isn’t a good choice for anyone, although it’s certainly not the best option for everyone. If you find yourself frequently traveling near a Costco location that offers fuel for your vehicle, a Costco membership could pay for itself with fuel savings alone. Just be aware that Costco’s gas pumps are usually very busy at certain times of the day.



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Intel's mysterious "Unified Core" team hints at a major CPU rethink

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Intel is looking for a new Senior CPU Verification Engineer, a highly skilled position that could introduce some massive changes in the company’s upcoming CPUs. The new hire is expected to work together with the “Unified Core” team, a group that has not officially been introduced. Regardless, Intel is working…
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Texas Is About To Overtake California In Battery Storage

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U.S. battery storage installations hit a record 57.6 GWh in 2025, and Texas is now poised to surpass California as the nationâ(TM)s largest storage market in 2026. Electrek reports: According to the US Energy Storage Market Outlook Q1 2026 from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, installations are now four times higher than totals from just three years ago. The US had a total of 137 GWh of utility-scale storage installed as of 2025, plus 19 GWh of commercial and industrial systems and 9 GWh of residential storage. Analysts expect the growth streak to continue. More than 600 GWh of energy storage is projected to be deployed nationwide by 2030, even as the Trump administration targets clean energy industries.

Two-thirds of utility-scale storage installed in 2025 was built in red states, including nine of the top 15 states for new installations. Texas is projected to surpass California as the countryâ(TM)s largest battery storage market in 2026. Standalone battery projects accounted for nearly 30 GWh of new capacity in 2025, while solar-plus-storage installations made up about 20 GWh. Residential storage deployments reached 3.1 GWh last year, a 51% increase year-over-year. Analysts say virtual power plant programs in states such as Massachusetts, Texas, Arizona, and Illinois are helping drive adoption by reducing costs and easing strain during peak demand periods.

The supply chain is shifting to support the boom. In 2025, some battery cell manufacturers pivoted production from EV batteries to dedicated stationary storage cells, converting existing lines and adjusting future plans. Lithium-ion cell manufacturing for stationary storage reached more than 21 GWh in 2025, enough to power Houston overnight, according to SEIAâ(TM)s Solar and Storage Supply Chain Dashboard. Meanwhile, US factories now have the capacity to manufacture 69.4 GWh of battery energy storage systems annually.

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Firefox 148 Now Available With The New AI Controls, AI Kill Switches

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Firefox 148 introduces granular AI controls and a global “AI kill switch” that allows users to disable or selectively manage the browser’s AI features. Phoronix reports: Among the AI features that can be toggled individually are around translations, image alt text in the Firefox PDF viewer, tab group suggestions, key points in link previews, and AI chatbot providers in the sidebar. Firefox 148 also brings Firefox for Android, support for the Trusted Types API, CSS shape() function support, Sanitizer API support, WebGPU enhancements, and a variety of other changes. Developer chances can be found at developer.mozilla.org. Binaries are available from ftp.mozilla.org.

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How To Check Who Shared Your Instagram Post & Reels?

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Instagram is one of the most used social media apps today. People share photos, videos, and Reels every day. If you noticed your post getting more attention, you might be curious to know who shared it. While there is no direct list of usernames available, Instagram does offer some helpful information.

Can You See Who Shared Your Instagram Post?

No, Instagram does not allow you to see who shared your post. It keeps this information private. However, if you change to a professional account, you will be able to see how many times your post has been shared.

Switch to a Professional Account

Closeup of a phone with Instagram switching to a professional account

To see how many times your post was shared, you need a professional account. Personal accounts do not show shared insights. You can switch to either a Creator or Business account in your settings. Once you switch, you will get access to Instagram Insights. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to your profile.
  2. Tap the menu icon (the three lines) in the top corner.
  3. Open Settings and Privacy.
  4. Tap Account type and tools.
  5. Select Switch to professional account.
  6. Select Creator or Business.

Check Shares Using Insights

Insights will show you how your posts are performing. To check the share count:

  1. Open your Instagram profile.
  2. Choose the post you want to check.
  3. Tap View Insights below the post.

This section displays likes, comments, saves, and the share count indicated by a paper airplane icon. Instagram keeps the names private, but it shows the total number of shares.

Furthermore, if you are using a personal account, you cannot see post insights. Instagram does not show share numbers for personal profiles. If you want to track shares and other data, you will need to switch to a professional account.

What About Story Shares?

If someone shares your post to their Story and tags you, you will receive a notification. You can then tap it and view their Story. But if they don’t tag you, Instagram won’t notify you. Also, you can only see the Story for 24 hours.

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Moreover, the same rules apply to Reels as regular posts. If you’re using a professional account, you can check Reel shares through the Insights section. Just open the Reel and tap View Insights to view the share count. Instagram keeps the names private and only shows the total number.

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Stripe, PayPal Ventures bet on India’s Xflow to fix cross-border B2B payments

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Xflow, an Indian fintech startup, has secured backing from both Stripe and PayPal Ventures in a $16.6 million funding round. The investment comes as the company works to carve out a position in cross-border B2B payments, a market still dominated by banks and manual processes.

The Series A round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors Square Peg, Stripe, Lightspeed, and Moore Capital, while PayPal Ventures joined as a new backer. The all-equity round values the Bengaluru-based startup at $85 million post-investment and brings its total funding to more than $32 million to date.

Despite rapid digitization in domestic payments, cross-border B2B transfers for Indian exporters remain heavily reliant on banks, often with limited visibility into fees, settlement timelines, and the final amount received in rupees. The friction is particularly acute for larger exporters moving millions of dollars into India to fund salaries and local operations, creating an opening for fintech infrastructure players such as Xflow that promise greater transparency and speed in international money movement.

Founded in 2021, Xflow provides cross-border payment infrastructure for businesses ranging from exporters and SaaS firms to platforms and freelancers, enabling them to collect international payments, manage foreign exchange, and settle funds in India.

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“Cross-border B2B payments were stuck in a different age compared to UPI,” co-founder Anand Balaji (pictured above, center) said in an interview, referring to India’s widely used instant domestic payments network, the Unified Payments Interface.

Balaji, who previously helped build out Stripe’s India business, founded Xflow with former Stripe colleagues Ashwin Bhatnagar (pictured above, right) and Abhijit Chandrasekaran (pictured above, left).

Last year, Xflow said it enabled Indian businesses to collect payments from more than 100 countries in over 25 currencies. It processed close to $1 billion in annualized cross-border payment volume last year, marking roughly 10-fold growth from the same period in 2024, Balaji told TechCrunch.

Techcrunch event

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Boston, MA
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June 9, 2026

According to the company, its customer base has expanded to about 15,000 businesses spanning SaaS firms, global capability centers (which are offshore units that multinationals operate in India), IT services exporters, freelancers, and fintech platforms.

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Transaction sizes vary widely by segment, with global capability centers averaging about $1 million to $2 million per transaction, goods exporters around $30,000 to $40,000, and freelancers roughly $3,000, according to Balaji.

Xflow is positioning itself as a payments infrastructure provider rather than a direct payments application, offering APIs that allow platforms and exporters to embed cross-border money movement into their own products.

“We didn’t want to build the next Wise — we want to power the next thousand Wises,” Balaji said.

The startup has also introduced an AI-based foreign exchange tool to help finance teams optimize the timing of currency conversions. Xflow says the feature has generated incremental gains for some customers through data-driven foreign exchange decisions.

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The tool allows businesses to set target conversion rates rather than accepting prevailing bank quotes. Balaji likened the feature to limit orders in trading — instructions to buy or sell only at a specified price.

“What we’ve added is the prediction layer and the ability to actually set a limit order,” he said. The model currently provides a three-day forecast with about 92% confidence, Balaji said, though TechCrunch could not independently verify that figure.

Xflow faces competition from banks that still dominate large cross-border B2B transfers, as well as fintech players such as Wise, Payoneer, and Skydo at the lower end of the market. But Balaji said the startup’s focus on high-value transactions and API-led infrastructure differentiates it from many rivals.

The startup plans to deploy the new capital toward building additional products on top of its core payments infrastructure and securing regulatory licenses in new markets, Balaji said. Xflow is preparing to roll out import capabilities in the coming months and is pursuing licenses in markets including Singapore, while already holding a payments license in Canada, even as it remains focused on India as its primary market.

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Xflow said it has also received final authorization from the Reserve Bank of India for a Payment Aggregator–Cross Border (PA-CB) license covering both exports and imports. The startup has signed platform partnerships with Easebuzz and Drip Capital to embed its cross-border capabilities into their offerings.

Backing from Stripe and PayPal Ventures, Balaji said, has helped strengthen the startup’s credibility with banking and regulatory partners, even as it continues to work with multiple payment providers commercially.

The startup currently has about 65 employees as it scales its cross-border infrastructure business.

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Salsa Wanderosa Electric Bike Review: Full-Suspension Drop-Bar Gravel Ride

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Finally, it has my two favorite things: drop-bar handlebars and a dropper seat post. I guess I should disclose here that my everyday analog ride is also a gravel bike, and that personally, I like to tool around on a long, relaxed frame with my hands sloppily splayed this way and that on comfortable padded drop bars. I’m on dirt and gravel a lot, but I’m just not a fan of super technical riding.

Also, everyone should have a dropper seat post. I took the bike out for multiple 15- to 20-mile rides over a few weeks. OK, it’s not that hard, physically, to ride for an hour with electric assist while listening to podcasts, but I appreciate being able to move my seat around quickly at stop lights when my butt and quads decide to stop working that well.

Even with these additions and the full MTB front and rear suspension, the bike weighs a surprisingly little 40 pounds for the large frame. From riding a lot of electric bikes, I’d estimate a bike with these specs to weigh around 60 or 65 pounds. (I estimated my XS frame to be around 35 pounds, but that’s just by feel.)

Everywhere at Once

Image may contain Bicycle Transportation Vehicle Tire Machine and Wheel

Photograph: Adrienne So

There are a couple of mixed-surface routes I ride regularly that I’m somewhat reluctant to reveal because I worry some of you might see me there. One is a loop that travels around the northernmost point of Portland, Oregon, and goes through a couple sloughs; I also like Leif Erikson Trail, a 20-mile gravel trail in Forest Park, Mount Tabor, and the loop around Pier Park, which was one of the first places where anyone ever raced cyclocross and which is primarily now used by elementary schoolers on teeny mountain bikes.

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As someone who regularly rides a gravel bike, it is cool and freaky to ride a bike that is, to all appearances, a gravel bike, but then feels like a very cushy, premium electric mountain bike once you’re on it. It’s like nibbling what looks like a bit of bitter dark chocolate, and finding it full of puffy, sweet marshmallow. Here I am, braced to roll over some rocks, but … these tires are huge! This suspension is soft! What is this strange sensation? Is it comfort?

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ShinyHunters extortion gang claims Odido breach affecting millions

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Odido

The ShinyHunters extortion gang has claimed responsibility for breaching Dutch telecommunications provider Odido and stealing millions of user records from its compromised systems.

Odido is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the Netherlands and offers mobile, broadband, and television services to millions of customers nationwide.

The company disclosed the breach on February 12, revealing that attackers downloaded the personal data of many of its users after gaining access to its customer contact system on February 7. However, Odido added that no Mijn Odido passwords, call details, location, data, billing data, or scans of identity documents were exposed during the incident.

Wiz

According to the telecom firm, the exposed information varies per customer and may include a combination of full name, address and city of residence, mobile number, customer number, email address, IBAN (bank account number), date of birth, and some identification details (passport or driver’s license number and validity).

It also told local media at the time that the data breach affected 6.2 million customers and that the threat actors reached out to say they had stolen millions of user records.

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After discovering the incident, Odido has reported the breach to the Dutch Data Protection Authority, blocked the attackers’ access to its systems, and hired external cybersecurity experts to assist with incident response and mitigation.

An Odido spokesperson didn’t provide further information on the incident when asked about which threat group was behind the attack and whether they demanded a ransom “due to the ongoing investigations.”

While Odido has yet to attribute the attack, the ShinyHunters extortion gang has now added the company to its dark web leak site, claiming they’ve stolen nearly 21 million records containing data the company already revealed as exposed in the breach.

Odido entry on ShinyHunters leak site
Odido on ShinyHunters leak site (BleepingComputer)

ShinyHunters also told BleepingComputer on Monday that the stolen data also contains internal corporate data and plaintext passwords.

“This is a final warning to come back to our chat and finish what we set out to do before we leak along with several annoying (digital) problems that’ll come your way,” the extortion gang says on the leak site. “Make the right decision, don’t be the next headline. You know where to find us.”

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However, an Odido spokesperson denied their claims in a statement to BleepingComputer, reiterating that “no passwords, call details, social security numbers, or billing data are involved.”

In recent weeks, ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for a wave of other security breaches, including Panera Bread, Betterment, SoundCloud, Canada Goose, PornHub, and online dating giant Match Group (which owns the Tinder, Hinge, Meetic, Match.com, and OkCupid dating platforms).

Some of their victims had their systems compromised in voice phishing (vishing) attacks targeting single sign-on (SSO) accounts at Google, Microsoft, and Okta, where the threat actors call employees while impersonating IT support staff and trick them into entering credentials and multi-factor authentication (MFA) codes on phishing sites that mimic their companies’ login portals.

As BleepingComputer first reported, the ShinyHunters group has also recently adopted device code vishing, abusing the OAuth 2.0 device authorization grant flow to obtain Microsoft Entra authentication tokens.

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After stealing their targets’ credentials and auth codes, the threat actors hijack the victims’ SSO accounts to breach connected enterprise services like Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, SAP, Slack, Adobe, Atlassian, Zendesk, Dropbox, and many others.

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