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Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.

“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”

Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.

“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”

Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.

Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.

TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.

Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.

Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.

What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.

“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.

But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.

“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive"> Gritt exits stealth with million for robots to build solar plants—then, everything else | TechCrunch One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change. That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation. That’s the driving idea behind Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words. “Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.” Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them. “There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.” Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day. Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months. TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead. Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows. Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it. What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say. “Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software. But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory. “Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive
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Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.

“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”

Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.

“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”

Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.

Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.

TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.

Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.

Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.

What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.

“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.

But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.

“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive">Gritt exits stealth with $34 million for robots to build solar plants—then, everything else | TechCrunch

One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out. Around the world, companies and countries are racing to deploy solar and batteries to achieve energy independence and limit the effects of climate change.

That build-out, though, is running into a labor market challenge, with a limited supply of workers to meet a growing demand for installation. Robots could be an answer, but industrial robots have historically struggled in unstructured environments, at least until now. The latest generation of AI models may have changed that equation.

That’s the driving idea behind Gritt, a start-up founded by two Carnegie Mellon-trained roboticists, CEO Puneet Puri and CTO Vishal Dugar. The company exited stealth Tuesday morning with a $26 million Series A round of funding led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment. That brings its total funding to $34 million, following an earlier seed round backed by First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and VSC Ventures. The startup is building an intelligent system to “help civilization build infrastructure faster,” in Puri’s words.

“Our thesis is that if we truly want to speed up construction,” Puri tells TechCrunch, “you need an intelligence which can work in the outdoor, chaotic environments of these construction sites, and it has to be generalizable enough that it can work in these varied environments.”

Rather than building its own robots from scratch, Gritt uses off-the-shelf hardware—thus far, rented skidders and robotic arms built by companies like Kawasaki—to build platforms that are controlled by its AI models. The first job its systems handle is unloading large, glass solar panels, carrying them toward the metal frames where they need to be installed, and positioning them on the frames with sub-millimeter accuracy so workers can fasten them.

“There are people who used to build rockets that went into space and had infinite budget for the smallest little part, and then there are people who know what it means to get into dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs and scale them like mad,” said Andrew Beebe, the partner at Obvious Ventures who led Gritt’s Series A round. “These guys are in the second camp, and that’s a special kind of entrepreneur that has the technical chops, the AI, and the machine vision skills to make it work.”

Gritt has two systems currently deployed in the field, using the data they collect to improve their behavior. Puri says that a typical eight-person crew workers can install 800 panels a day, but the same crew working with Gritt’s systems can install 3,000 to 4,000 panels each day.

Now, the company says it is contracted to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar panels in the next 18 months, and that its customers include three of the top 10 US power construction companies. The company hopes to be operating 48 of its systems within the next six months.

TechCrunch spoke to one Gritt customer who declined to be identified for competitive reasons, but who was enthusiastic about the system’s ability to improve his work. He expects it to be easier to work at remote sites where it is difficult to attract workers, and anticipates a reduction in injuries since workers won’t have to repeatedly lift 100-pound panels overhead.

Gritt is competing against companies with their own panel-installing robots like Luminous Robotics, Cosmic, and China’s Trinabot. Those companies are building their own hardware, rather than focusing on off-the-shelf vehicles and arms like Gritt, a difference that could shape who grows faster and with a leaner cost structure as demand grows.

Gritt wants to add new manipulation tasks to its system so it can fasten the solar panels, drill posts, and even build the racks they sit on. Longer term, it also wants to move into other common, labor-intensive construction tasks, like tying rebar before concrete is poured over it.

What’s enabled the startup to pursue this vision? Mainly, the rise of new AI models, the founders say.

“Making a system for one solution was still possible to some extent five years ago, right?” Puri said, but AI is now making that work generalizable — the same underlying pipeline can be reused and improve across tasks. As an example, he noted that training the system to stack cinder blocks took weeks, while a similar demo with rebar tying took just a day using the same software.

But training new tasks is just the beginning of Gritt’s vision. The founders believe the suite of sensors and intelligence its systems bring to worksites can do more than install panels; it can boost management and decision-making. For instance, they imagine their system noticing a trench is open while a storm approaches, allowing it to alert workers to cover it before rain damages components, or flagging missing inventory.

“Gritt becomes now this layer of physical AI, which is doing this dextrous, labor-intensive task, plus it can help you take decisions on the site,” Puri said.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Gritt #exits #stealth #million #robots #build #solar #plantsthen #TechCrunchExclusive

One of the most important things happening on Earth today is the solar energy build-out.…

Open Frontier conference hosted by the Laude Institute, Cerf was recognized by Dave Patterson, the UC Berkeley professor best known for co-developing RISC processor architecture.

“Vint … has been at Google more than 20 years, and he is retiring a week from today, and so I think we ought to give him a round of applause for a relatively good career,” Patterson said, to cheers from the room.

Google did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Cerf, 83, and collaborator Robert Kahn are credited as being the architects of the networking protocols that became the internet we know today. His work developing and popularizing TCP/IP — the basic set of rules that lets different computer networks talk to each other — beginning in the 1970s has been recognized with numerous honorary degrees, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Turing Award, among other honors.

Since 2005, Cerf has served as a vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. (At this point, we can safely say the internet is fully evangelized, for good or ill.)

Cerf was speaking on a panel alongside other computer scientists known for their work on durable open source projects, including Patterson; François Chollet, creator of the Keras deep-learning library and co-founder of Ndea; John Ousterhout, the Stanford computer scientist behind the Tcl programming language, who also co-founded Electric Cloud; and Matei Zaharia, who is Databricks’ co-founder and chief technologist. They offered advice about what it takes to build open source systems that survive — advice that’s increasingly relevant as founders bet on open infrastructure for the next wave of AI products.

Much of the conference’s discussion focused on the problems with the centralization of advanced models in a handful of well-resourced labs, in contrast to the decentralized world of the open internet that made Cerf’s own protocols so durable. However, Cerf predicted that the rise of AI agents — software that can act autonomously and coordinate with other software — would push tech companies back towards standardized protocols.

“The agentic model of AI, with multiple agents from multiple sources interacting with each other, is going to force composability, and a requirement for interoperability and standardization,” Cerf said.

If he’s right, the companies that define those interoperability standards early could end up with outsized influence over how the agentic economy actually works — a dynamic not unlike the early internet protocol wars.

While other panelists speculated that natural language communication between LLM agents would be sufficient, Cerf predicted formal standards would be required.

“I don’t think English is going to be the best choice. There’s a flexibility in it, but there’s ambiguity, and I think precision for interagent interaction is going to be very, very important. An agent really needs to be sure the other agent understands what it is that they just agreed to do together,” Cerf said.

“Remember the old telephone game where you wish you’d whispered in somebody’s ear and then by the time it got to 10 people away the message was totally different? Imagine a bunch of agents talking to each other in natural language, you know, that’s kind of terrifying.”

In a more light-hearted moment, Patterson recalled meeting Cerf, known for his wardrobe of three-piece suits, as a grad student in the 1970s.

“He’s always been the best dressed computer scientist I’ve ever met,” Patterson said. “My memory of Vint is that he came as a grad student with a shirt and tie in the 70s.”

“It absolutely is true,” Cerf said. “I even had a vest, and for some reason I always wanted to stick out, and instead of having long hair, and something in my nose, I thought just dressing differently was one way to do it.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Father #Internet #finally #retiring #TechCrunchExclusive"> The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring | TechCrunch Vinton Cerf will step down from his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist next week, marking the conclusion of one of the most influential careers in technology history. While speaking via video feed at the Open Frontier conference hosted by the Laude Institute, Cerf was recognized by Dave Patterson, the UC Berkeley professor best known for co-developing RISC processor architecture. “Vint … has been at Google more than 20 years, and he is retiring a week from today, and so I think we ought to give him a round of applause for a relatively good career,” Patterson said, to cheers from the room. Google did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. Cerf, 83, and collaborator Robert Kahn are credited as being the architects of the networking protocols that became the internet we know today. His work developing and popularizing TCP/IP — the basic set of rules that lets different computer networks talk to each other — beginning in the 1970s has been recognized with numerous honorary degrees, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Turing Award, among other honors. Since 2005, Cerf has served as a vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. (At this point, we can safely say the internet is fully evangelized, for good or ill.) Cerf was speaking on a panel alongside other computer scientists known for their work on durable open source projects, including Patterson; François Chollet, creator of the Keras deep-learning library and co-founder of Ndea; John Ousterhout, the Stanford computer scientist behind the Tcl programming language, who also co-founded Electric Cloud; and Matei Zaharia, who is Databricks’ co-founder and chief technologist. They offered advice about what it takes to build open source systems that survive — advice that’s increasingly relevant as founders bet on open infrastructure for the next wave of AI products. Much of the conference’s discussion focused on the problems with the centralization of advanced models in a handful of well-resourced labs, in contrast to the decentralized world of the open internet that made Cerf’s own protocols so durable. However, Cerf predicted that the rise of AI agents — software that can act autonomously and coordinate with other software — would push tech companies back towards standardized protocols. “The agentic model of AI, with multiple agents from multiple sources interacting with each other, is going to force composability, and a requirement for interoperability and standardization,” Cerf said. If he’s right, the companies that define those interoperability standards early could end up with outsized influence over how the agentic economy actually works — a dynamic not unlike the early internet protocol wars. While other panelists speculated that natural language communication between LLM agents would be sufficient, Cerf predicted formal standards would be required. “I don’t think English is going to be the best choice. There’s a flexibility in it, but there’s ambiguity, and I think precision for interagent interaction is going to be very, very important. An agent really needs to be sure the other agent understands what it is that they just agreed to do together,” Cerf said. “Remember the old telephone game where you wish you’d whispered in somebody’s ear and then by the time it got to 10 people away the message was totally different? Imagine a bunch of agents talking to each other in natural language, you know, that’s kind of terrifying.” In a more light-hearted moment, Patterson recalled meeting Cerf, known for his wardrobe of three-piece suits, as a grad student in the 1970s. “He’s always been the best dressed computer scientist I’ve ever met,” Patterson said. “My memory of Vint is that he came as a grad student with a shirt and tie in the 70s.” “It absolutely is true,” Cerf said. “I even had a vest, and for some reason I always wanted to stick out, and instead of having long hair, and something in my nose, I thought just dressing differently was one way to do it.” When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Father #Internet #finally #retiring #TechCrunchExclusive
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Open Frontier conference hosted by the Laude Institute, Cerf was recognized by Dave Patterson, the UC Berkeley professor best known for co-developing RISC processor architecture.

“Vint … has been at Google more than 20 years, and he is retiring a week from today, and so I think we ought to give him a round of applause for a relatively good career,” Patterson said, to cheers from the room.

Google did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Cerf, 83, and collaborator Robert Kahn are credited as being the architects of the networking protocols that became the internet we know today. His work developing and popularizing TCP/IP — the basic set of rules that lets different computer networks talk to each other — beginning in the 1970s has been recognized with numerous honorary degrees, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Turing Award, among other honors.

Since 2005, Cerf has served as a vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. (At this point, we can safely say the internet is fully evangelized, for good or ill.)

Cerf was speaking on a panel alongside other computer scientists known for their work on durable open source projects, including Patterson; François Chollet, creator of the Keras deep-learning library and co-founder of Ndea; John Ousterhout, the Stanford computer scientist behind the Tcl programming language, who also co-founded Electric Cloud; and Matei Zaharia, who is Databricks’ co-founder and chief technologist. They offered advice about what it takes to build open source systems that survive — advice that’s increasingly relevant as founders bet on open infrastructure for the next wave of AI products.

Much of the conference’s discussion focused on the problems with the centralization of advanced models in a handful of well-resourced labs, in contrast to the decentralized world of the open internet that made Cerf’s own protocols so durable. However, Cerf predicted that the rise of AI agents — software that can act autonomously and coordinate with other software — would push tech companies back towards standardized protocols.

“The agentic model of AI, with multiple agents from multiple sources interacting with each other, is going to force composability, and a requirement for interoperability and standardization,” Cerf said.

If he’s right, the companies that define those interoperability standards early could end up with outsized influence over how the agentic economy actually works — a dynamic not unlike the early internet protocol wars.

While other panelists speculated that natural language communication between LLM agents would be sufficient, Cerf predicted formal standards would be required.

“I don’t think English is going to be the best choice. There’s a flexibility in it, but there’s ambiguity, and I think precision for interagent interaction is going to be very, very important. An agent really needs to be sure the other agent understands what it is that they just agreed to do together,” Cerf said.

“Remember the old telephone game where you wish you’d whispered in somebody’s ear and then by the time it got to 10 people away the message was totally different? Imagine a bunch of agents talking to each other in natural language, you know, that’s kind of terrifying.”

In a more light-hearted moment, Patterson recalled meeting Cerf, known for his wardrobe of three-piece suits, as a grad student in the 1970s.

“He’s always been the best dressed computer scientist I’ve ever met,” Patterson said. “My memory of Vint is that he came as a grad student with a shirt and tie in the 70s.”

“It absolutely is true,” Cerf said. “I even had a vest, and for some reason I always wanted to stick out, and instead of having long hair, and something in my nose, I thought just dressing differently was one way to do it.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Father #Internet #finally #retiring #TechCrunchExclusive">The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring | TechCrunch

Vinton Cerf will step down from his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist next week, marking the conclusion of one of the most influential careers in technology history.

While speaking via video feed at the Open Frontier conference hosted by the Laude Institute, Cerf was recognized by Dave Patterson, the UC Berkeley professor best known for co-developing RISC processor architecture.

“Vint … has been at Google more than 20 years, and he is retiring a week from today, and so I think we ought to give him a round of applause for a relatively good career,” Patterson said, to cheers from the room.

Google did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Cerf, 83, and collaborator Robert Kahn are credited as being the architects of the networking protocols that became the internet we know today. His work developing and popularizing TCP/IP — the basic set of rules that lets different computer networks talk to each other — beginning in the 1970s has been recognized with numerous honorary degrees, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Turing Award, among other honors.

Since 2005, Cerf has served as a vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google. (At this point, we can safely say the internet is fully evangelized, for good or ill.)

Cerf was speaking on a panel alongside other computer scientists known for their work on durable open source projects, including Patterson; François Chollet, creator of the Keras deep-learning library and co-founder of Ndea; John Ousterhout, the Stanford computer scientist behind the Tcl programming language, who also co-founded Electric Cloud; and Matei Zaharia, who is Databricks’ co-founder and chief technologist. They offered advice about what it takes to build open source systems that survive — advice that’s increasingly relevant as founders bet on open infrastructure for the next wave of AI products.

Much of the conference’s discussion focused on the problems with the centralization of advanced models in a handful of well-resourced labs, in contrast to the decentralized world of the open internet that made Cerf’s own protocols so durable. However, Cerf predicted that the rise of AI agents — software that can act autonomously and coordinate with other software — would push tech companies back towards standardized protocols.

“The agentic model of AI, with multiple agents from multiple sources interacting with each other, is going to force composability, and a requirement for interoperability and standardization,” Cerf said.

If he’s right, the companies that define those interoperability standards early could end up with outsized influence over how the agentic economy actually works — a dynamic not unlike the early internet protocol wars.

While other panelists speculated that natural language communication between LLM agents would be sufficient, Cerf predicted formal standards would be required.

“I don’t think English is going to be the best choice. There’s a flexibility in it, but there’s ambiguity, and I think precision for interagent interaction is going to be very, very important. An agent really needs to be sure the other agent understands what it is that they just agreed to do together,” Cerf said.

“Remember the old telephone game where you wish you’d whispered in somebody’s ear and then by the time it got to 10 people away the message was totally different? Imagine a bunch of agents talking to each other in natural language, you know, that’s kind of terrifying.”

In a more light-hearted moment, Patterson recalled meeting Cerf, known for his wardrobe of three-piece suits, as a grad student in the 1970s.

“He’s always been the best dressed computer scientist I’ve ever met,” Patterson said. “My memory of Vint is that he came as a grad student with a shirt and tie in the 70s.”

“It absolutely is true,” Cerf said. “I even had a vest, and for some reason I always wanted to stick out, and instead of having long hair, and something in my nose, I thought just dressing differently was one way to do it.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Father #Internet #finally #retiring #TechCrunchExclusive

Vinton Cerf will step down from his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist next week,…

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cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.

App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said.

Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%.

The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures.

The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform.

The response extended beyond app-store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country.

Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%.

“The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said.

Telegram ban in India sparks a rush to VPNs, rival apps | TechCrunch As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers. App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said. Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%. The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures. The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform. The response extended beyond app-store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country. Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%. “The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said. Image Credits:Windscribe The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks. Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%. Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said. Yet the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced — the app’s largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021. Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction. Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked. Image Credits:Cloudflare Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India. Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being pursued. After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday. The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Telegram #ban #India #sparks #rush #VPNs #rival #apps #TechCrunchExclusive,Telegram,Telegram ban,India ban
Image Credits:Windscribe

The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks.

Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%.

Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said.

Yet the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced — the app’s largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021.

Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction.

Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked.

Image Credits:Cloudflare

Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India.

Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being pursued.

After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday.

The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Telegram #ban #India #sparks #rush #VPNs #rival #apps #TechCrunchExclusive,Telegram,Telegram ban,India ban"> Telegram ban in India sparks a rush to VPNs, rival apps | TechCrunch As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers. App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said. Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%. The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures. The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform. The response extended beyond app-store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country. Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%. “The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said. Image Credits:Windscribe The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks. Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%. Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said. Yet the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced — the app’s largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021. Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction. Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked. Image Credits:Cloudflare Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India. Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being pursued. After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday. The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Telegram #ban #India #sparks #rush #VPNs #rival #apps #TechCrunchExclusive,Telegram,Telegram ban,India ban
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cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.

App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said.

Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%.

The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures.

The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform.

The response extended beyond app-store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country.

Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%.

“The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said.

Telegram ban in India sparks a rush to VPNs, rival apps | TechCrunch As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers. App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said. Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%. The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures. The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform. The response extended beyond app-store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country. Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%. “The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said. Image Credits:Windscribe The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks. Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%. Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said. Yet the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced — the app’s largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021. Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction. Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked. Image Credits:Cloudflare Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India. Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being pursued. After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday. The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Telegram #ban #India #sparks #rush #VPNs #rival #apps #TechCrunchExclusive,Telegram,Telegram ban,India ban
Image Credits:Windscribe

The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks.

Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%.

Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said.

Yet the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced — the app’s largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021.

Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction.

Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked.

Image Credits:Cloudflare

Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India.

Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being pursued.

After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday.

The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Telegram #ban #India #sparks #rush #VPNs #rival #apps #TechCrunchExclusive,Telegram,Telegram ban,India ban">Telegram ban in India sparks a rush to VPNs, rival apps | TechCrunch

As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers.

App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said.

Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%.

The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures.

The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform.

The response extended beyond app-store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country.

Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%.

“The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said.

Telegram ban in India sparks a rush to VPNs, rival apps | TechCrunch As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about exam-related fraud, users turned to virtual private networks (VPNs) and alternative messaging apps in unusually large numbers. App intelligence firm Appfigures told TechCrunch that Tuesday, the day India announced the Telegram restriction, marked the biggest day for VPN app downloads in the country since at least the start of 2025. Downloads of major VPN apps rose 49% from a recent daily average of 139,000 to 208,000, the firm said. Proton VPN and Turbo VPN recorded some of the largest increases. Downloads of Proton VPN on Apple’s App Store in India jumped 113%, while Turbo VPN downloads rose 85%. On Google Play, downloads of Proton VPN climbed 64% and Turbo VPN downloads increased 35%. NordVPN’s App Store downloads increased 41%, while ExpressVPN downloads on Google Play rose 31%. The surge also pushed several VPN services up India’s app-store charts. Proton VPN climbed from 18th to 5th in Apple’s Utilities rankings between June 16 and June 18, while its Google Play ranking rose from 8th to 2nd in the Tools category, according to Appfigures. The spike in VPN demand followed India’s decision to temporarily restrict Telegram until June 22 over concerns that fraudsters were using the platform to target candidates ahead of a re-test for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), the country’s largest entrance examination by applicant volume. The Indian government said the measure was needed to prevent the spread of fake exam papers and related scams. Telegram has challenged the order in the Delhi High Court, arguing that authorities should target specific content rather than block the entire platform. The response extended beyond app-store download data. Proton said daily registrations from India rose 120% above baseline levels on Wednesday, after hourly registrations had already spiked 150% on Tuesday evening following the Telegram restriction. The company described the increase as “extremely noteworthy” given its existing scale in the country. Canadian VPN service provider Windscribe reported a similar trend. The company told TechCrunch that signups from India peaked roughly 100% above baseline levels, while first-time downloads of its iOS app in the country rose about 89%. “The spike in India follows the same general trend we see in areas that ban specific apps, introduce age bans or verification requirements, or otherwise restrict internet access,” Rebecca Rosenberg, growth operations manager at Windscribe, said. Image Credits:Windscribe The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks. Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%. Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said. Yet the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced — the app’s largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021. Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction. Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked. Image Credits:Cloudflare Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India. Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being pursued. After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday. The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Telegram #ban #India #sparks #rush #VPNs #rival #apps #TechCrunchExclusive,Telegram,Telegram ban,India ban
Image Credits:Windscribe

The trend was not limited to a handful of VPN providers. Sensor Tower told TechCrunch that downloads across the VPN app category in India rose 10% day-over-day on June 17, reversing a decline seen over the previous two weeks.

Users also appeared to be exploring alternatives to Telegram. Appfigures said downloads of Signal in India rose 72% on Apple’s App Store and 322% on Google Play following the restriction, while Viber’s App Store downloads increased 216%.

Telegram-linked messaging app iMe recorded one of the sharpest jumps. Its Google Play downloads rose from a recent daily average of about 827 to 50,900 on June 16, Appfigures said.

Yet the restriction did not immediately translate into lower Telegram usage. Sensor Tower said Telegram’s daily active users in India rose 17% on the day the measure was announced — the app’s largest day-over-day increase in the country since a widespread outage of Meta’s services in 2021.

Other data points also suggest heightened efforts to access Telegram following the restriction.

Cloudflare Radar Lead Lai Yi Ohlsen told TechCrunch that DNS requests for Telegram domains in India increased sharply over the two days after the measure was announced. The company cautioned that higher DNS traffic does not necessarily indicate successful access to the platform, and could reflect users repeatedly attempting to reach Telegram after it was blocked.

Image Credits:Cloudflare

Telegram pointed to its efforts to cooperate with authorities during hearings in the Delhi High Court this week. Its lawyers said the company had removed channels identified by authorities and questioned the need for a platform-wide restriction affecting what Telegram says are over 150 million users in India.

Government lawyers defended the measure as a temporary, event-linked response tied to the NEET re-test. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that a permanent ban could raise proportionality concerns but argued the current restriction had a “logical nexus” to the objective being pursued.

After hearing arguments from Telegram and the government on Thursday, the Delhi High Court reserved its order and is expected to deliver its verdict on Friday.

The debate echoes questions raised elsewhere when governments restrict access to major online platforms. Sensor Tower said VPN downloads in the U.S. rose more than 40% week-over-week when TikTok was briefly removed from U.S. app stores in 2025, while Windscribe said it has observed similar patterns following restrictions in countries including Iran and Russia.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Telegram #ban #India #sparks #rush #VPNs #rival #apps #TechCrunchExclusive,Telegram,Telegram ban,India ban

As India cut off access to messaging app Telegram for a week over concerns about…

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Steven McBee Jr. is continuing to focus on healing after his split from Allie Eklund…