More than half of the world’s governments have access to commercial spyware that can break into computers and phones to steal sensitive information, according to U.K. intelligence.

The U.K. National Cyber Security Centre plans to reveal its findings Wednesday, according to Politico. The report suggests that the barrier to access this types of surveillance technology has fallen, potentially making it easier for foreign governments and hackers to target U.K. citizens, companies, and critical infrastructure with spyware.

It’s also an increase in the number of countries with access to these type of hacking tools, to 100, up from the 80 countries U.K. intelligence estimated in 2023.

Commercial spyware, developed by private companies like NSO Group’s Pegasus and Paragon’s Graphite, often relies on exploiting security flaws in phone and computer software to break into the devices and steal the data within. While governments have claimed that they only use spyware against top criminal and terror suspects, security researchers and human rights defenders have long warned that governments have misused spyware to target their critics and political adversaries, including journalists.

U.K. intelligence now says that the victimology has “expanded” in recent years to include bankers and wealthy businesspeople.

Richard Horne, who runs the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre, said in a speech at the CYBERUK conference in Glasgow that British companies are “failing to grasp the reality of today’s world,” per a pre-released copy of his speech seen by TechCrunch.

Horne said that the majority of nationally significant cyberattacks targeting the United Kingdom has originated from foreign adversarial governments, rather than cybercriminal gangs.

The U.K., along with several other countries, also continues to experience China-linked intrusions aimed at stealing sensitive data, spying on high-profile individuals, and setting the groundwork for potentially disruptive hacks to stall a Western military response ahead of an anticipated Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

The spyware threat facing the U.K. is not just from governments, but also cybercriminals with access to these tools. Earlier this year, a hacking toolkit dubbed DarkSword, containing several exploits capable of hacking into modern iPhones and iPads, leaked online. The tools allowed anyone to set up websites capable of hacking Apple customers who had not yet updated to the most recent version of its mobile software.

The leak of the hacking tools showed — and not for the first time — that even tightly guarded hacking tools developed by and for governments can leak and proliferate out of control, putting potentially millions of people at risk from malicious hacks.

OpenAI has partnered with Infosys to integrate its artificial intelligence tools, including coding assistant Codex, into the Indian IT giant’s Topaz AI platform.

Infosys said the integration will be used to help its clients modernize software development, automate workflows and deploy AI systems at scale, initially focusing software engineering, legacy modernization, and DevOps.

India’s IT services firms face mounting pressure from a mix of slowing client spending and rapid advances in generative AI. Shares of Infosys have fallen over 22% this year amid a broader sell-off triggered by weak forecasts, investor concerns that AI tools could automate parts of traditional outsourcing work, and macroeconomic turmoil due to the U.S.-Iran war.

The move also reflects a broader trend of AI firms teaming up with global IT services providers to scale adoption in large enterprises. OpenAI has previously partnered with HCLTech, and Infosys has struck a similar deal with Anthropic.

OpenAI gains a distribution channel into large enterprises through Infosys’ global client base and delivery capabilities across more than 60 countries. The companies said the deal is aimed at helping enterprises move from experimentation to large-scale deployment.

Infosys has been ramping up its AI business. The company said earlier this year that AI-related services generated ₹25 billion (about $267 million) in revenue in the December quarter, or roughly 5.5% of its total.

The deal is part of a broader push by OpenAI to expand its enterprise footprint through initiatives such as Codex Labs, announced on Tuesday, which involves engineers working with clients to help deploy its tools. Initial partners include Accenture, Capgemini, CGI, Cognizant, Infosys, PwC and Tata Consultancy Services, as OpenAI aims to build a distribution network to scale adoption of Codex, which now has more than 4 million weekly active users.

The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal.

ARK Invest Venture Fund has made its first-ever lead investment in an early-stage startup called Lucra, firm founder Cathie Woods told TechCrunch.  

“We feel pretty excited about it,” Woods (pictured above) said in the recent interview regarding the investment in the startup.

Lucra developed a software platform that reimagines corporate loyalty programs into interactive, eSports-like events such as tournaments where customers can play each other, even betting or winning cash or company giveaways. The startup said its customers include Five Iron Golf, Chess Kings, and Dave & Busters.

Lucra announced on Wednesday that it raised a $20 million Series B, led by the ARK fund, with participation from Alumni Ventures, Astralis Capital, Harlo Equity Partners, Simplex Ventures, SeventySix Capital, and WTI. 

There are a few reasons why the famed financial company has never led a startup deal before. For one, the ARK Invest Venture Fund is not a typical VC fund. It’s an SEC-regulated interval fund (also known as a closed-end mutual fund), meaning anyone can invest in it, for as little as $500. However, it is not traded on a public exchange, so investors cannot sell shares at will. They can sell limited shares on specific dates, quarterly.  

Woods also noted that the person running the fund, director of research Nick Grous, “is a tough sell,” leaving startups with the difficult task of getting him excited enough to advocate to lead a deal.

What’s even wilder is that ARK was particularly gunshy, about this sort of business because it got burned after investing in a somewhat similar company a few years ago.

“We had actually owned a company called Skillz, which kind of operated in this space,” Grous said. “It didn’t work out well for us and many other investors.” 

Skillz was a once hot public company that later became mired in troubles and lawsuits. The big difference, the investor said, is that Lucra is a B2B platform, selling interactive eSports as a loyalty program, rather than trying to license and run games directly to consumers.

“Overcoming our initial hurdle, especially given our experience with Skillz, overcoming our reticence, having Nick overcome it, that was our first screen,” Woods said of how this startup convinced her company to write a big check. 

In this case, ARK Invest had participated in Lucra’s previous Series A round, and had grown familiar with its business model, its trajectory, and its founder and CEO Dylan Robbins, Grous told TechCrunch.  

“We had been in constant communication,” Grous said, adding that his venture-esq fund attempts to have quarterly conference calls with the startups in the portfolio, similar to how public companies report to investors quarterly. ARK mostly works in the public market, offering a slate of publicly traded EFT funds.  

Despite already being in the portfolio, Lucra’s founder was grilled numerous times when it came time to buy more shares — first by Grous and then ARK’s investment committee, both he and Woods described. 

During those calls, Robbins “had thought about all the things that went wrong” with similar companies like Skillz, as well as with Lucra, and had answers, Woods said. “No matter how many times we went at him, his conviction, there was just no let up,” she described. 

It also helped that this company’s financials were promising, it was in an area that ARK knew well, and this was not AI, aka the most hyped, most expensive area these days.

“We’ve been underwriting the sports-betting space, understanding the gamification aspects of entertainment,” Grous said, meaning that the investment firm could “really understand the opportunity here.” 

The ARK Invest Venture Fund holds shares of companies like Epic Games, Kalshi, Discord, for instance. It also holds OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, Grok and Perplexity, so it knows the AI scene well.  

“We are all over AI, just like everyone else, because it is a massive revolution,” Woods explained. “But in the process, a lot of companies are being neglected.” This means that spotting such potentially neglected companies is “our opportunity because we are doing research in many other areas than AI,” she said.