TechCrunch Startup News
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North America takes the bulk of AI VC investments, despite tough political environment
Despite what some experts have characterized as an environment increasingly hostile to AI R&D, North America continues to receive the bulk of AI venture dollars, according to data from investment tracker PitchBook. Between February and May of this year, VCs poured $69.7 billion into North America-based AI and machine learning startups across 1,528 deals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Toma’s AI voice agents have taken off at car dealerships – and attracted funding from a16z
When Monik Pamecha co-founded AI voice startup Toma in early 2024, he hadn’t anticipated spending the summer months sweating in Bible Belt car dealerships. He and co-founder Anthony Krivonos were still focused on banking and healthcare customers when the dealers came knocking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Windsurf says Anthropic is limiting its direct access to Claude AI models
Windsurf, the popular vibe coding startup that’s reportedly being acquired by OpenAI, said Anthropic significantly reduced its first-party access to the highly popular AI models Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Colossal Labs will release the sounds of dire wolves howling ‘later this year’
The company is working on a bio-acoustic project, which will map out the different types of dire wolf howls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Console raises $6.2M from Thrive to free IT teams from mundane tasks with AI
If you’ve ever been locked out of your work computer, you know the urgent need to reach IT support. Unfortunately, helpdesk staff are often busy assisting others, which can mean a significant delay before you regain access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Speedata, a chip startup competing with Nvidia, raises a $44M Series B
Speedata, a Tel Aviv-based startup developing an analytics processing unit (APU) designed to accelerate big data analytic and AI workloads, has raised a $44M Series B funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $114M. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NAACP calls on Memphis officials to halt operations at xAI’s ‘dirty data center’
The NAACP is calling on local officials to halt operations at Colossus, the “supercomputer” facility operated by Elon Musk’s xAI in South Memphis. As reported in NBC News, leaders from the civil rights group sent a letter Thursday to the Shelby County Health Department and Memphis Light Gas and Water criticizing the organizations’ “lackadaisical approach." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Left-leaning influencers embrace Bluesky without abandoning X
It’s no surprise that many big, left-leaning social media accounts have recently joined Bluesky — but a new analysis from the Pew Research Center attempts to quantify that shift. This comes as an update to Pew’s news influencer report released in November 2024, which did not include Bluesky in its numbers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Grocery platform Misfits Market acquires The Rounds to further its mission of reducing food waste
Misfits Market, the online platform that delivers imperfect groceries to help minimize waste, announced the acquisition of household restocking service The Rounds on Friday. As a result of the deal, Misfits Market plans to take on over 250 items from The Rounds’ inventory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple’s US App Store topped $400B in developer billings and sales in 2024
Just ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference next month, Apple on Thursday announced new figures related to the U.S. App Store’s financial success. The company says its U.S. App Store ecosystem has generated $406 billion in developer billings and sales Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Context gets $11M to build an AI-powered office suite
AI-powered office suite Context raises $11 million in seed funding from Lux Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and General Catalyst Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rillet raises $25M from Sequoia to automate general ledger systems using AI
Rillet directly pulls data from their customers' banks and platforms to generate financial statements, including the balance sheet and income statement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A decade in, bootstrapped Thinkst Canary reaches $20M in ARR without VC funding
Reflecting on 10 years since its launch, the honeypot maker explains why the company did not take on any VC funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Litehaus raises €1.46M pre-seed to build home-building platform
All Thibault Launay and his wife Simi wanted nearly five years ago was to build a dream home in Portugal, where they both now live. But what they encountered instead was a broken system. “Fourteen months of delays, 20% budget overruns, and endless stress managing over 10 subcontractors,” Thibault recalled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Salesforce acquires Informatica for $8 billion
Salesforce has acquired cloud data management firm Informatica in an $8 billion equity deal, marking a major move in its push to strengthen its AI and data infrastructure capabilities. The announcement, made Tuesday, comes about a year after early rumors of the acquisition sent both companies’ stock prices sliding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rocket Lab backer Outset raises $25M to fund New Zealand’s deep tech moonshots
Outset Ventures, the Auckland-based venture firm and incubator that spun out deep tech unicorns like Rocket Lab and LanzaTech, has closed its second fund at an oversubscribed $41.5 million NZD. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
RevenueCat raises $50M as it expands beyond mobile app monetization
Key to the company's growth are the next products RevenueCat has on its roadmap, the company's founder says. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The wild story of how gut health AI toilet startup Throne raised $4M led by Moxxie
The tale of how smart toilet startup Throne landed its seed round is so full of serendipities, one could almost believe it was orchestrated by the hand of Fortuna, Roman god of providence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A safety institute advised against releasing an early version of Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 AI model
A third-party research institute that Anthropic partnered with to test one of its new flagship AI models, Claude Opus 4, recommended against deploying an early version of the model due to its tendency to “scheme” and deceive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hinge Health pops 17%, but joins growing ranks of down round IPOs
Hinge Health, a digital physical therapist company, closed its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday at $37.56, up about 17% over the $32 IPO price it set the previous day. That’s a good first-day result. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alt Carbon scores $12M seed to scale carbon removal in India
From a struggling family tea estate to an innovative climate venture, Alt Carbon has raised $12 million in a seed round as it plans to scale its carbon dioxide removal work in the South Asian nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Field raises $17M to automate the drudgery of tax prep
There is a new accounting software in town, coming in with a fresh $17.2 million raise and a desire to shake things up. The company, Field, hopes to automate the grunt work. “The tax industry is facing a genuine crisis,” Leroy Kerry, Field’s co-founder CEO, told TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Brex partners with former competitor Zip, with an eye on reducing cash burn to get to an IPO
Brex has once again made the surprising, but perhaps realistic, decision to partner with another one-time competitor. This time Zip, the CEOs of both companies told TechCrunch exclusively. In April 2022, fintech Brex announced it was making “a big push” into both the enterprise and software. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sylndr, with fresh $15.7M, allows users to buy, sell, finance, and service used cars in Egypt
Cairo-based Sylndr has raised $15.7 million as it expands beyond online used car sales into auto financing, servicing, and tools for dealers. The round was led by Development Partners International’s Nclude Fund and included follow-on investments from Algebra Ventures and Nclude. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Gravitee, a platform that helps companies manage APIs, raises $60M
Gravitee, a platform designed to help companies manage their APIs and other digital traffic pipelines, has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by Sixth Street Growth with participation from Riverside Acceleration Capital and Albion VC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Adaptation Ventures is a new angel investor group focused on disability and accessibility tech
The global assistive technology market was valued at more than $22 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow substantially by 2030. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI video startup Moonvalley lands $53M, according to filing
Roughly a month after Moonvalley, a Los Angeles-based startup developing AI tools for video creation, said it secured $43 million in new funding, the company has raised more, according to a filing with the SEC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Y Combinator startup Firecrawl is ready to pay $1M to hire three AI agents as employees
Y Combinator startup Firecrawl is back on the hunt for AI agent employees, after a previous attempt to hire one didn't go as planned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Acorns acquires family wealth and digital memory platform EarlyBird
Savings and investing startup Acorns has acquired EarlyBird, an investment gifting platform for families, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. As part of the acquisition, EarlyBird will shut down, and all customer accounts will officially close on June 23. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bain bets on Indian domestic work startup Pronto even as rivals face criticism
Pronto, which provides cleaning, laundry and home services within 10 minutes, has raised $2M at a $12.5M valuation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI note-taking app Granola raises $43M at $250M valuation, launches collaborative features
AI-powered notetaking app Granola is raising $43 million in funding at a $250 million valuation. It is also launching a team sharing feature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tensor9 helps vendors deploy their software into any environment using digital twins
Enterprises want access to new software and AI tools but can’t risk sending their sensitive data out to a third-party software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers. Tensor9 looks to help software companies land more enterprise customers by helping them deploy their software directly into a customer’s tech stack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anthropic, Google score win by nabbing OpenAI-backed Harvey as a user
Popular legal AI tool Harvey will now be using leading foundation models from Anthropic and Google, moving beyond strictly using OpenAI’s, Harvey announced in a blog post on Tuesday. This is noteworthy because Harvey is one of the OpenAI Startup Fund’s most successful early-backed portfolio companies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Realta Fusion taps $36M in fresh funds for its fusion-in-a-bottle reactor
Realta hopes to build power plants cheaply enough to supply power as low as $40 per megawatt-hour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Improvements in ‘reasoning’ AI models may slow down soon, analysis finds
An analysis by Epoch AI, a nonprofit AI research institute, suggests the AI industry may not be able to eke massive performance gains out of reasoning AI models for much longer. As soon as within a year, progress from reasoning models could slow down, according to the report’s findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AllTrails debuts $80/year membership that includes AI-powered smart routes
AllTrails, the hiking and biking companion that was named 2023’s iPhone App of the Year, is launching a new premium membership called “Peak” that includes an upgraded feature set. This $80-per-year subscription will introduce AI tools to build custom routes, real-time trail condition forecasts, trail traffic heatmaps, and a feature that lets you identify trees Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This American VC is betting on European defense tech; that’s still very unusual
VCs are known to move in herds, which is why Eric Slesinger stands out a bit. While most American investors chase AI startups or U.S.-based defense tech startups, the former CIA officer is hunting for defense tech deals in Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
DeepSeek: Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot app
DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
FBI and Dutch police seize and shut down botnet of hacked routers
U.S. authorities indicted three Russians and one Kazakhstan national for hacking and selling access to a botnet made of vulnerable internet-connected devices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clay authorizes employee tender at a $1.5B valuation led by Sequoia
It took seven years of hard work for Kareem Amin, co-founder and CEO of sales automation startup Clay, to see the company’s product finally take off in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Social media startup Fizz sues Instacart and Partiful for trademark infringement over new Fizz app
Social media startup Fizz is suing grocery delivery giant Instacart and party planning app Partiful for trademark infringement, the company announced on Thursday. Earlier this week, Instacart launched a new drinks and snack delivery app for parties called Fizz and announced that Partiful had integrated Fizz directly into its platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Breathe lands $21M Series B to predict battery performance
Breathe has developed a suite of tools that it says helps automakers and others get the most out of their batteries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ox Security lands a fresh $60M to scan for vulnerabilities in code
As “vibe coding” gains in popularity and tech companies push devs in their employ to embrace generative AI tools, a platform that scans for vulnerabilities in AI-generated code has raised a fresh round of funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Agree.com raises $7.2M to take on Docusign, Bill.com with AI
Agree.com says its AI-powered e-signature platform is different from competitors because it includes invoicing and payment processing. That’s why the company might have a shot at tackling the industry goliath, Docusign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Relevance AI raises $24M to help businesses build AI agents
Individuals may work closely with AI agents as they become increasingly prevalent in the workplace. According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, the market for AI agents is expected to grow at a 45% compound annual growth rate over the next five years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Social Agent’s new app lets you book a photographer within 30 minutes
There’s an unspoken pressure nowadays to share all your special moments online, whether it be birthdays, graduations, or engagements. However, not everyone has the skills to take high-quality pictures, and often, people find themselves too distracted to snap the perfect shot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Revelo’s LatAm talent network sees strong demand from US companies, thanks to AI
While many tech companies are mandating that their employees return to their offices, and putting an emphasis on building in-person teams, they are also turning in droves to Latin America to find developer talent — especially for post-training AI models. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Ara Partners new $800M fund will decarbonize old industrial assets
Ara Partners recently raised an $800 million infrastructure fund focused on reducing carbon emissions in industrial sectors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sam Altman’s World unveils a mobile verification device ... and more
Tools for Humanity, the startup behind the World human verification project that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded, plans to unveil Wednesday a mobile device designed to help people determine the difference between a human and an AI agent. Also, the dating app Raw claims it uses end-to-end encryption, but spilled its users' dating preferences and granular location data to the open web. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AI sales tax startup Kintsugi had doubled its valuation in 6 months
Kintsugi, a Silicon Valley-based startup that helps companies offload and automate their sales tax compliance, has raised $18 million in new funding led by global indirect tax technology solution provider Vertex. The startup plans to enable more small and medium businesses to use its AI-enabled capabilities for tax calculations and filings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices