TechCrunch Startup News
3,836 episodes — Page 8 of 77
Three things veteran planetary health investors look for in a startup
RA Capital Planetary Health closed a $120 million fund. Here's the rubric two investors use to determine where to place their fund's money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This startup thinks email could be the key to usable AI agents
Startup Mixus has built an AI agent platform that not only keeps humans in the workflow, but also allows those humans to interact with agents directly from their email or Slack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Cursor snaps up enterprise startup Koala in challenge to GitHub Copilot
Cursor-maker Anysphere is snapping up top talent from AI enterprise startups in an effort to compete with Microsoft's GitHub Copilot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The perfect pitch: This NEA partner says every founder should answer these 5 questions
Tiffany Luck, a partner at NEA, outlined what she looks for in a pitch, during a presentation at TechCrunch’s All Stage event in Boston. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
After raising over $3M, popular VC-backed beauty brand Ami Colé is shuttering
Diarrha N'Diaye-Mbaye, one of the first among the small number of Black women to raise more than $1 million in venture capital, announced on Thursday the closure of her award-winning beauty startup Ami Colé. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Confident Security, ‘the Signal for AI,’ comes out of stealth with $4.2M
San Francisco-based startup Confident Security wants to be “the Signal for AI." The company just came out of stealth with $4.2 million and a tool that wraps around AI models to guarantee data stays private. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rex Salisbury’s Cambrian Ventures raises new fund, bucking fintech slowdown
Spurred by the performance of its first fund, Cambrian Ventures' $20 million second fund will continue the firm's thesis of focusing on fintech startups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lovable becomes a unicorn with $200M Series A just 8 months after launch
Only eight months after its launch, Sweden's Lovable has raised a $200 million Series A round led by Accel at a $1.8 billion valuation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Auriga Space raises $6M to shoot rockets off an electromagnetic launch track
Auriga Space wants to reimagine launch by using electromagnetic forces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AV startup Pronto.ai acquires off-road autonomous vehicle rival SafeAI
Pronto.ai CEO Anthony Levandowski said the move is meant to help bolster his company's ranks with like-minded talent and complimentary technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rainmaker partners with Atmo to squeeze more rain from clouds
Atmo will use its deep learning models to help Rainmaker identify clouds that have potential for seeding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rwazi raises $12M Series A to help companies with consumer insights and intelligence
Rwazi has raised a $12 million Series A led by Bonfire Ventures to help companies with market intelligence and consumer insights Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Firefly Space files for an IPO
Firefly Space has filed for a initial public offering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A cloud seeding startup did not cause the Texas floods
Despite conspiracy theories, there's no way that cloud seeding operations days before the storm could have influenced the floods, scientists say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
RealSense spins out of Intel to scale its stereoscopic imaging technology
RealSense is building vision tech that helps machines like robots and drones navigate and respond to a 3D world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Helios wants to be the AI operating system for public policy professionals
Helios, a startup aiming to build an AI-powered operating system for policy professionals, has raised $4 million in seed funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Goldman Sachs is testing viral AI agent Devin as a ‘new employee’ ... and more
Devin won’t replace humans developers at the bank. It will be supervised by them. Also, Sarah Smith launches $16M fund, says AI can ‘unlock’ so much for solo GPs like herself. Smith launched her eponymous fund in 2022 and is a solo GP. She said she’s “stunned” by what AI can unlock for firms like hers, solo and next-generation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Knox lands $6.5M to compete with Palantir in the federal compliance market
While highly sought after, federal software contracts frequently come with a hidden cost: Achieving government SaaS security compliance, known as FedRAMP, can take years and require substantial resources. Achieving this certification typically takes up to three years and costs more than $3 million, covering everything from security operations engineer salaries to security audits Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rivian spinoff Also raises another $200M to build e-bikes and more
The micromobility startup that spun out of Rivian this year, was raised $200 million from Greenoaks Capital. Also, French AI startup Mistral is in talks to raise up to $1 billion in equity from investors including Abu Dhabi’s MGX fund, reports Bloomberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
European VC breaks taboo by investing in pure defense tech from Ukraine’s war zones
With a fundraising target of €25 million, Darkstar’s goal is to help startups bring battle-tested products to military customers both in Ukraine and throughout Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
LangChain is about to become a unicorn, sources say
AI infrastructure startup LangChain is raising a new round at about $1 billion valuation led by IVP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why this LA-based VC firm was an early investor in Slate Auto
Slate Auto, which came out of stealth mode earlier this year with a surprising – and surprisingly affordable – customizable electric truck, has raised $700 million to date. But long before the EV startup broke cover, it quietly raised a Series A round of more than $100 million in 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
UAE proptech Huspy raises $59M to scale in Europe
If you walked into a Dubai bank to apply for a mortgage in 2020, chances are you’d spend months buried in paperwork or face a huge price discrepancy when it came to listings. Such experiences led Jad Antoun to start Huspy, a startup streamlining how people in the UAE buy homes digitally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stripe’s first employee, the founder of fintech Increase, sort of bought a bank
Competitors to Darragh Buckley's Increase are so nervous about his ambitions to "own" a bank, someone has been trying to stop him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lovable on track to raise $150M at $2B valuation
Lovable released its vibe coder in late November. Within six month, the startup hit $50 million in ARR, CEO Anton Osika said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Former SpaceX manager alleges harassment, retaliation, and security violations in lawsuit
SpaceX is facing another lawsuit alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Lucid sales inch forward as EV maker pushes to ramp Gravity production
Lucid sold 3,309 vehicles in the second quarter, a new record for the EV maker. Still, the company must ramp up production of its Gravity SUV to meet its 2025 target. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Israeli quantum startup Qedma just raised $26 million, with IBM joining in
Qedma specializes in error mitigation software. Its main piece of software, QESEM, standing for Quantum Error Suppression and Error Mitigation, analyzes noise patterns to suppress some classes of errors while the algorithm is running and mitigate others in post-processing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Genesis AI launches with $105M seed funding from Eclipse, Khosla to build AI models for robots
Genesis AI, which aims to build a foundational model for powering all kinds of robots, has emerged from stealth with $105M in seed funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sri Mandir keeps investors hooked as digital devotion grows
AppsForBharat, the Indian startup behind the Hindu devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised $20 million in a new round — just over nine months after securing $18 million — as the app continues to attract not only devotees but also strong investor interest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tailor, a ‘headless’ ERP startup, raises $22M Series A
Tailor, a San Francisco- and Tokyo-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, has raised $22 million in a Series A funding round. Investors include ANRI, JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC VGI), New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Spiral Capital and Y Combinator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rubrik acquires Predibase to accelerate adoption of AI agents
Predibase helps companies train and fine-tune open source AI models which will help Rubrik customers deploy AI agents faster. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google inks its first fusion power deal with Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Google will invest in Commonwealth Fusion Systems and buy 200 MW of electricity from its forthcoming power plant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
PetLibro’s new smart camera uses AI to describe your pet’s movements, and it’s adorable
PetLibro launched an AI-powered smart camera that provides users with real-time insights into their pets' activities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This AI-powered startup studio plans to launch 100,000 companies a year — really
Henrik Werdelin has spent the last 15 years helping entrepreneurs build big brands like Barkbox through his startup studio Prehype. Now, with his new, New York-based venture Audos, he’s betting that AI can help him scale that process from “tens” of startups a year to “hundreds of thousands” of aspiring business owners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bill Gates-backed AirLoom begins building its first power plant
Wind power has run into some headwinds, and not the kind that spin its turbines. Recently, President Trump has decided to wage war against the technology, an unwelcome bit of friction that coincides with rising costs in recent years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Indian drone startup Raphe mPhibr raises $100M as military UAV demand soars
Indian drone startup Raphe mPhibr has raised $100 million in an all-equity Series B round led by General Catalyst, as the startup aims to boost its R&D and local production capabilities amid growing demand for drones in battlefields and for border surveillance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
India’s GoKwik raised a small $13M round for a hefty leap in valuation
GoKwik, an Indian startup that offers a suite of integrated e-commerce products, has raised a small round of $13 million, which it calls a “growth” round, that has boosted its valuation to $450 million pre-money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Wispr Flow raises $30M from Menlo Ventures for its AI-powered dictation app
Startups developing voice AI technology and applications are having their moment. Model builders like ElevenLabs and Cartesia have raised millions of dollars in the last few months. Applications such as AI-powered notetaker Granola, and meeting tools Read AI and Fireflies AI have also received investor attention and backing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Databricks, Perplexity co-founder pledges $100M on new fund for AI researchers
Andy Konwinski is pledging $100 million of his own money for a new kind of institute to fund researchers. It's already backed Ion Stoica's new lab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
AllSpice’s platform is the GitHub for electrical engineering teams
AllSpice's platform has landed customers including Blue Origin and Bose and just raised a $15 million Series A round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Japanese shipping firm NYK acquires Kadmos, a salary payment platform for seafarers
Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha is acquiring German salary payment platform for seafaring workers, Kadmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
VanMoof is back with a new custom e-bike and rebooted repair network
Dutch e-bike startup VanMoof is back two years after bankruptcy with its first model designed under new leadership. And despite past criticism that VanMoof’s over-reliance on custom parts led to the company’s downfall, the S6 sticks to the brand’s signature bespoke design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Stripe’s former growth lead helps African diaspora invest in startups, real estate
When Joe Kinvi joined Touchtech Payments in 2017 as head of finance, the Irish startup couldn’t afford his full salary. So he negotiated for stock to make up the difference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Midjourney launches its first AI video generation model, V1
Midjourney launched its much anticipated AI video generation model, V1, on Wednesday and laid out a roadmap for its future releases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Grifin secures $11M to make investing less intimidating for its female user base
Investment app Grifin secured a $11 million Series A funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Observability startup Coralogix becomes a unicorn, eyes India expansion
Coralogix, an Israeli startup offering a full-stack observability and security platform, has raised $115 million at a pre-money valuation of over $1 billion, almost doubling in three years from its last round in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Own, a new social media app, aims to tokenize the creator economy
Own is the latest alternative to TikTok to emerge in the market, featuring blockchain technology and a token economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
After Shopify bought his last startup, Birk Jernström wants to help developers build one-person unicorns
With Polar as their ‘Merchant of Record’ responsible for handling billing and taxes, developers can sell online products and SaaS subscriptions globally from day one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Police shut down Cluely’s party, the ‘cheat at everything’ startup
The latest San Francisco startup culture drama happened on Monday night. And it occurred over “the most legendary party that never happened." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices