TechCrunch Startup News
3,807 episodes — Page 8 of 77
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
Aspora gets $50M from Sequioa to build remittance and banking solutions for Indian diaspora
India has been one of the top recipients of remittances in the world for more than a decade. Inward remittances jumped from $55.6 billion in 2010-11 to $118.7 billion in 2023-24, according to data from the country’s central bank. The bank projects that figure will reach $160 billion in 2029. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alta raises $11M to bring ‘Clueless’ fashion tech to life with all-star investors
Throughout her years working in technology, Jenny Wang, 28, always found herself stumbling back to one idea — a personal styling agent to help users decide what to wear and buy based on their budget, lifestyle, weather and calendar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Multiverse Computing raises $215M for tech that could radically slim AI costs
Spanish startup Multiverse Computing announced that it raised an enormous Series B round on the strength of a technology it calls “CompactifAI.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Zevo’s EV-only car-share fleet is helping Tesla owners make money
Zevo is a new peer-to-peer car-sharing startup, which is broadly similar to Turo, but focused exclusively on electric vehicles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Automattic acquires relationship manager Clay to add an identity layer to online tools
WordPress.com owner Automattic has added another communication-focused startup to its lineup: relationship-management app Clay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Legal tech platform Definely raises $30M Series B to make contract reviewing more efficient
The company, based in the U.K., offers a productivity suite to streamline the legal drafting and review process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Standard Nuclear emerges from the ashes of a failed startup
Standard Nuclear was the winning bidder for Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation's fuel-related assets at a bankruptcy auction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Proxima Fusion joins the club of well-funded nuclear contenders with €130M Series A
Commercial nuclear fusion power isn’t a reality yet. But venture capital is flowing into startups that promise that clean, safe, and virtually limitless energy is no longer just a distant dream Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tebi, the new startup by Adyen’s departed cofounder, raises a fresh $30M from Alphabet’s CapitalG
Co-founded by Adyen's former CTO, Tebi helps restaurants, bars and other hospitality businesses manage their operations with an all-in-one subscription-based platform that can handle payments, reservations, inventory, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mitra Chem is raising $50M for its cheaper, domestic battery materials
Mitra Chem is developing materials to make lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries store more energy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
XRobotics’ countertop robots are cooking up 25,000 pizzas a month
XRobotics recently raised a $2.5 million seed round to help it produce more of its countertop pizza robots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
An investor makes a case for funding sex, drugs and other socially taboo products
Impact investor and advisor Christian Tooley posed a simple question to the audience at SXSW London last week: What if investors put aside societal prudence for profit? Tooley was mainly referring to vice clauses, the restrictions that limited partners place on venture firms to guardrail their investments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Obvio’s stop sign cameras use AI to root out unsafe drivers
American streets are incredibly dangerous for pedestrians. A San Carlos, California-based startup called Obvio thinks it can change that by installing cameras at stop signs -- a solution the founders also say won’t create a panopticon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rippling calls Deel ‘a criminal syndicate’ and claims 4 other competitors were spied on, too
The fight between HR tech startups has heated up again after Rippling filed an amended complaint accuses Deel of targeting, infiltrating, and compromising of four other competitors, in addition to Rippling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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