TechCrunch Startup News
TechCrunch Startup News delivers curated audio versions of TechCrunch articles covering the startup ecosystem. Listeners get updates on funding rounds, acquisitions, and industry trends. The podcast focuses on who's raising capital, who's exiting, and who's changing the world through innovation.
Episodes
Startup Foundation Alloy developed a new alloying technique; plus, Probably raises $9M to build a more reliable kind of AI
Instead of heating metals, Foundation Alloy beats them into submission. The startup has raised $22 million to scale up production of its alloys.
Also, the company Probably wants to prevent hallucinations and factual errors from reaching users, and achieve accuracy on par with deterministic systems.
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Jeff Bezos’s Prometheus raises $12B to build an ‘artificial general engineer’ for the physical world; plus, Theker building a factory robot that doesn’t specialize in anything
The new round values the physical AI startup that aims to automate heavy engineering and drug design at $41 billion.
Also, unlike humanoid robots designed around a fixed form — think Boston Dynamics — Theker's machines are built to be reconfigured.
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Endurance Energy raises $54M to harness a massive untapped energy source; Jedify raises $24M to help companies arm AI agents with context on their businessplus,
SpaceX alumni Andrew Redd is betting the ocean has vast amounts of untapped geothermal energy.
Also, the funding round was led by Norwest, with participation from S Capital VC, Cerca Partners, and Oceans Ventures. Snowflake Ventures also participated as a strategic investor.
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Datadog veterans launch AI coding startup Niteshift on a bet against Big AI lock-in; plus, Zest launches a restaurant discovery app
AI coding agent startup Niteshift has raised a $7 million seed round from a who's who of angels. It's betting companies will want power over, not lock-in, with model makers.
Also, backed by Alexis Ohanian’s 776 and Kindred Ventures, Zest uses transaction data and AI to generate restaurant recommendations based on users’ real dining habits and the places they frequent.
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Evotrex raises $30M to build the RV that doesn’t need a charging station; plus, so long FAANG and hello to MANGOS
The startup is one of many entering the RV space, but it's banking on a hybrid power system that can go far beyond campsites.
Also, with SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI all eyeing massive public debuts, the tech industry may soon have a new class of corporate overlords — and a new acronym to match. Say goodbye to FAANG and hello to MANGOS.
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Helion, the Sam Altman-backed fusion startup, raises $465M to build a power plant for Microsoft
Fusion startup Helion is racing to complete a power plant for Microsoft by 2028. A fresh infusion of cash should help with that.
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Is Silicon Valley ready to put robots in people’s homes? Hello Robot is.
The California startup released the fourth-generation of its home assistance robot, Stretch.
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Brynn Putnam's Board raised $20M; plus, ZeroDrift raises $10M to protect AI models from themselves
Board, the startup building what it calls "together tech" designed to bring people into the same room, has closed a Series A led by Union Square Ventures.
Also, a new AI compliance service sits between AI models and end users to flag and replace any messages that might present a compliance problem.
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Pacific Fusion’s latest prototype packs 440 gigawatts into an 80-nanosecond burst; plus, Rocket engine startup Impulse raises $500 million to hire people, not AI
Pacific Fusion's sub-scale prototype delivered enormous amounts of power in a flash, setting the company up for its demonstration power plant.
Also, engineering physical systems still depends on human talent, according to Impulse Space president Eric Romo.
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Snap alums unveil Ghost Angels fund; Defense tech darling Mach Industries hits $1.8B valuation
A group of 20 Snap alumni has come together to launch a fund called Ghost Angels to back the next generation of social media.
Also, in a wild ride for 22-year-old founder and CEO Ethan Thornton, Mach Industries has raised another $300 million. It already has five autonomous vehicles in development and completed a major acquisition.
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This chip startup just raised $135M on a bet that AI’s biggest bottleneck isn’t compute — it’s memory; plus, Glean’s top line crosses $300M as AI budget-cutting becomes its major selling point
South Korean chip startup Xcena is betting that AI's real bottleneck is not compute, but memory.
Also, the enterprise AI search startup tripled its annual revenue even as tech giants entered the category.
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Corgi doubled in value in 3 weeks; plus, Anthropic raises $65 Billion, nears $1T valuation ahead of IPO
Insurance tech Corgi announced today an $106 million Series B1 raise, valuing the company at $2.6 billion, just three weeks after announcing a $160 million Series B.
Also, Anthropic has closed a $65 billion Series H round at a $965 billion post-money valuation, marking what could be the AI startup's final private fundraise before a highly anticipated IPO.
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SOND, a sleep tech startup, exits stealth with $7M; plus, Airbnb-backed WeRoad raises $58M
SOND, a startup led by Bose’s former head of sleep products, emerged from stealth with $7M in funding for its AI-powered sleep earbuds.
Also, WeRoad, the Milan-based group travel startup, has raised a $58 million Series C round led by Airbnb as it prepares for its first major expansion outside Europe
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Amazon fulfillment competitor Stord raises $250M at $3B valuation; OpenRouter more than doubles valuation to $1.3B in a year
Stord offers a network of physical warehouses and inventory management software for e-commerce. It bills itself as a sort of anti-Amazon, giving brands "the speed to compete" while still owning their customer relationships.
Also, OpenRouter has raised a $113 million Series B led by CapitalG. Its 5x growth in usage over six months indicates the multi-AI-model future is here.
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Maka Kids is redefining kids’ screen time with a streaming app; also, Peec, one of Berlin’s rising startups, more than doubled ARR
Maka Kids is building a streaming app for children ages zero to six featuring content designed for healthy development. The startup has now raised $3 million in seed funding to scale its platform.
Also, Peec, which helps brands track their presence in AI searches, offers proof of a key trend among European startups.
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This young startup is taking on a fragrance industry that hasn’t changed in almost half a century
This young startup is taking on a fragrance industry that hasn’t changed in a almost half century
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Imperagen raises £5 million to use quantum physics, AI on enzyme engineering; plus, Beauty booking startup Fresha hits $1 billion valuation
Biotech company Imperagen announced on Thursday a £5 million ($6.7 million) seed round led by PXN Ventures, with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone.
Also, beauty and wellness booking marketplace Fresha says it has raised $80 million investment from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund, KKR's growth equity arm.
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Quartermaster is building a maritime hive mind; plus, NanoClaw creator turns down $20M buyout offer
The Arlington, Virginia-based startup has raised $42 million to equip ships with sensors that blow the current AIS tech out of the water.
Also, NanoCo, the company behind OpenClaw alternative NanoClaw, has raised a $12 million seed after a viral launch, the founders tell TechCrunch.
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Status AI raises $17M to turn social media into interactive entertainment; plus, Stilta helps companies rediscover the patents they forgot they had
Interactive social media site Status announced Tuesday $17 million in combined seed and Series A funding, with investors including General Catalyst, YC, LightShed Ventures, and Abstract.
Also, Stilta announced Tuesday a $10 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors in the round include YC and operators from companies like OpenAI, Legora, and Lovable.
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South Korea’s LetinAR is building optics behind AI glasses; plus, Marketing operating system Nectar Social raises $30M Series A led by Menlo
A lens the size of a thumbnail — and the South Korean startup that makes it could become the optical backbone of the AI glasses era.
Also, AI-powered marketing platform Nectar Social announced Thursday that it raised a $30 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures and its Anthology Fund, which was created alongside Anthropic.
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Lovable just backed a company that’s looking to bring vibe coding to hardware; plus, Meridian Ventures launched $35M fund to back MBA-deferred founders
Hardware company Atech raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding, including from a16z’s scout fund, Sequoia Scout Fund, and Nordic Makers.
Plus, Meridian Ventures, the venture firm founded by Devon Gethers and Karlton Haney, announced on Friday the raise of a $35 million second fund to back pre-seed and seed-stage companies founded by those who have deferred MBAs.
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Khosla Ventures is betting $10M on Ian Crosby; plus, Cerebras raises $5.5B, then stock pops $108%
Crosby is building Synthetic, a fully autonomous AI bookkeeping service for other startups.
Also, a year ago, it looked like this day would never happen for Cerebras.
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Clio’s $500M milestone arrives just as Anthropic ups the ante; plus, Anduril raises $5B, doubles valuation to $61B
Legal tech startups, including Clio, which just hit $500 million in ARR, are seeing massive customer adoption.
After achieving $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, the defense tech startup has raised another massive round, led by Thrive and a16z, it says.
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Exaforce raises $125M Series B to build AI for catching and stopping cyberattacks as they happen
The round valued the three-year-old startup at $725 million.
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Riding an AI rally, Robinhood preps second retail venture IPO; plus, Korea’s biggest manufacturers back Config, the TSMC of robot data
Robinhood files confidentially for its second venture fund, this time targeting growth as well as early-stage startups.
Also, Samsung, Hyundai and LG just bet on the startup that wants to be robotics' data backbone.
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Cowboy Space raised $275 million to build rockets for space data centers; plus what will the whisper-filled office of the future sound like
Cowboy Space Corporation wants to put data centers in orbit. First, it has to build the rockets to get them there.
Also, how will work setups change if we spend more and more time talking to our computers?
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A 20-minute pitch wins Indian startup Pronto backing from Lachy Groom; plus, Khosla-backed robotics startup Genesis AI has gone full stack
The investment comes as Pronto scales to 26,000 daily bookings and the market heads toward a potential $18 billion size.
Also, Genesis AI, a startup that raised a $105 million seed round to build foundational AI for robotics, has unveiled its first model, GENE-26.5, but also a demo showcasing a set of robotic hands performing complex tasks.
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Ethos raises $22.75M from a16z for its expert network with voice onboarding; plus, Altara secures $7M to bridge the data gap that’s slowing down physical sciences
Ethos says it is onboarding 35,000 experts per week
Also, Altara’s AI aims to diagnose failures and help speed up R&D by unifying data siloed across spreadsheets and legacy systems.
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OpenAI’s cozy partner Cerebras is on track for a blockbuster IPO; plus, Katie Haun raises $1 billion for new venture funds
AI chip maker Cerebras is heading for a blockbuster IPO that could value it at $26.6 billion or more. It's relationship with OpenAI is deep and rich.
Also, Katie Haun announced on Monday that $1 billion has been raised across new funds to continue the firm’s thesis of backing crypto and blockchain startups.
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Musely secures $360M from General Catalyst without giving up equity; Meta buys robotics startup
The direct-to-consumer skin, hair, and and menopause care brand Musely will use the non-dilutive capital to super-charge customer acquisition.
Also, Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.
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Legal AI startup Legora hits $5.6B valuation and its battle with Harvey just got hotter; also, Shapes brings humans and AI into the same group chats
The two wildly fast-growing rivals have raised massive sums, pushed into each other's home turf and now have dueling ad campaigns.
Plus, Shapes, an app where humans and AI characters chat together in shared group conversations, is emerging from stealth with $8 million in seed funding. Think Discord, but with AI characters alongside humans.
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Firestorm Labs raises $82M to take drone factories into the field; plus, BMW i Ventures has a new $300M fund
Ships and planes carrying parts to the front lines would be vulnerable to attack. Defense startup Firestorm Labs thinks the answer is a drone factory that fits inside a shipping container.
Also, BMW i Ventures has launched a new $300 million fund and will invest in early-stage through Series B startups in North America and Europe that are working on agentic AI and physical AI.
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BCI startup Neurable looks to license its ‘mind-reading’ tech for consumer wearables
The startup specializes in "non-invasive" "mind-reading" tech — a kind of neural data collection that, its CEO hopes, will have all sorts of consumer applications.
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Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage
Series, a social networking app that's grown popular on college campuses, announced a $5.1 million pre-seed round from some big names in tech.
Plus, Sierra, the AI customer service agent startup founded by technologist Bret Taylor, announced today that it has acquired the YC-backed French startup Fragment.
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Beehiiv rolls out new creator tools; Also, another customer of troubled startup Delve suffered a big security incident
Beehiiv is clearly done being just a newsletter platform based on today's launch of a new webinar feature, customizable paywalls, and more.
Plus, TechCrunch has confirmed that Delve was the compliance company that performed the security certifications for Context AI, the AI agent training startup that last week disclosed a security incident.
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Cathie Woods’ ARK makes its first lead investment in startup Lucra — and it isn’t AI; Esther and Anne Wojcicki join new healthcare accelerator
Lucra offers corporate loyalty programs reimagined as interactive eSports. But winning ARK as a lead wasn't easy.
Also, Mary Minno launches early-stage startup accelerator program, Treehub, and an early-stage firm, AI Health Fund, aimed at backing startups working at the intersection of healthcare and AI.
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SusHi Tech Tokyo isn’t a conference — it’s a deal room with 60,000 people; AI research lab NeoCognition lands $40M seed
When 60,000 attendees descend on Tokyo Big Sight April 27–29, the headline numbers are hard to ignore: 750 startup exhibitors, 151 sessions, city leaders from 49 countries. But the stat that tells you what kind of event this actually is? It's 10,000 facilitated business meetings — brokered, booked, and tracked before most attendees even land.
Here's the link to the article.
Also, founded by an
SaySo is a new short-form video app that aims to restore users’ trust in news; plus, Loop wants to build supply chain AI that predicts disruptions
Users are fed up with misinformation and AI slop cluttering their feeds. SaySo is a new short-form video app that delivers news from vetted creators and journalists.
Also, Loop, the San Francisco startup, closed a Series C funding round led by Antonio Gracias' firm Valor, which is a major backer of xAI.
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Amazon-backed X-energy files to raise up to $800M in IPO; plus, a simulation startup wants to be the Cursor for physical AI
Nuclear startup X-energy hit the road today to sell prospective investors on its initial public offering.
Also, Antioch raised a $8.5 million seed round to create simulation tools for a new generation of robot builders.
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Can AI judge journalism? A Thiel-backed startup says yes, even if it risks chilling whistleblowers
Objection, a Thiel-backed startup, aims to use AI to judge journalism, letting users pay to challenge stories. Critics warn it could chill whistleblowers and reshape how media accountability works.
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AI data center startup Fluidstack in talks for $1B round at $18B valuation
Fundraising is reportedly flowing for Fluidstack after it secured a $50 billion deal to build data centers for Anthropic.
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OpenAI has bought AI personal finance startup Hiro
The acquisition indicates a capability that OpenAI is building into ChatGPT: financial planning.
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Slate Auto raises $650M to fund its affordable EV truck plans
Slate Auto's latest funding round was led by existing investor TWG Global, a firm run by LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter.
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Ex-Tesla engineer’s startup taps Pronto to help automate a copper mine; plus, Collide Capital raises $95M fund to back fintech
Pronto's autonomous haulage trucks are about to start operating at Mariana Minerals's Utah copper mine -- the first such deal since Pronto got acquired by Travis Kalanick's Atoms Inc.
Also, Collide Capital, founded by Brian Hollins and Aaron Samuels, announced Thursday the close of a $95 million Fund II.
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TC's Julie Bort can’t help rooting for tiny open source AI model maker Arcee; plus, Databricks co-founder wins prestigious ACM award
Arcee is a tiny 26-person U.S. startup that built a high-performing, massive, open source LLM. And it's gaining popularity with OpenClaw users.
Also, Matei Zaharia has won the top honor from the Association for Computing Machinery. Now he's working on AI for research and says AGI is simply misunderstood.
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AI startup Rocket offers vibe McKinsey-style reports at a fraction of the cost; plus, Hermeus raises $350M to build unmanned hypersonic fighters
Rocket's new AI platform combines strategy, product building, and competitive intelligence, aiming to move beyond code generation.
Also, the defense aviation startup is coming off two successful flight demonstrations, and with the next one, it's aiming to go supersonic.
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Spain’s Xoople raises $130 million Series B to map the Earth for AI
The company is also announcing a deal with L3Harris to build the sensors for Xoople's spacecraft.
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Peter Thiel’s big bet on solar-powered cow collars; plus, Anthropic buys biotech startup Coefficient Bio in $400M dea
Why did Founders Fund invest $220 million in cattle management startup Halter?
Also, Anthropic has purchased the stealth biotech AI startup Coefficient Bio in a $400 million stock deal, according to The Information and Eric Newcomer.
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Beehiiv expands into podcasting; also, Gateway Capital announces first close of $25M Fund II
One way Beehiiv is convincing creators to switch from rivals like Substack and Patreon is by not taking a cut of revenue.
Plus, Gateway Capital Partners, the venture firm founded by Dana Guthrie, announced the first close for its $25 million target Fund II earlier this week.
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Commonwealth Fusion Systems leans on magnets for near-term revenue; plus the company behind ClassPass and Mindbody just got a lot bigger with a $7.5B merger
Realta Fusion is buying magnets from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, providing a revenue stopgap.
Also, the merger is a sign that the fitness industry is continuing to move toward consolidation to compete at a larger scale. Recent moves include MyFitnessPal acquiring Cal AI, an AI calorie counting app, and Strava buying two apps: cycling app The Breakaway and running app Runna.
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Exclusive: Runway launches $10M funExclusive: Runway launches $10M fund, Builders program to support early-stage AI startupsd, Builders program to support early-stage AI startups
Runway is launching a $10 million fund and startup program to back companies building with its AI video models, as it pushes toward interactive, real-time “video intelligence” applications.
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ScaleOps raises $130M to improve computing efficiency amid AI demand; Qodo raises $70M for code verification as AI coding scales
ScaleOps just raised $130M to tackle GPU shortages and soaring AI cloud costs by automating infrastructure in real time.
Plus, as AI floods software development with code, Qodo is betting the real challenge is making sure it actually works.
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Defense startup Shield AI lands $12.7B valuation; plus, Aetherflux reportedly raising Series B at $2 billion valuation
In one year, Shield AI's value has leaped 140%. This after it won a contract to be the software provider to Anduril's Fury fighter jet for the U.S. Air Force.
Also, Index Ventures is said to be leading a $250 million to $350 million round.
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Conntour raises $7M to build an AI search engine for security video systems; plus, Lucid Bots raises $20M for its window-washing drones
Conntour uses AI models to let security teams query camera feeds using natural language to find any object, person, or situation.
Also, Lucid Bots has seen demand accelerate over the last year for its window cleaning drones and power washing robots.
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Seattle's Brinc just launched a drone it says can replace police helicopters; Arinna raises $4M seed round to solve the space power problem
Brinc launched its newest 911 response drone this week, as the company seeks to expand its prominence in the public safety industry.
Also, Arinna builds solar cells specifically for spacecraft and has developed an ultrathin new material that it expects to be far more flexible and more efficient than current technology.
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Startup Gimlet Labs is solving the AI inference bottleneck in a surprisingly elegant way; plus, Flighty gives you real-time alerts about airport disturbances
Gimlet Labs just raised an $80 million Series A for tech that lets AI run across NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, ARM, Cerebras and d-Matrix chips, simultaneously.
Also, Flighty's new feature will give users real-time updates about why operations at an airport are disrupted.
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Sam Altman-backed fusion startup Helion in talks with OpenAI; plus, the SEC dropped its four-year-old investigation into EV startup Faraday Future
Helion is reportedly negotiating a deal that would see it sell 12.5% of its power output to OpenAI.
Also, after four years, and multiple subpoenas and depositions, the beleaguered EV startup, Faraday Futures, has dodged yet another bullet.
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AI startups are eating the venture industry and the returns, so far, are good; plus, Delve accused of misleading customers
AI startups accounted for 41% of the $128 billion in venture dollars raised by companies on Carta last year — a record-high annual share.
Also, an anonymous Substack post accuses compliance startup Delve of “falsely” convincing “hundreds of customers they were compliant” with privacy and security regulations.
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Geothermal startup Fervo catapults itself over the ‘valley of death’; K2 to launch its first high-powered satellite for space compute
Fervo landed a large new loan with terms that strongly suggest the company's most turbulent days are behind it.
Also, K2's Gravitas is an ambitious project that aims to demonstrate the tech needed to build data centers in space.
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Rebel Audio is a new AI podcasting tool aimed at first-time creators
Rebel Audio is a new all-in-one podcasting tool that allows creators to record podcasts, edit, clip content for social, and publish episodes, all without ever leaving the platform.
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H&M wants to make clothing from CO2 using this startup’s tech; plus, Niv-AI exits stealth to wring more power performance out of GPUs
Rubi has developed an enzymatic process to turn carbon dioxide into cellulose that's ready to be spun into lyocell or viscose.
Also, Niv-AI raised $12 million in seed funding to measure and manage GPU power surges.
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Fuse wants to disrupt aging loan origination systems used by US credit unions; plus, Another deep tech chip startup becomes a unicorn: Frore hits $1.64B
The startup also announced a $5M 'rescue fund' to help credit unions ditch legacy software for its AI-native platform.
Also, at Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's urging, Frore developed liquid-cooling tech for chips. That shift helped it just raise $143 million.
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The biggest AI stories of the year (so far)
Written by TechCrunch's Amanda Siberling. The AI industry is constantly churning out news, like major acquisitions, indie developer successes, public outcry, and existentially dangerous contract negotiations.
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A Chinese Brain-Computer Interface startup raised $21M just two months after launch; plus, Gumloop turns every employee into an AI agent builder
This is the largest early-stage funding in China’s brain computer interface industry.
Also, Benchmark’s new patner Everett Randell, sees Gumloop's enterprise automation as the largest opportunity in AI.
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Rivian spin-out Mind Robotics raises $500M for industrial AI-powered robots
The startup, which was created by Rivian founder RJ Scaringe, is looking to train on data from, and deploy in, Rivian's factory.
Plus, Replit raised a new $400 million round and said it hopes to have $1B in ARR by year's end.
And, Breakout Ventures is finding growing success by backing early-stage startups in scientific fields such as biology and chemistry.
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Canopii looks to succeed where past indoor farms have not; plus, Legora reaches $5.55 billion valuation as AI legal tech boom endures
Canopii's robotic farms can autonomously grow 40,000 pounds of herbs and leafy greens a year while being the size of a basketball court.
Also, Legora, an AI platform for lawyers, is now valued at $5.55 billion following a $550 million Series D led by Accel to fuel its growth in the U.S.
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Robinhood’s startup fund stumbled in NYSE debut, plus, AI network startup Eridu emerged from stealth, and ModRetro seeking funding at $1B valuation
-The fund currently offers retail investors exposure to eight startups, including Mercor, Ramp, and Stripe, with plans to expand its portfolio.
-Unlike a vibe-coded product built by a college dropout, Eridu's co-founder, Drew Perkins, has been inventing networking tech since the dawn of the internet.
-The company launched its first product, a Game Boy-style handheld device called the Chromatic,
Zeno raises $25M to speed up production of its battery-swap motorbikes; plus, Lio raised $30M from A16Z and others to automate enterprise procurement
The startup, co-founded by Tesla and Apple alumni, has sold nearly 1,000 of its motorbikes so far.
Also, AI procurement startup Lio announced a $30 million Series A in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
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Science Corp raises $230M as it races to bring its brain implant to market
A source close to the company says the round assigns Science a post-money valuation of $1.25 billion.
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Decagon completes first tender offer at $4.5B valuation; plus, three companies dominated the $189 billion in VC investments last month
The AI-powered customer support startup is the latest example of a fast-growing, young company that's providing employee liquidity.
Also, Crunchbase data shows a record $189 billion of global venture capital flowed to startups last month, with AI startups nabbing 90% of the capital.
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Why AI startups are selling the same equity at two different prices?
Some AI founders are using a novel valuation mechanism to manufacture unicorn status.
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Fig Security emerges from stealth with $38M to help security teams deal with change; plus, Cursor has reportedly surpassed $2B in ARR
Fig traces data flows in the security stack and then alerts security teams when changes at any point affect detection or response capabilities.
Also, the four-year-old startup Cursor saw its revenue run rate double over the past three months, according to one Bloomberg source.
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MyFitnessPal has acquired Cal AI, the viral calorie app built by teens
After wooing Cal AI for months, MyFitnessPal has successfully acquired its up-and-coming rival, Cal AI, the app built by teens soaring on the apps stores.
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Parade’s Cami Tellez announces new creator economy marketing platform, $4M in funding
Cami Tellez announces launch of new company, $4 million raise.
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Hardware Why China’s humanoid robot industry is winning the early market
As TechCrunch's Kate Park writes, China’s push into humanoid robots is accelerating, with domestic firms shipping more units and iterating faster than U.S. competitors in a still-nascent market.
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Deepinder Goyal returns with a $54M brain-monitoring bet; plus, Ultrahuman bets on redesigned smart ring to win back U.S. market
Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal's new wearable startup Temple has raised $54 million in a friends-and-family round at a post-money valuation of about $190 million.
Plus, Ultrahuman’s Ring Pro promises 15-day battery life and a $479 price tag as the wearables maker expands its health-tech push.
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Sophia Space raises $10M seed to demo novel space computers; plus,
Sophia Space's modular computer tiles offer a new vision for space data centers.
Also, Trace is launching with $3 million in seed funding, including investment from Y Combinator, Zeno Ventures, Transpose Platform Management, Goodwater Capital, Formosa Capital, and WeFunder.
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Jest is challenging the app store status quo; plus, Self-driving truck startup Einride raises $113M PIPE
Jest, a marketplace for messaging games, emerged from stealth with $7 million in seed funding.
Also, self-driving trucks startup Einride has raised an oversubscribed $113 million PIPE in advance of its SPAC merger scheduled for early 2026.
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Y Combinator grad and AI insurance brokerage Harper raises $47M; plus, AI chip startup MatX raised $500M
Harper is an AI-native insurance brokerage that just raised a $45 million combined Series A and seed, after a member of YC's Winter 2025 cohort.
Also, MatX, a chip startup founded by two former Google hardware engineers, has raised a $500 million Series B led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness, an investment fund formed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner.
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Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing; plus, Stripe, PayPal Ventures bet on India’s Xflow
With the new acquisitions, the company wants to bolster its position as a marketing solution by potentially adding video creation and more granular measurement.
Also, Stripe and PayPal Ventures have participated in Xflow's $16.6 million round that gives it a post-money valuation of $85 million.
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