Startups | TechCrunch

Self-driving truck startup Aurora Innovation to sell up to $420M in shares ahead of commercial launch

Rebecca Bellan — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 14:32:00 +0000

Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation is looking to raise hundreds of millions in additional capital as it races toward a driverless commercial launch by the end of 2024. Aurora is pursuing a driver-as-a-service model, wherein carriers purchase trucks with the Aurora Driver tech on board and then offer their services via those trucks to shippers. […]

AI Friends, deepfake foes, and which Tiger Global partner is leaving now

Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan, Devin Coldewey — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 14:30:00 +0000

AI hardware has taken on a new shape with Friend’s $99 necklace — a pendant that gives you an AI friend to talk to and … that’s about it. Friend’s pitch is that its wearable can help combat loneliness, but other AI hardware products that have come to market lately – like Humane’s Ai Pin […]

Connect with Google Cloud, Aerospace, Qualcomm and more at Disrupt 2024

Cindy Zackney — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 03:00:00 +0000

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will be in San Francisco on October 28–30, and we’re already excited! Disrupt brings innovation for every stage of your startup journey, and we could not bring you this world-class event without our world-class partners. Take advantage of the opportunity to leverage the expertise and resources of some of tech’s leading companies. Their participation […]

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 23:10:00 +0000

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized […]

How filming a cappella concerts and dance recitals led Northzone’s newest partner Molly Alter to a career in VC

Rebecca Szkutak — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 19:03:39 +0000

Molly Alter wears a lot of hats. She’s a mocumentary filmmaker working on a project about an alternate reality where charades is big business. She’s a caesar salad connoisseur and documents her rankings of different restaurants’ attempts on a blog called JULIUS. She’s also Northzone’s newest partner. Alter’s path to venture capital was not an […]

Microsoft now lists OpenAI as a competitor in AI and search

Maxwell Zeff — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 17:55:17 +0000

Microsoft has a long and tangled history with OpenAI, having invested a reported $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker as part of a long-term partnership. As part of the deal, Microsoft runs OpenAI’s models across its enterprise and consumer products and is OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider. However, the tech giant called the startup a “competitor” […]

Sequoia-backed Knowde raises Series C at a valuation cut

Rebecca Szkutak — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 17:03:56 +0000

The San Jose-based startup raised $60 million in a round that values it lower than the $500 million valuation it garnered in its most recent round, according to multiple sources.

Heeyo built an AI chatbot to be a billion kids’ interactive tutor and friend

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 16:00:00 +0000

When Xiaoyin Qu was growing up in China, she was obsessed with learning how to build paper airplanes that could do flips in the air. Her parents, though, didn’t have the aerodynamic expertise to support her newfound passion, and her teachers were too overwhelmed to give her dedicated attention. “That’s why I wanted to build […]

VC darling Rad Power Bikes hit with another round of layoffs

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:59:11 +0000

Rad Power Bikes, the Seattle-based e-bike startup that has raised more than $300 million from investors, went through another round of layoffs in July, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. This is the company’s fifth round since April 2021, when it cut back 100 staffers. Rad’s latest layoffs follow a culling a year ago, when the e-bike […]

Google Cloud now has a dedicated cluster of Nvidia GPUs for Y Combinator startups

Maxwell Zeff — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Google Cloud is giving Y Combinator startups access to a dedicated, subsidized cluster of Nvidia graphics processing units and Google tensor processing units to build AI models. It’s part of Google Cloud’s effort to cozy up with promising early-stage AI startups, in hopes some of them will evolve into massive, compute-hungry businesses. “We want to […]

Open source startup FOSSA is buying StackShare, a site used by 1.5M developers

Dominic-Madori Davis — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

StackShare is one of the more popular platforms for developers to discuss, track, and share the tools they use to build applications.

Indian startups gut valuations ahead of IPO push

Manish Singh — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 12:36:14 +0000

Ola Electric and FirstCry are set to test investor appetite with public listing, both pricing their shares below their previous valuation asks.

Healx, an AI-enabled drug discovery platform for rare diseases, raises $47M

Paul Sawers — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

The company also said it has received regulatory clearance to start Phase 2 clinical trials for a new drug in the U.S. later this year.

Axle Energy’s sprint to decarbonize the grid lights up with $9M seed led by Accel

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:01:00 +0000

Axle Energy is a B2B, back-end infrastructure business focused on connecting flexible assets, such as electric vehicles and home batteries, to energy markets that aren't otherwise available for consumers to dip into.

Founder behind social media app IRL charged with fraud

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 02:14:08 +0000

While venture capitalists and the rest of the technorati are off on holiday or attending the Paris Olympics, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its staff attorneys are keeping busy this summer. For the second time this week — and at least the fourth time in the past several months — the SEC has […]

Fintech Execs from Synctera, Unit, and Treasury Prime discuss the future of BaaS at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

TechCrunch Events — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 22:58:37 +0000

The serious, long-term negative impact of the bankruptcy of banking-as-a-service (BaaS) fintech Synapse will be significant “on all of fintech, especially consumer-facing services,” one observer has said. In the wake of that company’s collapse, other startups in the space are working hard to prove that not all BaaS are created equal. As partners to fintechs, […]

AI startups ramp up federal lobbying efforts

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 20:22:27 +0000

AI lobbying at the U.S. federal level is intensifying in the midst of a continued generative AI boom and an election year that could influence future AI regulation. New data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit group that tracks and publishes metrics on campaign financing and lobbying, shows that the number of groups lobbying the federal government […]

TechCrunch Minute: Investors pour money into non-alcoholic beverages

Anthony Ha — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Startups are attracting serious funding to provide fun, alcohol-free drink options at the bar and in other social contexts. Earlier this year, canned water company Liquid Death announced that it has raised $67 million in new funding at a $1.4 billion valuation. And Athletic Brewing Company, which describes itself as America’s largest non-alcoholic brewery, said […]

Global startup funding is picking up with AI still in the spotlight

Mary Ann Azevedo — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 14:10:00 +0000

Global startup funding was up 16% in the second quarter, according to Crunchbase data, led by an uptick in mega-rounds. That increase was led, unsurprisingly, by the AI sector. Funding to companies in AI made up 30% of all dollars invested and actually doubled quarter over quarter to $24 billion. On today’s episode of TechCrunch’s […]

Tezi is building an AI agent for hiring managers

Ron Miller — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 14:00:00 +0000

AI agents are all the rage right now, and Tezi, an early-stage startup, is working on one to help HR teams find the perfect candidates for a job opening. The startup claims this bot will sift through resumes to find the ones that match the hiring criteria, find time on the recruiter’s calendar to set […]