44 h. ago Apply to compete in TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 today!

Start your engines  applications for TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 competition are open! If you’re a pre-Series A startup founder looking to make your mark on a global stage, this is an opportunity you can’t pass up. We want to see you showcase your game-changing innovations to the world at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025’s premier startup pitch […]

Technology

49 h. ago AI chip startup FuriosaAI reportedly turns down $800M acquisition offer from Meta

FuriosaAI, a South Korean startup that makes chips for AI applications, has rejected an $810 million acquisition offer from Meta.

Technology

6 d. ago ClearGrid, armed with a fresh $10M, is developing AI to improve debt collection in MENA

Debt collection in emerging markets often feels outdated and can be costly — damaging borrower trust. As consumer lending surges and regulators push for fairer practices, legacy collection outfits are struggling to maintain pace. ClearGrid aims to help modernize debt collection — and recovery — with AI. The Dubai-based startup, which is emerging from stealth […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Economics

6 d. ago Hunted Labs lands $3M to find suspicious open source contributors

Former NSA deputy director George Barnes has made his first investment as a venture capitalist for his new job at the VC incubation studio Red Cell Partners. It’s a $3 million seed deal in an open source cybersecurity startup called Hunted Labs, he told TechCrunch exclusively. Barnes spent his entire 35-year career at the spy agency, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

6 d. ago Mortgage as an employee benefit? Kleiner Perkins leads $23.5M Series A for Multiply Mortgage

After hitting record lows at the start of the pandemic, mortgage rates began to climb in 2022 and haven’t come down significantly since.  With 30-year mortgage rates hovering at over 6.5% today (they were as low as 2.49% in 2020!), buying a home is simply not that attainable for many people. One Denver-based startup is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Economics

6 d. ago Agentic AI startup AMT aims to be ‘Google Adwords for influencers,’ raises seed round

Booking an ad campaign with social media influencers is currently not exactly easy. For starters, influencers’ approaches to marketing can be unconventional, and there’s no standard way to engage with them. On the other side, marketing agencies that employ hosts of people to book and track brand campaigns are limited by how many influencers they […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Technology

8 d. ago Flexport accuses former employees of stealing its source code to create a rival startup

Flexport accuses Freightmate of being the product of "theft, not ingenuity" in its lawsuit against the startup. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Events

8 d. ago Klarna nabs Walmart away from Affirm and boosts its IPO prospects

On the heels of its IPO filing, Swedish fintech giant Klarna announced on Monday that it will exclusively provide buy now, pay later loans for Walmart. The partnership with Walmart is one that rival Affirm had previously owned. Klarna will provide the loans to Walmart customers through OnePay, a fintech startup in which it owns […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

1 week ago Sesame, the startup behind the viral virtual assistant Maya, releases its base AI model

AI company Sesame has released the base model that powers Maya, the impressively realistic voice assistant. The model, which is 1 billion parameters in size (“parameters” referring to individual components of the model), is under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially with few restrictions. Called CSM-1B, the model generates “RVQ audio codes” from text […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Technology

1 week ago UiPath is looking for a path to growth in agentic AI with its Peak.ai acquisition

A rush of agentic AI solutions is hitting the enterprise market, and now one of the bigger players in automation has scooped up a startup in the space in hopes of taking a bigger piece of that business. UiPath, as part of its quarterly earnings last night, announced that it acquired Peak.ai, a startup out […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

1 week ago Food delivery startup Wonder acquires media company Tastemade for $90M

Food delivery startup Wonder is acquiring media company Tastemade for around $90 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. Founded in 2021, Tastemade produces food, travel, and home videos and operates several free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels. The acquisition gives Wonder access to a content studio, production company, and advertising business. Wonder will leverage […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

2 w. ago Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow explains his troubled $30M personal loan, announces new ‘super app’

Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow defended the $30M personal loan he took out from his startup, while announcing Bolt's latest launch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

2 w. ago The sibling founders of Stax Payments are back with a new fintech and a $20M seed raise

Worth, a company focused on helping fintechs, banks, and enterprises underwrite small and medium-sized businesses more easily, has raised $20 million in a seed funding round, the startup tells TechCrunch exclusively. It’s a large seed round, especially these days when capital is harder to come by. But the founders’ history may have something to do […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Economics

2 w. ago The sibling founders of Stax Payments are back with a $20M seed raise for their new fintech, Worth

Worth, a company focused on helping fintechs, banks, and enterprises underwrite small and medium-sized businesses more easily, has raised $20 million in a seed funding round, the startup tells TechCrunch exclusively. It’s a large seed round, especially these days when capital is harder to come by. But the founders’ history may have something to do […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Economics

2 w. ago Some say passkeys are clunky — this startup wants to change that

Hawcx, backed by Engineering Capital, aims to solve passkeys' adoption challenge with its new tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

2 w. ago Startup studio Hexa acquires majority stake in Veevart, a vertical SaaS platform for museums

Hexa is trying something new. Instead of fostering startups from the ground up and incubating them for the first year or so, the Paris-based startup studio is acquiring a majority stake in Veevart, a vertical software-as-a-service company for museums that provides solutions for ticketing, fundraising, CRM and collection management. Hexa is a familiar name in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

2 w. ago Applications are open for Startup Battlefield 200 — apply today!

Are you a pre-Series A startup founder looking to make your mark on a global stage? This is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Applications for TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 — the premier startup pitch competition — are officially open. We want to see you showcase your game-changing innovations to the world at TechCrunch Disrupt […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

2 w. ago Maximize your brand: Secure an exhibit table at TechCrunch All Stage 2025

On July 15, 1,200 founders and VCs across all stages will gather at SoWa Power Station in Boston for TechCrunch All Stage 2025 — the ultimate summit for startup founders. What does this mean for you? A golden opportunity to showcase your brand to a powerhouse crowd eager to scale. It’s easy — just head […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics

2 w. ago Supercharge your brand visibility with an exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

From October 27-29, TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 will bring together over 10,000 startup pioneers, VC leaders, and tech enthusiasts at Moscone West in San Francisco—the epicenter of innovation set to reshape the future of technology. What’s in it for your startup? A golden opportunity to put your innovation in front of an eager audience for all […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Events

2 w. ago Founder of battery startup Our Next Energy returns as CEO following new funding

ONE also announced the close of a new funding round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Politics