TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition

On Thursday, Google Cloud announced it added fast-rising AI coding startups Lovable and Windsurf to its roster of customers. Both companies have chosen Google Cloud as their primary cloud computing provider, the latest sign of Google's rising prominence against larger rivals AWS and Microsoft Azure. Also, Sam Ross, the co-founder and CEO of Numeral, came up with the idea for his sales tax compliance startup while traveling the world after having worked as a product manager at Airbnb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Airbuds, a music social app aimed at Gen Z, raises $5M as the app reaches 5 million monthly users. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As speed becomes the defining currency in an AI-driven software world, Blacksmith has raised another round led by Google Ventures — just four months after its initial seed round — to accelerate how code gets shipped. Icarus Robotics cofounders Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer spent hours interviewing astronauts about what it was like working in space as they homed in on their startup idea. Their big takeaway: the work was often more cargo logistics than cutting-edge science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon made same-day delivery the benchmark on Earth. Impulse Space is pitching a similar concept for satellites bound for geostationary orbit about 22,000 miles above Earth, compressing what is typically a months-long transit into a matter of hours. Also, CodeRabbit is helping companies like Chegg, Groupon, and Mercury, along with over 8,000 other businesses, save time on the famously frustrating task of code review, which has become even more time-consuming with the rise of AI-generated code.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While many robotics companies are building human-sized robots, or working to automate entire factories, MicroFactory is instead trying to think big by building small. Also, Smartphone startup Nothing announced today that it closed its Series C round of $200 million, which was led by the investment firm Tiger Global. With this round, the consumer electronics company is now valued at $1.3 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robinhood announced Monday it has filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a new publicly traded fund that will hold shares of startups. The idea behind the “Robinhood Ventures Fund I” is to allow every retail investor access to make money on the hottest startups before they go public. Also, Rodatherm Energy, a new geothermal startup, emerged from stealth Monday with $38 million in funding and a plan to build a pilot plan in Utah. And, Amid an ongoing surge in defense tech investing, advanced manufacturing company Divergent Technologies raised $290 million to expand production of missile parts and other specialized components for the military. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Mark Lee was a law student at Harvard, a trademark class exposed him to the staggering scale of counterfeiting, an illicit industry worth more than $3 trillion annually, and set him on an unexpected path to entrepreneurship. Bret Taylor, board chair at OpenAI and CEO of AI agent startup Sierra, was asked in a recent interview with The Verge whether he agreed with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's declaration that “someone is going to lose a phenomenal amount of money in AI.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Initially launched as an instant messaging app rivaling WhatsApp in 2012, Hike pivoted to real-money gaming in recent years, with its primary platform, Rush, offering casual games like carrom and ludo for cash prizes, following the shutdown of Hike Messenger in 2021. Rush attracted over 10 million users and generated more than $500 million in gross revenue over its four-year run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After investing in robotics startups for 10 years, Seth Winterroth, a partner at Eclipse, said the time to invest in robotics has never been better. The robotics startup market has matured and the hardware and software powering these bots has gotten significantly better — and cheaper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Grammy Award-winning musician, composer, and producer Wyclef Jean says the music industry is broken, which is why he's now involved with a startup, OpenWav, that's looking to give the power back to the artists. Through the OpenWav app, launched over the summer, artists can drop new music and exclusives; connect directly with fans; sell merch; host concerts, pop-ups, and listening parties; and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anduril announced Tuesday that a fleet of its XL uncrewed undersea vehicle “Ghost Shark” will begin operations in Australian waters next year under a massive billion dollar contract. The five-year award structure is the defense-startup holy grail; it's a program of record that essentially locks in recurring revenue by becoming a line item in the country's defense budget. Also, Perplexity, the AI-powered search startup that competes with Google by providing conversational answers to user queries, has secured $200 million in new capital at a $20 billion valuation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Arc announced Wednesday it has signed a contract of that value with Curtin Maritime, a tug and barge operator. The new hybrid-electric tugs are expected to hit the waters around the Los Angeles port in 2027. Curtin has ordered eight tugs — at around $20 million apiece — and Arc will build them in conjunction with Snow & Co. shipyard. Also, it's been a long road for the 20-year-old fintech Klarna to make it to an IPO. But on Wednesday, the company successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange, having raised $1.4 billion, largely for its existing investors, rather than itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fabian Kamberi, CEO and co-founder of the Berlin-based AI gaming startup Born, thinks the current AI companions on the market are designed to be exploitative and geared towards isolating users through one-to-one relationships with AI chatbots. Also, Clyx is a social platform that helps users find community events to join. Five years after its launch, the app today has 50,000 active users buying tickets for events, and more than 200,000 users browsing events. The company has now raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Blitzscaling Ventures, with participation from other investors, including Iqram Magdon-Ismail, the co-founder of Venmo, and F1-driver-turned-investor Nico Rosberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX just fired off one of the biggest shots yet in the spectrum wars, agreeing to pay $17 billion to take over a massive chunk of wireless airwaves from EchoStar for Starlink's Direct-to-Cell services. The deal is the most aggressive signal yet that SpaceX wants to rule the satellite-to-phone market. Also, Ramp answered any lingering questions as to why investors recently valued the expense management startup at $22.5 billion, just 45 days after a previous funding round valued it at $16 billion: The company says it has achieved $1 billion in annualized revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nuclearn got its start when the founders were working at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station just west of Phoenix. They had been experimenting with ways to streamline various repetitive tasks first from a data science perspective then with more advanced AI models. Also, ReOrbit, a Finnish startup focused on helping nations control their own sovereign satellites, has raised a record €45 million (about US $53 million) Series A round of funding for a European space tech company. The funding round signals that Europe's new space market is heating up, fueled by a geopolitical environment in which countries increasingly worry about relying on foreign technology for critical infrastructure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep Fission is proposing to build small, cylindrical nuclear power plants and lower them into 30-inch diameter holes drilled one mile down into the Earth. By burying the reactors, the company hopes to solve several problems that plague current reactors, including concerns over meltdowns and potential terrorist attacks. Also, The corporate space world tired Bianca Cefalo to the point that she found it easier to literally start her own space company and launch objects into orbit.  Bloomberg reported that Cognition AI, the startup behind AI coding agent Devin, has hit a $10.2 billion valuation after raising $400 million, marking a jump from the company's $4 billion valuation earlier this year.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why is a startup that bills itself as the “Netflix of AI,” and that recently raised money from Amazon's Alexa Fund, talking about remaking a movie that was first released in 1942?  Well, the company has built a platform that allows users to create their own cartoons with AI prompts — Fable is starting out with its own intellectual property, but it has ambitions to offer similar capabilities with Hollywood IP.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you spend any time online, there's a good chance you've seen plenty of ugly, AI-generated ads — but few to none when interacting with AI chatbots themselves. Koah co-founder and CEO Nic Baird argued that will inevitably change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sodium-ion battery startup Natron ceased operations this week, ending the company's 12-year quest to commercialize its technology in the U.S. The company had $25 million worth of orders lined up for its Michigan factory, but it couldn't deliver them until it had UL certification, according to Raleigh's The News & Observer, which reported on the business's closure because Natron had been planning to bring jobs to the state of North Carolina with its new factory. Also, Acqui-hires feel like they're here to stay: The team behind Alex Codes, a popular tool that lets developers use AI models within Apple's development suite Xcode, is joining OpenAI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Thursday, Augment announced that it raised an $85 million Series A led by Redpoint, with participation from 8VC, Autotech Ventures, and others. The massive round comes just five months after the startup launched out of stealth with a hefty $25 million seed round. Also, Mark Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy lawyer from Indiana, has filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Mark Zuckerberg the lawyer uses a commercial Facebook page to advertise his legal practice and communicate with potential clients. But his page has been disabled five times in the last eight years, since Meta's moderation systems flag his account as falsely impersonating Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the platform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Cannon-Brookes, Atlassian's CEO and co-founder, said, ‘today's browsers weren't built for work; they were built for browsing. This deal is a bold step forward in reimagining the browser for knowledge work in the AI era.' Also, Francesco Cacciatore is a self-proclaimed skeptic. Yet after spending two decades in the European aerospace industry and hitting, as he put it, a “crisis,” he made an undeniably optimistic bet: he started a space company, saying ‘I wanted to try and build something myself.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Wednesday, Orchard Robotics announced that it raised a $22 million Series A funding led by Quiet Capital and Shine Capital, and with participation from returning investors, including General Catalyst and Contrary. Although the idea of using computer vision for specialty crops isn't new, Wu says that the largest farms in the U.S. still rely on manual sampling to make critical decisions about farm operations. Also, French AI startup Mistral AI is finalizing a €2 billion investment at a post-money valuation of $14 billion, reports Bloomberg, positioning the company as one of Europe's most valuable tech startups. The two-year-old OpenAI rival, founded by former DeepMind and Meta researchers, develops open source language models and Le Chat, its AI chatbot built for European audiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When congressional Republicans took a sledgehammer to the Inflation Reduction Act last summer, advanced geothermal startups were largely spared. Drilling for renewable energy appears to be one of the few things that engenders bipartisan support. Now, with the uncertainty settled, geothermal companies are announcing deals that promise to pave the way for broader deployment of their technology. Also, Fizz, the college social app, is expanding into grocery delivery thanks to a new partnership with Gopuff, the startup told TechCrunch exclusively. The partnership will allow students to order anything from late-night snacks to weekly groceries directly within the Fizz app in as fast as 15 minutes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI firm Anthropic has raised a $13 billion Series F round that brings its post-money valuation up to $183 billion — funds the company says will be used to grow its enterprise adoption, deepen safety research, and support international expansion.  Also, OpenAI announced in a blog post on Tuesday that it agreed to acquire the product testing startup Statsig, and bring on its founder and CEO, Vijaye Raji, as the company's CTO of Applications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Swedish buy-now, pay-later startup Klarna and its shareholders are reviving its initial public offering, hoping to raise as much as $1.27 billion in a listing that would value the company at up to $14 billion. The company and some of its shareholders are together selling approximately 34.3 million shares between $35 and $37 each. That's according to a company update earlier this week. Klarna would receive proceeds from about 5.6 million shares, while its shareholders are offloading nearly 29 million shares. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reliance is launching a new subsidiary to drive India's AI ambitions, including a pending partnership with OpenAI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Khalid Ashmawy found it hard to send money home while studying in Europe. Now, he's launched a startup to help other Egyptians with the same problem. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maisa AI is built on the premise that enterprise automation requires accountable AI agents, not opaque black boxes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Framer, a no-code website builder that claims over half a million monthly active users,has reached a $2 billion valuation after raising a $100 million Series D funding round led by existing investors Meritech and Atomico. Companies cancelled $5 billion worth of clean tech manufacturing projects in the U.S. in Q2, mirroring a pullback in the broader manufacturing sector. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mitti Labs is working with The Nature Conservancy to expand the use of climate-friendly rice farming practices in India. The startup uses its AI to verify reductions in methane emissions. In other news, Assort Health now valued at $750 million, is one of three that recently raised funding to use AI agents for helping healthcare practices answer patient calls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Terraton sees promise in biochar, but the technology has struggled to scale. The startup thinks a franchise model could be what unlocks biochar's potential. Also, Uncaged Innovations is working with Hyundai to develop alternatives to leather with a fraction of the environmental impact. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robomart's RM5 autonomous delivery robot can carry up to 50 pounds and deliver multiple customer orders at once. Also, OpenAI has started hiring in India as it looks to expand its presence in the fast-growing South Asian tech market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eyebot secured $20M Series A for 90-second prescription kiosk. Also, Pintarnya raised $16.7M to power jobs and financial services in Indonesia. The Indonesian startup, now backed by $16.7M in Series A funding, helps workers find full-time and side gigs while offering financial solutions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FieldAI builds foundational AI models that help all kinds of robots learn and adapt to new environments using physics. Also, Y Combinator is asking the court to deny Apple's appeal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Several Indian startups, including Dream Sports, MPL, and Zupee, are shutting down their real-money games after parliament passed a bill banning such games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The thousands of trucks zipping along U.S. highways are often only about half full -- something Oway wants to change with its 'ride-share for freight' software. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Berlin-based non-profit search engine Ecosia has asked a U.S. judge to turn Chrome into a foundation it controls, funding billions in climate projects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The battery materials startup raised significant Series D funding to expand its manufacturing capability. At the same time, it bought out partner SK's stake in a joint venture. The company helps automate complex enterprise workflows (like continuous integration and testing) — or, in other words, it makes DevOps capabilities more efficient as AI technology takes hold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Prices for hacking tools that allow governments to break into mobile phones keep going up, thanks to efforts by tech firms shoring up their cybersecurity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

FieldAI builds foundational AI models that help all kinds of robots learn and adapt to new environments using physics. Also, YC backed Garage is a marketplace that sells specialized equipment commonly used in local governments and public safety. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A new gadget called Dex allows kids to take pictures of objects and the AI translates the word into different languages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Firecrawl nabbed Shopify's CEO Tobias Lütke as an investor from a gutsy email after they discovered he was using the product. Also, The round, which pushes Databricks' valuation to $100B, was co-led by Insight Partners and Thrive. CEO Ali Ghodsi says he's found an enormous untapped AI agent market to spend the funds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices