TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The round valued the three-year-old startup at $725 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 OSU researcher, NeoCognition is developing AI agents that can become experts in any domain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fundraising is reportedly flowing for Fluidstack after it secured a $50 billion deal to build data centers for Anthropic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The acquisition indicates a capability that OpenAI is building into ChatGPT: financial planning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slate Auto's latest funding round was led by existing investor TWG Global, a firm run by LA Dodgers owner Mark Walter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company is also announcing a deal with L3Harris to build the sensors for Xoople's spacecraft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices