TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition

Atmo will use its deep learning models to help Rainmaker identify clouds that have potential for seeding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rwazi has raised a $12 million Series A led by Bonfire Ventures to help companies with market intelligence and consumer insights Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Firefly Space has filed for a initial public offering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Despite conspiracy theories, there's no way that cloud seeding operations days before the storm could have influenced the floods, scientists say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

RealSense is building vision tech that helps machines like robots and drones navigate and respond to a 3D world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Helios, a startup aiming to build an AI-powered operating system for policy professionals, has raised $4 million in seed funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Devin won't replace humans developers at the bank. It will be supervised by them. Also, Sarah Smith launches $16M fund, says AI can ‘unlock' so much for solo GPs like herself. Smith launched her eponymous fund in 2022 and is a solo GP. She said she's “stunned” by what AI can unlock for firms like hers, solo and next-generation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While highly sought after, federal software contracts frequently come with a hidden cost: Achieving government SaaS security compliance, known as FedRAMP, can take years and require substantial resources. Achieving this certification typically takes up to three years and costs more than $3 million, covering everything from security operations engineer salaries to security audits Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The micromobility startup that spun out of Rivian this year, was raised $200 million from Greenoaks Capital. Also, French AI startup Mistral is in talks to raise up to $1 billion in equity from investors including Abu Dhabi's MGX fund, reports Bloomberg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With a fundraising target of €25 million, Darkstar's goal is to help startups bring battle-tested products to military customers both in Ukraine and throughout Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI infrastructure startup LangChain is raising a new round at about $1 billion valuation led by IVP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slate Auto, which came out of stealth mode earlier this year with a surprising – and surprisingly affordable – customizable electric truck, has raised $700 million to date. But long before the EV startup broke cover, it quietly raised a Series A round of more than $100 million in 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you walked into a Dubai bank to apply for a mortgage in 2020, chances are you'd spend months buried in paperwork or face a huge price discrepancy when it came to listings. Such experiences led Jad Antoun to start Huspy, a startup streamlining how people in the UAE buy homes digitally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Competitors to Darragh Buckley's Increase are so nervous about his ambitions to "own" a bank, someone has been trying to stop him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lovable released its vibe coder in late November. Within six month, the startup hit $50 million in ARR, CEO Anton Osika said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SpaceX is facing another lawsuit alleging discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lucid sold 3,309 vehicles in the second quarter, a new record for the EV maker. Still, the company must ramp up production of its Gravity SUV to meet its 2025 target. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Qedma specializes in error mitigation software. Its main piece of software, QESEM, standing for Quantum Error Suppression and Error Mitigation, analyzes noise patterns to suppress some classes of errors while the algorithm is running and mitigate others in post-processing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Genesis AI, which aims to build a foundational model for powering all kinds of robots, has emerged from stealth with $105M in seed funding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AppsForBharat, the Indian startup behind the Hindu devotional app Sri Mandir, has raised $20 million in a new round — just over nine months after securing $18 million — as the app continues to attract not only devotees but also strong investor interest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tailor, a San Francisco- and Tokyo-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, has raised $22 million in a Series A funding round. Investors include ANRI, JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC VGI), New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Spiral Capital and Y Combinator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Predibase helps companies train and fine-tune open source AI models which will help Rubrik customers deploy AI agents faster. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google will invest in Commonwealth Fusion Systems and buy 200 MW of electricity from its forthcoming power plant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PetLibro launched an AI-powered smart camera that provides users with real-time insights into their pets' activities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Henrik Werdelin has spent the last 15 years helping entrepreneurs build big brands like Barkbox through his startup studio Prehype. Now, with his new, New York-based venture Audos, he's betting that AI can help him scale that process from “tens” of startups a year to “hundreds of thousands” of aspiring business owners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wind power has run into some headwinds, and not the kind that spin its turbines.  Recently, President Trump has decided to wage war against the technology, an unwelcome bit of friction that coincides with rising costs in recent years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Indian drone startup Raphe mPhibr has raised $100 million in an all-equity Series B round led by General Catalyst, as the startup aims to boost its R&D and local production capabilities amid growing demand for drones in battlefields and for border surveillance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GoKwik, an Indian startup that offers a suite of integrated e-commerce products, has raised a small round of $13 million, which it calls a “growth” round, that has boosted its valuation to $450 million pre-money. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Startups developing voice AI technology and applications are having their moment. Model builders like ElevenLabs and Cartesia have raised millions of dollars in the last few months. Applications such as AI-powered notetaker Granola, and meeting tools Read AI and Fireflies AI have also received investor attention and backing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Konwinski is pledging $100 million of his own money for a new kind of institute to fund researchers. It's already backed Ion Stoica's new lab. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AllSpice's platform has landed customers including Blue Origin and Bose and just raised a $15 million Series A round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha is acquiring German salary payment platform for seafaring workers, Kadmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dutch e-bike startup VanMoof is back two years after bankruptcy with its first model designed under new leadership. And despite past criticism that VanMoof's over-reliance on custom parts led to the company's downfall, the S6 sticks to the brand's signature bespoke design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Joe Kinvi joined Touchtech Payments in 2017 as head of finance, the Irish startup couldn't afford his full salary. So he negotiated for stock to make up the difference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Midjourney launched its much anticipated AI video generation model, V1, on Wednesday and laid out a roadmap for its future releases. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investment app Grifin secured a $11 million Series A funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coralogix, an Israeli startup offering a full-stack observability and security platform, has raised $115 million at a pre-money valuation of over $1 billion, almost doubling in three years from its last round in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Own is the latest alternative to TikTok to emerge in the market, featuring blockchain technology and a token economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Polar as their ‘Merchant of Record' responsible for handling billing and taxes, developers can sell online products and SaaS subscriptions globally from day one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The latest San Francisco startup culture drama happened on Monday night. And it occurred over “the most legendary party that never happened." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India has been one of the top recipients of remittances in the world for more than a decade. Inward remittances jumped from $55.6 billion in 2010-11 to $118.7 billion in 2023-24, according to data from the country's central bank. The bank projects that figure will reach $160 billion in 2029. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Throughout her years working in technology, Jenny Wang, 28, always found herself stumbling back to one idea — a personal styling agent to help users decide what to wear and buy based on their budget, lifestyle, weather and calendar.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices