TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition

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    Latest episodes from TechCrunch Startups – Spoken Edition

    Former OpenAI and DeepMind researchers raise whopping $300M seed to automate science, plus, Whoop opens blood-testing service to what it says is a 350,000-person waitlist

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2025 5:18


    Periodic Labs was founded by Ekin Dogus Cubuk and Liam Fedus. Cubuk led the materials and chemistry team at Google Brain and DeepMind, where one of his projects was, for instance, an AI tool called GNoME. Researchers say that tool discovered over 2 million new crystals in 2023, materials that could one day be used to power new generations of technology.  Whoop Advanced Labs offers health-screening blood tests from Quest Diagnostics that cover a variety of markers, from calcium to white blood cells. The platform integrates those results with the band's continuous monitoring of activity, sleep, respiratory rate, and blood pressure to offer more personalized wellness advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    CommanderAI building Salesforce for the waste management industry, also, a year after filing to IPO, still-private Cerebras Systems raises $1.1B

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2025 8:25


    CommanderAI launched in early 2024 as a customer relationship manager and sales prospecting platform built for waste management — and other industrial services like dumpster rentals and industrial recyclers – to fill that gap.   Also, Silicon Valley-based Cerebras announced it raised a $1.1 billion Series G round on Tuesday that valued the AI hardware company at $8.1 billion. The round was co-led by Fidelity and Atreides Management with participation from Tiger Global, Valor Equity Partners, and 1789 Capital, among others.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Vibe-coding startup Anything nabs a $100M valuation after hitting $2M ARR in its first two weeks; also, AI recruiter Alex raises $17M to automate initial job interviews

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2025 8:42


    It's no secret that vibe coding — using AI-powered coding tools to build apps and websites via natural language prompts — is exploding in popularity. In July, Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue just eight months after launch, plans to close the year at $250 million ARR and thinks it will hit $1 billion ARR within the next 12 months. Meanwhile, Replit said earlier this month that its ARR soared from $2.8 million to $150 million in less than a year. Also, job seekers in all fields can expect to soon be doing a lot more initial screening interviews. While that may sound like positive news, it doesn't mean that there will suddenly be more open positions. Instead, recruiters, often bogged down with determining which applicants are qualified for the next round, will outsource the routine screening tasks — like checking backgrounds, salary needs, and availability — to (you guessed it) AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    The startup behind open source tool Polars raises $21M from Accel; plus, ComplexChaos thinks AI can help people find common ground

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2025 8:11


    Polars, the Amsterdam-based company behind the popular open source project of the same name, has raised about $21 million in a Series A round led by Accel, with participation from Bain Capital Partners and angel investors. But while raising this kind of money is the dream of many developers, its creator Ritchie Vink didn't set out to do so. Also, making democracy work isn't easy, as recent events have made clear. Some critics would argue that technology is making it worse. But one startup is hoping that AI could help bridge some differences instead of widen them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Paid, the AI agent ‘results-based billing' startup, raised huge $21M seed; former Microsoft execs launch AI agents to end Excel-led finance

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2025 8:38


    Paid just closed an oversubscribed $21.6 million seed round led by Lightspeed. With the €10 million pre-seed round it raised in March, London-based Paid has already raised $33.3 million and hasn't even hit its Series A yet. A source familiar with the deal says the startup's valuation is over $100 million. Also, despite millions spent on financial software, many finance teams still rely on Excel to close their books and reconcile numbers while preparing them for audit. Two former Microsoft executives view it as a problem — and they have started Maximor to replace spreadsheets with AI agents for the grunt work finance teams perform. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Steph Curry's VC firm just backed an AI startup that wants to fix food supply chains, also Doorstep raises $8M seed to help find missing food deliveries

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 26, 2025 9:27


    A Y Combinator startup called Burnt thinks AI agents — software that can automatically handle tasks typically done by humans — can succeed where traditional enterprise software hasn't in the trillion-dollar U.S. food market. Doorstep integrates into existing delivery apps and then, using phone sensors, tracks when a driver has entered a building, gone up an elevator, and made it to the desired doorstep.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Starpath bets on mass-produced, space-rated solar

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2025 4:57


    Starpath's new space-rated solar panel business kicked off sales in the U.S. on Thursday with an eyebrow-raising pitch. The company says its solar panels, called “Starlight,” are priced around 10 times cheaper than typical industry pricing of $72.50 per watt, roughly a 90% cost reduction versus the status quo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Nothing to spin off its affordable CMF brand; plus Y Combinator's ‘Early Decision' is for students who want to graduate first, build later

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2025 6:49


    Hardware startup Nothing said Thursday that it plans to make its affordable device brand, CMF, into an independent subsidiary with India serving as its headquarters for manufacturing and R&D. The company first launched CMF in 2023 with a pair of earbuds and a smartwatch. Since then, it has introduced smartphones under the brand as well. Also, the accelerator has introduced a new application track called Early Decision, designed for students who want to start companies but don't want to drop out. The program allows them to apply while still in school, get accepted and funded immediately, and defer their participation in YC until after they graduate. For example, a student applying in fall 2025 could graduate next spring, then participate in YC's Summer 2026 batch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Cohere hits $7B valuation a month after its last raise, partners with AMD; plus, Waymo is getting into the corporate travel business

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2025 5:58


    On Wednesday, Enterprise AI model-maker Cohere said it raised an additional $100 million in an extension to a round announced in August, bumping its valuation to $7 billion. The company said at the time that the  August round was an oversubscribed $500 million round at a $6.8 billion valuation. Also, Waymo's ever-expanding robotaxi aspirations have spread to the corporate world. The Alphabet-owned self-driving vehicle unit has launched “Waymo for Business,” a new service designed for companies to set up accounts so their employees can access robotaxis in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Telo raises $20 million to build tiny electric trucks for cities; also, Sila opens U.S. factory to make silicon anodes for energy dense EV batteries

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 24, 2025 10:40


    The US loves trucks. So is the key to making them love electric trucks… a very small one? That's the bet that California-based startup Telo has been making since its inception in 2022. The company has designed a bite-sized truck called the MT1 with an admittedly not-so-small starting price of around $41,000. Also, Sila, the battery materials startup, started operations Tuesday at its facility in Moses Lake, Washington, a milestone that could pave the way for longer range, faster charging EVs. The factory, which will initially be capable of making enough battery materials for 20,000 to 50,000 EVs, is the first large-scale silicon anode factory in the West, and future expansion could fulfill demand for as many as 2.5 million vehicles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Tim Chen has quietly become of one the most sought-after solo investors; and AI company Superpanel raises $5.3M seed to automate legal intake

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2025 8:51


    Tim Chen, solo VC at his firm Essence VC, said he just closed his fourth fund, a fresh $41 million, without even trying. Limited partner investors were so eager to invest, they preempted it, he told TechCrunch. He didn't even have time to generate a pitch deck.  Also, For Julien Emery, the problem has always been personal.  He's the CEO and co-founder of Superpanel, a platform that helps law firms seamlessly onboard new clients.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Bluesky says it's getting more aggressive about moderation and enforcement, also, Oura ring maker raising $875M Series E

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2025 6:31


     In a new blog post, the company said it received comments from more than 14,000 community members and that it “especially heard from community members who shared concerns about how the guidelines could impact creative expression and traditionally marginalized voices.” The company  said, “after considering this feedback, and in a return to our experimental roots, we are going to bring a greater focus to encouraging constructive dialogue and enforcing our rules against harassment and toxic content. For starters, we are going to increase our enforcement efforts.” Also, Oura Health Oy, the maker of the Oura health and fitness ring, is raising $875 million in a new Series E financing round valuing it around $10.9 billion, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Nvidia eyes $500M investment into self-driving tech startup Wayve, also, UK fintech Tide becomes a TPG-backed unicorn

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2025 8:00


    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang descended on the United Kingdom this week, armed with a pledge to invest $2.6 billion to supercharge the country's AI startup ecosystem. Wayve, the U.K.-based self-driving tech startup, could be one of those to receive funds from Nvidia's AI investment commitment. Also, U.K.-based fintech Tide has entered the unicorn club with a fresh funding of $120 million led by TPG, as the startup now serves over 1.6 million micro and small enterprises globally — with more than half of them based in India, the company's largest and fastest-growing market. The new round — a mix of primary and secondary investment, though the startup declined to confirm the exact split — values the eight-year-old startup at $1.5 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    Indian fintech Jar turns profitable by enabling millions to save in gold

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2025 6:03


    Jar, an Indian fintech startup that allows users to invest in gold, has turned profitable by helping millions of first-time savers use its app to build digital gold holdings. While many consumer fintechs focus on affluent urban users or credit products, Jar has gained traction by offering a culturally familiar asset — gold — as a low-barrier entry point to saving.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    How AI startups are fueling Google's booming cloud business, also, Numeral raises $35M to automate sales tax with AI

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2025 8:10


    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 is the music social network Apple and Spotify wish they had built

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 18, 2025 6:19


    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

    Google Ventures doubles down on dev tool startup Blacksmith just 4 months after its seed round; also, Icarus raises $6.1M to take on space's “warehouse work” with embodied-AI robots

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2025 9:16


    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

    Same-day delivery comes to space, as Impulse promises satellite transport in hours, not months, and more

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2025 9:16


    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

    MicroFactory built a tabletop manufacturing kit the size of a s dog crate; also, Nothing closes $200M Series C led by Tiger Global

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2025 8:29


    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 plans to launch a startups fund open to all retail investors

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2025 7:22


    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

    Harvard Law to AI: MarqVision lands $48M to combat brand abuse ... and OpenAI's board chair says we're in an AI bubble (but that's okay)

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2025 8:10


    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

    Hike, once a unicorn, shuts down as India cracks down on real-money gaming

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2025 4:11


    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

    We are entering a golden age of robotics startups — and not just because of AI

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2025 8:49


    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

    The music industry is broken: OpenWav's new app aims to change that

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2025 6:49


    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

    While US stalls, Australia and Anduril move to put XL undersea vehicle into service, plus Perplexity reportedly raised $200M

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2025 5:48


    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 gets its first major order for electric tugboats worth $160M, also Klarna's IPO pops, raising $1.4B

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 11, 2025 8:23


    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

    AI gaming startup Born raises $15M to build ‘social' AI companions that combat loneliness, plus another app just raised $14M to take on the loneliness epidemic

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2025 8:37


    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

    Why SpaceX made a $17B bet on the direct-to-cell market, also Ramp says it has hit $1B in annualized revenue

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2025 7:09


    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 gets $10.5M to help the nuclear industry embrace AI, plus ReOrbit lands record funding to take on Musk's Starlink from Europe

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2025 8:13


    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

    Nuclear startup Deep Fission goes public in a curious SPAC, Space DOTS raises $1.5M, and Cognition AI defied turbulence with a $400M raise at $10.2B valuation

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2025 8:24


    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 an Amazon-backed AI startup making Orson Welles fan fiction?

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2025 5:57


    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

    Koah raises $5M to bring ads into AI apps

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2025 5:58


    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

    Natron's liquidation shows why the US isn't ready to make its own batteries and more tech news

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2025 7:07


    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

    AI logistics startup Augment raised massive $85M Series A; plus Mark Zuckerberg sues Mark Zuckerberg

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 5, 2025 6:46


    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

    Atlassian to buy Arc developer The Browser Company for $610M; also, Madrid's Orbital Paradigm aims to prove a cheaper path to orbital reentry

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2025 6:33


    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

    Orchard Robotics raises $22M for farm vision AI; also, Mistral on the cusp of securing a $14B valuation

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2025 5:51


    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

    Advanced geothermal startups are getting warmed up and Fizz expands into grocery delivery

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2025 7:09


    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

    Anthropic raises $13B Series F at $183 billion valuation, also OpenAI acquires product testing startup Statsig

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2025 5:22


    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

    Klarna revives IPO plans, aims to raise $1.27B, also India's Offgrid raises $15M to make lithium optional for battery storage

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2025 7:34


    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

    Billionaire Ambani taps Google, Meta to build India's AI backbone

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2025 5:28


    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

    Microsoft and Uber alum raises $3M for YC-backed Munify, a neobank for the Egyptian diaspora

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2025 5:22


    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 gets $25M to fix enterprise AI's 95% failure rate

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2025 5:07


    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

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