Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Welcome to 2025! The first half of the week was relatively quiet in terms of startup announcements, but activity is already starting to pick up. We’re also
Month: January 2025
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined accessiBe, a startup that claims to make websites more compatible with the screen readers blind people rely on to access the internet, for false advertising and compensating reviewers without disclosing that it sponsored the reviews. In a proposed order, the FTC would require accessiBe to pay $1 million
If there was any doubt, the generative AI bubble did not burst in 2024. Investments in generative AI, which encompasses a range of AI-powered apps, tools, and services to generate text, images, videos, speech, music, and more, reached new heights last year. According to data from financial tracker PitchBook compiled for TechCrunch, generative AI companies
The fintech segment, which saw massive growth during the pandemic and immediately after, had a fairly rough 2024, ending with the abrupt shutdown — and then unexpected acquisition — of accounting startup Bench. Though the rapid pace of funding has slowed, some fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams. In an effort
Friday, December 27, was supposed to be the start of a relaxing holiday weekend. But it was chaos for thousands of small business owners who use Bench, an accounting and tax startup based in Canada that raised $113 million from investors like Bain Capital Ventures and Shopify. That morning, they found themselves unable to log
Dara Khosrowshahi is resigning from the board of autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation, citing a desire to focus on his ongoing responsibilities as CEO of Uber and reduce external board commitments, according to a Friday regulatory filing. Khosrowshahi’s resignation was effective as of Tuesday. Aurora says Khosrowshahi’s decision to leave the board was not
Hydrogen startups are widely seen as a promising way to eliminate fossil fuels from heavy industry and long-haul transportation. But they have been stuck in limbo for the last couple years, waiting for official guidance from the U.S. Treasury on lucrative tax credits. The wait ended today, with the Treasury announcing final rules for hydrogen
Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever is in advanced talks to acquire four-year-old direct-to-consumer startup Minimalist for up to $350 million, according to two people familiar with the matter. An acquisition would add to the Unilever subsidiary’s buying spree in India, where it expanded into the health and wellbeing category by acquiring Oziva and Wellbeing Nutrition
Electra has raised $76.3 million to clean up the dirty ironmaking industry, TechCrunch has learned. The startup has developed a novel method of using electricity to coax pure iron out of low-grade ores, opening the door to cleaner steel. The new funding round, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing, seeks to raise a total
We’ve seen a handful of AirPod-charging iPhone battery cases come and go over the years. Artronic’s new earbuds take a different approach, with a slim charging case that snaps directly to the back of MagSafe-compatible phones. The Komutr buds were announced on Friday, a few days ahead of their CES 2025 debut. In a sea
Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free from Friday through Sunday. The company announced the weekend of free streaming earlier this week alongside a short video featuring its most popular TV shows, including “Severance,” “Slow Horses,” “Shrinking,” and more. It’s worth noting that this is the first time that
KoBold Metals closed a $537 million Series C round on Wednesday to help build a multi-billion-dollar mine to exploit a copper deposit it found using AI. The new funding round, which was led by Durable Capital Partners and T. Rowe Price, will be used to expand the company’s exploration efforts on five continents and develop
AI is fundamentally dependent on data, but the vast majority of health data goes unused for understandable reasons — chiefly patient privacy, regulation and IP protection. “This is the core underlying problem” of building AI solutions for life sciences and related areas like pharmaceutics, said German entrepreneur Robin Röhm. And not only that: collaboration when
A lot can change in a few months. The climate tech world hasn’t exactly been turned upside down, but it’s definitely more askew than it was in the summer. The U.S. federal election results may have imperiled the startup-friendly Inflation Reduction Act, likely throwing a wrench into many companies’ business plans. Yet at the same
Spotify announced Thursday the launch of its new “Partner Program” that lets popular podcast hosts monetize their video content. Spotify’s new program gives qualifying creators on its platform opportunities for extra income beyond just advertising revenue, such as video payouts. The program was initially announced back in November and is officially available in the U.S.,
Back in May, OpenAI said it was developing a tool to let creators specify how they want their works to be included in — or excluded from — its AI training data. But 7 months later, this feature has yet to see the light of day. Called Media Manager, the tool would “identify copyrighted text,
TechCrunch’s Found podcast, which has brought listeners the stories behind the startups since April 2022, released its final episode today. I’ve been one of the hosts of Found since November 2022 and in that time have spoken to more than 75 founders about the startups they are building. These founders hail from many different backgrounds