Fundings and Exits

Few truly autonomous systems are deployed on the battlefield, but one startup is looking to change that with robotic systems that use cooperative behavior to boost troops’ intelligence and tactical advantage. Those systems are called “swarms,” and they’re basically collections of autonomous robots that can coordinate their actions.  Swarm robotics have been the stuff of

The fintech segment, which saw massive growth during the pandemic and immediately after, has had a fairly rough 2024. But while the rapid pace of funding has slowed, many fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams. In an effort to better understand just how many fintechs might fit into this category, I

We’re entering the final week of discounted rates for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Save up to $600 on select individual ticket types until August 23. Join a dynamic crowd of over 10,000 attendees, startup founders and VC investors at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. Here are just a few big reasons to attend

Earlier this year, Bridgit Mendler surprised her fans when she announced that she was heading a new space data startup called Northwood Space. With Northwood, the former Disney star and singer is taking aim at an overlooked but critical part of space infrastructure: ground stations. She’s coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on October 28-30 in

The Startup Battlefield is one of the highlights of Disrupt, and we can’t wait to see which of the thousands of applicants will be selected to pitch to panels of top-tier VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place on October 28–30 in San Francisco. It’s always epic, and every contender is on the road to making a

An AI social media vetting startup Ferretly has raised $2.5 million in seed funding and is launching a new platform designed to screen election personnel. Founded in 2019, Ferretly leverages AI to scan social media and publicly available online data to uncover potential risks and behaviors that traditional background checks may overlook. The startup is

What is the right way to build a software business? Many startup advisers say that B2B software should solve one pain point, gain customers, then add features as their company grows. Serial founder Parker Conrad, currently the founder and CEO of Rippling, an HR software startup valued at $13.5 billion in April, thinks that’s the

Stoke Space is nothing if not ambitious. The five-year-old launch startup has generated a lot of hype due to its bold plans to develop the first fully reusable rocket, with both the booster and second stage vertically returning to Earth.  Those plans got a major boost a year ago, when the U.S. Space Force awarded

EliseAI, a company developing a suite of AI-powered property management tools for landlords, has raised $75 million in a Series D round that values the startup at $1 billion. EliseAI is the brainchild of co-founder and CEO Minna Song, who met the company’s second co-founder, Tony Stoyanov, while the two were undergraduate students at Cambridge.

Kristen Faulkner’s astonishing Olympic success of two gold medals stems from lessons learned from her former career as a venture capitalist. Faulkner was an associate investor at Threshold Ventures, and at Bessemer Venture Partners before that, leaving the VC world in 2021 to pursue cycling. She wasn’t initially scheduled to ride in the 158-kilometer (98-mile)

Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide has received the green light to test its driverless vehicles with passengers in California.  The step comes as WeRide begins the process to go public on the U.S. stock market at a nearly $5 billion valuation. The timing also coincides with reports that the Commerce Department is considering a ban

The cost of healthcare in the U.S. has been rising rapidly, but the portion of those costs footed by patients has increased even faster. Just two decades ago, fees paid by patients accounted for only 5% of hospitals’ and doctors’ revenue, but by 2017, those fees made up 35% of revenue. This trend inevitably led millions

Score, the dating app for people with good to excellent credit, shut down in early August, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Score was only supposed to be a pop-up app, as TechCrunch previously reported, and was only supposed to be around for 90 days. This was back in February. But it received so much user

If you’re looking to buy or sell a used Peloton bike, a startup called Trade My Spin could be the solution. In theory, you don’t need a whole separate marketplace to do this. And yes, you can definitely buy or sell a bike on Facebook or Craigslist already. But Trade My Spin’s CEO Ari Kimmelfeld

Heavy equipment manufacturer CNH Industrial has a long history of mergers and acquisitions, at times supervising legendary brands like Ferrari. But five years ago, as agtech was booming, the global giant was struggling to tap into the startup scene.  The conglomerate turned to one of its longest-tenured executives, a swashbuckling Italian businessman named Michele Lombardi.

The valuation of Oyo, once India’s second-most valuable startup at $10 billion, has dipped to $2.4 billion in a new funding round. The Gurugram-headquartered startup has raised $173.5 million in a Series G funding round. InCred Wealth, Patient Capital and J&A Partners invested in the new round. TechCrunch reported in May that Oyo was seeking

When AI companion startup Friend revealed it had spent $1.8 million on buying the www.friend.com domain name last week, it set off a debate around what exactly branding is worth, and how startups should be spending cash. Founders of other companies like Loom and Public came forward to share stories of their own quests to

AI was prominent in the news cycle this week — yet again. In this Friday’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo and Becca Szkutak kick off the show dissecting a bill which aims to regulate AI at the model level. Naturally, some VCs and founders as well as students and professors

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. This week we are looking at AI founders who are playing musical chairs, a massive defense tech investment, and more issues at Techstars. Let’s get into it. Most

The rise of neobanks has been fascinating to witness, as a number of companies in recent years have grown from merely challenging traditional banks to being massive players in and of themselves. Chime and Dave are just two examples of such neobanks. Hear from Chime product officer Madhu Muthukumar and Dave CEO Jason Wilk at

In 1996, two companies, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions, formed a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients. CloudPay grew quietly over the next several decades, adding workflow automation features to maintain pace with upstart rivals. It’s still growing, CFO Andy Thomson assures TechCrunch. Thomson claims that CloudPay is handling

AI companies are gobbling up investor money and securing sky-high valuations early in their life cycle. This dynamic has many calling the AI industry a bubble. Nick Frosst, a co-founder of Cohere, which builds custom AI models for enterprise customers, recently said on TechCrunch’s Found podcast that he doesn’t think the AI industry is in

Last year’s investor dreams of a strong 2024 IPO pipeline have faded, if not fully disappeared, as we settle in to the second half of the year. This year delivered four venture-backed tech IPOs — Reddit, Astera Labs, Ibotta and Rubrik — in March and April, which made it seem like this year could spur

Defense tech startup Anduril has closed what will almost certainly end up being one of the largest funding rounds of the year: a $1.5 billion deal that values the company at $14 billion.  Anduril has ambitions of becoming the next great American defense contractor, joining a class of companies that has shrunk to just five

Digital transformation — the process of transforming outdated apps and processes with cloud technologies and digital workflows — can be a risky undertaking. In 2023, Harvard Business Review reported that while 89% of large companies have a digital and AI transformation underway, they’ve only captured 31% of the expected revenue uplift and 25% of anticipated

New York-based fintech Payoneer has acquired Skuad, a Singapore-based global HR and payroll startup, for $61 million in cash, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.  Payoneer said it could also pay up to another $10 million, contingent on if Skuad meets various performance goals within the first 18 months of the acquisition. Payoneer also committed to

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky suggested on Tuesday’s Q2 earnings call with investors that the company will soon expand into new products and services, including co-hosting, a relaunch of Airbnb’s “experiences,” guest services and more. The company positioned the upcoming offerings as a way for Airbnb to grow its revenue by becoming known for doing more

When Nick Frosst was in college over a decade ago, he was worried he was a little late to the AI game. Frosst, a co-founder of enterprise AI startup Cohere, said on a recent episode of TechCrunch’s Found podcast that he came to this conclusion in 2012 after Geoffrey Hinton released his research that showed

Location data, for better or worse, continues to be a part of the bedrock of how apps are built. Now a startup developing AI market research based on that location data, Placer.ai, has quietly raised $75 million at an expanded valuation of nearly $1.5 billion, TechCrunch has learned. The startup provides a wide range of

From golf to fishing to pickleball, outdoor sports and recreation saw a boom during the pandemic. But unlike some pandemic-driven trends (virtual conferences, Zoom happy hours), the interest in outdoor activities has stuck. By the end of 2023, outdoor participation grew to a record 175.8 million people, or 57% of all Americans aged 6 and