Pocket Casts, the podcast app acquired by Automattic in 2021, is now making its web player free. The company says the move offers an alternative to the big platforms’ closed ecosystems, where algorithmic-driven content is prioritized and podcasts are kept behind paywalls. Podcasts were built on open technology — the open, decentralized standard RSS, which … Read more
Flower Labs, a Y Combinator-backed startup, on Tuesday launched a preview of its distributed cloud platform for serving AI models, called Flower Intelligence. Mozilla is already using it to power the upcoming Assist summarization add-on for its Thunderbird email client. What makes Flower Intelligence unique, Flower Labs said in a post on X, is that … Read more
The intersection of robotics and AI continues to attract attention from investors and Big Tech alike. The latest indicator? Dexterity, a startup specializing in industrial robots with “human-like” finesse, has raised $95 million at a post-money valuation of $1.65 billion, per Bloomberg. The investment, which includes backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sumitomo Corp., highlights … Read more
Geothermal resources have enormous potential to provide the sort of consistent power that data centers crave. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
On Tuesday, OpenAI released new tools designed to help developers and enterprises build AI agents – automated systems that can independently accomplish tasks – using the company’s own AI models and frameworks. The tools are part of OpenAI’s new Responses API, which lets businesses develop custom AI agents that can perform web searches, scan through … Read more
Speaking at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, tech investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban shared his thoughts on how AI technology can help small businesses outperform their competition. In short, he told the crowd that AI was not the answer, in and of itself, but is meant to serve as an aid that can help … Read more
Last year, Hugging Face, the AI dev platform, launched LeRobot, a collection of open AI models, data sets, and tools to help build real-world robotics systems. On Tuesday, Hugging Face teamed up with AI startup Yaak to expand LeRobot with a training set for robots and cars that can navigate environments, like city streets, autonomously. … Read more
Waymo will start offering robotaxi rides to people in its “Waymo One” early rider program in Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto, and “parts of Sunnyvale” starting Wednesday, an expansion that will bring its footprint in Silicon Valley to 27 square miles. The Waymo vehicles will be available around-the-clock, and the new territories add to … Read more
Hinge Health, a 10-year-old company that offers a digital solution to treat chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, filed to go public. Although Hinge has not yet announced how many shares, nor priced them, the IPO specialists at Renaissance Capital estimate the company hopes to raise up to $500 million in its offering. Hinge’s revenue in 2024 … Read more
The banking-as-a-service space took a hit last year when Synapse collapsed. But that hasn’t stopped BaaS startup Synctera from raising another $15 million in funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. Synctera works to provide companies “of all shapes and sizes with everything they need to launch and operate fintech and embedded banking products,” including: accounts, cards, … Read more
Worth, a company focused on helping fintechs, banks, and enterprises underwrite small and medium-sized businesses more easily, has raised $20 million in a seed funding round, the startup tells TechCrunch exclusively. It’s a large seed round, especially these days when capital is harder to come by. But the founders’ history may have something to do … Read more
You’re not the only one getting voicemails about your car’s extended warranty. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), about 2.6 million people submitted reports on falling victim to fraud in 2024, totaling $12.5 billion in losses. That’s a big jump from $2.5 billion lost in 2023, when the FTC received roughly the same … Read more
TikTok announced on Tuesday that it’s rolling out new features to protect teens on its app. The social network is giving parents the ability to block their teen from using TikTok during certain hours and see their teen’s following and followers lists through new Family Pairing features. TikTok is also going to encourage young users … Read more
Plankey, if approved by the Senate, will serve as CISA’s third director. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Ahead of a May deadline to lock in guidance for providers of general purpose AI (GPAI) models on complying with provisions of the EU AI Act that apply to Big AI, a third draft of the Code of Practice was published on Tuesday. The Code has been in formulation since last year, and this draft … Read more
It’s no secret that AI has eaten the lion’s share of funding over the past couple of years, with investments into the sector surging 62% to $110 billion in 2024 alone, while startup funding overall declined 12%. Startups may think that just adding “AI” to their company’s name might help them secure that funding. But … Read more
Airtel has tied up with SpaceX to launch Starlink in India. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Medical devices, wearables — we are all familiar with them. But are they linked in any way to the healthcare system and the databases that are supposed to keep us healthy? The answer in most cases is no, they are not. Vital, which is rebranding to “Junction”, provides a single API to integrate wearables and … Read more
The reactor, called Lawson Machine 26 (LM26), is General Fusion’s latest iteration in a string of devices that have tested various parts of its unique approach. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Zolve, a neobanking startup targeting global citizens seeking credit, has raised $251 million in a new round to expand into Canada and launch loans. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Enterprises these days can choose from hundreds of apps and services available to secure their networks, data and assets — nearly as many more to help them manage all the alerts and extra work that those security apps generate. But what if you could build your own apps, customised to your own workloads, to simplify … Read more
Hawcx, backed by Engineering Capital, aims to solve passkeys’ adoption challenge with its new tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
African VC firm Equator has raised $55M for its first fund, which will back early-stage climate tech startups on the continent. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apple’s next set of major updates for the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems could bring the biggest design changes across the company’s platforms in years, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. The revamp, set to come in with iOS19, iPadOS 19 and macOS 16, will refresh icons, menus, apps, windows, and system buttons while simplifing … Read more
Reshape Energy is betting on a more integrated approach to accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment. Founded in Munich, Germany back in May 2024, the startup is led by a team with expertise scaling energy businesses, including the German division of Octopus energy and energy price comparison platform Verivox. It’s focusing on selling energy … Read more
A new venture firm called Leitmotif has been on a quiet blitz for the last 16 months, funding around 20 startups broadly focused on decarbonization. Its portfolio includes EV companies, space and battery plays, and four nuclear fusion startups. But the firm has only said its funding is from “European industrial interests.” Now, Leitmotif has … Read more
Hexa is trying something new. Instead of fostering startups from the ground up and incubating them for the first year or so, the Paris-based startup studio is acquiring a majority stake in Veevart, a vertical software-as-a-service company for museums that provides solutions for ticketing, fundraising, CRM and collection management. Hexa is a familiar name in … Read more
Medical imaging is a broad term that encompasses several distinct technologies. After working on AI-powered tools to enhance X-rays and mammographies, French startup Gleamer now aims to tackle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Instead of starting from scratch, Gleamer has acquired two startups that have already been working on AI-powered MRI analysis: Pixyl and Caerus Medical. … Read more
Infinite Uptime, which offers predictive maintenance solutions for factories, has raised $35 million in a Series C round to expand its footprint in the U.S. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Dustin Moskovitz is retiring from Asana, the software company he founded in 2008. Asana, a task management platform, announced his retirement as part of the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, CNBC reported. Moskovitz informed the board he intends to move into a chair role when a new CEO starts. The company has raised more than … Read more