TechCrunch

Google Photos is getting an image edit feature powered by the Nano Banana model.

Israeli AI agent startup Wonderful has raised $100 million in a Series A round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Insight Partners, IVP, Bessemer, and Vine Ventures. The large round, in a market already crowded with AI agent startups, suggests Wonderful has convinced top tier investors it’s not just another GPT wrapper, but a company building the infrastructure and orchestration that could scale if … Read more

Startups should start forging connections with late-stage investors while they are still at the early stages.

The EC had in 2020 recommended that member nations stop using tech from “high-risk” vendors like Huawei and ZTE, and now its vice president, Henna Virkkunen, is pushing to turn that recommendation into regulation, Bloomberg reported.

Yann LeCun, a chief AI scientist at Meta, is planning to leave the company to build his own startup, which will focus on continuing his work on world models.

Robyn wants to position it self as an empathetic chatbot and not as a companion or a therapy app

The platform has attracted an eclectic user base. More than half of Fortune 500 companies are using Lovable to “supercharge creativity,” according to Osika, who insisted retention remains strong.

SoftBank and OpenAI announced a new 50-50 joint venture this week to sell enterprise AI tools in Japan under the brand “Crystal Intelligence.” On paper, it’s a straightforward international expansion deal. But SoftBank’s role as a major investor in OpenAI is raising questions about whether AI’s biggest deals are creating real economic value or just moving money in circles.  … Read more

January Ventures co-founder Jennifer Neundorfer discussed this AI-driving funding market on the Equity podcast during TechCrunch Disrupt.

AI isn’t all or nothing, and even good bets can turn sour if you aren’t careful about how you make them. 

The company is “still fighting to find ways to continue” according to an email viewed by TechCrunch.

Kaltura acquires AI avatar startup eSelf to integrate generative AI into enterprise video and learning tools.

The tech giant says the change will enable users to use their voice more naturally to access content and more.

Gamma is growing quickly, and profitably, its co-founder CEO Grant Lee says.

Wikipedia, the online nonprofit encyclopedia, is urging AI companies to stop scraping its pages and to use its paid API instead.

Carbon Direct is buying Pachama as the voluntary carbon markets enter a period of uncertainty.

Google is debuting an agent that will generate code for you to build interactive Maps projects.

Venmo launches a cash back program for debit card users, as credit card use declines among Gen Z.

Mmotion is a new friendship app that combines elements of location sharing with social discovery features to find nearby users with shared interests.

Amazon Music now lets users in Canada create and join groups based on their favorite genres and artists.

The newly independent 359 Capital is half-way through investing from $181 million second fund.

Vay, a German startup offering remote-controlled rental cars, will get an investment of up to $410M from Singaporean super-app company Grab.

Government surveillance vendors want us to believe their spyware products are only used in limited and targeted operations against terrorists and serious criminals. That claim is increasingly difficult to justify, given the broad range of victims — journalists, activists, and now political consultants — that have come forward.

Amanda Kahlow has been quietly been back in sales and marketing tech for about a year with agentic startup 1Mind.

Scribe Optimize is the startup’s next major offering to help organizations identify where AI will be most useful.

Lenskart’s public listing stirred debate over the nearly $8 billion valuation set in its IPO.

Slow Ventures hosted a three-hour “Etiquette Finishing School” this week, covering topics like the perfect handshake, public speaking, and office decorum.

YouTube TV subscribers unhappy about going more than a week without ESPN, ABC, and other Disney networks will be getting a $20 credit that can be applied to their next billing statement.

It’s an important launch for Jeff Bezos’ space company, which is trying to prove its rockets can be re-used while delivering its first commercial payloads.

After Tesla shareholders approved a new compensation package that could be worth $1 trillion, CEO Elon Musk appears to be celebrating with a normal weekend on his social media platform X.