Topic: techcrunch coverage
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Terra Oleo's Microbes: A Sustainable Palm Oil Alternative
Shen Ming Lee co-founded Terra Oleo to address the environmental harm of the palm oil industry by producing sustainable oils from agricultural waste using microbial fermentation. The startup recently secured $3.1 million in funding and is focusing on high-value specialty oils for cosmetics and ph...
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Juicebox Raises $30M to Transform Hiring with AI Search
Juicebox, founded by David Paffenholz and Ishan Gupta, has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital, bringing its total funding to $36 million to advance its AI-driven talent search engine. The company's AI tool, PeopleGPT, uses large language models to understand natural lan...
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Andrew Yang Launches Budget Carrier Noble Mobile Inspired by Mark Cuban
Andrew Yang has launched Noble Mobile, a budget-friendly mobile service that offers cash back to customers who use less data, aiming to encourage healthier digital habits. The service operates on T-Mobile's network, charging $50 monthly for unlimited talk, text, and 5G data, with users earning ab...
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Claude and Console Down: Anthropic Reports Service Outages
Anthropic experienced a significant service disruption affecting its API, Console, and Claude AI assistant, starting around 12:20 p.m. Eastern Time. The outage was brief and resolved quickly after targeted fixes, with the company continuing to monitor system performance for stability. This incide...
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Databricks Hits $100B Valuation Milestone with $4B ARR
Databricks has reached a $100 billion valuation after securing $1 billion in new funding, highlighting its rapid growth in the AI and data analytics sector. The funding will support development of a database platform to compete with Supabase, targeting AI agent applications, as automated data gen...
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WhatsApp Limits Unanswered Messages to Curb Spam
WhatsApp is introducing new limits on messages sent to non-responsive users to combat spam while maintaining core communication features. The system imposes a monthly cap on such messages, with warnings provided to users nearing the limit to prevent temporary blocks. These restrictions primarily ...
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Microsoft HQ Lockdown: Activists Occupy Brad Smith's Office
Activists occupied Microsoft President Brad Smith's office, protesting the company's cloud contracts with Israel and leading to a campus lockdown and arrests. Smith criticized the protest method, emphasizing Microsoft's preference for internal dialogue over confrontational demonstrations regardin...
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Bezos-Backed EV Startup Slate Auto: Key Facts & Details
Slate Auto, a stealth EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, emerged in April 2025 with plans to produce an ultra-cheap, customizable electric pickup truck starting under $20,000, leveraging modular design and former Harley-Davidson/Chrysler talent. The company quickly gained traction, surpassing 100,0...
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5 Pivots to Profit: How a YC App Hit 300K Users & $1M ARR in 6 Months
Candle, a social app for couples and close friends, rapidly grew to 300,000 users and over $1 million in annual recurring revenue by pivoting from a failed AI shopping tool based on user feedback and a viral TikTok video. The app differentiates itself by focusing on strengthening existing relatio...
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Fizz College App Now Offers Grocery Delivery
Fizz has partnered with Gopuff to offer in-app grocery and snack delivery in as fast as 15 minutes, enhancing convenience for students. The app combines an anonymous social network and a marketplace, and this integration builds on existing student behaviors like peer-to-peer sales and group food ...
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Google's Command-Line Tool Now Supports Extensions
Google has expanded Gemini CLI with third-party extensions, allowing companies like Figma and Stripe to integrate their services directly into the AI environment. Unlike OpenAI's curated approach, Gemini CLI extensions can be published without Google's approval, hosted on GitHub for manual instal...
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LangChain Hits $1.25B Valuation as Open Source AI Agent Startup
LangChain has reached a $1.25 billion valuation after raising $125 million in a funding round led by IVP, with participation from new and existing investors. Originally created in 2022, it gained popularity by simplifying the development of applications with large language models and secured earl...
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