Topic: techcrunch event
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Build Mode: TechCrunch's New Podcast for Founders
TechCrunch has launched Build Mode, a weekly podcast for early-stage founders that provides honest discussions and actionable strategies from experienced entrepreneurs and experts. The podcast, starting November 13, will tackle real startup challenges like fundraising and hiring, with J.P. Morgan...
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This $30M Startup's Dog Crate-Sized Robot Factory Learns by Watching Humans
MicroFactory has developed a compact, tabletop manufacturing system with dual robotic arms that learn from human demonstrations for precision tasks like circuit board assembly. The startup, founded by Igor Kulakov and Viktor Petrenko, was inspired by their manufacturing challenges and uses a non-...
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Sierra, Co-Founded by Bret Taylor, Raises $350M at $10B Valuation
Sierra, an AI agent startup co-founded by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, has raised $350 million in funding, reaching a $10 billion valuation led by Greenoaks Capital. The company has quickly gained hundreds of enterprise clients, including SoFi and Brex, and has raised a total of $635 million since...
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U.S. Government and Startups: A Complex Relationship
The collaboration between American startups and the federal government has deepened, providing funding and contracts in fields like AI and defense, but it also exposes startups to risks such as disruptions during government shutdowns. A recent Equity podcast highlighted that today's startups, esp...
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YouTube Music Tests AI Radio Hosts for Trivia & Commentary
YouTube Music is testing AI hosts that provide trivia and commentary about the music you're playing, aiming to create a more engaging listening experience. This feature builds on similar AI initiatives like Spotify's DJ and is being tested through YouTube Labs, initially available to a limited U....
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Meta's 'Vibes' Feed: AI-Generated Short Videos Arrive
Meta is launching "Vibes," a new feed for AI-generated short videos within its Meta AI app and website, similar to TikTok but populated entirely by AI-created content. The platform will feature personalized, algorithm-curated videos that users can create, remix, and share, with Meta partnering wi...
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Superpanel Secures $5.3M to Automate Legal Intake with AI
Superpanel, an AI platform for legal intake, has secured $5.3 million in seed funding co-led by Outlander VC and Field Ventures to support its expansion and development. The platform was founded by Julien Emery and Dingyu Zhang to automate client communication and document handling, acting as a d...
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Minute Media Acquires Indian AI Startup for Automated Sports Highlights
Minute Media, backed by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs, has acquired Indian AI startup VideoVerse to enhance automated sports highlights generation across its portfolio, including Sports Illustrated and The Players’ Tribune. VideoVerse, valued between $200–250 million, specializes in AI tools for sp...
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Augment AI Logistics Startup Raises $85M Series A from Deliverr Founder
Harish Abbott, co-founder of Deliverr, has launched Augment, an AI-driven logistics company that recently secured $85 million in Series A funding to modernize freight operations. Augment's AI assistant, Augie, automates routine tasks like tracking shipments and invoicing, reducing manual work and...
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EV Owners Face New Hurdle as Waymo's Robotaxi Fleet Tops 2,000
The electric vehicle market is facing challenges due to the transition to Tesla's charging standard and the expiration of federal tax incentives, which may reduce consumer confidence and sales. EV owners are dealing with increasing complexity from needing multiple charging adapters for different ...
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OpenAI Acquires Sky AI to Enhance Mac User Experience
OpenAI has acquired Sky AI, a natural language interface designed to enhance user interactions with Mac computers by assisting with tasks like writing, coding, and planning directly within applications. The acquisition aims to integrate OpenAI's AI deeply into Mac workflows, leveraging the Sky te...
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Zendesk AI Agent Solves 80% of Customer Support Issues
Zendesk has launched a suite of AI-driven products, including an autonomous agent that resolves 80% of customer issues independently and a co-pilot system for the remaining cases. The company's strategic shift to AI-focused support was enabled by key acquisitions, such as Hyperarc, Klaus, and Ult...
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Y Combinator's New 'Early Decision' Lets Students Graduate Before Building
Y Combinator's new Early Decision program allows student founders to secure funding and a spot in the accelerator without dropping out, challenging Silicon Valley's traditional celebration of college dropouts. The program is designed for graduating seniors, enabling them to apply, get accepted, a...
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iPhone Air's Secret Weapon: A Battery That Lasts All Day
The iPhone Air features a revolutionary battery technology with a unique two-dimensional shape, enabled by Apple's patented metal can construction for enhanced durability and design flexibility. This metal casing prevents swelling and deformation, allowing the battery to be molded to fit precisel...
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Sonair's 3D Ultrasonic Sensor: Robotic Safety Redefined
Traditional safety protocols are insufficient for robots in shared human spaces, prompting a need for new approaches like Sonair's ultrasonic sensor system. Sonair's ADAR technology uses high-frequency sound waves to create detailed 3D environmental maps, offering advantages in reliability and co...
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Kayak Co-Founder Launches Supercal to Challenge Calendly
Supercal is a new, completely free scheduling platform founded by Paul English, designed to compete with established tools like Calendly by offering robust features without cost. Its standout feature is AI-powered group scheduling that scans multiple calendars to find suitable meeting times, book...
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Rulebase: The AI Coworker for Fintech, Backed by Y Combinator
Rulebase is a fintech startup focusing on back-office automation, using AI to streamline compliance, dispute resolution, and quality assurance in financial institutions. Founded by Gideon Ebose and Chidi Williams, the company secured $2.1 million in pre-seed funding and has achieved significant c...
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Can't Snooze This Alarm: New App Forces Heavy Sleepers to Complete Tasks
Awake is a new iOS alarm app that requires users to complete physical or mental tasks to turn it off, helping them wake up more effectively. It includes unique features like a personalized morning briefing, social media blocking, and a sleep planning tool to optimize wake-up routines. Developed b...
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Sam Altman: Bots Are Making Social Media Feel "Fake"
Sam Altman expressed concern that the distinction between human and AI-generated content on social media has become so blurred that authenticity is now deeply compromised. He attributed this to factors like users adopting AI-like language, platform engagement incentives, and the rise of automated...
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Uber, Momenta to Launch Autonomous Vehicle Tests in Germany by 2026
Uber and Momenta plan to launch robotaxi testing in Munich by 2026, marking their first public deployment in continental Europe with human safety operators initially present. This partnership is part of Uber's broader strategy to integrate autonomous technology globally, having collaborated with ...
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Prezent Secures $30M to Acquire AI Services Firms, Starting with Founder's Other Company
Prezent has raised $30 million to pursue acquisitions, starting with Prezentium, enhancing its enterprise AI presentation platform and expanding its client base in the life sciences sector. The company differentiates itself by focusing on large corporate clients and embedding presentation enginee...
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Ex-PM Rishi Sunak Joins Microsoft and Anthropic as Advisor
Rishi Sunak has accepted senior advisory roles at Microsoft and Anthropic, raising concerns from Parliament's Advisory Committee about potential unfair advantages due to his privileged government knowledge. The committee highlighted risks of these firms gaining undue influence in UK policy, espec...
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Zoox Expands Autonomous Vehicle Testing to Washington DC
Zoox, an Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company, is expanding its testing to Washington D.C., its first East Coast deployment, starting with manual mapping and transitioning to autonomous tests with safety operators. The expansion to Washington D.C. was chosen for its dense urban environment and...
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Oakland Ballers Let AI Manage the Team: The Results
The Oakland Ballers experimented with an AI manager for a game, using historical and team data to autonomously make strategic decisions like substitutions and pitching changes. While the AI performed consistently with human management, the experiment sparked controversy among fans who felt it pri...
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Atlassian Buys DX for $1B to Boost Developer Productivity
Atlassian has acquired developer productivity platform DX for $1 billion, its largest purchase to date, to enhance engineering efficiency with powerful analytics tools. DX was founded to provide meaningful productivity insights without making developers feel monitored and has grown rapidly, servi...
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Nvidia Plans $500M Investment in Self-Driving Startup Wayve
Nvidia is planning a $500 million investment in Wayve, part of a larger £2 billion commitment to the UK's AI sector, reflecting strong confidence in the region's innovation. Wayve's autonomous driving technology uses a unique data-driven, self-learning AI system that operates without high-definit...
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Irregular Raises $80M to Fortify Frontier AI Security
Irregular has raised $80 million in a funding round, valuing the company at $450 million, reflecting strong investor confidence in AI security solutions. The company, formerly Pattern Labs, uses its SOLVE framework and simulated environments to test AI models for vulnerabilities and emergent risk...
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Bumble BFF Redesign: Now Focused on Friend Groups & Community
Bumble has redesigned its BFF platform to focus on friend groups and community building, responding to younger users' desire for meaningful social connections beyond one-on-one interactions. The update integrates technology from the acquired platform Geneva, introducing a Groups tab for creating ...
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Lyft & May Mobility Launch Robotaxi Service in Atlanta
Lyft and May Mobility have launched a pilot program in Atlanta, integrating autonomous vehicles into the Lyft app for on-demand robotaxi bookings, marking Lyft's latest effort to compete in the autonomous vehicle sector. The service currently uses a limited fleet of hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna ...
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Facebook's 'Poke' Feature Is Making a Comeback
The Facebook Poke feature is experiencing a resurgence, especially among younger users, and has been upgraded with gamified elements like poke counts and reward icons to boost engagement. Meta's strategy aims to replicate the habitual interaction seen on platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, though...
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WhatsApp's New AI Feature Rewrites Your Messages in Any Tone
WhatsApp has launched an AI-powered "Writing Help" tool that allows users to adjust message tone, clarity, and engagement in real time while composing. The feature uses on-device processing with Meta's Private Processing technology to ensure message content remains confidential and is never acces...
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Trump Proposes $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee, Targeting Program That Launched Musk and Instagram
The H-1B visa application fee has been increased dramatically from $215 to $100,000 per visa, a move aimed at curbing systemic abuse and protecting domestic employment. The program allows U.S. companies to hire skilled foreign professionals for specialized roles, with an annual cap of 65,000 visa...
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Latest Updates on the US TikTok Deal
TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, has faced years of U.S. scrutiny over data security concerns, leading to political tensions and service disruptions for American users. A proposed deal would transfer control of TikTok's U.S. operations to American investors like Oracle and Silver Lake, valuing...
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Unlock Your Codebase with Macroscope: AI-Powered Bug Fixing
Macroscope is an AI-driven platform that automates codebase management, bug detection, and provides natural language insights for engineering teams and product leaders. Founded by former Twitter head of product Kayvon Beykpour, the tool integrates with GitHub and other systems to analyze code and...
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Snap Launches Snap OS 2.0 with Native Browser & WebXR Support
Snap has launched Snap OS 2.0, a major software upgrade for its AR glasses, introducing a native browser, WebXR compatibility, and new interactive features to enhance user experience. The update includes a Spotlight Lens for spatially anchored content, a Gallery Lens for reviewing and sharing cap...
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The Golden Age of Robotics Startups Is Here (And It's Not Just AI)
Venture capital investment in robotics has surged, with $6 billion deployed in the first seven months of 2025, driven by tangible commercial successes and clearer market applications. The sector's growth was catalyzed by Amazon's 2013 acquisition of Kiva Systems, which inspired new companies and ...
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Anthropic Users: Opt Out or Share Data for AI Training
Anthropic now requires all users to decide by September 28 whether to consent to their data being used for AI model training, a shift from its previous policy of deleting consumer chat data within 30 days. Users who do not opt out will have their interactions retained for up to five years to impr...
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Framer No-Code Builder Hits $2 Billion Valuation Milestone
Framer has reached a $2 billion valuation after raising $100 million in a Series D funding round led by existing investors, highlighting its rapid growth in the no-code website building market. The platform, which has over half a million monthly active users, focuses on enabling teams to create d...
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X Rebrands Verified as Premium Business and Organizations
X has rebranded its premium services into two tiers: Premium Business with a gold checkmark for companies and Premium Organizations with a grey checkmark for government bodies. Premium Business offers tools for scaling, including credibility boosts, visibility features, and support, with pricing ...
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NFDG Backs Composite's Cross-Browser Testing Tool
Composite is a cross-browser automation tool designed to help professionals save time by automating repetitive digital tasks across platforms like Chrome and Safari, distinguishing itself from single-environment AI browsers. Founded by former Uber product manager Yang Fan Yun and Charlie Deane, t...
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Threads Launches Communities to Rival X
Meta is introducing Communities on Threads to create dedicated spaces for users to connect over shared interests, positioning the app as a strong alternative to other social networks with over 400 million monthly active users. Unlike X's user-created communities, Meta itself is creating and manag...
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PayPal's Honey Teams Up With ChatGPT for AI Shopping
PayPal's Honey browser extension now integrates with AI chatbots to offer personalized shopping assistance, including product recommendations, real-time pricing, and exclusive deals. The feature aims to help consumers make informed price comparisons and assist merchants in boosting sales through ...
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Al Gore's AI Tracks 660 Million Polluters
Climate Trace, an AI initiative co-founded by Al Gore, monitors air pollution from over 660 million global sources, providing public data on PM2.5 to increase transparency and identify pollution impacts. The project was inspired by a community fight in Memphis and uses AI to track pollution plume...
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Amazon's New AI Agent Helps Sellers Automate Tasks & Grow Business
Amazon has launched an AI agent called Seller Assistant to help sellers automate daily operations and scale their businesses with proactive, around-the-clock support. The tool actively identifies issues like slow-moving inventory, recommends strategic actions, and ensures compliance with regional...
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Google Ventures Doubles Down on Blacksmith Just 4 Months After Seed Round
Blacksmith, a startup specializing in continuous integration and delivery optimization, has secured a $10 million Series A investment led by Google Ventures, following strong early traction and rapid growth. The company differentiates itself by using high-performance, gaming-grade CPUs, which it ...
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TikTok's US Future: The Buyout Battle Explained
The future of TikTok in the U.S. is uncertain due to national security concerns over data access by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, leading to legislative actions and potential divestment or a ban. A tentative framework has been established between U.S. and Chinese officials, with investor...
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Via Stock Rises Slightly Above IPO Price After Slow Start
Via's IPO was priced at $46 per share, raising $493 million, with shares closing above $49 and valuing the company at $3.9 billion. The company, which provides transit optimization software to 689 cities, plans to use IPO proceeds for growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. Via has shown s...
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Tesla Shareholders to Vote on Musk's xAI Investment
Tesla shareholders are voting on a proposal to invest in Elon Musk's xAI, aiming to strengthen Tesla's position in AI, robotics, and energy. The board is neutral on the proposal, which could make Tesla the second Musk-led company to invest in xAI, following SpaceX's commitment. The vote coincides...
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Anthropic Raises $13B Series F at $183B Valuation
Anthropic has raised $13 billion in a Series F funding round, reaching a post-money valuation of $183 billion to support enterprise adoption, safety research, and global expansion. The company's annual recurring revenue surged from $1 billion to $5 billion in 2025, driven by strong API usage and ...
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TikTok Adds Voice Notes and Image Sharing to DMs
TikTok is introducing voice notes and expanded media sharing to enhance user interaction and transform the platform into a more versatile communication hub. Users can send voice messages up to 60 seconds and share up to nine images or videos per message, with safety measures like restrictions on ...
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