Topic: techcrunch coverage
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Bezos-Backed EV Startup: Key Facts and Details
Slate Auto, a stealth EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, launched in April 2025 with a plan to produce a highly customizable, ultra-affordable electric pickup truck starting under $20,000, a price reliant on a federal tax credit. The company generated significant consumer interest, surpassing 150,0...
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ChatGPT Pro Plan Launches at $100 Monthly
OpenAI has introduced a new $100 monthly ChatGPT Pro plan, positioned between its $20 Plus plan and a $200 Pro option to compete with Anthropic's Claude. The key difference between the $100 and $200 Pro plans is their rate limits, with the $200 tier offering substantially higher capacity for dema...
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How Lovable’s 10% Pay Raise Fights Toxic Company Culture
Lovable offers all full-time employees a guaranteed 10% annual salary increase on their work anniversary, a rare policy in corporate America that provides direct cash raises with no strings attached. The policy is feasible due to Lovable's explosive revenue growth, having surpassed $400 million i...
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Fintech startup Parker files for bankruptcy
Parker, a fintech startup offering corporate credit cards for e-commerce businesses, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased operations, despite its website still promoting over $200 million in total funding. The company, which emerged from Y Combinator and secured Series A funding from Val...
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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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Coby Adcock’s Scout AI raises $100M for war training models
Scout AI, a defense startup founded in 2024, has raised a $100 million Series A funding round to develop its "Fury" AI model for operating military assets, initially for logistics but intended to eventually control autonomous weapons. The company is training its AI on rugged, unmarked terrain usi...
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Musely raises $360M from General Catalyst, no equity given
Musely secured over $360 million in non-dilutive capital from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund through a revenue-share-like agreement, with no equity stake or traditional interest-bearing loan. The company has been cash flow positive for years, growing revenue at 50% year-over-year and serv...
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Anthropic Expands Claude Code's Capabilities With Guardrails
Anthropic's Claude Code introduces an "auto mode" that allows the AI to independently execute safe actions, aiming to accelerate developer workflows without sacrificing security. The system uses real-time AI safeguards to evaluate and block potentially dangerous operations, like unauthorized acce...
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First EU Alternative App Store Announces Shutdown
Setapp Mobile, a subscription-based alternative app store in the EU, will shut down by February 2026, citing Apple's complex and evolving fee structure, including the Core Technology Fee, as the primary reason. The closure highlights the difficulty for companies to build sustainable strategies un...
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Runlayer Secures $11M from Khosla, Felicis to Launch MCP AI Security
Runlayer has launched with $11 million in seed funding to secure the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which is widely adopted by major tech companies and has already attracted clients like Gusto and Instacart. The MCP, an open-source standard for AI agents to interact with external systems, lacks bu...
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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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Stop Zoom from Recording You With This Hack
Venture capitalist Jeremy Levine now appears on Zoom calls as “Jeremy Levine I do not consent to transcribing or recording” to protest the growing norm of always-on AI transcription in meetings. The rise of AI note-taking apps has led to widespread recording of professional meetings and even pers...
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Why Wispr Flow is Betting Big on Voice AI in India
Wispr Flow, an AI voice input startup, has identified India as its fastest-growing market due to ingrained voice habits, and it is focusing on Hinglish support and Android launch to tap into this potential. The company's growth in India surged to roughly 100% month-over-month after recent campaig...
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India's AI Ambitions Meet the Creator Economy's Ad Crisis
The digital creator economy is maturing, with top creators diversifying beyond advertising into product lines and direct-to-consumer ventures to build sustainable brand empires. A global race in AI is underway, with India actively positioning itself as a key player by fostering innovation and foc...
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AMD Debuts New AI PC Processors for Gaming & Productivity at CES
AMD has launched its next-generation Ryzen AI 400 Series processors, designed to bring advanced AI capabilities to consumer PCs and offering significant performance gains over competing chips. The new chips feature 12 CPU cores and 24 threads to handle demanding AI workloads, with AMD supporting ...
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Mesa Ends Mortgage-Rewards Credit Card
Mesa has permanently shut down its Homeowners Card program, closing all accounts and halting its unique rewards system for mortgage and household spending. The startup, which launched with significant funding, offered a novel credit card targeting home-related expenses but has not disclosed its f...
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Spoor's Bird Monitoring AI Software Takes Flight
Spoor's AI-powered software uses cameras to detect and identify birds with 96% accuracy, helping industries like wind farms minimize avian collisions through operational adjustments. The technology addresses a regulatory gap by replacing outdated manual monitoring, and its applications are expand...
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