Fundraising

Adept, a startup developing AI-powered “agents” to complete various software-based tasks, has agreed to license its tech to Amazon and the startup’s co-founders and portions of its team have joined…

Amazon hires founders away from AI startup Adept

There are plenty of resources to learn English, but not so many for near-native speakers who still want to improve their fluency. That description applies to Stan Beliaev and Yurii…

YC alum Fluently’s AI-powered English coach attracts $2M seed round

Many VC firms are struggling to attract new capital from their own backers amid a tepid IPO environment. But established, brand-name firms are still able to raise large funds. On…

Kleiner Perkins announces $2 billion in fresh capital, showing that established firms can still raise large sums

Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje‘s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Editor’s…

DEI? More like ‘common decency’ — and Silicon Valley is saying ‘no thanks’

In an industry where creators are often tossed aside like yesterday’s lootboxes, MegaMod swoops in with a heroic promise to put them front and center.

Pitch Deck Teardown: MegaMod’s $1.9M seed deck

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is jam-packed with deals, hot topics and the…

AI-powered drug development, VW teams up with Rivian and DEI is ‘bad’

The salad days of fresh grocery delivery startups are over, but those that have stayed the course, and built businesses that are seeing gains, are still here and hungry for…

Rohlik rolls up $170M to expand in European grocery delivery and sell its tech to others

The first six months of the year have seen $4.2 billion invested in robotics, putting this year well on track to beat 2023’s 12-month total of $6.8 billion.

Robotics investments are gaining speed after post-pandemic slowdown

Hebbia, a startup using generative AI to search large documents and return answers, has raised a nearly $100 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to three people with…

Hebbia raises nearly $100M Series B for AI-powered document search led by Andreessen Horowitz

These days, when you hear about students and generative AI, chances are that you’re getting a taste of the debate over the adoption of tools like ChatGPT. Are they a…

Will AI get an A+ in edtech? MagicSchool raises $15M to find out

AI big shot Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, a startup incubator that backs small teams of experts looking to solve key problems using AI, plans to raise upward of $120 million…

Andrew Ng plans to raise $120M for next AI Fund

Amid a fraught environment for battery startups, Sila has raised $375 million to finish construction of a U.S. factory that will scale its next-generation battery technology for customers like Mercedes-Benz…

As battery startups fail, Sila snaps up $375M in new funding

Climate tech startups especially those building hardware, face a particular challenge when trying to move beyond the prototype or pilot phase and start selling finished products to customers.

Rondo Energy funding shows a new way across the climate startup ‘valley of death’

Axelera designs AI-running chips and systems for applications like security, retail, automotive and robotics.

Axelera lands new funds as the AI chip market heats up

Orby AI, is building a generative AI platform that attempts to automate a range of different business workflows, including workflows that involve data entry, documents processing and forms validation.

Orby is building AI agents for the enterprise

Sometimes the most successful startup ideas come from people building tools to solve their own needs. Such was the case with Dafydd Stuttard, a security expert who goes by Daf. …

PortSwigger, the company behind the Burp Suite of security testing tools, swallows $112M

When Ironspring Ventures launched in 2020 to back startups in industrial sectors like construction and manufacturing, it was one of very few early-stage venture firms paying attention to those capital-intensive…

Austin-based Ironspring Ventures raised $100M to invest in the industrial revolution

Can chatbots replace human therapists? Some startups — and patients — claim that they can. But it’s not exactly settled science. One study found that 80% of people who’ve used…

Sonia’s AI chatbot steps in for therapists

When Paul Hedrick left his private equity career to launch Tecovas in 2015, he knew he wanted to sell the brand’s signature cowboy boots a…

Why Tecovas sought out physical sales first despite its DTC dreams

You can barely go an hour these days without reading about generative AI. While we are still in the embryonic phase of what some have dubbed the “steam engine” of…

Data lakehouse Onehouse nabs $35M to capitalize on GenAI revolution

Formation builds tech-forward solutions for clinical trials and drug development.

Formation Bio raises $372M to boost drug development with AI

Samsara Eco makes and sells fossil-free polymer resins. These resins can be integrated into supply chains and potentially replace plastic packaging and textile products with more sustainable alternatives. The Australian…

Samsara Eco is working to replace plastic packaging with fossil fuel-free alternatives

CData builds connectors that enterprises can use to stitch together data from different sources – and locations, not just in the cloud – more easily.

CData, which helps orgs use data across apps and build AI models, snaps up $350M

Creatio CEO Katherine Kostereva argues that what sets her company apart is that it was always architected to work at an enterprise scale.

Creatio raises $200M at a $1.2B valuation for its no-code CRM and workflow platform

In a push to bolster profits, more airlines are turning to controversial dynamic pricing tech, which prices fares and amenities variably based on a traveler’s willingness to pay for them.

Fetcherr lands $90M to get airlines on board with dynamic pricing

Older adults increasingly want to age in their homes rather than nursing facilities. A study by the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) found that nearly 90% of people over…

Sensi.AI grabs $31M Series B from Insight, Zeev to monitor seniors 24/7

EasyTranslate is headed in a new direction with a new, generative AI-driven platform that it calls HumanAI.

EasyTranslate thinks augmenting LLMs with humans will give it an edge over pure AI translation services

It’s unclear where Stability goes from here.

Stability AI lands a lifeline from Sean Parker, Greycroft

Payabli builds the infrastructure that allows companies, specifically software companies, to embed and facilitate payments through APIs.

Payabli is building payment management tools for software startups

In 2024, it seems like no week goes by without a media organization, author group or artist suing generative AI companies for using their work to train models without permission.…

Backed by David Sacks, Garry Tan and Walter Isaacson, Created by Humans helps people license their creative work to AI models
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