Startups | TechCrunch

Chroma, backed by Pinterest and Twitter co-founders, sells to AI audio company Bronze

Sarah Perez — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:07:54 +0000

Chroma, a startup building a new type of audiovisual entertainment for mobile devices, has been sold. The company, which had financial backing from Twitter and Medium co-founder Biz Stone as well as Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, is headed to London-based audio technology company Bronze, an AI music startup. Founded by record producer Lex Dromgoole, who’s […]

Nuclear startups face new competition as energy giant Enel enters the ring

Tim De Chant — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:03:26 +0000

The new endeavor could put additional pressure on small modular reactor (SMR) startups that have struggled to build power plants.

Mitsubishi backs Ample’s radical approach to charging EV batteries

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:01 +0000

Startup Ample is on a mission to convert commercial fleets into believers in the power of electric vehicle battery swapping technology. The company has spent the last three years piloting its electric vehicle battery swapping technology in San Francisco, Madrid, and Japan. Now, Ample is preparing to turn some of those pilot customers into commercial […]

YC-backed Formal brings a clever security reverse-proxy out of stealth

Romain Dillet — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Formal is a security startup coming out of stealth on Tuesday with a nice list of investors and an interesting product positioning. The company has designed a reverse-proxy for data stores and APIs so that security teams can more easily secure access to sensitive data. In more practical terms, Formal is a proxy that you […]

Codecrafters wants to challenge seasoned developers with hard-to-build projects

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

There are plenty of online platforms for developers that help you learn new skills or get started with a new language, such as Codecademy, LeetCode, and CodeSignal. Some guide developers step by step through the process while teaching the basics, while others provide detailed video tutorials. Codecrafters is a platform that doesn’t want to show […]

Physical AI startup BrightAI bootstraps to $80M in revenue

Rebecca Szkutak — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:00:00 +0000

When Alex Hawkinson was the CEO of SmartThings, the consumer-focused connected devices company he co-founded and sold to Samsung for around $200 million, he kept thinking that Internet of Things (IoT) technology could probably solve bigger issues. He left SmartThings in 2018 to figure out where connected devices could make the largest impact. He co-founded […]

Nuro expands driverless autonomous vehicle testing in push to attract customers

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Nuro is rolling out a test fleet of its driverless, passenger-less R3 vehicles across the Bay Area and Houston, two months after the autonomous vehicle technology startup changed its business strategy to license its AV tech to automakers and mobility providers. The large-scale demo, which will expand the domain where Nuro currently tests, is designed to show […]

Database startup Neo4j embraces AI to supercharge growth

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:59:38 +0000

To make AI possible, you need to create connections between vast quantities of data. That’s where tech like graph databases come into play. Graph databases handle fast-changing, interconnected data more adeptly than traditional databases, which were designed to store rigidly structured information. Of course, graph databases need to be managed in order to be useful. […]

Selector automatically spots IT issues and recommends fixes

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:00:18 +0000

AIOps, short for “artificial intelligence in operations,” is a process that uses AI to automate IT tasks. More organizations are embracing it as AI commodifies, yet adoption is still lagging. According to a recent IDC survey, almost half of companies said that they were just getting started in AIOps, while a third indicated they had […]

Lightyear is on a mission to modernize network procurement

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Dennis Thankachan isn’t someone you’d expect would launch a digital procurement startup. After college, Thankachan went to work for Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. Two years later, he left for a hedge fund, PointState Capital, where he helped to manage equity investing. At PointState, which specializes in telecommunications, Thankachan said he encountered an unexpected […]

Agentio raises $12M from Benchmark for its YouTube ad marketplace

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Creator marketplace startup Agentio, which has built an automated platform for YouTubers to sell their ad slots to brands, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark with participation from returning investors Craft Ventures and AlleyCorp. With the new funding, the startup aims to scale its marketplace for YouTubers and bolster its […]

Workbrew makes open source package manager Homebrew enterprise-friendly

Paul Sawers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:56:00 +0000

Workbrew emerges from stealth with the mission of mitigating the risks of "shadow IT" practices around Homebrew package manager deployments.

In Mexico’s tense job market, Minu’s take on employee benefits includes financial wellness

Anna Heim — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

In a tight labor market, the best way to attract and retain talent is to look after employee well-being. As Mexico is nearing full employment, this creates tailwinds for these endeavors, but with particular awareness that financial, physical, and mental health are interconnected. “The main problem to solve in Mexico is around financial matters,” said […]

Venture funding in Europe fell to $45B in 2024, says Atomico

Ingrid Lunden — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:10:32 +0000

Funding for European tech appears to have stabilized in 2024 after dropping precipitously in 2023, but the signs continue to point to more tough times ahead, according to the latest State of European Tech report. The annual survey, produced by European VC firm Atomico, notes that startups in the region are on track to raise […]

Venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs

Rebecca Szkutak — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 20:57:00 +0000

From Keith Rabois to Ethan Kurzweil, a lot of VCs have switched firms or spun out of storied VC institutions to launch their own funds this year. These employment changes are surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move around very much — especially those who reach the partner or general […]

Partiful is Google’s ‘best app’ of 2024

Sarah Perez — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:31:18 +0000

Partiful, the New York-based event-planning app that’s taking on older solutions like Evite, Eventbrite, and Facebook Events, has been named Google’s app of the year, the tech giant announced on Monday as part of its “best apps and games of 2024” list. The list also highlighted the top game, AFK Journey, alongside other category winners […]

Google.org commits $20M to researchers using AI for scientific breakthroughs

Paul Sawers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Google is committing $20 million in cash and $2 million in cloud credits to a new funding initiative designed to help scientists and researchers unearth the next great scientific breakthroughs using artificial intelligence (AI). The announcement, made by Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis during a fireside chat at the closed-door AI for Science […]

Ex-Duolingo execs raise $13M for a startup that’s making it easier to access a college education

Lauren Forristal — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

As college tuition increases and the student loan debt crisis continues, three former executives from language learning app Duolingo are building a new startup aimed at making college education more affordable and accessible. The company, tentatively named Outsmart Education (the name is not final yet), is headed by co-founders Daniel Falabella (CPO), former senior director […]

Twenty is building an open source alternative to Salesforce

Romain Dillet — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 16:00:00 +0000

If a software product is successful enough, you’ll probably be able to find a company building an open source alternative. And yet, nobody has created a modern open source CRM product that can be considered as a serious competitor to Salesforce. That’s exactly what Twenty is trying to achieve. For the past couple of years, […]

SuperAnnotate helps companies manage their AI datasets

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

SuperAnnotate, a platform for managing and prepping AI training data sets, has raised a new round of capital.