TechCrunch Startups

• CyberArk snaps up Venafi for $1.54B to ramp up in machine-to-machine security
  CyberArk — one of the army of larger security companies founded out of Israel — is acquiring Venafi, a specialist in machine identity, for $1.54 billion.  © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• Pine Labs gets Singapore court approval to shift base to India
  A Singapore High Court has effectively approved Pine Labs' request to shift its operations to India. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• With AI startups booming, nap pods and Silicon Valley hustle culture are back
  When Jeffrey Wang posted to X asking if anyone wanted to go in on an order of fancy-but-affordable office nap pods, he didn’t expect the post to go viral. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• VCs and the military are fueling self-driving startups that don’t need roads
  A new crop of early-stage startups — along with some recent VC investments — illustrates a niche emerging in the autonomous vehicle technology sector. Unlike the companies bringing robotaxis to city streets, these startups are taking their tech off-road.  Two recent entrants — Seattle-based Overland AI and New Brunswick-based Potential — are poised to get […]
• Deal Dive: Sagetap looks to bring enterprise software sales into the 21st century
  When the founders of Sagetap, Sahil Khanna and Kevin Hughes, started working at early-stage enterprise software startups, they were surprised to find that the companies they worked at were trying to sell their innovative tech through old-school methods like repeated cold emails and calls. Khanna, a former product marketer, and Hughes, a former sales manager, […]
• Startups Weekly: It’s the dawning of the age of AI — plus, Musk is raging against the machine
  Welcome to Startups Weekly! We've been drowning in AI news this week, with Google's I/O setting the pace. And Elon Musk rages against the machine. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• IndieBio’s SF incubator lineup is making some wild biotech promises
  IndieBio’s Bay Area incubator is about to debut its 15th cohort of biotech startups. We took special note of a few, which were making some major, bordering on ludicrous, claims that could pay off in a big way. Biotech has been creeping out in recent years to touch adjacent industries, as companies find how much […]
• Harness the TechCrunch Effect: Host a Side Event at Disrupt 2024
  TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is just around the corner, and the buzz is palpable. But what if we told you there’s a chance for you to not just attend, but also take your brand center stage with your own event during the most anticipated tech gathering of the year? Yes, you read that right — you […]
• Pitch Deck Teardown: Goodcarbon’s $5.5M seed deck
  Decks are all about telling a compelling story and Goodcarbon does a good job on that front. But there's important information missing too. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• Embedded finance is still trendy as accounting automation startup Ember partners with HSBC UK
  Ember has partnered with HSBC in the U.K. so that the bank's business customers can access Ember’s services from their online accounts. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• A US Trustee wants troubled fintech Synapse to be liquidated via Chapter 7 bankruptcy, cites ‘gross mismanagement’
  The prospects for troubled banking-as-a-service startup Synapse have gone from bad to worse this week after a United States Trustee filed an emergency motion on Wednesday.  The trustee is asking to convert the company’s debt reorganization Chapter 11 bankruptcy into a liquidation Chapter 7, according to court documents. The trustee wrote that the need for […]
• Bolt founder Ryan Breslow wants to settle an investor lawsuit by returning $37 million worth of shares
  The investor lawsuit is related to Bolt securing a $30 million personal loan to Ryan Breslow, which was later defaulted on. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• Meet the Magnificent Six: A tour of the stages at Disrupt 2024
  TechCrunch Disrupt has always been the ultimate convergence point for all things startup and tech. In the bustling world of innovation, it serves as the “big top” tent, where entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, and industry leaders gather to witness the unveiling of groundbreaking technologies, engage in thought-provoking discussions, and forge invaluable connections. As we gear up […]
• Khosla Ventures, Pear VC triple down on Honey Homes, a smart way to hire a handyman
  There’s apparently a lot of demand for an on-demand handyperson. Khosla Ventures and Pear VC have just tripled down on their investment in Honey Homes, which offers up a dedicated handyman to take care of all the random tasks on a homeowner’s to-do list. The company raised $9 million last June in a Series A […]
• Agora raises $34M Series B to keep building the Carta for real estate
  Since he was very young, Bar Mor knew that he would inevitably do something with real estate. His family was involved in all types of real estate projects, from ground-up construction to managing residential, commercial and retail properties. But unlike his parents, Mor also had a passion for technology. His interest in tech was reinforced […]
• YC-backed Recall.ai gets $10M Series A to help companies use virtual meeting data
  More money for the generative AI boom: Y Combinator-backed developer infrastructure startup Recall.ai announced Thursday it has raised a $10 million Series A funding round, bringing its total raised to over $12 million. The startup has built infrastructure and a unified API that enables companies to access raw data from virtual meeting platforms like Google Meet, […]
• Sigma is building a suite of collaborative data analytics tools
  Sigma Computing, a startup building a range of data analytics and business intelligence tools, has raised $200 million in a fresh VC round. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
• Spoor uses AI to save birds from wind turbines
  Wind is the largest source of renewable energy in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but wind farms come with an environmental cost as wind turbines can wreak havoc on bird populations. Meet Spoor, the startup using AI to help wind farms mitigate that risk. Spoor is a software that uses machine […]
• Cannabis industry and gaming payments startup Aeropay is now offering an alternative to Mastercard and Visa
  The key to taking on legacy players in the financial technology industry may be to go where they have not gone before. That’s what Chicago-based Aeropay is doing. The provider of pay-by-bank solutions for businesses started out helping cannabis retailers and gaming companies with their payments and is now entering into Visa’s and Mastercard’s territory […]
• Forget EVs: Why Bedrock Materials is targeting gas-powered cars for its first sodium-ion batteries
  Bedrock Materials is developing a new type of sodium-ion battery, which promises to be dramatically cheaper than lithium-ion. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.