TechCrunch Startup News
TechCrunch
Listen to select TechCrunch articles on startups coverage—who's raising, who's exiting, who's changing the world.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 20, 2025 • 5min
Too burned out to travel? This new app fakes your summer vacation photos for you
Product designer Laurent Del Rey, who recently joined Meta’s Superintelligence Lab, launched a side project called Endless Summer, a photobooth app for iPhone that creates AI-generated vacation photos starring you in locations around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 16, 2025 • 8min
General Intuition lands $134M seed to teach agents spatial reasoning using video game clips, also, Electric aircraft startup Beta Technologies seeks to raise $825M in IPO
Late last year, OpenAI reportedly tried to buy Medal and its vast trove of video game data for $500M. Today, the company spun out a frontier research lab that's using that data to build AI agents that understand how they move through space and time, a concept called spatial-temporal reasoning.
Also, electric aviation startup Beta Technologies has priced shares for its initial public offering between $27 and $33, in hopes of raising as much as $825 million, according to a regulatory document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. If the company attracts investors at the top of that range it will debut with a valuation of about $7.2 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 16, 2025 • 11min
Liberate bags $50M at $300M valuation to bring AI deeper into insurance back offices; also, Eightfold raised $35M for an AI digital twin startup
Liberate’s AI agents automate tasks for P&C insurers, working across sales, service, and claims.
Viven's seed funding was led by Khosla Ventures and Foundation Capital. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 15, 2025 • 6min
Inaudible sound might be the next frontier in wildfire defense
Sonic Fire Tech has developed a device that can extinguish flames using acoustic energy below the range of human hearing. The startup is building a demo capable of protecting a home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 15, 2025 • 7min
FleetWorks raises $17M to match truckers with cargo faster
Co-founded by a former Uber Freight product manager, and backed by Uber's lead seed investor, FleetWorks is quickly scooping up customers in the trucking world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 14, 2025 • 8min
Sheryl Sandberg-backed Flint wants to use AI to build and update websites, and Coco Robotics taps UCLA professor to lead new physical AI research lab
Flint raised a $5 million seed round led by Accel, with participation from Sheryl Sandberg’s fund, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, and prior investor Neo.
Also, Coco Robotics is working toward automating its fleet of delivery robots using its millions of miles of collected data. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 14, 2025 • 7min
India’s Airbound bags $8.65M to build rocket-like drones for one-cent deliveries
An Indian drone startup called Airbound raised nearly $9 million in seed funding as it begins a drone-delivery pilot with a private hospital and works toward one-cent delivery using its ultra-light, blended-wing-body aircraft.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 13, 2025 • 4min
Kalshi hits $5B valuation days after rival Polymarket gets $2B NYSE backing at $8B; also,
Kalshi, a prediction market that allows people to bet on future events, announced that it raised over three hundred million dollars at a 5 billion dollar valuation. The company’s value has increased two and a half times since its last fundraise just three months ago, when it was valued at two billion dollars.
Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has lost one of its co-founders to Meta.
The Wall Street Journal reports that AI researcher Andrew Tulloch announced his departure to employees in a message on Friday. A Thinking Machine Labs spokesperson confirmed Tulloch’s departure to the WSJ, saying he “has decided to pursue a different path for personal reasons.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 10, 2025 • 7min
Reflection AI raises $2B to be America’s open frontier AI lab, challenging DeepSeek
Reflection, once focused on autonomous coding agents, has raised $2B at an $8B valuation to expand into both an opensource alternative to closed frontier labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, and a Western equivalent to Chinese AI firms like DeepSeek. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 9, 2025 • 8min
Novoloop’s upcycled plastic takes a step closer to production; and Knapsack picks up $10M to help bridge the gap between design and engineering teams
Novoloop has signed a deal with a contract manufacturer to produce its Lifecycled TPU material.
Also, Knapsack creates a unified workspace that integrates design and coding tools to ensure design and engineering teams are on the same page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
