Startups | TechCrunch

Glint Solar grabs $8M to help accelerate solar energy adoption across Europe

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Solar energy is booming, which is good news for Glint Solar. The Norwegian software-as-a-service startup has built a platform that’s helping energy giants and large solar developers such as E.ON, Recurrent Energy, and Statkraft cut the time it takes to plan and pre-design solar installations to accelerate the transition to renewables. Glint’s software pulls in data […]

The FTC comes after neobank Dave for misleading marketing, hidden fees

Sarah Perez — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 20:06:57 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday that it will be taking action against the online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.” At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered, and the “Express Fee” it charged if customers wanted […]

Pinstripe wants to redefine the way online sellers sell secondhand clothing

Lauren Forristal — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 17:58:57 +0000

Pinstripe aims to reimagine the secondhand market by offering sellers the opportunity to have both a digital storefront and a physical retail presence. Launched in June, the platform offers an alternative approach compared with other marketplaces like Archive, Depop, Facebook Marketplace, and Poshmark. With Pinstripe, sellers take their clothes to local consignment stores, vintage shops, […]

AI coding assistants can help startups develop products, seed VCs believe

Julie Bort — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 16:00:00 +0000

By now, there’s hardly a coder in the world who isn’t using an AI copilot in some way. But using GitHub Copilot or Cursor.AI to ask technical questions and get debugging help could be just the beginning. AI coding may one day involve agents that can write the programs themselves based on a natural language […]

How Trump’s election could affect the startup-friendly Inflation Reduction Act

Tim De Chant — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:59:18 +0000

While Trump's administration is unlikely to be supportive of certain climate tech startups, it will have a harder time ending the broadly popular law.

MoradaUno wants to make it easier to rent apartments in Mexico

Rebecca Szkutak — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Renting in Latin America is restrictive. Most landlords require three months of rent as a deposit and a guarantor that owns property in the same city to co-sign the lease. Santiago Morales, the co-founder and CEO of proptech MoradaUno, said this dynamic makes 40% of prospective renters ineligible. His company wants to get more tenants […]

Research Grid raises $6.48M to automate clinical trial admin

Dominic-Madori Davis — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 00:01:00 +0000

Amber Hill spent 14 years as a medical researcher. She didn’t mind the work, but there was one thing she consistently hated: administrative tasks. “I think most people do, especially in research,” she told TechCrunch. She would rather be analyzing data or building relationships with patients, she said. “But I was spending so much time […]

Canoo’s CFO and top lawyer are the latest executives to leave

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 22:34:27 +0000

EV startup Canoo has lost its chief financial officer and its head lawyer, the latest in a string of executive departures as the company continues to struggle to find mass adoption of its electric work vans. CFO Greg Ethridge and general counsel Hector Ruiz both resigned from Canoo on October 31, the company announced Tuesday […]

Nodal connects hopeful parents with surrogates as reproductive freedom hangs in limbo

Rebecca Szkutak — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 19:23:17 +0000

Many people who want to have children can’t, or shouldn’t, carry a pregnancy for a variety of reasons. Gestational surrogacy can be a great option for those individuals — if they can endure the lengthy wait times and afford to pay for the costly service. New York-based Nodal looks to make the process less expensive, […]

What the Chainsmokers bring to the cap table for cybersecurity startup Chainguard

Maggie Stamets — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 18:46:44 +0000

For this week’s episode of Found we’re taking you backstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Becca Szkutak had the chance to talk with Dan Lorenc, the CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity startup Chainguard, following their conversation onstage with prominent investors, The Chainsmokers. The pair discuss how the EDM duo’s venture fund MANTIS went from being viewed skeptically by […]

Symbiotic Security helps developers find bugs as they code

Frederic Lardinois — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 18:05:56 +0000

Symbiotic Security, which is announcing a $3 million seed round today, watches over developers as they code and points out potential security issues in real time. Other companies do this, but Symbiotic also emphasizes the next step: teaching developers to avoid these bugs in the first place. Ideally, this means developers will fix security bugs […]

Swiggy IPO nets $606 million from institutional investors

Manish Singh — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 17:00:36 +0000

Swiggy has raised around $606 million from a set of more than 75 anchor investors as part of its $1.35 billion initial public offering, as the Indian food delivery and quick commerce startup prepares for the country’s second-largest listing of the year next week. The Bengaluru-based startup, which is seeking an $11.3 billion valuation in […]

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:15:00 +0000

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024.

Printful and Printify ink a merger deal

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 15:30:00 +0000

Two veteran European companies in the world of on-demand printing are merging, and you may have not even realized they were separate companies to begin with. Printful and Printify, both startups with Latvian roots providing custom printing services, are coming together as a single company. They are framing the move as a natural fit to […]

DeepRoute raises $100M in push to beat Tesla’s FSD in China

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 15:10:00 +0000

DeepRoute.ai, a Shenzhen-based autonomous driving technology startup, raised $100 million from Great Wall Motor. The startup aims to get its automated driving systems into as many vehicles in China before Tesla takes off next year, according to a Reuters report. DeepRoute did not publicly disclose the name of its automaker backer, but reports in the […]

Flash, founded by ex-Flipkart exec, launches in the US to help shoppers juggle multiple online orders

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:30:00 +0000

Flash, the payment management service that tracks all your online purchases, announced Tuesday its entry into the U.S. market, giving American customers the ability to manage all of their spending in one place while also earning rewards, such as gift cards and cash back. The U.S. is home to many big spenders, making it a […]

AI safety advocates tell founders to slow down

Amanda Silberling — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 14:15:00 +0000

“Move cautiously and red-team things” is sadly not as catchy as “move fast and break things.” But three AI safety advocates made it clear to startup founders that going too fast can lead to ethical issues in the long run. “We are at an inflection point where there are tons of resources being moved into […]

Datadog challenger Dash0 aims to dash observability bill shock

Anna Heim — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:46 +0000

The end of zero-interest rates has driven companies to look for savings wherever they can, but one area continues to be a major budget drain. Observability — collecting and understanding data and systems — typically remains an organization’s second-highest cloud expenditure, right after cloud provisioning itself. People have even gone so far as to talk […]

Bowery Farming is ceasing operations

Rebecca Szkutak — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 22:43:27 +0000

Agtech unicorn Bowery Farming is shutting down, according to PitchBook, which cited internal documents and multiple company employees. The New York-based agtech company was known for building vertical farms that could produce crops, including lettuces, herbs, and berries. Per Pitchbook, Bowery Farming has raised more than $700 million in funding from First Round Capital, General […]

The brightest bling of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Amanda Silberling, Sarah Perez — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:53:48 +0000

At TechCrunch Disrupt, our team sits front and center, furiously typing away at our laptops to publish real-time news from impressive speakers like NFL quarterback-turned-founder Colin Kaepernick, Perplexity AI founder Aravind Srinivas, and Ashton Kutcher. We are a well-oiled machine. Some writers have been covering Disrupt since the old days, before Meta was Meta and […]