Fundings and Exits

As one of the most decorated track cyclists of all time, Sir Chris Hoy might not seem an obvious candidate to back the burgeoning electric bike movement. The common refrain, after all, is that e-bikes aren’t real bikes. However, the six-time Olympic gold medalist has done exactly that, investing in a fledgling U.K. startup that

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. With only so many days left in the year, there was plenty of startup news to round up since last Friday, despite a short workweek in the

Poor literacy skills have plagued the deaf and hard of hearing community for decades. The median literacy rates of deaf high school graduates have languished at a fourth-grade level since the turn of the 20th century, according to the National Center for Special Education Research. Bringing STEM concepts into the mix — the vocabulary for

If you’ve used ChatGPT Search or Perplexity you know that being able to search the web and get citations inline greatly improves these AI chatbots. Results are better when they involve timely information, and web search may reduce so-called hallucinations (i.e. when a generative AI outputs incorrect information). That’s why French startup Linkup is building

India has bucked the global trend in initial public offerings this year, establishing itself as a rare bright spot for tech listings while other major markets face continued headwinds. The world’s most populous nation is now preparing for an even more substantial wave of startup IPOs in 2025. More than 20 startups are preparing to

Europe must get much better at scaling startups. That’s the prognosis of the European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, who’s on the cusp of taking up her second five-year term steering the bloc of some 449 million people — with a December 1 start date now locked in. Giving a speech to the European

Xiaodi Hou, the co-founder and former CEO of self-driving truck startup TuSimple, is demanding that the board immediately liquidate the company and return all remaining funds – roughly $450 million – to shareholders “on a pure pro-rata basis, regardless of share class,” according to a letter that TechCrunch has viewed.  Hou is also suing TuSimple

Just last year, Inflection AI was as hot as a startup could be, releasing best-in-class AI models it claimed could outperform technology from OpenAI, Meta, and Google. That’s a stark contrast compared to today, as Inflection’s new CEO tells TechCrunch that his startup is simply no longer trying to compete on that front. Between then

Vikram Bhaskaran was leading creator partnerships at Pinterest when his father started showing early symptoms of ALS, a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disease. “It turned my world upside down,” Bhaskaran said. He worked during the day, and spent his evenings Googling the illness and treatment options and in Facebook groups. But Bhaskaran discovered that finding clear,

This week on found, Dom and Becca are talking with the co-founders of Alloy Women’s Health. The startup just closed a new funding round to expand its mission of fixing menopause care. Alloy founders, Monica Molenaar and Anne Fulenwider, discussed raising capital in a competitive health tech landscape, their choice to bypass traditional insurance models,

Battery tech is pivotal as the world leans into electrification to power decarbonization in the race against climate change. But rising demand is putting more attention on the limits and drawbacks of current generation lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology. This is where Cambridge University spin-out Molyon hopes to come in: the U.K. startup is developing next-gen

When ServiceTitan dropped its S-1 notice of an impending public offering on November 18, many VCs likely rejoiced. A successful IPO by the company, which builds operating software for trade businesses, could be what the quiet IPO market needs to start shaking loose. But the timing of ServiceTitan’s IPO may not be entirely based on

Entrepreneur Marc Lore has already sold two companies for billions of dollars, collectively. Now he plans to take his food delivery and take-out business Wonder public in a couple of years at an ambitious $40 billion valuation. We talked with Lore in person in New York recently about Wonder and its ultimate aim of making

Midway through 2024, Mike Packer, a partner at fintech-focused QED Investors, predicted we’d already hit the bottom for funding to Latin American fintech startups, and that a bounce back was coming. While momentum hasn’t been a straight shot up and to the right ever since, it’s looking like he was right. The volume of venture

Tesla and Rivian may have resolved a lawsuit in which Tesla accused Rivian of poaching employees and stealing trade secrets. Bloomberg reports that Tesla told a California judge that the companies have reached a “conditional” settlement, and that it expects to seek dismissal of the lawsuit by December 24. Tesla filed the suit, which was

Daricus Releford always wanted to be a founder.  In high school, he ran a hot dog station and in college launched a chocolate-covered strawberry business, making millions in sales before moving to Silicon Valley to pursue his dreams in tech. Entrepreneurship simply runs in his family, he told TechCrunch. “My grandfather was one of the

Despite all the talk of doom and gloom about the economy, entrepreneurship is actually on the rise in the U.S.: In 2024, an average of 430,000 new business applications were submitted every month, marking a 50% rise from 2019. But the number of accountants these new businesses will need to maintain their books, file taxes,

The Silicon Valley dream is to build a tech startup that is such a unique idea it alters the commercial universe and turns its founders into billionaires. Participating in the Valley’s most famed startup factory, Y Combinator, is often part of that dream. Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe all got started there. Yet, a deep dive

Streaming service and media software maker Plex on Friday introduced a redesign of its software that puts more emphasis on discovery, easily accessing your watchlist and other personalization features — including those for home media enthusiasts who still use the app to organize their media libraries. Over the years, the company has tried to balance

Ten years after pitching onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt in London, fintech N26 has reported its first ever quarterly (pretax) profit. The challenger bank with millions of customers across Europe generated a net operating income of €2.8 million during the third quarter of 2024 (or $2.9 million at current exchange rates). This is an important milestone

Nuclear startup Kairos Power received approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start construction on two test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The permit marks a significant milestone for Kairos, which in October inked a deal with Google to provide 500 megawatts of electricity for its data centers. The fluoride-salt cooled, high-temperature reactors are

Crusoe Energy, a startup building data centers reportedly to be leased Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, is in the process of raising $818 million, according to an SEC filing. The filing indicates that Crusoe has secured $686 million of the $818 million total that it hopes to raise. Seventy investors have contributed to the tranche so

Cancer, one of the most life-threatening diseases, is projected to affect over 35 million people worldwide in 2050 — 77% more than the estimated 20 million cases in 2022, according to the World Health Organization. Cancer survivors globally reached 53.5 million, and the reoccurrence rate of the disease varies between 15 and 100%, depending on

Cloud giant Snowflake has agreed to acquire Datavolo, a data pipeline management company, for an undisclosed sum. Snowflake unveiled the deal at the close of the market bell on Wednesday, when it also announced its Q3 2025 earnings. The purchase hasn’t yet closed, and it’s subject to customary closing conditions, Snowflake noted in a release.

Late last week, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler said that he was “proud to serve” the agency, which some are taking as a hint at an upcoming resignation. Gensler has faced heavy criticism for his crackdown on crypto, including a recent lawsuit from 18 states, and is likely to be replaced under

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

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

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

Funding for European tech appears to have stabilised 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

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