TechCrunch Startup News

Popular iPad design app Procreate is coming out against generative AI, and has vowed never to introduce generative AI features into its products. The company said on its website that although machine learning is a “compelling technology with a lot of merit,” the current path that generative AI is on is wrong for its platform.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brands can use Keychain to look up different products and see who actually manufactures them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brands can use Keychain to look up different products and see who actually manufactures them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An AI social media vetting startup Ferretly has raised $2.5 million in seed funding and is launching a new platform designed to screen election personnel. Founded in 2019, Ferretly leverages AI to scan social media and publicly available online data to uncover potential risks and behaviors that traditional background checks may overlook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...

Stoke Space is nothing if not ambitious. The five-year-old launch startup has generated a lot of hype due to its bold plans to develop the first fully reusable rocket, with both the booster and second stage vertically returning to Earth.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Code reviews — peer reviews of code that help devs improve code quality — are time-consuming. According to one source, 50% of companies spend two to five hours a week on them. Without enough people, code reviews can be overwhelming and take devs away from other important work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been top of mind for brands for more than a decade to ensure their websites and products capture as many eyeballs as possible by ranking high up on search results pages. But search is changing, and as consumers increasingly turn to AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

EliseAI employs an army of chatbots to text with, email, and respond to calls from renters about things such as apartment tours, maintenance requests, lease renewals and delinquencies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

ArborXR, a startup that helps companies remotely manage AR and VR devices, believed that enterprise customers would be the primary targets for AR and VR devices. Now, that bet is paying off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

PayZen aims to make healthcare more affordable by enabling patients to pay their bills in interest and fee-free instalments over time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The ex-Clubhouse, Netflix employees raised $1.65M for an app that combines social media, networking, and dating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Most startups are looking to solve a problem inside a business, but Bandana, a New York City-based startup has a different goal. It wants to help people at the lower end of the wage scale find better jobs with higher wages and good benefits, all while being closer to home to reduce commuting time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Los Angeles is notorious for its back-to-back traffic. Three events that promise to bring in millions of spectators from around the world — the 2026 World Cup, the Super Bowl in 2027, and the 2028 Olympics — have LA officials searching for a range of new mobility solutions to address its congestion problems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The startup's core technology is a proprietary material that absorbs moisture from the air, allowing air conditioning to cool buildings more efficiently. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Slag is the molten runoff created while producing steel in a traditional blast furnace. The material has been prized as greener cement alternative for creating concrete, the Earth’s most abundant human-made material. The runoff is facing supply chain issues, however, as the steel industry looks to greener methods of production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Palmer Luckey-founded defense startup wants to become a serious rival to longstanding kingpins, and has been clocking some big wins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York-based fintech Payoneer has acquired Skuad, a Singapore-based global HR and payroll startup, for $61 million in cash, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.  Payoneer said it could also pay up to another $10 million, contingent on if Skuad meets various performance goals within the first 18 months of the acquisition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a sign that big tech companies are ready and willing to shell out cash for database tech, Neon, a startup building an open source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres, on Wednesday announced that Microsoft’s venture arm M12 led a $25 million strategic investment in its business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many industries that rely on legacy energy sources are aiming to electrify or at least streamline their operations, but for countless use cases the tech just isn’t there. H3X is changing the game with electric motors so compact and efficient that the aerospace and marine world — not to mention investors — are taking notice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A startup developing AI market research based on location data, and backed by a who's who, has quietly raised, TechCrunch has learned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

COVID-19 pushed people to take up outdoor activities. Now, startups are helping companies and consumers keep up with demand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Trade My Spin has pieced together a logistics network capable of offering same or next day delivery in most major cities in the continental U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Google Cloud is giving Y Combinator startups access to a dedicated, subsidized cluster of Nvidia graphics processing units and Google tensor processing units to build AI models. It’s part of Google Cloud’s effort to cozy up with promising early-stage AI startups, in hopes some of them will evolve into massive, compute-hungry business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...

Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation is looking to raise hundreds of millions in additional capital as it races towards a driverless commercial launch by the end of 2024.  Aurora, which went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition merger, is pursuing a driver-as-a-service model, wherein carriers purchase trucks with the Aurora Driver tech on Learn more about your ad choic...

Two large Indian startups, Ola Electric and FirstCry, are set to test investor appetite with their public listings this month, but both have had to price their shares below their previous valuations as they come to terms with new market realities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices