Views on sponsored videos on YouTube have risen 28% year-on-year, and the number of sponsored videos has grown by 54% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, according to a report from Tubefilter. What’s more, ad spend through creator channels has been steadily rising and is even set to outperform traditional media in some cases. […]
As U.S. giants like Google, OpenAI and Anthropic race to develop the large language models that underpin their AI products, startups such as Sakana AI, Mistral AI, DeepSeek and AI21 Labs are carving out their own niche with specialized models designed for specific regions, industries, or unique features. In pursuit of that goal, Tokyo-based Sakana
Flatpay, which facilitates card payments for SMBs, has joined the ranks of European fintech unicorns — or startups valued at more than $1 billion — a milestone that has driven some of the region’s biggest exits. These include competitors like Adyen, a Dutch payment processing giant that remains far ahead in scale. However, Flatpay’s fresh
Danish startup FlatPay joins the club of European fintech unicorns to track Read More »
When Hannan Happi started thinking about how to solve the AI power crisis, he kept one figure in mind: one cent per kilowatt-hour. “We went through all sorts of configurations and designs,” Happi, co-founder and CEO of Exowatt, told TechCrunch. “They all look different from each other. We tried to learn from everyone one of
Sam Atlman-backed Exowatt wants to power AI data centers with billions of hot rocks Read More »
Los Angeles-based electric truck startup Harbinger has raised $160 million in a Series C funding round co-led by FedEx, as it scales up production of its commercial vehicle program. As part of the investment, FedEx has ordered 53 of Harbinger’s electric truck chassis, which the startup says will be ready by the end of this
Harbinger raises $160M, will build trucks for FedEx Read More »
GenAI has become a key part of coding workflows, but most companies struggle to track its use, let alone its return on investment. Israeli startup Milestone hopes to help with a platform designed to correlate AI tool usage with engineering metrics, including code quality. The catch is that these companies have to give Milestone access
Milestone raises $10M to make sure AI rhymes with ROI Read More »
Israeli AI agent startup Wonderful has raised $100 million in a Series A round led by Index Ventures, with participation from Insight Partners, IVP, Bessemer, and Vine Ventures. The large round, in a market already crowded with AI agent startups, suggests Wonderful has convinced top tier investors it’s not just another GPT wrapper, but a company building the infrastructure and orchestration that could scale if
Wonderful raised $100M Series A to put AI agents on the front lines of customer service Read More »
Autonomous vehicles are having a moment, and it’s making it a lot easier for smaller companies to raise money. Vay, a German startup offering remote-controlled rental cars, will get $60 million in cash from Singaporean tech heavyweight Grab, the company announced on Monday. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval and expected to close
Remote driving startup Vay could grab up to $410M from Singapore’s Grab Read More »
Eugenia Kuyda saw the future of consumer AI before most. She founded Replika, the first major AI companion startup, in 2017 years before ChatGPT launched. Today it has 35 million users. Now Kuyda is back with a new startup called Wabi, which she describes as YouTube for apps – a social platform where anyone can use prompts to instantly create mini apps and share
Replika founder raises $20M pre-seed for Wabi, the ‘YouTube of apps’ Read More »
The Trump administration has begun taking direct equity stakes in American companies, not as temporary crisis measures, as in 2008, but as permanent fixtures of industrial policy. The moves raise interesting questions, including what happens when the White House appears on your cap table. At TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco last week, Sequoia Capital’s global
