Fundraising

38 startups have become unicorns so far in 2024: Here’s the full list

Despite the tight venture capital market, unicorns are still being created every month. Using data from Crunchbase, CB Insights, and PitchBook, TechCrunch tracked down the newly minted unicorns so far this year. The list includes Elon Musk’s xAI, which is already valued at a staggering $24 billion, as well as a good number of other

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Even after $1.6B in VC money, the lab-grown meat industry is facing ‘massive’ issues

When Mosa Meat served up a first-of-its-kind, lab-grown hamburger in 2013, it cost over $300,000. Eleven years later, around 200 startups worldwide remain hopeful that growing meat from cells, rather than slaughtering animals, will one day be a major portion of our food supply.  Despite their optimism, such success is not a given. In 2024,

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Why Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy and other investors are scouring universities for founders

The humble garage is so steeped in Silicon Valley lore it’s almost cliché. Yet that’s exactly how Caleb Boyd and Kevin Bush started Molten Industries: in the garage of the Stanford professor’s on-campus home, where Kevin rented an apartment. It had everything they needed: space and, most importantly, power. The two wanted to break methane’s

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Self-driving truck startup Aurora Innovation raises $483M in share sale ahead of commercial launch

Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation was hoping to raise hundreds of millions in additional capital as it races toward a driverless commercial launch by the end of 2024. The company, which had arranged to sell up to $420 million worth of shares, exceeded its goal and raised $483 million. The newly raised funds come a little

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Adept Materials’ dehumidifying paint was inspired by trees and semiconductors

The steam that condenses on your bathroom mirror may not seem like a big deal, but for architects and builders, it can be an enormous headache. “Moisture control is something that is a major pain point,” Derek Stein, founder and CEO of Adept Materials. “If you just google your favorite home builders’ name and then

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Self-driving truck startup Aurora Innovation to sell up to $420M in shares ahead of commercial launch

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

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Global startup funding is picking up with AI still in the spotlight

Global startup funding was up 16% in the second quarter, according to Crunchbase data, led by an uptick in mega-rounds. That increase was led, unsurprisingly, by the AI sector. Funding to companies in AI made up 30% of all dollars invested and actually doubled quarter over quarter to $24 billion. On today’s episode of TechCrunch’s

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