Ask any scientist that has worked with cell cultures in a lab: contamination is high on their list of fears. Even one stray bacterium or fungal spore can spoil an entire experiment. Now imagine scaling that risk up to biomanufacturing, which uses living cells to make a range of stuff, including drugs, food ingredients, and […]
Biosphere zaps germs with UV light to make biomanufacturing cheaper Read More »
8th January at 9:30 am Dubai VC investments in emerging markets such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) plummeted by over 40% compared to 2023, according to a new report. The data mirrors the wider global trend of reduced VC funding in the last two years, especially for non-AI companies. The total raised
Report: VC in emerging markets plummeted by over 40% last year Read More »
OpenAI rival Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion in new capital in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to The Wall Street Journal. The round, which The Journal reports would value Anthropic at $60 billion, would bring Anthropic’s total raised to $15.7 billion, going by Crunchbase’s data. It would also
Anthropic reportedly in talks to raise $2B at $60B valuation, led by Lightspeed Read More »
Electra has raised $76.3 million to clean up the dirty ironmaking industry, TechCrunch has learned. The startup has developed a novel method of using electricity to coax pure iron out of low-grade ores, opening the door to cleaner steel. The new funding round, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing, seeks to raise a total
KoBold Metals closed a $537 million Series C round on Wednesday to help build a multi-billion-dollar mine to exploit a copper deposit it found using AI. The new funding round, which was led by Durable Capital Partners and T. Rowe Price, will be used to expand the company’s exploration efforts on five continents and develop
KoBold used AI to find copper — now investors are piling in to the tune of $537M Read More »
Like many highly valued startups, SpaceX sometimes allows its employees to cash out some of their shares by selling to company-authorized outside investors. TechCrunch has gotten a peek at an internal SpaceX document about such a tender offer from May 2022. Musk posted on X last month that SpaceX holds such sales for employees about
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Investors gave a minimum of $77,593, per the filing (97 participated, but the document doesn’t reveal their identities). xAI later announced (confirming some earlier reporting) that Andreessen Horowitz , Blackrock, Fidelity, Kingdom Holdings,
Elon Musk’s xAI lands $6B in new cash to fuel AI ambitions Read More »
AI is everywhere. And increasingly it’s being described as defense tech. This week, the Equity pod gang — which included newcomer Max Zeff, Margaux MacColl, and Kirsten Korosec — noticed an emerging trend: the worlds of AI and defense tech are colliding. And that matters, for a few reasons. For one, venture money is flowing
Are AI companies just defense tech now? Read More »
Lerer Hippeau, one of New York’s most prolific A-list VC firms, has filed to raise its ninth fund, according to an SEC filing made Wednesday. There is no target raise amount. Lerer Hippeau did not immediately respond to our request for comment. The firm, founded in 2010, has more than $1.2 billion in assets under
Lerer Hippeau files to raise Fund IX Read More »
AI-powered search engine Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500 million funding round, valuing the startup at $9 billion. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar, reports that the round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, and that it closed earlier in December. In an email to TechCrunch, a Perplexity spokesperson declined to comment. The mammoth tranche comes as
Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500M funding round Read More »
