Startups

Kaltura acquires eSelf, founded by creator of Snap’s AI, in $27M deal

Startups /

Kaltura, a New York-headquartered AI video platform company, is acquiring eSelf.ai, an Israel-based startup behind conversational avatars — AI-generated digital humans that can talk with users — for about $27 million. Kaltura announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire eSelf, a platform supporting more than 30 languages and featuring a user-friendly […]

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Consolidation begins to hit the carbon credit market

Startups /

Carbon management startup Carbon Direct is buying another carbon credit startup, Pachama, the companies announced today. Pachama laid off around 20 employees this summer as voluntary carbon markets softened. The company had attracted investments from a range of prominent names, including Amazon’s Climate Pledge, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and several celebrity angel investors, including

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Scribe hits $1.3B valuation as it moves to show where AI will actually pay off

Startups /

After helping several enterprises document how work actually happens, Scribe has raised $75 million at a $1.3 billion post-money valuation to roll out Scribe Optimize, a platform that maps workflows across the enterprise to reveal where automation and AI will actually yield returns — instead of becoming another sunk cost. The all-equity Series C round

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6Sense founder Amanda Kahlow raises $30 million for new human-replacement AI sales startup 1Mind

Startups /

Although LLM-powered AI agents are a fairly new phenomenon, one of the areas where they’ve been most popular so far is in sales. 1Mind, a startup co-founded by Amanda Kahlow, has been quietly shipping its sales agent, named Mindy, for about a year.   On Monday, the startup announced a $30 million Series A round led by Battery Ventures. This brings 1Mind’s total raise to $40 million, the company says.  Kahlow is

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Lenskart recovers from tepid open to close first day slightly above IPO price

Startups /

Lenskart shares recovered after a soft start to finish slightly above the offer price on Monday, following the Indian eyewear retailer’s ₹72.8 billion ($821 million) IPO that sold out within hours but stirred debate over its valuation. The stock opened at ₹395, below the IPO price of ₹402, and fell as much as 11% to

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Slow Ventures holds a ‘finishing school’ to help founders learn to be fancy

Startups /

Slow Ventures hosted a three-hour “Etiquette Finishing School” this week, covering topics like the perfect handshake, public speaking, and office decorum. There was even a fashion show with models showing off different looks for different occasions, and then a closing lesson about caviar and wine. The San Francisco Standard reports that a few hundred founders

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TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 Startup Battlefield 200: Celebrating outstanding achievements

Startups /

This year, TechCrunch Disrupt showcased the incredible talent and groundbreaking ideas of our 2025 Startup Battlefield 200 cohort. Out of thousands of applications, we selected 200 of the most promising startups, each bringing unique innovations to their respective industries. The competition culminated in an electrifying event where these startups had the opportunity to pitch and

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From Air Force officer to space defense CEO: Why Even Rogers left to build weapons for orbit

Startups /

Even Rodgers spent a decade as an Air Force weapons officer watching China and Russia build space weapons while the U.S. had “nothing in our arsenal.” So he left the military to solve the problem himself.  Now, as co-founder and CEO of True Anomaly, he’s building the first exclusively defense-focused space superiority company, developing autonomous spacecraft, sensors, and software designed specifically for military engagements

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Tattd gave four TechCrunch writers tattoos at Startup Battlefield

Startups /

On Tuesday morning at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, our Senior Producer Maggie Nye rolled up her jacket sleeve to show me her new tattoo: a classic, pixelated cursor arrow. TechCrunch’s Becca Szkutak got a matching cursor, while Theresa Loconsolo got a smiling moon. I guessed that at some point during all the Disrupt hoopla, Maggie and

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