Startups

OpenAI just made its first cybersecurity investment 

Generative AI has vastly expanded the toolkit available to hackers and other bad actors. It’s now possible to do everything from deepfaking a CEO to creating fake receipts. OpenAI, the biggest generative AI startup of them all, knows this better than anyone. And it’s just invested in another AI startup that helps companies defend against […]

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Thatch raises $40M to give employees more control of their health care choices

Thatch, a startup that aims to transform the health insurance experience for employers and employees alike, has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. Index Ventures led the financing, which included participation from existing backers Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), General Catalyst, SemperVirens, PeopleTech Partners, The General Partnership, and new

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The affidavit of a Rippling employee caught spying for Deel reads like a movie

On Wednesday, Rippling publicly released the affidavit of the Rippling employee who testified that he was working as a spy for the HR tech company’s arch rival Deel.  And the account, coupled with Rippling’s lawsuit filed against Deel last week, reads like a corporate espionage movie script, complete with a sting operation and a smashed

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Khosla’s Keith Rabois leads $11.5M Series A for startup Roam, calls it ‘the future of the housing market’

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage interest rates dropped to historic lows — as low as 2.5%. Fast-forward a few years and rates soared — to highs nearing 8% in 2023, with the national average 30-year fixed mortgage APR as of April 1 still at 6.84%.  The whiplash has left many people seeking to buy homes

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Actively AI raises $22.5M to offer sales ‘superintelligence,’ says AI SDRs failed

AI sales rep startups are a very crowded market these days. If you’re driving into San Francisco from the airport, you’ll probably spot billboards promising that you can “Stop Hiring Humans” (Artisan) or urging you to “Hire Piper, the AI SDR” (Qualified). While some of these startups are certainly growing fast, the field has its

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CaaStle board confirms financial distress, furloughing employees

CaaStle, a startup that launched in 2011 as a plus-sized clothing subscription service and later became an inventory monetization platform for clothing retailers, is facing financial difficulties, the company confirmed to TechCrunch following a report by Axios. Citing a letter from the board, Axios reported that the company is almost out of money, CEO Christine

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Mark Cuban backs Skylight, a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky’s underlying technology

Skylight, a startup taking on TikTok with a more open alternative, is launching its mobile app to the public on Tuesday after just 10 weeks of active development. The app, which is backed by Mark Cuban and others, is now one of many to build on top of the AT Protocol — the same technology

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Meet Ponte Labor, a startup matching Hispanic immigrants to jobs using WhatsApp

While working on their MBAs at Harvard Business School, Colombian immigrants Stephanie Murra and Lorenza Vélez noticed that most of the workers in the cafeteria were Hispanic. In conversations with them, a common theme kept coming up: how difficult it was for people who legally moved to the U.S. from Spanish-speaking countries to find their

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Fashion startup CaaStle appears to be in trouble

CaaStle, a startup that launched in 2011 as a plus-sized clothing subscription service and in 2018 became an inventory monetization platform for clothing retailers, is facing financial difficulties, reports Axios. The company is almost out of money, CEO Christine Hunsicker has resigned, and law enforcement is investigating alleged financial misconduct, Axios reported, citing a leaked

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Here are Africa’s biggest startups based on valuation

Last year, funding into African startups edged past $2 billion, returning to pre-pandemic levels and presenting a mixed bag as expected. Signs suggest 2025 will follow the cautious trends of the past two years. A sharp decline in mega-deals, mirroring global venture capital tightening since the boom of 2020-2021, pushed local and international investors to

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