Startups

Y Combinator often backs startups that duplicate other YC companies, data shows — it’s not just AI code editors

The Silicon Valley dream is to build a tech startup that is such a unique idea it alters the commercial universe and turns its founders into billionaires. Participating in the Valley’s most famed startup factory, Y Combinator, is often part of that dream. Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe all got started there. Yet, a deep dive

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Plex redesigns its app to look more like a streaming service

Streaming service and media software maker Plex on Friday introduced a redesign of its software that puts more emphasis on discovery, easily accessing your watchlist and other personalization features — including those for home media enthusiasts who still use the app to organize their media libraries. Over the years, the company has tried to balance

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India’s Arzooo, once valued at $310M, sells in distressed deal

Arzooo, an Indian startup founded by former Flipkart executives that sought to bring “best of e-commerce” to physical stores, has sold its assets in distressed sale to Moksha Group. The deal follows Arzooo engaging with several startups, including Bengaluru-headquartered Udaan, for potential merger opportunities, according to people familiar with the matter. Arzooo had raised approximately

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Federal prosecutors have charged another Forbes 30 Under 30 alum with fraud

The FBI unsealed an indictment yesterday that alleges Joanna Smith-Griffin, founder of the AI startup AllHere Education, engaged in “securities fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with defrauding investors” out of nearly $10 million. The FBI claims she misrepresented her company’s revenue, customer base, and cash to investors from at least November

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Raven Space Systems opens up a whole new category of industrial 3D printing

Manufacturing has been one of the hottest categories in venture this year, but there are still many innovative materials and processes yet to scale. One example is thermoset composites, materials widely used in aerospace and defense due to their high heat resistance and light weight, but which typically have long lead times and high prices

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YC-backed Formal brings a clever security reverse-proxy out of stealth

Formal is a security startup coming out of stealth on Tuesday with a nice list of investors and an interesting product positioning. The company has designed a reverse-proxy for data stores and APIs so that security teams can more easily secure access to sensitive data. In more practical terms, Formal is a proxy that you

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Agentio raises $12 million from Benchmark for its YouTube ad marketplace

Creator marketplace startup Agentio, which has built an automated platform for YouTubers to sell their ad slots to brands, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark with participation from returning investors Craft Ventures and AlleyCorp. With the new funding, the startup aims to scale its marketplace for YouTubers and bolster its

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Workbrew makes open-source package manager Homebrew enterprise-friendly

A trio of former GitHub executives and engineers have founded a new startup that brings the benefits of one of the most popular open-source package managers to the enterprise. Workbrew, as the startup is called, emerges from stealth today with the mission of mitigating the risks of”shadow IT” practices, giving company admins and security teams

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