Equity podcast

Equity Live: Bret Taylor’s $4.5 billion startup and Waymo’s $5.6 billion round

Fundraising /

The Equity crew was live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Hosts Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl took over the Builders Stage to kick off day 2 of Disrupt with no shortage of conference highlights, startups deals and venture news to chew through. Listen to the full episode to hear about: Equity will be back with a special interview episode on […]

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Stripe’s biggest acquisition yet, and what’s a16z doing with all of those Nvidia GPUs?

Fundraising /

It’s no secret that Stripe has doubled down on its crypto offerings, enabling crypto purchases in the EU back in July and announcing a Pay with Crypto feature earlier this month. This week, the fintech giant made its dedication even clearer with its largest deal to date: its acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge for an

Stripe’s biggest acquisition yet, and what’s a16z doing with all of those Nvidia GPUs? Read More »

The race isn’t over for European AI startups and the upcoming ‘agentic revolution’

Enterprise /

The top U.S. tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple have deep enough pockets to spend tens of billions of dollars on AI development and infrastructure. Next in rank are heavy hitters like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI, which are spending billions on AI. Then there are a handful of challengers, like Mistral and

The race isn’t over for European AI startups and the upcoming ‘agentic revolution’ Read More »

Investor FOMO returns, and what happened with WordPress and WP Engine?

Fundraising /

Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Devin Coldewey, Margaux MacColl and Anthony Ha are rounding up the week’s startup and venture news, kicking things off with a look at the $400 million raised by Lightmatter, and the importance of fast networking within the fast growing datacenter industry today — not just in years to come —

Investor FOMO returns, and what happened with WordPress and WP Engine? Read More »

Tesla’s bot non-disclosure and why humanoid robots are taking off

Venture /

At Tesla’s robotaxi reveal event last week, several Optimus humanoid robots mingled with guests, pouring drinks and cracking jokes. Impressive technology, but the vocals and some of the gesticulations appear to have been remotely controlled by humans, something Tesla did not disclose.  On today’s episode of Equity, Rebecca Bellan chatted with TechCrunch’s hardware editor Brian

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Investors are betting on user-generated content in video games. Gamebeast’s founder explains why

Startups /

Today on Equity, Rebecca Bellan sat down with Zander Brumbaugh, the 22-year-old founder of Gamebeast, a startup that offers Roblox developers tools like A/B testing and LiveOps to modify games without needing to release a new version or interrupt a user’s ongoing game.  Gamebeast recently raised a $3.7 million pre-seed round, led by J2 Ventures

Investors are betting on user-generated content in video games. Gamebeast’s founder explains why Read More »

YC takes a bite out of PearAI, and French startups have a new home

AI /

Kirsten Korosec, Devin Coldewey, and Margaux MacColl are unpacking another busy week in the tech world, kicking things off with Governor Newsom’s veto of SB 1047, the controversial AI bill aimed at stopping real-world disasters caused by AI systems before they happen. This may not be the last we’ll see of the bill, however, as

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Green flags for defense tech and Silicon Valley’s longevity obsession

Biotech & Health /

This episode of Equity had so many themes: VC karaoke, the SpaceX economy, no moats for AI, OpenAI versus open source. You know it’s going to be good when the conversation between host Kirsten Korosec and fellow TCers Devin Coldewey and Margaux MacColl starts with the evergreen question: is it ever OK to use shirtless

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Toyota Ventures on the hydrogen plateau and the IRA funding crutch

Fundraising /

Toyota Ventures started in 2017 to help startups figure out what the future will look like, with an eye towards ensuring Toyota as an automaker and brand would stay at the forefront of innovation.  While the firm initially targeted mobility startups, the crossover into climate tech was a natural progression. Today, Toyota Ventures has over

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