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Whole Foods tells staff cyberattack at its primary distributor UNFI will affect product availability

Whole Foods told its employees that the ongoing outages and disruptions at its primary distributor, United Natural Foods (UNFI), may take “several days to resolve.” The Amazon-owned retail giant told staff in an internal communication, seen by TechCrunch, that UNFI was experiencing a “nationwide technology system outage,” which UNFI has for its part described as

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Mitra Chem is raising $50M for its cheaper, domestic battery materials

Battery material startup Mitra Chem has raised $15.6 million of a planned $50 million funding round, according to a regulatory filing seen by TechCrunch. Mitra Chem is developing materials to make lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries store more energy. Automakers have begun to turn to LFP in an attempt to trim costs from electric vehicle battery packs,

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After its data was wiped, KiranaPro’s co-founder cannot rule out an external hack

Indian grocery delivery startup KiranaPro’s recent data loss story has more holes than Swiss cheese, as the startup remains unclear whether the incident was an internal breach or an external hack. Last week, the Bengaluru-based startup discovered that it could not access its back-end servers and that all its data, including its app code, had

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Jony Ive’s LoveFrom helped design Rivian’s first electric bike

Lovefrom, the creative firm founded by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive, played a role in the development of Rivian’s first electric bike, according to multiple sources who spoke to TechCrunch.  For about 18 months, a handful of LoveFrom staff worked alongside Rivian’s design team and engineers within a skunkworks program led by Specialized’s former

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Clean energy investment hits new highs and shows no sign of slowing

The world is set to invest nearly twice as much in clean energy as fossil fuels this year, according to a new International Energy Agency report. While fossil fuel outlays are still significant — about $1.15 trillion this year — they’ll be dwarfed by clean energy, which is expected to receive $2.15 trillion in 2025.  But

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Toma’s AI voice agents have taken off at car dealerships – and attracted funding from a16z

When Monik Pamecha co-founded AI voice startup Toma in early 2024, he hadn’t anticipated spending the summer months sweating in Bible Belt car dealerships. He and co-founder Anthony Krivonos were still focused on banking and healthcare customers when the dealers came knocking.  “They just called us up and said ‘we are drowning in phone calls,’”

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It’s layoff ‘season’ at Phil Libin’s Airtime

Airtime, the video startup from Evernote’s founder Phil Libin, has laid off dozens of employees, TechCrunch has learned, and Airtime confirmed. According to the company, 25 people were let go from the 58-person team — a change Airtime described as “bigger than usual.” While Airtime characterizes the departures as part of its typical seasonal approach

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Obvio’s stop sign cameras use AI to root out unsafe drivers

American streets are incredibly dangerous for pedestrians. A San Carlos, California-based startup called Obvio thinks it can change that by installing cameras at stop signs – a solution the founders also say won’t create a panopticon.  That’s a bold claim at a time when other companies like Flock have been criticized for how its license

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