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ICON, a pioneer in 3D home printing, raises $56M led by Norwest, Tiger Global

Robotics /

ICON, which builds homes using 3D printing, has closed on $56 million in Series C funding co-led by Norwest Venture Partners and Tiger Global, the company has confirmed to TechCrunch exclusively. The raise represents a first close for the Austin-based ICON, according to a spokesperson. Existing backers CAZ Investments, LENX, Moderne Ventures, Oakhouse Partners and […]

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OpenAI scrubs diversity commitment web page from its site

Startups /

OpenAI has eliminated a page on its website that used to express its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The URL “https://openai.com/commitment-to-dei/” now redirects to “https://openai.com/building-dynamic-teams/,” a page that talks about people with “different backgrounds” with no use of the word diversity. The previous page stated that the company’s “investment in diversity, equity and inclusion”

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Spyware maker caught distributing malicious Android apps for years

Security /

Italian spyware maker SIO, known to sell its products to government customers, is behind a series of malicious Android apps that masquerade as WhatsApp and other popular apps but steal private data from a target’s device, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Late last year, a security researcher shared three Android apps with TechCrunch, claiming they were

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Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team steers toward nature-based carbon credits

Transportation /

Few fans would associate Formula 1 racing with sustainability, but perhaps incongruously for a sport that glorifies combustion, the league has a goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. For F1 teams, it’s not as simple as burning sustainable fuels in their race cars’ engines. In fact, the cars are responsible for less than

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SGNL snags $30M for a new take on ID security based on zero-standing privileges

Fundraising /

Security experts often describe identity as the “new perimeter” in the world of security: in the world of cloud services where network assets and apps can range far and wide, the biggest vulnerabilities are often leaked and spoofed log-in credentials.  A startup called SGNL has built a new approach that it believes is better at

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Lucidity snags $21M to help enterprises optimize their cloud storage

Enterprise /

Enterprises often overprovision their cloud data storage to keep a buffer for demand peaks, but that comes at a major cost. And while in-house DevOps teams may optimize servers to reduce the impact of these costs, they usually skip optimizing their storage to avoid any accidental data loss or downtime. This leads to significant cloud

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Mast Reforestation hatched a plan to restore wildfire-ravaged forests. Investors took notice.

Fundraising /

Rebuilding after a wildfire isn’t cheap. The recent Los Angeles wildfires, for example, incurred up to $164 billion in property and capital losses. But restoring the forest isn’t, either, with a few thousand acres running a couple million dollars, Grant Canary, co-founder and CEO of Mast Reforestation, told TechCrunch. “If you’re a land owner and

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Pinkfish helps enterprises build AI agents through natural language processing

Enterprise /

As the chief product officer for AI customer service startup TalkDesk, Charayna “CK” Kannan said that enterprises often say they want to automate different workflows but that it’s really hard to implement AI. Enterprises are dealing with clunky, legacy software, that often doesn’t have APIs, creating a daunting task their IT departments weren’t prioritizing. “Every

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