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Why Hims & Hers turned to the autonomous vehicle industry to find an AI-savvy CTO

Biotech & Health /

Hims & Hers, the telehealth and wellness company, has hired a veteran of the autonomous vehicle industry as its next chief technology officer. The move, according to Hims & Hers co-founder and CEO, Andrew Dudum, was intentional. Hims & Hers on Thursday said its next CTO would be Mo Elshenawy, the former president and CTO […]

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Fastino trains AI models on cheap gaming GPUs and just raised $17.5M led by Khosla

AI /

Tech giants like to boast about trillion-parameter AI models that require massive and expensive GPU clusters. But Fastino is taking a different approach. The Palo Alto-based startup says it has invented a new kind of AI model architecture that’s intentionally small and task-specific. The models are so small they’re trained with low-end gaming GPUs worth

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Tesla’s  ‘Robotaxi’ and ‘Cybercab’ trademarks hit roadblocks ahead of June launch

Transportation /

Tesla’s attempt to trademark the term “Robotaxi” in reference to its vehicles has been refused by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for being too generic, according to a new filing. Another application by Tesla to trademark the term “Robotaxi” for its upcoming ride-hailing service is still under examination by the office. In addition, applications

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Uber-rival BluSmart investors propose resolution with $30M backing for its revival

Transportation /

A group of investors are considering a plan to inject another $30 million into BluSmart in a bid to revive the Indian cab-hailing startup that abruptly halted operations last month, TechCrunch has learned. The proposal from these existing investors has a catch: its contingent on BluSmart co-founder Anmol Singh Jaggi agreeing to resign. The proposed

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BluSmart investors propose $30M in new funding to revive the Uber rival

Startups /

A group of investors are considering a plan to inject another $30 million into BluSmart in a bid to revive the Indian cab-hailing startup that abruptly halted operations last month, TechCrunch has learned. The proposal from these existing investors has a catch: its contingent on BluSmart co-founder Anmol Singh Jaggi agreeing to resign. The proposed

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Breathe lands $21M Series B to predict battery performance

Fundraising /

Few markets are moving as rapidly as China’s automotive sector. There, new models are rolled out in as little as 18 months, putting tremendous pressure on legacy Western automakers, which need four-plus years to go from concept to sales floor. “With the increasingly short development cycles in China, it’s driving a huge amount of cost

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Finom, a challenger bank aimed at SMBs, lands $105M in growth funding from General Catalyst

Fundraising /

Finom, an Amsterdam-based digital bank for small- and medium-sized businesses, has raised €92.7 million (roughly $105 million) in a growth investment from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, the company tells TechCrunch exclusively. The capital infusion “will be used exclusively and only for growth” and not for operational expenses or product development, Kos Stiskin, Finom’s chairman

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Cnaught wants to make carbon credits easy for businesses small and large

Fundraising /

In 2020, Mark Chen’s son sent his relatives a brief and unusual Christmas list: In lieu of presents, he wanted carbon credits. “He was 12 at the time,” Chen told TechCrunch. “He came up with the idea. I thought it was great, so I started looking into carbon credits. I stepped into the chaos that

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Agree.com raises $7.2M to take on Docusign, Bill.com with AI

Fintech /

Agree.com says its AI-powered e-signature platform is different from competitors because it includes invoicing and payment processing. That’s why the company might have a shot at tackling the industry goliath, Docusign.  Because the startup makes its money from transaction fees for any money movement facilitated by its platform, Agree.com has made e-signatures free to all

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A stealth AI model beat DALL-E and Midjourney on a popular benchmark. Its creator just landed $30M.

Startups /

Recraft, the startup behind a mysterious image model that beat OpenAI’s DALL-E and Midjourney on a respected industry benchmark last year, has raised a $30 million Series B round led by Accel, it exclusively told TechCrunch.  Other investors in the round include Khosla Ventures and Madrona. Based in San Francisco, Recraft previously raised a $12

A stealth AI model beat DALL-E and Midjourney on a popular benchmark. Its creator just landed $30M. Read More »