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Former Velodyne CEO’s delivery robot startup is ditching LiDAR for foundation models

AI /

LiDAR has been a cornerstone of autonomous vehicle and robotics industries. While it’s become an industry standard, the technology has its drawbacks. Chief among them is high cost. As the former CTO and CEO of LiDAR leader Velodyne, Anand Gopalan is aware of the tech’s pluses and minuses. It’s telling, then, that the executive’s latest […]

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India’s Swiggy turns its Minis service for small businesses into a link-in-bio landing page

Commerce /

Indian food delivery and quick commerce startup Swiggy is pivoting one of its smaller businesses: Swiggy Minis, its Shopify alternative for small businesses, is being turned into a link-in-bio service that will now also cater to service providers like nutritionists and fitness trainers. In its new avatar, Swiggy Minis will act as a landing page

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USPS shared customer postal addresses with Meta, LinkedIn and Snap

Security /

The U.S. Postal Service was sharing the postal addresses of its online customers with advertising and tech giants Meta, LinkedIn, and Snap, TechCrunch has found. On Wednesday, the USPS said it addressed the issue and stopped the practice, claiming that it was “unaware” of it. TechCrunch found USPS was sharing customers’ information by way of

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Without this company’s technology, future fusion power plants might never light up

Fundraising /

Proponents of nuclear fusion have long promised to create nearly limitless power here on earth by harnessing the same reaction that powers the sun. Today, fusion’s biggest hurdle is ensuring that any fusion power plant produces more power than it needs to operate. The second is ensuring that it has enough fuel to run. Many

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Fintech startup Coast lands $40M just 4 months after its last $25M raise

Transportation /

Coast, a startup that describes itself as “a financial services platform for the future of transportation,” has raised $40 million in Series B funding — just four months after announcing a $25 million round, the startup has told TechCrunch exclusively. Back-to-back fundraises were common prior to and during the wild investment days of 2021, but

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The Way app offers a chance to meditate alongside a Zen Master

Apps /

A new app called The Way is aiming to help people explore the deeper side of meditation through a single, structured path guided by an authorized Zen Master. Founded by uncle-and-nephew duo Henry Shukman and Jack Shukman, The Way wants to help people move beyond modern mindfulness practices offered by popular meditation apps like Headspace

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Matera raises $100M from Warburg Pincus to help the US catch up to Brazil in instant payments

Fintech /

To say that Pix, the instant payment system created by the Central Bank of Brazil, has been a resounding success is an understatement. With Pix, money moves directly between core banking systems of different financial institutions. Adoption has been widespread and ubiquitous. The country’s residents have the ability to even pay street vendors using the

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