Los Angeles-based Coco Robotics, a startup building last-mile delivery robots, announced it raised $80 million on Wednesday. The funding round included angel investors Sam Altman and Max Altman, both returning investors, in addition to VC firms like Pelion Venture Partners and Offline Ventures, among others. This brings the company’s total funding to more than $120 […]
Sam Altman-backed Coco Robotics raises $80M Read More »
Despite what some experts have characterized as an environment increasingly hostile to AI R&D, North America continues to receive the bulk of AI venture dollars, according to data from investment tracker PitchBook. Between February and May of this year, VCs poured $69.7 billion into North America-based AI and machine learning startups across 1,528 deals. That’s
North America takes the bulk of AI VC investments, despite tough political environment Read More »
Every year, donors contribute billions of dollars to charities, yet the donation process still feels outdated and cumbersome. Founders Dan Eblagon and Ron Levy believe there is an easier way to donate, leading to the creation of Bono, a platform designed to facilitate a more modern and streamlined approach to giving. The platform (named after
A new startup called Bono aims to modernize the way people donate to charities Read More »
Capsule is upgrading its AI-powered video editing assistant for marketing, sales, and media teams following the close of a $12 million round of Series A funding, the company announced on Wednesday. The upgraded editor will include new features like AI suggestions and support for real-time collaboration. The new version of its studio software will feature
Capsule captures $12M to build the next version of its AI video editor for brands Read More »
A handful of engineers who worked at Lucid Motors and on Apple’s electric car project have launched a new startup that puts a fresh spin on electric hub motors. The new startup, called Conifer, has developed its motor to be free of rare earth elements by using more abundant ferrite magnets, which the company says
Conifer locks down $20M seed round for its ‘drop-in’ electric hub motor Read More »
Amazon started the Alexa Fund in 2015 to back early-stage voice startups. With the advent of large language models and Amazon launching Gen AI-powered Alexa+ along with a family of multimodal AI models, the fund now wants to broaden its scope and invest more in AI startups. In a blog post Amazon shared with TechCrunch
Amazon’s Alexa Fund is now backing AI startups Read More »
Arcade, a generative AI marketplace for designing jewelry, is expanding its offerings to include home goods, starting with rugs. The company on Monday also introduced a new feature called “Match My Room,” which allows users to upload a photo of their room so that their design complements the existing colors and style. Alongside this expansion,
AI creation platform Arcade expands from jewelry to home goods Read More »
Kerry Washington is expanding her angel investment portfolio, serving as lead investor in the pre-seed round of the wedding marketplace Cheersy. Cheersy, which was founded in 2024 by Amy Shack Egan, helps couples find day-of service wedding coordinators and has raised a total of $550,000, from other investors including Elizabeth Cutler, co-founder of Soul Cycle
Kerry Washington invests in wedding marketplace Cheersy Read More »
Intangible AI, now backed by $4 million in seed funding, offers an AI-powered creative tool that allows users to create 3D world concepts with text prompts to aid creative professionals across a variety of industries. The company’s mission is to make the creative process accessible to everyone, including professionals such as filmmakers, game designers, event
Intangible AI, a no-code 3D creation tool for filmmakers and game designers, raises $4M Read More »
Inception, a new Palo Alto-based company started by Stanford computer science professor Stefano Ermon, claims to have developed a novel AI model based on “diffusion” technology. Inception calls it a diffusion-based large language model, or a “DLM” for short. The generative AI models receiving the most attention now can be broadly divided into two types:
Inception emerges from stealth with a new type of AI model Read More »
