Startups

OpenAI is the world’s most valuable private company after private stock sale

Venture /

OpenAI has sold $6.6 billion in shares held by current and former employees, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The sale pushed OpenAI’s total valuation to $500 billion, the highest ever achieved by a privately held company. Purchasers included SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Thrive Capital, MGX, and T. Rowe Price, the report said. The […]

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Kevin Hart’s VC firm leads $35M Series B for weight-loss app Simple

Venture /

Mike Prytkov said he knows what it’s like to let stress take over one’s life.  While building his first company, he said he worked long hours and gained weight. After exiting his company (an adtech company called Appness), he said he tried many things to lose the pounds: extreme workouts, calorie tracking, and fasting. “While

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CommanderAI says it’s building the Salesforce for the waste management industry

Enterprise /

David Berg learned a lot about the waste management industry by driving a garbage truck around the country as the first employee at Ohio-based Brattle Motors.  He discovered that despite the sheer number of sales prospecting platforms, selling to the waste management industry is still an offline endeavor.   “All of them had a unanimous way of going to

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Startup founders say Trump’s $100K H-1B fee is a ‘talent tariff’ that will hurt innovation

Venture /

Amr Awadallah, founder of AI startup Vectara, had two reactions when he heard about changes to the H-1B visa program that raise the application fee for each visa to $100,000. He was not surprised. But he was dismayed. “I can’t afford to pay $100,000,” Awadallah told TechCrunch. He’s hired one employee on an H-1B, and

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South Korea’s ‘Silicon Valley’ struggles to live up to its global ambitions

Startups /

Just south of Seoul, in the city of Seongnam, sits what many call the “Silicon Valley of South Korea”: the sprawling tech complex known as Pangyo Techno Valley (PTV), which is just a 15-minute subway ride from Gangnam, better known for its luxury boutiques, K-pop agencies, and neon nightlife in Seoul. Since launching in 2011,

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AI company Superpanel raises $5.3M seed to automate legal intake

Startups /

For Julien Emery, the problem has always been personal.  He’s the CEO and co-founder of Superpanel, a platform that helps law firms seamlessly onboard new clients.  He listed emotional encounters with the law: As a Canadian, he found access to legal help hard and expensive; he also recalls his mother in a car accident, and

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This $30M startup built a dog crate-sized robot factory that learns by watching humans

Startups /

While many robotics companies are building human-sized robots, or working to automate entire factories, MicroFactory is instead trying to think big by building small.   San Francisco-based MicroFactory built a general-purpose, tabletop manufacturing kit that’s about the size of my Siberian Husky’s dog crate. This compact factory includes two robotic arms and can be trained by

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We are entering a golden age of robotics startups — and not just because of AI

AI /

When Seth Winterroth left his job at GE Ventures to help launch Eclipse Ventures in 2015, robotics was on his mind. Or more specifically, the number of early-stage robotics startups that were struggling to launch due to lack of interest. “These are teams that had just finished their postdocs at Waterloo, or CMU, or MIT,

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The music industry is broken. OpenWav’s new app aims to change that

Apps /

Grammy Award-winning musician, composer, and producer Wyclef Jean says the music industry is broken, which is why he’s now involved with a startup, OpenWav, that’s looking to give the power back to the artists. Through the OpenWav app, launched over the summer, artists can drop new music and exclusives, connect directly with fans, sell merch,

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