Khalid Ashmawy remembers the first time he wired money home while studying in Europe. He had just received his monthly stipend as a master’s student in Stuttgart and wanted to send part of it back to his family in Cairo. It was usually a slow and expensive process, he recalled. A $400 wire transfer, for […]
Thousands of semi trucks that cut across the U.S. highway system each day are harboring a secret: they’re only about half full. That inefficiency represents a multi-billion dollar opportunity. And one that a few companies like Uber Freight and Flock Freight are already chasing as part of broader business models that match truck drivers with
YC-backed Oway raises $4M to build a decentralized ‘Uber for freight’ Read More »
On August 9, the people who previously ran startup incubator Y Combinator’s events and PR, along with a former Andreessen Horowitz social media manager, are holding a small, invitation-only event, TechCrunch has learned. The To Do List Summit will cap off at 80 early-stage founders and will teach them how to work with the press
Former Y Combinator, a16z experts hold invite-only summit for founders Read More »
A startup called Pig.dev that participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 batch was working on a potential revolutionary idea: AI agentic tech to control a Microsoft Windows desktop. But in May, the founder announced he was abandoning the tech and pivoting his company to something entirely different: Muscle Mem, a cache system for AI agents
Why a Y Combinator startup tackling AI agents for Windows gave up and pivoted Read More »
Investing in Y Combinator startups can lead to significant returns to investors. “If you look at the data: 6% of YC companies become unicorns, and of that 6% a quarter become decacorns,” Kulveer Taggar told TechCrunch. Taggar is a two-time YC alum best known for founding Zeus Living, a property management startup that raised over
Y Combinator alum launched a new $34M fund dedicated to YC startups, backed by Garry Tan Read More »
It’s rare to see a solo founder building a widely adopted developer infrastructure tool. Even more so if the founder happens to be from Africa. Bereket Engida, a self-taught programmer from Ethiopia, is quietly building what some developers say is the best authentication tool they’ve ever used. Engida’s startup, Better Auth, offers an open source
The latest San Francisco startup culture drama happened on Monday night. And it centered around “the most legendary party that never happened,” Cluely founder and CEO Roy Lee tells TechCrunch. Cluely had hoped to throw an after-party for a Y Combinator event occurring on Monday and Tuesday called AI Startup School. The event drew crowds
Police shut down Cluely’s party, the ‘cheat at everything’ startup Read More »
India has been one of the top recipients of remittances in the world for more than a decade. Inward remittances jumped from $55.6 billion in 2010-11 to $118.7 billion in 2023-24, according to data from the country’s central bank. The bank projects that figure will reach $160 billion in 2029. This means there is an
Meta just made a $14.3 billion bet on data-labeling company Scale AI, but it’s not a traditional takeover: Meta’s taking a 49% stake in the company and adding Scale’s co-founder Alexandr Wang to its team. The move signals Meta’s growing urgency to keep up in the AI race, even if its strategy for competing with
Meta’s big AI bet and our not-so-hot-take on fintech IPOs Read More »
Tesla sued a former engineer for allegedly stealing trade secrets from its humanoid robotics program, Optimus, and using them to launch a rival startup. The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday and originally reported on by Bloomberg, accuses Zhongjie “Jay” Li of stealing trade secrets regarding Tesla’s development of “advanced robotic hand sensors” to launch
Tesla sues former Optimus engineer over alleged trade secret theft Read More »
