TechCrunch Startup News

TechCrunch

  • 6 minutes 20 seconds
    Harness hits $5.5B valuation with $240M raise to automate AI’s ‘after-code’ gap

    Goldman Sachs has led Harness's Series E round, with participation from IVP, Menlo Ventures, and Unusual Ventures. The new valuation is a 49% jump from its $3.7 billion valuation in a $230 million round in April 2022. With this funding, the startup has raised $570 million of equity to date.

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    12 December 2025, 9:00 pm
  • 4 minutes 51 seconds
    Interest in Spoor’s bird-monitoring AI software is soaring

    Spoor's computer vision software can help wind farms, and other industries, track bird populations and migration patterns.

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    12 December 2025, 1:00 pm
  • 7 minutes 29 seconds
    On Me raises $6M to shake up the gift card industry; plus, Port raises $100M at $800M valuation to take on Spotify’s Backstage

    On Me raises $6 million for its digital gift card platform that lets users purchase cards categorized by interests rather than being restricted to specific retailers.

    Also, Port offers a proprietary alternative to Spotify's popular devtool catalog Backstage, but with a valuable addition: it can be used to manage AI agents, too.

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    11 December 2025, 8:00 pm
  • 9 minutes 28 seconds
    AI startup Tavus founder says users talk to its AI Santa ‘for hours’ per day; Oboe raises $16 million from a16z for its AI-powered course generation platform

    Tavus has launched a new experience where you can chat with an AI Santa that asks personal questions and remembers your interests.

    Oboe has raised $16 million in funding for its learning app. The company now lets users generate unlimited courses for free.

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    11 December 2025, 9:45 am
  • 5 minutes 47 seconds
    Boom Supersonic raises $300M to build natural gas turbines for Crusoe data centers

    Crusoe will pay Boom $1.25 billion for more than a gigawatt of generating capacity with deliveries of the turbines starting in 2027.

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    10 December 2025, 10:05 am
  • 9 minutes 58 seconds
    Empromptu raises $2M pre-seed to help enterprises build AI apps; Pebble’s founder introduces a $75 AI smart ring for recording brief notes

    Empromptu claims all a user has to do is tell the platform's AI chatbot what they want — like a new HTML or JavaScript app — and the AI will go ahead and build it.

    Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky is expanding his company's device lineup with a new smart wearable: an AI-powered smart ring known as Index 01.

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    9 December 2025, 8:00 pm
  • 6 minutes 5 seconds
    Tiger Global plans cautious venture future with a new $2.2B fund; plus, SoftBank and Nvidia reportedly in talks to fund SkildAI at $14B, nearly tripling its value

    Tiger's last fund did well with investments in OpenAI, Waymo and Databricks. But it warns investors that AI valuations are already 'elevated.'

    Skild AI is developing a hardware-agnostic foundation model for robots that can be customized for various uses.

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    9 December 2025, 10:00 am
  • 4 minutes 35 seconds
    Heat pump startup Quilt raises $20M Series B to expand sales ; plus, OpenAI says it’s turned off app suggestions that look like ads

    Quilt has sold nearly 1,000 units in the U.S. and Canada, and the new funding should help expand sales operations to more states and provinces.

    Also, while OpenAI continues to insist that there are currently no ads — or tests for advertising — live in ChatGPT, the company’s chief research officer also acknowledged that the company “fell short” with recent promotional messages.

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    8 December 2025, 8:30 pm
  • 5 minutes 25 seconds
    Meta acquires AI device startup Limitless; and Is it time to ‘refound’ your startup?

    Limitless said it shares Meta's vision of bringing personal superintelligence to everyone.

    Also, sometimes, founding a startup just once isn’t enough.

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    8 December 2025, 10:10 am
  • 5 minutes 27 seconds
    New streaming channel launches to give viewers a peek into city council meetings

    Hamlet TV is a way to help keep citizens informed of what's happening inside local governments.

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    5 December 2025, 7:00 pm
  • 6 minutes 33 seconds
    Nexus isn’t going all in on AI, keeping half of its new $700M fund for India startups; plus, Amazon hopes to jump-start its AI coding tool Kiro by giving it away to startups

    Nexus Venture Partners manages $3.2 billion in capital across its funds and has invested in more than 130 companies over the years.

    Also, can Kiro win the hearts of startup founders above the many AI coding tools they already have? Amazon hopes a free year will tempt them.

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    4 December 2025, 9:00 pm
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