It’s Wednesday, July 16, 2025, and the venture capital faucet is wide open. Today’s tech funding news slate spans everything from AI-driven utilities and autonomous bulldozers to crypto stablecoins and battlefield power systems. We’re running a little behind today—but trust […]
The post Top Startup and Tech Funding News – July 16, 2025 first appeared on Tech Startups.
The battle between Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton and the three former executives at its developer Unknown Worlds continues. Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire — the three executives who Krafton terminated earlier this year — have filed a lawsuit detailing the alleged attempts by Krafton to torpedo the early access release of Subnautica 2 with the express purpose of avoiding paying a promised earnout bonus of $250 million.
“Krafton’s actions have already severely damaged fan anticipation and undermined the potential release of Subnautica 2,” the lawsuit says.
That earnout was promised by Krafton to the former executives and roughly 100 developers and was to be paid should Unknown Worlds hit revenue goals by the end of 2025. Subnautica 2, slated for early access release sometime in late 2025, would have all but assured those goals were met.
According to the lawsuit filed today in a Delaware chancery court, Krafton also knew Subnautica 2 was on track to meet if not exceed the revenue target to trigger the payout and began to take steps to essentially prevent that. The original Subnautica, an underwater survival adventure game, was a critical and commercial success, and its sequel has become the second most wishlisted game ever on Steam.
The lawsuit details a meeting between Krafton’s US and Korean employees concerning the marketing strategy for Subnautica 2. After that meeting, Krafton’s US employees, who worked closely with the Subnautica 2 team, reported that Kafton’s attitude about the game had changed.
“Upon their return, the El Segundo team—Krafton employees—reported to Gill that Krafton’s leadership was not focused on a successful launch, but instead on how it could convince Unknown Worlds to delay the game.”
The lawsuit additionally states that Krafton’s US employees explicitly revealed to the Unknown Worlds founders that “Krafton’s legal team was combing through the agreements looking for any opening to terminate the Founders if they proceeded with the planned release.”
The lawsuit provided the details of the deal in which Krafton purchased Unknown Worlds back in 2021. The lawsuit says that part of that deal was an agreement that the founders would maintain control of the company and the release schedule of Subnautica 2, while Krafton could not impede the game’s development nor fire Unknown Worlds’ founders without cause.
According to the lawsuit, Krafton launched a campaign to do both. Krafton allegedly failed to follow through on several of its development responsibilities for Subnautica 2 including pulling marketing and localization support. “Indeed, one of Krafton’s El Segundo publishing employees reported to Gill that Krafton Headquarters told all Krafton teams to stop all creative tasks related
to Subnautica 2.”
The lawsuit claims that Krafton took these obstructionist actions to delay the game to explicitly avoid the $250 million payout. At a meeting between Krafton CEO Changhan Kim and Charlie Cleveland, Kim allegedly stated that, “if Unknown Worlds released the game on its planned timeline […], it could be disastrous financially and hugely embarrassing for Krafton.” Krafton declined to comment.
After the initial story broke regarding the alleged reason for Subnautica’s delay, Bloomberg reported that Krafton agreed to extend the timeline for the earnout to account for Subnautica 2’s later release. Previously, the company denied that it delayed Subnautica 2 for any other reason but to polish the game. Earlier this week, an internal document regarding Subnautica 2’s development were leaked on Reddit. The document, consisting of two pictures taken of a computer screen, outlined the content originally planned for the game’s early access launch and how some material had to be changed or removed to meet the release date.
Krafton acknowledged the veracity of those documents saying, “Given these circumstances, Krafton has determined that transparent communication is necessary and has chosen to confirm the authenticity of the document,” possibly to bolster its argument that Subnautica 2 was not ready for its early access release.
You know it’s a day that ends in y because there is a new Grok controversy. Except this time, it touches on the App Store’s rules for sexual content, which is something that Apple has shown time and time again that it doesn’t mess around with.
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Broadcom is kicking some cloud service providers (CSPs) out of the VMware channel partner program, bringing uncertainty for the technological and financial futures of numerous businesses, especially small-to-medium-sized ones.
As reported by The Register today, Broadcom this week revealed to VMware CSP partners that it is launching a new invite-only channel program for CSPs on November 1. Fewer CSPs are expected to be eligible for this new program. The Register said that “some mid-size partners won’t be invited to the new program."
Current VMware CSPs that didn’t receive an invite for the new program by today have reportedly been cut and will receive a notice of non-renewal.
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Beeper, the app that infamously tried (and briefly succeeded) in bringing iMessage to Android, is getting a big update with improved privacy as well as a subscription that unlocks a bunch of new features.
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The Mercedes-Benz CLA is a marked departure from Mercedes' EV efforts. Instead of a dedicated line of EQ vehicles—like the EQB, EQC, and EQS—we're getting vehicles "with EQ Technology." It started with the electric G Wagon, but the CLA is the first mainstream product to make the change. The thing is that the change is significant and for the better. Several months ago, we got some time in a prototype CLA; now we've driven the final product.
The CLA returns for the 2026 model year as an EV first (with a hybrid coming) on an all-new 800-volt architecture. This architecture will find its way to other Mercedes vehicles, like the upcoming GLB and GLC. This thoroughly modern setup features some of the company's biggest innovations.
The CLA will be available with either one or two electric motors, with a two-speed setup for efficiency and performance. The 250+ base model makes 268 hp (200 kW) and 247 lb-ft (335 Nm) of torque. Mercedes is claiming up to 792 km of range with this model on the WLTP cycle. Accounting for WLTP's optimism, it's still possible we might see an EPA-rated range over 400 miles, but Mercedes isn't quoting any real numbers yet.
© Mercedes-Benz
Just one month after Meta invested $14.3 billion in the startup and hired away its founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang, Scale AI is laying off a significant chunk of its workforce and cutting ties with hundreds of contractors. The San […]
The post Scale AI lays off 200 staff, cuts 500 contractors after $14.3B Meta deal and CEO departure first appeared on Tech Startups.
A new report out today from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) shows that while remain the most popular wireless earbuds among iPhone users, Apple might be feeling the pressure of slowing growth.
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