Quantum computing remains a holy grail in the world of technology. But thanks to some important breakthroughs in the last several months, investors are betting on promising startups in the space to make the concept of super-efficient, particle- and electron-based computing a reality. Now, Quantum Machines, an Israeli startup that provides quantum control solutions to […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

“Agentic AI” is the concept of the moment. Developers big and small are rushing to build apps to leapfrog the heavy lifting needed to employ generative AI in specific contexts… and investors are rushing to fund the most interesting of these.  In one of the latest examples, a startup out of Israel called Perfect — […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The U.K. government is pushing forward with plans to attract more AI companies to the region by changing copyright law. The proposed changes would allow developers to train AI models on artists’ content found online — without permission or payment — unless creators proactively “opt out.” Not everyone is marching to the same beat, though. […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The U.S. government is leaning hard on tech companies to make more commitments to building their businesses in the country, and Big Tech is falling in line. On Monday, Apple laid out its own plans in that area: It will spend $500 billion over the next four years in areas like high-end manufacturing, engineering, and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Photo and video apps targeting young adults with social hooks are a dime a dozen these days, so those that show traction with 18-twentysomethings tend to catch the attention of investors looking for the next Instagram or TikTok. In the latest example, photo-sharing app Yope, which lets you share still images to private groups, says […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Three founders who built out one of the bigger startups in risk management are scaling a new company to take on another pain point in the world of work. SmartSuite‘s platform lets teams collaborate on projects, build automations around that work, and search and access work across larger libraries of data spanning a disparate number […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Investors on the lookout for startups working at the frontiers of technology are casting their nets ever further into unchartered territory, sometimes literally as well as figuratively. In one of the latest examples, a startup called Karman+ with ambitions to build autonomous spacecraft that can travel to asteroids and then mine them for materials has […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As companies like Nvidia and SoftBank focus on industrial robotics as key areas for future R&D, a startup has raised funding today for another facet of how AI is being used on the factory room floor. Augury, which develops AI-based hardware to identify when machines need repairs and what is wrong with them, has raised […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Last decade, companies like Segment rewrote the book on how organizations used APIs to merge data from disparate apps to improve marketing strategies. Today, a startup called Hightouch — co-founded by a former engineering manager at Segment — is announcing $80 million in funding for the next chapter: a platform that lets sales, marketing, and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Back in November, we broke the news that Meta — owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, with billions of users accounting for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic — was close to announcing work on a major new, $10 billion+ subsea cable project to connect up the globe. The aim was […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The U.K. government wants to make a hard pivot into boosting its economy and industry with AI, and as part of that, it’s pivoting an institution that it founded a little over a year ago for a very different purpose. Today the Department of Science, Industry and Technology announced that it would be renaming the […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

EnCharge AI, a semiconductor startup developing analog memory chips for AI applications, has raised more than $100 million in a Series B round led by Tiger Global to spur its next stage of growth.  The funding is significant partly because interest in AI is at an all-time high, but the high price of building and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Security experts often describe identity as the “new perimeter” in the world of security: In the world of cloud services, where network assets and apps can range far and wide, the biggest vulnerabilities are often leaked and spoofed log-in credentials.  A startup called SGNL has built a new approach that it believes is better at […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

E-commerce startups built around food continue to gobble up funding as investors look for sticky consumer concepts that can scale without breaking the bank. On Wednesday, Germany’s Lanch — which taps social media and influencers to develop popular food brands alongside retail networks for distributing them — closed funding of €26 million ($27 million) to […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Quantum computing, long relegated to the realm of the theoretical, feels like it is back on the agenda as a potentially viable alternative to the expensive race for even more computing power.  On the heels of some notable advancements in quantum chips and error correction (two key hurdles for quantum computing), a startup out of […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Unimaginable disasters like the fires in Los Angeles cause hundreds of billions of dollars in destruction, and put a huge focus on the role the insurance industry plays in the process of rebuilding. Those events also lead to major financial losses at the insurance companies themselves, and longer term, all of this will put a […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

At the AI Action Summit in Paris this week, the U.S. declined to sign the statement summarizing the resolutions. But it did make an appearance: Vice President J.D. Vance gave a speech to the audience of dignitaries, tech leaders and regulators. Amid a conference heavy on equitable AI development — specifically, beyond the outsized influence […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Venture capitalists are gobbling up term sheets for startups peddling artificial intelligence, but they’re remaining picky when it comes to funding the wider spectrum of technology.  According to new figures from analytics firm Dealroom, AI startups raised $110 billion last year, 62% more than the year before. At the same time, privately-backed companies (startups and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The race is on to build a new generation of healthcare software to replace legacy hospital systems that in some cases may not have been updated in decades. A startup out of Munich, Germany called Avelios has ambitions to build a new kind of end-to-end operating system, leaning into more modern tooling using AI and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Field service engineers may not be the first group of customers that come to mind when you think about lucrative opportunities in B2B technology. But that same blind spot speaks of the opportunity in the space for those who are stepping up and targeting “the job site.” One of the players in that space, XOi  […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.