Committed to reducing the harmful impact of its activities, sports goods retailer Decathlon has announced an investment – the amount of which has not been disclosed – in start-up Recyc’Elit, via its Decathlon Alliances structure. Founded in 2019 in the Lyon region in France and run by brothers and science doctors Karim and Raouf Medimagh, [...]read moreDecathlon invests in a textile recycling start-up
AI-powered real estate assistant Sidekick unveiled a partnership with the San Francisco Association of Realtors (SFAR) on Monday. The collaboration will allow the region’s 4,000 agents to leverage Sidekick’s integrated datasets and workflows, making SFAR the first association to offer a generative AI assistant to its members. Launched in November 2023, Sidekick features many functionalities, [...]read moreSan Francisco Realtors partner with AI startup Sidekick
Plenty of founders have a difficult decision to make early in their journey: where to set up shop. For deep tech founders, the decision is complicated by the fact that they typically need more from their space. Some might need lab benches, others might require massive amounts of electricity, and still others might need room [...]read moreHow to choose a deep tech startup program
Building a startup is hard. Building a company that helps startup is similarly difficult. That’s the takeaway from TechCrunch reporting on Techstars and Newchip. In the case of Newchip, the accelerator appeared to promise a bit more than it could deliver. Mix in a culture that appeared to be turbulent at best, and you have [...]read moreNewchip, Techstars, and what happens when startup accelerators fail
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Before I jump into the all the news — and boy there was a lot! — I have an important update for all of you lovely readers. TechCrunch Mobility is moving to Thursdays! It will be the same [...]read moreHyundai antes up $1B for AV startup Motional and Elon unplugs the Tesla Supercharger team
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje’s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Musk’s 10-month-old baby, xAI, is closing in on a whoppin’ $6 billion funding round. The social network X, née Twitter — also part of Elon’s tech [...]read moreMusk raises $6B for AI startup. Also, is TikTok dodging Apple’s commissions?
Y Combinator is renowned in Silicon Valley for a lot of reasons, but there’s one service that has quietly become one of its most powerful: an online founder-matching tool. “I think this is the most valuable digital product that YC has built (i.e. more valuable than Bookface, etc,). It’s astonishing how many founders I meet [...]read moreHow Y Combinator’s founder-matching service helped medical records AI startup Hona land $3M
Here’s your shot across the bow — there’s a little over one month left to nominate your startup for Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt. Join this elite group for a new and awesome opportunity at TechCrunch Disrupt. It’s positively packed with perks and possibilities to get your company to the next level. Don’t delay: Apply to [...]read more1 month left to submit nominations for Startup Battlefield 200
AI startups face a different set of challenges from your typical SaaS company. That was the message from Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner at Glasswing Ventures, last week at the TechCrunch Early Stage event in Boston. Seseri made it clear that just because you connect to some AI APIs, it doesn’t make you an [...]read moreYour AI-native startup ain’t the same as a typical SaaS company
Hyundai has agreed to spend nearly $1 billion on Motional, an investment that will give the automaker a majority stake while providing the self-driving startup with the necessary capital to keep operating. The Korean automaker invested $475 million directly into Motional as part of a broader deal that includes buying out joint venture partner Aptiv. [...]read moreHyundai is spending close to $1 billion to keep self-driving startup Motional alive