“When an investor passes on you, they will not tell you the real reason,” said Tom Blomfield, group partner at Y Combinator. “At seed stage, frankly, no one knows what’s going to fucking happen. The future is so uncertain. All they’re judging is the perceived quality of the founder. When they pass, what they’re thinking [...]read moreInvestors won’t give you the real reason they are passing on your startup
Photo: Fisker We learned last month that despite Fisker beginning production on its Ocean SUV, the startup automaker lost nearly half a billion dollars last year and desperately needed a bailout. Nissan was reportedly in negotiations to give Fisker $400 million, but that apparently fell through, so it looked like bankruptcy was the only option. [...]read moreFisker Claims 4 Automakers Are In Talks To Buy Out The Struggling EV Startup
The OpenAI Startup Fund, a venture fund related to — but technically separate from — OpenAI that invests in early-stage, typically AI-related companies across education, law and the sciences, has quietly closed a $15 million tranche. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, two unnamed investors contributed the $15 million in [...]read moreOpenAI Startup Fund quietly raises $15M
Space and defense startup True Anomaly has laid off around 25% of its workforce and canceled its summer internship program, TechCrunch has learned. “With our rapid growth over the past two years, we looked at every aspect of our company to make sure we are laser focused on our goals and best positioned to execute,” [...]read moreDefense startup True Anomaly lays off around 25%, cancels summer internship
Open banking may be a global trend, but implementation is fragmented. The fintech startups doing the legwork to make it a reality in smaller markets could become M&A targets for incumbents like Visa. One of these is Y Combinator alum Fintoc, a B2B fintech startup that has raised a $7 million Series A round of [...]read moreChilean instant payments API startup Fintoc raises $7 million to turn Mexico into its main market
Two veteran security experts are launching a startup that aims to help other makers of cybersecurity products to up their game in protecting Apple devices. Their startup is called DoubleYou, the name taken from the initials of its co-founder, Patrick Wardle, who worked at the U.S. National Security Agency between 2006 and 2008. Wardle then [...]read moreEx-NSA hacker and ex-Apple researcher launch startup to protect Apple devices
Sanlo, a fintech startup that helps gaming companies manage finances, announced Wednesday the closed beta launch of its webshop tool, giving select game developers and studios a plug-and-play solution that works alongside their existing tech stacks. Gaming companies can sign up for a demo starting today. With Google and Apple charging a 30% fee for [...]read moreFintech gaming startup Sanlo’s webshop tool could help developers avoid costly app store fees
Advances in generative AI have taken the tech world by storm. Biotech investors are making a big bet that similar computational methods could revolutionize drug discovery. On Tuesday, ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, an affiliate of Foresite Capital, announced that they incubated Xaira Therapeutics and funded the AI biotech with $1 billion. Other investors [...]read moreXaira, an AI drug discovery startup, launches with a massive $1B, says it’s ‘ready’ to start developing drugs
It is a universal truth of human nature that the developers who build the code should not be the ones to test it. First of all, most of them pretty much detest that task. Second, like any good auditing protocol, those who do the work should not be the ones who verify it. Not surprisingly, [...]read moreWhy code-testing startup Nova AI uses open source LLMs more than OpenAI
Nvidia is acquiring Run:ai, a Tel Aviv-based company that makes it easier for developers and operations teams to manage and optimize their AI hardware infrastructure, for an undisclosed sum. Ctech reported earlier this morning the companies were in “advanced negotiations” that could see Nvidia pay upwards of $1 billion for Run:ai. Evidently, those negotiations went [...]read moreNvidia acquires AI workload management startup Run:ai