
The TechCrunch AI News Feed

Flapping Airplanes, a new AI research lab focused on data‑efficient training, announced it has secured $180 million in seed funding. The undisclosed round gives founders Ben and Asher Spector and Aidan Smith runway to develop novel AI models that require far less data.

ElevenLabs announced a $500 million fundraising round, valuing the voice‑AI startup at $11 billion. The round, led by Sequoia Capital, will fund the company’s push to make voice the next major AI interface across devices. The announcement was made during...

Apple announced the acquisition of Q.ai, an Israeli imaging and machine learning startup, in a deal valued at nearly $2 billion. The purchase aims to strengthen Apple's AI capabilities in audio and vision technologies, with Q.ai's founders joining Apple as part...

Tesla disclosed a $2 billion investment in Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, joining other investors in the company’s $20 billion Series E round. The investment was made despite a shareholder vote rejecting authorization and aligns with Tesla’s AI and robotics strategy.

Handshake announced the acquisition of Cleanlab, a data‑quality software startup, in an acqui‑hire that adds nine Cleanlab employees, including its co‑founders, to Handshake's research team. The terms were undisclosed, and the deal aims to strengthen Handshake's AI data‑labeling capabilities for...

Modelence, a Y Combinator‑backed startup that simplifies AI‑driven app building, announced a $3 million seed round. The round was led by Y Combinator with participation from Rebel Fund, Acacia Venture Capital Partners, Formosa VC and Vocal Ventures. The funding will help...

CVector, an industrial AI startup, announced a $5 million seed round to expand its AI-powered software platform for large-scale manufacturing and utilities. The round was led by Powerhouse Ventures with participation from Fusion Fund, Myriad Venture Partners and Hitachi's corporate...

Fire‑suppression startup HEN Technologies announced a $20 M Series A round and $2 M of venture debt, bringing total funding to over $30 M. The round was led by O’Neil Strategic Capital with participation from NSFO, Tanas Capital and z21 Ventures. The capital will...

Harvey, a legal AI startup, announced it has acquired Hexus, a tool‑building startup for product demos and videos. Deal terms were not disclosed; Hexus’s San Francisco team has joined Harvey and its India engineers will move after a Bangalore office opens,...

Quadric, a chip‑IP startup focused on on‑device AI inference, announced a $30 million Series C funding round led by Accelerate Fund, managed by Beenext Capital Management. The round brings total funding to $72 million and supports its expansion into laptops, industrial devices, and...

Ukrainian‑origin language learning platform Preply announced a $150 million Series D round, pushing its valuation to $1.2 billion and cementing its unicorn status. The funding will support AI‑driven features and expansion across its four offices in Barcelona, London, New York and Kyiv.

Zanskar, an AI-powered geothermal startup, announced a $115 million Series C funding round led by Spring Lane Capital, with participation from a slate of investors including Union Square Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and Munich Re Ventures. The capital will be used to expand its AI-driven...

AI e‑commerce startup Spangle announced a $15 million Series A round led by NewRoad Capital Partners, bringing total funding to $21 million and valuing the company at $100 million. The round also included Madrona, DNX Ventures and Streamlined Ventures, along with strategic angel investors....

OpenAI announced an acqui‑hire of the Convogo team, the creators of an AI‑powered executive coaching platform. The all‑stock deal will see Convogo’s three co‑founders join OpenAI to work on its AI cloud initiatives, while Convogo’s product will be wound down....

Snowflake announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire observability platform Observe for an estimated $1 billion. The deal, subject to regulatory approval, will integrate Observe’s telemetry capabilities into Snowflake’s data cloud, enhancing monitoring and debugging for customers.

Meta announced a $2 billion acquisition of AI assistant platform Manus, sparking regulatory scrutiny in both the United States and China. The deal follows a recent financing round led by Benchmark and raises concerns over export controls as Manus relocates from...

Lemon Slice announced a $10.5 million seed round to fund its AI‑driven digital avatar platform. The round was led by Matrix Partners and Y Combinator, with participation from Dropbox CTO Arash Ferdowsi, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear and The Chainsmokers.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s new AI‑assistant startup Dazzle announced an $8 million seed round at a $35 million valuation. The round was led by Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures and Bling Capital.

Resolve AI, an autonomous site reliability engineering startup, announced a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the company at $1 billion. The round’s exact size was not disclosed, but the funding will accelerate its AI‑driven SRE platform.

AI pioneer Yann LeCun announced the formation of Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) Labs and is targeting a €500 million raise at a €3 billion valuation. The fundraising is being pursued immediately after launch, positioning AMI Labs as a major new player in...

Peripheral Labs announced a $3.6 million seed round to fund its affordable volumetric video platform for sports, led by Khosla Ventures with participation from Daybreak Capital, Entrepreneurs First and Transpose Platform. The funding will accelerate product development and go‑to‑market efforts targeting...

Lovable, the Stockholm‑based AI‑driven vibe‑coding platform, announced a $330 million Series B round led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures, valuing the company at $6.6 billion. Existing backers Khosla Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Databricks Ventures and other investors also participated.

MoEngage, the Bengaluru‑based customer engagement platform, announced a $180 million Series F follow‑on round, with $123 million coming from secondary sales and $57 million as primary capital. The round was led by ChrysCapital and Dragon Funds, with participation from Schroders Capital, TR Capital, B...
Leona Health announced a $14 million seed round to expand its AI‑copilot that organizes doctor‑patient messaging on WhatsApp across 14 Latin American countries. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from General Catalyst, Accel, Maven Clinic, Nubank and Rappi,...
Databricks announced a $4 billion Series L financing round, pushing its valuation to $134 billion as it doubles down on AI‑centric products. The round was led by Insight Partners, Fidelity and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with participation from a slate of top venture and...
First Voyage announced a $2.5 million seed round led by a16z speedrun, SignalFire and True Global to expand its AI companion app Momo Self Care. The funding will support an Android launch and further AI enhancements, positioning the startup in the...
Berlin‑based AI startup Mirelo announced a $41 million seed round to fund its video‑to‑soundtrack technology. The round was led by Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Atlantic and several angel investors. The capital will accelerate product development and hiring...
Norwegian AI startup Spoor announced a recent €8 million ($9.3 million) Series A round led by SET Ventures, with participation from Ørstead Ventures and Superorganism. The funding will accelerate its computer‑vision platform for protecting birds around wind turbines and expand into new markets.
Port announced a $100 million Series C round led by General Atlantic, with participation from Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners and Team8, valuing the startup at $800 million. The funding will accelerate its AI‑driven developer portal platform that competes with Spotify’s Backstage. The round...
AI DevOps platform Harness announced a $240 million Series E round, pushing its post‑money valuation to $5.5 billion. The round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from IVP, Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures, and includes a $40 million employee tender offer.
Empromptu, an AI platform that lets enterprises build applications via chat, announced a $2 million pre‑seed round on Tuesday. The round was led by Precursor Ventures with participation from Zeal Capital, Alumni Ventures, Founders Edge and South Loop, and will fund...
Former Databricks AI head Naveen Rao's startup Unconventional AI announced a $475 million seed round at a $4.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures with participation from Lux Capital and DCVC, marking a massive early‑stage raise...
Calgary‑based AI startup Cashew Research announced it has closed a C$1.5 million pre‑seed round, aimed at expanding its AI‑powered market research platform. The funding will support product development and U.S. market expansion as the company targets B2B customers.
Aaru, a one‑year‑old AI‑driven synthetic research startup, announced a Series A financing that values the company at a $1 billion headline valuation. The round was disclosed by sources to TechCrunch, marking a significant milestone for the market‑research platform.

Simular announced a $21.5 million Series A round led by Felicis, with existing seed investors NVentures and South Park Commons also participating. The funding will support the rollout of its AI‑driven agent for macOS and the upcoming Windows version.

Paris-based AI voice startup Gradium announced a $70 million seed round led by FirstMark Capital and Eurazeo, with participation from Xavier Niel, DST Global Partners, Eric Schmidt and others. The funding will support the launch of its ultra‑low‑latency audio‑language models for developers across...

The U.S. Commerce Department announced a deal to provide up to $150 million in equity funding to semiconductor startup xLight, marking the government’s third equity stake in a private company. The investment, sourced from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, aims...
Nvidia announced a $2 billion investment in Synopsys, purchasing shares at $414.79 each as part of a multi‑year partnership to integrate Nvidia’s AI hardware with Synopsys’s EDA tools. The corporate venture aims to accelerate chip‑design workflows by moving Synopsys’s platform to...
OpenAI announced it is acquiring an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a private‑equity‑style firm that backs AI‑focused companies. The terms were not disclosed, but the partnership will embed OpenAI’s engineering and research teams within Thrive‑owned businesses to accelerate AI adoption....
Supabase, the open‑source database platform, announced a new $100 million financing that lifts its valuation to $5 billion. The round follows a $200 million raise at a $2 billion valuation just months earlier, underscoring rapid growth in its backend‑as‑a‑service business.

Onton, the AI‑driven shopping platform formerly known as Deft, announced a $7.5 million funding round led by Footwork with participation from Liquid 2, Parable Ventures and 43. The capital will fuel expansion into new categories such as apparel and consumer electronics.

AI testing startup Momentic announced a $15 million Series A round led by Standard Capital with participation from Dropbox Ventures and existing backers including Y Combinator, FCVC, Transpose Platform and Karman Ventures. The funding will help expand its AI‑powered software testing platform and...

Indian IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced it has secured a $1 billion investment from private‑equity firm TPG to fund the first phase of its $2 billion HyperVault AI data‑center initiative. The multi‑year partnership will help build gigawatt‑scale, liquid‑cooled facilities...

Finnish AI startup NestAI announced a €100 million funding round, led by sovereign fund Tesi and hardware giant Nokia, to develop physical AI for defense and autonomous systems. The capital will help establish Europe’s leading physical AI lab and support the...

Sortera announced a $20 million equity raise and $25 million debt financing led by VXI Capital, with participation from Overlay Capital, Yamaha Motor Ventures and Trinity Capital. The capital will fund a replica plant in Tennessee slated for operation in spring 2026,...

Function Health announced a $298 million Series B round led by Redpoint Ventures, pushing its valuation to $2.5 billion. The round also included participation from a16z, Aglaé Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Battery Ventures, NFDG and other investors, fueling the launch of its Medical Intelligence...

Berlin‑based Peec AI announced a $21 million Series A round led by European VC Singular, with participation from Antler, Combination VC, identity.vc and S20. The funding will accelerate product growth, expand the team and support a new US office as the...

Seoul‑based Bone AI announced a $12 million seed round led by Third Prime, with strategic participation from Kolon Group. The funding will support the startup's AI‑driven autonomous drones, ground and marine vehicles targeting defense and government contracts across Asia and beyond.

Luminal announced a $5.3 million seed round on Monday, led by Felicis Ventures with angel participation from Paul Graham, Guillermo Rauch, and Ben Porterfield. The funding will support its GPU‑code optimization framework aimed at improving inference performance for AI workloads.

AI‑agent security startup Runlayer announced an $11 million seed round on Monday, raised from Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois and Felicis Ventures. The funding will help the company expand its all‑in‑one MCP security platform for enterprise customers, including several unicorns that...

Tokyo‑based Sakana AI announced a $135 million Series B round that lifts its post‑money valuation to $2.65 billion. The round was led by a mix of Japanese financial heavyweight Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and global venture firms including Khosla Ventures, Macquarie Capital, NEA,...

PowerLattice, a chiplet startup focused on energy‑efficient AI hardware, announced a $25 million Series A round led by Playground Global and Celesta Capital, bringing its total funding to $31 million. The round was disclosed as the company emerged from stealth on Monday, positioning...

Cursor announced a $2.3 billion funding round on Thursday, boosting its valuation to $29.3 billion. The round was co‑led by Accel and Coatue, with participation from Thrive Capital, Nvidia and Google as strategic investors. Proceeds will fund the development of Composer, Cursor’s...

AI‑focused startup Bindwell announced a $6 million seed round led by General Catalyst and A Capital, with participation from Paul Graham and SV Angel. The funding will fuel development of its proprietary AI models for designing new pesticide molecules and pursuing licensing deals...

Israeli AI startup Milestone announced a $10 million seed funding round led by venture firm Heavybit and Hanaco Ventures, with participation from Atlassian Ventures and several angel investors. The round will help the company expand its platform that correlates GenAI tool...

Former physician Jenny Shao’s AI companion startup Robyn announced a $5.5 million seed round, led by venture firm M13 with participation from investors Lars Rasmussen, Bill Tai, Ken Goldman and Christian Szegedy. The funding will support product launch and growth of...

AI sales startup 1mind announced a $30 million Series A round on Monday, led by Battery Ventures, bringing its total funding to $40 million. The round also included Primary Ventures, Wing Venture Capital, Operator Collective, Harmonic Growth Partners, Success Venture Partners and several...
Kaltura announced the acquisition of Israel‑based eSelf.ai, a conversational avatar platform, in a deal valued at about $27 million. The acquisition will integrate eSelf’s real‑time AI avatar technology into Kaltura’s video solutions for enterprise customers.

Scribe announced a $75 million all‑equity Series C round, valuing the workflow‑automation startup at $1.3 billion. The round was led by StepStone with participation from Amplify Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Tiger Global, Morado Ventures and New York Life Ventures, and will fund the rollout of...

AI startup Inception announced a $50 million seed round to develop diffusion‑based models for code and text. The round was led by Menlo Ventures with additional angel contributions from Andrew Ng and Andrej Karpathy. The funding will accelerate the rollout of its...

California‑based Subtle Computing announced it has closed a $6 million seed round, led by Entrada Ventures with participation from Amplify Partners and Abstract Ventures. The funding will accelerate development of its voice‑isolation models for noisy environments and support upcoming product launches.

Wabi, the AI‑driven "YouTube of apps" platform founded by Replika creator Eugenia Kuyda, announced a $20 million pre‑seed funding round. The round was backed by a roster of high‑profile angels including Naval Ravikant, Garry Tan, Justin Kan, Amjad Masad, Akshay Kothari,...

Rivian announced the creation of Mind Robotics, an industrial AI and robotics spinoff, which has secured a $115 million seed round led by venture firm Eclipse. The funding aims to develop advanced AI-driven robotic solutions for manufacturing and other physical‑world businesses.

Microsoft announced a $15.2 billion AI investment plan for the UAE, which includes a $1.5 billion equity stake in G42, the country's sovereign AI company. The deal was unveiled at the Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit, marking a major corporate venture into...

AI startup Adam announced a $4.1 million seed round led by TQ Ventures, with participation from 468 Capital, Pioneer, Script Capital, Transpose Platform and several angel investors. The funding will accelerate development of its AI copilot for professional CAD workflows, moving...

The Y Combinator‑backed startup The Prompting Company announced a $6.5 million seed round to expand its generative engine optimization platform that helps brands appear in AI‑powered recommendations. The round was led by Peak XV Partners with participation from Base10, Y Combinator, Firedrop and angel...
Figma announced it has acquired AI-powered image and video generation startup Weavy, which will join Figma under a new brand called Figma Weave. The Tel-Aviv-based startup’s 20 employees will join Figma; the companies did not disclose the deal valuation.

Bevel, a New York‑based health‑tech startup, announced a $10 million Series A round led by General Catalyst to scale its AI‑driven health companion that aggregates wearable and nutrition data. The funding will support product expansion and user growth as the company targets...

Nvidia announced it has invested $1 billion in Nokia to help pioneer AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks, using Nokia products alongside Nvidia platforms. The move was disclosed by Nvidia the week of Oct. 29, 2025 as part of its broader...

Warsaw‑based CampusAI is currently raising a $20 million Series A to expand its AI upskilling platform into 40 markets by 2030, focusing on B2B sales and enterprise customers. The two‑year‑old startup says it is on track for $2M+ ARR and...

OpenAI announced completion of a recapitalization converting into a for‑profit OpenAI Group controlled by a non‑profit foundation, with ownership split (Foundation 26%, Microsoft ~27%, investors and employees 47%). The restructuring accompanies a reported $30B SoftBank investment and extends Microsoft’s IP...

Mem0 raised $24 million in total funding, comprising $3.9M in previously unannounced seed and a $20M Series A led by Basis Set Ventures with participation from Kindred Ventures, Y Combinator, Peak XV Partners, and the GitHub Fund, to expand its...

Nephrogen, a biotech startup combining AI and gene‑editing delivery tech to target kidney disease, is raising a $4 million seed round to advance its delivery mechanism and drug into clinical studies anticipated in 2027.

Mercor raised $350 million in a Series C at a $10 billion valuation, led by Felicis Ventures with participation from Benchmark, General Catalyst and Robinhood Ventures. The AI-focused talent and training marketplace will use the capital to expand its expert...

RADiCAIT, an Oxford spinout using AI to generate PET-quality images from CT scans, came out of stealth this month with $1.7M in pre-seed financing and has just opened a $5M seed raise to fund FDA clinical trials and commercial pilots.

Cluely, an AI meeting assistant startup, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz earlier in 2025. The funding has been used for marketing, staffing and office expansion as the company scales.

OpenAI has acquired Software Applications, Inc., the startup behind Sky, an unreleased AI-powered natural language interface for Mac. Deal terms were not disclosed; the startup had previously raised $6.5M from investors including Sam Altman and Dylan Field.

Turbo AI, an AI note‑taking startup founded by Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan, raised $750,000 last year in an early financing. The company remains profitable and is cautious about raising more despite strong user growth and inbound interest.

Tensormesh launched from stealth with a $4.5M seed round led by Laude Ventures and additional angel funding from Michael Franklin to build a commercial version of the LMCache utility, aiming to reduce AI inference costs and optimize GPU usage for...

London-based AI creative studio Wonder Studios raised $12M in a seed round led by Atomico with participation from LocalGlobe, Blackbird and other investors. The funds will be used to grow engineering, pursue IP ownership and accelerate original and commercial AI-generated...

Adaption Labs, a startup co-founded by former Cohere VP of AI Research Sara Hooker and Sudip Roy, has closed a seed funding round after talks to raise $20M–$40M earlier this fall; the final amount was not disclosed. The company will...

Platform-engineering startup Shuttle raised $6 million in a seed round to help deploy and manage applications produced by vibe-coding and other AI coding systems. Investors include former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke and Segment co-founder Calvin French-Owen; funds will be used...

Multimodal AI startup Fal.ai has closed a new funding round of approximately $250M that values the company at over $4 billion. Major investors in the round include Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia; the raise follows a $125M Series C earlier in...

Open‑source AI agent platform LangChain raised $125 million in a growth-stage financing that values the company at $1.25 billion. The round was led by IVP and included new investors CapitalG and Sapphire Ventures alongside existing backers Sequoia, Benchmark and Amplify.

Dubai-based Cercli raised an oversubscribed $12M Series A led by Picus Capital, with participation from Knollwood Investment Advisory, Y Combinator, Afore Capital, and COTU Ventures. The startup will use the funding to expand its AI-native HR, payroll and compliance platform...

OpenEvidence raised $200 million at a $6 billion valuation in a growth-stage funding round led by Google Ventures, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Blackstone, Thrive Capital, Coatue Management, Bond and Craft. The startup, founded in 2022, provides an...

1001 AI, an AI infrastructure startup for aviation, logistics and oil & gas in the MENA region, raised a $9M seed round led by CIV, General Catalyst and Lux Capital with participation from several angels. The funding will accelerate product...

Periodic Labs, founded by former OpenAI and Google Brain researchers Liam Fedus and Ekin Dogus Cubuk, raised a $300M seed round led by Felicis to fund AI‑powered materials science R&D and a wet lab. Other backers include Andreessen Horowitz, DST,...

Goldman Sachs is acquiring Industry Ventures in a deal valued at up to $965 million, signaling Wall Street's interest in the secondary venture market. The acquisition was reported in TechCrunch's Oct 17, 2025 article referencing the transaction.

London-based recruitment startup Jack & Jill raised $20 million in a seed round led by EU investor Creandum to expand its conversational AI job-hunting platform and pursue U.S. growth. The company already has nearly 50,000 users in London and will...

General Intuition, a spinout from Medal, raised $133.7M in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst with participation from Raine. The startup will use Medal’s gaming video dataset to train foundation models and AI agents focused on...
Flint, an AI startup that automates building and updating websites, emerged from stealth with a $5M seed round led by Accel and participation from Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners and Neo. The funding will support product development to enable dynamic, personalized...

Goldman Sachs is acquiring venture firm Industry Ventures in a deal valued at up to $965 million, signaling Wall Street’s growing interest in the secondary venture market.
Enterprise-focused AI presentation startup Prezent has raised $30 million to pursue acquisitions of AI services firms, including an initial deal with the founder’s other company. The round follows a prior $20M raise and is earmarked to accelerate growth through M&A.
Reflection has raised $2 billion at an $8 billion valuation to expand from autonomous coding agents into an open-source frontier AI lab positioned against closed western labs and Chinese rivals like DeepSeek. The funding will support scaling research and platform...
Datacurve raised $15 million to fund growth of its bounty-hunter dataset labeling platform aimed at competing with Scale AI. The capital will be used to scale operations and attract skilled engineers to complete hard-to-source datasets.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems closed an $863M Series B2 round in August 2025 with participation from Google and Nvidia (and others), backing the company as it builds its Sparc demonstration reactor and advances commercial fusion efforts.