What a week, everyone. Two full days of Y Combinator demo day activity kept us busy, but the latest accelerator cohort’s launch was far from the only big story in startup-land. Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Mary Ann, Becca, and Alex gathered to dig into favorites from the hundreds of new YC companies that pitched, … Read more
Faced with labor shortages, sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture are increasingly adopting AI in their automation. Computer vision startups are looking to jump on that opportunity with a range of point solutions for both industries. From data collection to crop monitoring and harvesting, robots with eyes are entering the fields. One big challenge that … Read more
To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles here. … Read more
Ford announced Thursday that it’s delaying the production of two electric vehicles, a next-generation EV pickup and a three-row EV SUV. The pair are now slated to arrive in 2026 and 2027, delays of one and two years respectively. In their place, the automaker will be introducing hybrids across its U.S. lineup. Ford’s CEO has … Read more
Every year, Time Magazine issues a list of the 200 best inventions of the past 12 months. Frankly, I don’t know how the editors do it. The dirty secret of this job is that true, game-changing inventions rarely cross your desk. In fact, you’re extraordinarily lucky if you average one a year. Oculus’ Rift prototype … Read more
The second half of Y Combinator’s Winter 2024 cohort presented on Thursday, once again bringing dozens and dozens of new startups before a chunk of the venture investing community. As we did on Wednesday, a number of the TechCrunch crew watched the entire run of presentations, picking out a handful of favorites to highlight. Enjoy … Read more
When it comes to funding, the fintech sector didn’t have a very good start to the year. Fintech funding slid by 16% quarter-over-quarter during the three-month period, according to CB Insights’ Q1 2024 State of Venture Report. But even more troubling than the double-digit dip was the fact that the $7.3 billion raised globally by … Read more
Indian quick-commerce startup Zepto has surpassed the annualised sales milestone of $1 billion within just 29 months of its inception, Goldman Sachs wrote in a note Thursday, citing the Zepto management. The startup, which competes with Zomato-owned Blinkit and SoftBank-backed Swiggy Instamart, is also gaining market share, now standing “close to that of the number 2 … Read more
Five months ago, Rooms, a 3D design platform made by ex-Google employees, launched its beta version on the App Store. Today, the free iOS app is getting a big update that will bring a wave of new discovery-first features, including an activity feed, an explore page, the ability to browse by category, and more. Rooms … Read more
Google is rolling out the April update to ChromeOS users with features like the ability to customize keyboard shortcuts and mouse button actions. The update also brings improved offline text-to-speech voice support. The ChromeOS M123 update is rolling out to users over the next few days. Let’s go through these new features. The main new … Read more