Our news
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Los Angeles-based Rain raised a $75M Series B in another good sign for fintech
Rain, a startup offering employer-integrated earned wage access (EWA) app coupled with financial-wellness features like overdraft alerts and spending trends, has raised $75 million in an all-equity Series B round. The round was led by Prosus at a post-money valuation of $340 million. Rain plans to use the new funds to help it add credit…
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Trump to endorse coal for data center power in the face of grim market realities
An executive order will direct the federal government to list coal as a critical mineral and force some coal-fired power plants to keep generating electricity.
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Volunteer your time for a free ticket to TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Join us for an unforgettable opportunity at TechCrunch Sessions: AI, happening at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall on June 5! We’re on the lookout for enthusiastic volunteers to be part of this exciting event. If you’ve ever wondered what goes into the making of tech gatherings, now’s your chance to find out firsthand. Apply here by…
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Meet the new Audience Choice winners to lead breakouts at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
You voted. They rose to the top! Meet the two Audience Choice winners who’ll take the breakout stage at TechCrunch Sessions: AI on June 5 in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley to share their insights with 1,200 AI leaders and enthusiasts. We sifted through hundreds of Call for Content submissions and narrowed them down to…
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Mira Murati’s AI startup gains prominent ex-OpenAI advisors
Ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s new AI venture, Thinking Machines Lab, has gained two new prominent advisors: Bob McGrew, previously OpenAI’s chief research officer, and Alec Radford, a former OpenAI researcher behind many of the company’s more transformative innovations. Thinking Machines Lab’s website was quietly updated with McGrew and Radford’s names sometime in March. A spokesperson…
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Amazon unveils a new AI voice model, Nova Sonic
On Tuesday, Amazon debuted a new generative AI model, Nova Sonic, capable of natively processing voice and generating natural-sounding speech. Amazon claims that Sonic’s performance is competitive with frontier voice models from OpenAI and Google on benchmarks measuring speed, speech recognition, and conversational quality. Nova Sonic is Amazon’s answer to newer AI voice models such…
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Snapchat rolls out Sponsored AI Lenses for brands
Snapchat is introducing Sponsored AI Lenses, a new ad format that lets brands engage with consumers in an immersive way. While Snapchat has offered brands the opportunity to pay for sponsored lenses on the platform for years, now they can leverage AI-generated experiences powered by Snap’s proprietary generative AI technology. With these interactive lenses, brands…
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Blackbird gobbles up $50M for its blockchain-based payment-loyalty app for restaurants
A founder who has carved out a name for himself building products to help restaurants connect better with would-be diners has raised $50 million for his latest startup: a new take on the idea of customer loyalty. Blackbird Labs has built a payments-meets-loyalty-meets-blockchain platform for restaurants to grow repeat business while reducing some of the…
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Sizl raises $3.5M to expand its cook-to-order food delivery service
Dark kitchens– also referred to as ghost kitchens, cloud kitchens, or virtual kitchens– often receive criticism for their food quality. Sizl, a cook-to-order delivery service based in Chicago, seeks to change this perception by delivering meals made with fresh ingredients in around 30 minutes flat. The company announced its recent $3.5 million seed round on…
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XL Batteries is using petrochemical infrastructure to store solar and wind power
The startup has commissioned a demonstration unit of its organic flow battery.