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Gupshup raises $60M in equity and debt, leaves unicorn status hanging

Gupshup, a business messaging startup that began its journey in India over two decades ago and became a unicorn four years ago, has raised a new over $60 million round — but is keeping its new valuation under wraps. In 2021, Gupshup raised two funding rounds within four months, securing $340 million from prominent investors including Tiger Global, Fidelity Management, Think Investments, and Malabar Investments. These rounds — the startup’s first in roughly a decade — valued Gupshup at $1.4 bill

Amazon backs programmable optics startup Lumotive

Programmable optics startup Lumotive has added a few more strategic backers to its recent Series B round. Redmond, Washington-based Lumotive reopened its recent Series B funding round to bring in Amazon, through its Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, and ITHCA Group, the technology investment arm of Oman’s sovereign wealth fund, as investors. These fresh funds bring the company’s Series B round to $59 million, up from the $45 million Lumotive initially closed in February. The startup has raise

TechCrunch Mobility: Uber makes a bet on premium robotaxis

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! A little bird Image Credits:Bryce Durbin If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now. Uber wants a big piece of the autonomous vehicle technology pie. The ride-hailing company has spent the past two years locking in partnerships with just about every AV company you can think of, and across every sector, including delivery, robotaxis,

Don’t miss your chance to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is just around the corner, and with more than 10,000 startup and VC leaders heading to Moscone West in San Francisco this October 27 to 29, the Expo Hall is where connections get made and business gets done. If you’ve been thinking about showcasing your company, consider this your nudge — exhibitor spots are filling fast, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. Exhibiting at Disrupt isn’t just about having a table, it’s about putting your startup in front of the people who

Windsurf CEO opens up about ‘very bleak’ mood before Cognition deal

Days after AI coding startup Windsurf announced that it’s being acquired by Cognition, Windsurf exec Jeff Wang took to X to offer more details about the drama and uncertainty around the deal. Windsurf was previously reported to be in acquisition talks with OpenAI, but that deal fell apart, with Google DeepMind instead hiring the startup’s CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some of its top researchers. Google would reportedly license Windsurf’s technology as part of the $2.4 billion d

Why Cartken pivoted its focus from last-mile delivery to industrial robots

Autonomous robotics startup Cartken, known for its four-wheeled robots that deliver food on college campuses and through Tokyo’s bustling streets, has found a new area of focus: industrials. Cartken co-founder and CEO Christian Bersch told TechCrunch that applying its delivery robots to industrial settings was always in the back of his mind as they built the startup. When companies started reaching out about using their robots in factories and labs, Cartken took a closer look. “What we found i

Astronomer CEO resigns following Coldplay concert scandal

Andy Byron, the startup executive at the center of an extraordinary social media furor, has resigned as CEO of data operations startup Astronomer. Byron, who is married, was captured on a Coldplay concert “kiss cam” with his arms around the company’s chief people officer Kristin Cabot. After Byron and Cabot quickly tried to hide from the camera, Coldplay singer Chris Martin joked, “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.” Video of the awkward incident soon went spectacularly

How to restart your Windows 11 PC when nothing else works

yusnizam/Getty Images Usually, whenever a new feature comes out for Windows, Microsoft advertises it widely in a blog post to let everyone know. Or if they don't, people discover the feature soon after an update. However, a helpful feature sometimes slips through the cracks, only to be unearthed years later. Also: Hate Windows 11? Here's how you can make it work more like Windows 10 That was my reaction when I found this obscure Emergency Restart method for Windows 11 after stumbling across a

Tell HN: Notion Desktop is monitoring your audio and network

If you have the Notion Desktop App installed, you may have started to notice a "In a meeting? Start AI Meeting Notes" notification pop up exactly when you are joining a virtual meeting (e.g. joining a Google Meet on Firefox). At first, I assumed it must have been using my Google Workspace account to snoop on my calendar. But then I started to notice it would notify exactly when I joined even if I was late and the meeting had previously started. This was the response from Notion Support after t

Lovable becomes a unicorn with $200M Series A just 8 months after launch

Fast-growing Swedish AI vibe coding startup Lovable has become Europe’s latest unicorn. Only eight months since its launch, the startup has raised a $200 million Series A round led by Accel at a $1.8 billion valuation. Like Cursor and other platforms that help developers write code and build apps by harnessing the coding and reasoning abilities of large language models, Stockholm-based Lovable helps people use natural language to create websites and apps. The startup’s trajectory so far has cha

Hate Windows 11? Here's how you can make it work more like Windows 10

Pau Barrena/Bloomberg via Getty Images I wrote the original version of this post when Windows 11 was still less than a year old, after reading a ton of feedback from early adopters. I didn't have to spend a lot of time in support forums and other community sites to hear a steady stream of criticism from people who were annoyed by the changes Microsoft made in the Windows 10 user interface they had grown comfortable with. Enough time has passed since the original Windows 11 release that some of

India eyes global quantum computer push — and QpiAI is its chosen vehicle

QpiAI, an Indian startup that claims to integrate AI and quantum computing for enterprise use cases, has raised $32 million in a new funding round co-led by the Indian government as the company aims to expand its presence and develop utility-scale quantum computers for markets around the world. The Indian government’s $750 million National Quantum Mission has co-led QpiAI’s all-equity Series A round, alongside Avataar Ventures, at a post-money valuation of $162 million. The funding reflects In

Scale AI lays off 14% of staff, largely in data-labeling business

In Brief Data-labeling startup Scale AI is laying off 200 employees, roughly 14% of its staff, and cutting ties with 500 of its global contractors, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The cuts come just a month after Meta hired Scale AI’s CEO in a $14.3 billion deal. In a memo obtained by Bloomberg, interim CEO Jason Droege told staff that Scale AI had too quickly scaled its core data-labeling business — in which the startup supplied AI labs with labeled, structured data to train AI models. Droeg

AV startup Pronto acquires off-road autonomous vehicle rival SafeAI

The Venn diagram of engineers who know a little bit about AI, self-driving, and mining has a small intersection. Pronto CEO Anthony Levandowski wants as many of those people as possible. And an acquisition is helping him achieve that goal. The San Francisco-based startup, which has developed a self-driving system designed for haulage trucks and other off-road vehicles used at construction and mining sites, has acquired competitor SafeAI, TechCrunch has learned. Terms of the deal have not been

Cognition, maker of the AI coding agent Devin, acquires Windsurf

Cognition, the startup behind the viral AI coding agent Devin, announced in a blog post on Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AI coding startup Windsurf. The announcement comes just days after Google hired away Windsurf’s CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and research leaders in a $2.4 billion deal, a reverse-acquihire that left the rest of the startup’s 250-person team behind. Google’s deal occurred just hours after OpenAI’s $3 billion offer to acquire Windsurf

'Starter packs' have played a central role in Bluesky's rapid growth

“Vital onboarding strategy for the emerging social media systems” “Our findings go beyond Bluesky: they point to a new framework for launching successful social platforms,” said Dr Onur Ascigil, Lecturer in Computer Science at Lancaster University and Principal Investigator of the study. “Starter packs are becoming a vital onboarding strategy for the emerging social media systems that are seeking to attract users from dominant platforms.” The researchers believe their findings could help platfo

Google hires Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, others in latest AI talent deal

Google on Friday made the latest a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing an agreement to bring in Varun Mohan, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence coding startup Windsurf. As part of the deal, Google will also hire other senior Windsurf research and development employees. Google is not investing in Windsurf, but the search giant will take a nonexclusive license to certain Windsurf technology, according to a person familiar with the matter. Windsurf remains free to license its techn

Startups Weekly: Still running

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This newsletter took a break for the Fourth of July, and maybe you did, too, but the news didn’t. Even the biggest startups are still running after more funding. To help you catch up, we’ve got the top startup stories from the week, plus some from the previous one. Most interesting startup stories from the week Image Credits:Haje Kamps / Tec

New leak spills Google’s full pricing strategy for the entire Pixel 10 lineup

Google is expected to launch the Pixel 10 series in the coming weeks, and we already know a lot about the device. We’ve seen leaked renders of the three devices and even a live image of the Pixel 10 Pro . Now, prices for the Pixel 10 series have leaked, and it’s good news for some regions at least. The leaker notes that the EU pricing for the upcoming Pixel phones is the same as last year. However, given the wildly fluctuating tariff situation, it’s unclear what the pricing will be in the US. G

Get your exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Time is running out to secure your exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, October 27-29, at Moscone West in San Francisco. This is your chance to get your startup in front of 10,000+ startup pioneers, VC leaders, and tech enthusiasts. Learn more and grab your table here before your competitor does. Maximum exposure for your startup For three full days, you’ll put your innovation directly in front of an eager, influential audience. Expand Your Reach: Showcase your solutions in the bustling

6 days until TechCrunch All Stage kicks off in Boston — and up to $475 in ticket savings disappear

In just 6 days, the doors to TechCrunch All Stage swing open in Boston’s SoWa Power Station — and your chance to save up to $475 slams shut. This isn’t just another founder event. It’s the summit designed to help startups move faster, fundraise smarter, and scale more effectively. Whether you’re refining your pitch, preparing to raise capital, or leading a growing team, TC All Stage delivers the tools, tactics, and connections you need to move forward. Right now, Founder Passes are only $100 a

European VC breaks taboo by investing in pure defense tech from Ukraine’s war zones

Defense tech has gone from a no-go zone for VCs to a hot investment sector. However, dual use — meaning that the technology must also have civilian applications — is still a requirement for most of them, including the NATO Innovation Fund. Estonian VC firm Darkstar breaks from this trend by investing in purely military applications, with the goal of helping rearm Europe using combat-proven solutions emerging from Ukraine. “This is very critical, not only today but for the next 10 years,” said i

LangChain is about to become a unicorn, sources say

LangChain, an AI infrastructure startup providing tools to build and monitor LLM-powered applications, is raising a new round of funding at an approximate $1 billion valuation led by IVP, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal. LangChain began its life in late 2022 as an open-source project founded by Harrison Chase, who was then an engineer at machine learning startup Robust Intelligence. After generating significant developer interest, Chase transformed the project into a start

Rivian spinoff Also raises another $200M to build e-bikes and more

In Brief Also Inc., the micromobility startup spun out of Rivian earlier this year, has raised $200 million from Greenoaks Capital, according to a new report from Bloomberg News. The funding round brings Also’s post-money valuation to $1 billion. The startup raised $105 million from Eclipse Ventures earlier this year when it was cleaved from Rivian. Also started as a skunkworks team inside Rivian in 2022 known as Project Inder, as TechCrunch previously reported. The team started working on an

Thank you to the visionaries: Celebrating the partners behind TechCrunch All Stage

At TechCrunch All Stage, we’re excited to showcase the partners who help shape the conversation around innovation and entrepreneurship. Their involvement goes beyond sponsorship — they bring real-world insights that reflect the pulse of today’s startup landscape. From fresh ideas to practical strategies, these partners are driving the energy and inspiration that fuel the event both onstage and beyond. Don’t miss the exhibit tables from our TC All Stage partners on July 15: A big thank-you to o

BharatMLStack – Realtime Inference, MLOps

BharatMLStack What is BharatMLStack? BharatMLStack is a comprehensive, production-ready machine learning infrastructure platform designed to democratize ML capabilities across India and beyond. Our mission is to provide a robust, scalable, and accessible ML stack that empowers organizations to build, deploy, and manage machine learning solutions at massive scale. Our Vision 🎯 Democratize Machine Learning: Make advanced ML infrastructure accessible to organizations of all sizes 🚀 Scale Withou

AI is forcing the data industry to consolidate — but that’s not the whole story

The data industry is on the verge of a drastic transformation. The market is consolidating. And if the deal flow in the past two months is any indicator — with Databricks buying Neon for $1 billion and Salesforce snapping up cloud management firm Informatica for $8 billion — momentum is building for more. The acquired companies may range in size, age, and focus area within the data stack, but they all have one thing in common. These companies are being bought in hopes the acquired technology w

Who is Soham Parekh, the serial moonlighter Silicon Valley can't stop hiring?

In the last week, social media users have shared dozens of stories about encounters with Soham Parekh, a software engineer who seems to have been simultaneously working at multiple Silicon Valley startups — unbeknownst to the companies — for the last several years. But who is Parekh, how did he pull off his career as a serial moonlighter, and why can’t Silicon Valley get enough of him? Origins of virality The saga all started when Suhail Doshi — CEO of image generation startup Playground AI —

Who is Soham Parekh, the serial moonlighter Silicon Valley startups can’t stop hiring?

In the last week, social media users have shared dozens of stories about encounters with Soham Parekh, a software engineer who seems to have been simultaneously working at multiple Silicon Valley startups — unbeknownst to the companies — for the last several years. But who is Parekh, how did he pull off his career as a serial moonlighter, and why can’t Silicon Valley get enough of him? Origins of virality The saga all started when Suhail Doshi — CEO of image generation startup Playground AI —