Author: TechBrunch

Robin Capital, the German-based solo GP-led VC fund of former entrepreneur Robin Haack, has reached the final close of 'Robin Fund One' at €13 million. Combined with an additional growth-focused investment vehicle of €2 million, the fund now has a total of €15 million under management. In the realm of European solo GPs, which typically raise much less than their US equivalents, this is a decent number. Founded in 2023, Robin Capital targets European B2B mid-sized enterprise SaaS startups with a focus on the DACH region at pre-seed and seed stages. This is being deployed across sectors such as HR,…

Apparently the writing was on the wall. Sequoia Capital partner Matt Miller announced Wednesday that he is leaving the major firm after a 12-year career to start his own new firm focused on European founders. He added that he intends to remain a venture partner at Sequoia and maintain a seat on the company's board while fleshing out “the details of what happens next.” London-based venture capitalists including Saul Klein, Tom Hulme, Matthias Ljungmann and Miller's colleague Luciana Liksandl are working with Miller, who moved to London in 2021 to lead Sequoia's expansion into Europe. blessed. Still, few people will…

Rapido, a popular ride-hailing platform in India, has fixed a security issue that exposed personal information related to users and drivers, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. The flaw, discovered by security researcher Renganathan P, was related to a form on a website aimed at collecting feedback from Rapido autorickshaw users and drivers. The form exposed an individual's full name, email address, and phone number, which TechCrunch confirmed based on details provided by the researcher. Researchers told TechCrunch that the leaked data pertained to one of Rapido's APIs and was intended to collect information from feedback forms and share it with third-party…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified before Congress about the dangers of AI in 2023. He has repeatedly told U.S. lawmakers at the time that he doesn't own any shares in OpenAI, insisting that he just runs the company because he loves it. However, Altman recently said that he actually held OpenAI stock through the Sequoia Fund at one point, and has since sold that stock. In an interview with Bari Weiss published Thursday, Altman was asked how much stock he might own if OpenAI were to successfully transform into a for-profit company. Here's what the OpenAI CEO had to say:…

AI-powered search engine Perplexity has reportedly completed a $500 million funding round, valuing the startup at $9 billion. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners and closed in early December, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. In an email to TechCrunch, a Perplexity spokesperson declined to comment. As competition in AI-powered search intensifies, huge tranches emerge. OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT Search, its answer to Perplexity. And Google is developing features that rival some of the features Perplexity offers, such as AI-generated summaries and answers on search results pages. This week, The Information reported that Google is planning…

Logistics are the name of the game during the holiday season. During this period, companies that can close contracts and get people and goods where they need to go on time will make money. But behind that demand lies massive inefficiency and fragmentation. Are logistics companies ready to leverage AI to help improve their services? A startup called Boon believes the answer is yes. The company has now raised $20.5 million to prove it by providing a platform that can better leverage data from disparate applications to improve operations, planning, and overall efficiency. “Think of Boon as your second employee…

Accounting firms are struggling to implement high-tech solutions. This is according to a survey conducted by Rightsworks earlier this year, which found that while 88% of businesses believe technology is having a positive impact on their efficiency, 60% believe that systems are disconnected, inconsistent, etc. Processes were found to suffer from a lack of standardized workflows. Startups like Aiwyn are trying to meet the demand. Founded in 2020 and based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Aiwyn sells software designed to address the revenue cycle aspects of CPA businesses. Aiwyn's platform automates and reconciles payments and invoices for both CPAs and their…

TuSimple completes its transformation from self-driving trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company will now be known as CreateAI. The rebranding comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the company's plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to finance new business ventures, which it first announced in August. TuSimple closed its U.S. self-driving truck business and was delisted from the stock market in January 2024, three years after raising $1.35 billion in an IPO. The company initially planned to restart operations in China, but parted ways with most of its self-driving staff earlier…

Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shea is launching a new AI startup, TechCrunch has learned. The startup, called Stem AI, is currently in stealth mode. However, public documents show that the company was founded in June 2023 and filed for a trademark in August 2023. Mr. Shear is listed as CEO in the company's incorporation documents filed with the California Secretary of State earlier this year. According to the trademark filing, Stem AI is developing software to create AI that “understands, collaborates with, and harmonizes with human behavior, human preferences, human biology, human morals, and human ethics.” The startup welcomed Andreessen…

Real estate venture Fifth Wall is raising a new $500 million fund called Fifth Wall React, according to a regulatory filing. The eight-year-old company, led by co-founder and CEO Brendan Wallace (pictured), has raised an $866 million fund, making it the largest venture fund focused on real estate technology. It already has $3.2 billion in capital under management, including raising at the end of 2022. Startup. Fifth Wall also closed a $500 million fund in early 2022 to invest in real estate climate technologies aimed at decarbonizing the real estate industry. The new fund is important because proptech has been…