Author: TechBrunch

Perplexity, the developer of AI-powered search engines, is raising $50 million in seed and pre-seed investment funds, CNBC reports. While the majority of the capital comes from limited partners, embarrassment uses some of the capital it has gathered to help the company grow to lock the fund. It reportedly raised $500 million at a $9 billion valuation in January. Perplexity's fund is managed by general partners Kelly Graziadei and Joanna Lee Shevelenko, who co-founded early-stage venture F7 Ventures in 2018, according to Pitchbook data. F7 is investing in startups such as the women's health company Midi. It is not clear…

Elon Musk has spent decades building a universe of companies that has served as an incubator for up-and-coming engineers and a proving ground for his inner circle. That universe — an ecosystem of Silicon Valley tech titans, veterans of his companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and a crop of fresh-faced hackers and software engineers — has now collided with the U.S. federal government. The dozens of individuals who work under, or advise, Musk and the Trump-ordered Department of Government Efficiency — individuals who TechCrunch has identified or confirmed independently — reflects more than the billionaire’s proclivity to collect talent. They…

Apptronik, the Austin-based manufacturer of humanoid robots, announced on Tuesday a new pilot partnership with Jabil, a stubborn American supply chain/manufacturing staunch. The deal arrived two weeks after Apptronik announced a $350 million Series A finance round aimed at expanding production of the Apollo Robot. The Jabil contract is the second major pilot announced by Apptronik. This follows the partnership in March 2024, with Apollo working on the manufacturing floor of Mercedes-Benz. The company tells TechCrunch that a partnership with the automaker is ongoing, but has not graduated past the pilot stage. In addition to testing the humanoid robot execution…

A new Mac app called Framous will be launched on Tuesday, allowing you to add device frames around the screenshots to make them look more professional. A useful new tool can help app developers, graphic designers, and even journalists who need to add iPhone or Mac frames (also known as mockups or templates) to their photos. This is especially useful for creating screenshots, landing pages and header images for articles. This app was created by Dark Noise app developer Charlie Chapman. CharlieChapman needed a quick and easy way to add device frames around screenshots. Traditionally, many users relied on time-consuming…

Poe, Quora's platform that brings together numerous AI models under one roof, has launched a new feature that allows users to build visual interfaces (e.g. apps) on any combination of models. This feature, called the POE app, allows POE users to describe what apps they will create with the new app creation tool. The description can include references to a particular model, such as the specific model you want to use for your app (Openai's O3-Mini, Google's Video Generation Veo 2) or the broader general specifications. Poe's new app creator tool. Powered by Anthropic's recently released Claude 3.7 Sonnet, App…

Bluesky has been added to the Opera web browser. On Tuesday, the Norwegian-based software maker announced the addition of a new social network along with Slack and Discord. All of these are integrated into the browser sidebar along with other messaging and communication services. Opera users were able to customize their browsers with shortcuts for messaging apps like WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, Instagram, Tiktok, X, and more. Adding discrepancies in Slack with Bluesky in the sidebar will help you expand the appeal of the app among people who spend a lot of time, both personally and at work. It is also…

Creating software using generator AI has been perhaps the biggest use case since it first appeared a few years ago. However, platforms like cursors and copilots are limited to the world where trained engineers live. Swedish AI startup Lovable reached the front page of both product hunt and hacker news last year after using prompts to make apps very easy to create. Currently, they are raising $15 million in the pre-round series led by Creandum. A loved one can build what is called production-ready software, without the need for coding knowledge. In addition to building prototypes and websites, GPT engineers…

When goods enter the United States, they must be declared to US Customs so that they can charge the importer appropriate taxes. This applies to everything from consumers ordering clothing from overseas-based brands to all items on a huge container ship. When it comes to commercial imports, filling out the required documents is manual and boring. Many large importers either build their own internal methods or outsource customs to customs brokers. DocunLock wants to automate processes. DocunLock is a platform used by customs brokers to streamline the filling of necessary documents that importers need. DocunLock is integrated into your custom…

Spin-out from McMaster University in Ontario, Canadian biotech startup Afynia Laboratories has won $5 million in seed funding to commercialize blood tests for endometriosis. Infertility issues. Endometriosis affects nearly 200 million people worldwide. Getting a diagnosis remains challenging, with some women reporting that it can take years from a doctor's trip or an invasive test before getting confirmation. It delays treatments that may reduce their pain or increase their chances of becoming pregnant. Affinia's mission is because treatment can occur faster to speed up the diagnosis. Co-founder Dr. Lauren Foster (pictured at the top left) explained that endometriosis is not…

YouTube announced that it is making changes to mid-roll ads to improve the viewing experience for users, helping creators earn more revenue. Starting May 12, Google-owned platforms will display fewer ads at moments when they feel disruptive or may abandon the video, like in the middle of a sentence or action sequence. It's planned. Instead, you'll see more mid-roll ads at natural breakpoints in the video, such as poses and transitions. YouTube can update old videos uploaded by February 24th to automatically include ad slots in natural breakpoints. Creators can opt out of this in YouTube Studio if they want…