Author: TechBrunch

A new venture called Leitmotif has been suffering a silent blitz for the past 16 months, focusing on decarbonisation on roughly 20 startups. Its portfolio includes EV companies, space and battery play, and four fusion startups. However, the company only says that the funds come from “European Industrial Interests.” Now, Leitmotif has told TechCrunch where the money came from: the Volkswagen Group. The German automotive giant has committed $300 million to Leitmotif's first fund, and is its only limited partner. Leitmotif has deployed about a third of that so far. At a meeting Tuesday, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Bloom said…

It's no secret that AI has eaten up much of its fundraising over the past few years. In 2024 alone, starting from 62% to $110 billion, with startup funding down 12% overall. A startup may think that simply adding “AI” to the company's name could help secure that funding. But with Foundation Models' frenzy focusing on real-world applications, AI agents and long-term profitability, investors are looking for startups that can turn technical ingenuity into sustainable traction. TechCrunch Sessions: AI, held on June 5th at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, California, where top VCS Zeya Yang (IVP), Jill Chase (Capitalg) and Kanu…

General Fusion announced on Tuesday that Plasma, the overheated fourth-state material state required for the fusion, was successfully created inside a prototype reactor. The Milestone marks the beginning of a 93-week quest, proving that the costume's steampunk approach to fusion power is a viable candidate. The reactor, called the Lawson Machine 26 (LM26), is the latest iteration of General Fusion in a set of devices that have tested various parts of its unique approach. The company is hoping to collect LM26s in just 16 months and play “Breakeven” in 2026. General Fusion is one of the oldest fusion companies still…

Zolve is a neobank that helps provide financial access to highly skilled, highly spending global citizens moving to the US, raising $251 million in a new (mixed equity and debt) funding round as startups aim to expand their presence and enter new regions. Every year, millions of highly skilled people move to countries like the United States for new opportunities. But one of the big challenges they face is gaining access to financial services, even if they start to earn a good salary. Banks often denies credit cards and loans because their country has a good credit history, but they…

Modern businesses can choose from hundreds of apps and services available to protect their networks, data and assets. It helps you manage all the alerts and additional work that these security apps generate. But what if you could build your own apps customized to suit your own workloads to simplify the entire game? This is the premise of a new Israeli startup called Sola. Sola has built a low/no-code platform to allow users to design their own cybersecurity apps for their specific needs, including tools to manage apps they already use. Sora is armed with $30 million in seed funding…

Passwords are not innocent and cannot protect your online identity. Almost a third of data breaches reported in the past decade included some of the biggest violations in history, as they happened due to stolen credentials, according to Verizon. Instead, the industry has largely discovered PassKeys, which it claims to be the most prominent solution for replacing passwords. Over 15 billion accounts online can use PassKeys, and leading tech companies (such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft) are working together to encourage Passkey adoption. However, users are still moving away from PassKeys due to the general state of lack of portability…

African venture capital firm Equator raised $55 million for its first fund. This supports climate technology startups through the early stages, one of the most difficult and often overlooked phases of the journey. Climate technology startups in African countries need to navigate a more demanding funding environment than their counterparts in more developed countries, where governments often subsidize companies that work on greener technologies. Instead, they need to rely heavily on development financial institutions (DFIs), foundations and donations, making them particularly vulnerable to changes in global capital flows. As the financial budgets for aid and development are reduced, DFIS will…

Modified Energy bets on a more integrated approach to accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment. Founded in Munich, Germany in May 2024, the startup is led by a team with expertise in scaling the energy business, including the German octopus energy and energy price comparison platform Verivox. It focuses on selling energy system upgrades to commercial real estate and targeting property owners with a portfolio of buildings. Carbon emissions from heating buildings have contributed greatly to climate change. Therefore, accelerating the transition to low-carbon forms of heat management, such as heat pumps and solar panels, is an important part…

A new venture called Leitmotif has been suffering a silent blitz for the past 16 months, focusing on decarbonisation on roughly 20 startups. Its portfolio includes EV companies, space and battery play, and four fusion startups. However, the company only says that the funds come from “European Industrial Interests.” Now, Leitmotif has told TechCrunch where the money came from: the Volkswagen Group. The German automotive giant has committed $300 million to Leitmotif's first fund, and is its only limited partner. Leitmotif has deployed about a third of that so far. And Leitmotif wants to spin up a string of funds…

Medical imaging is a broad term that includes several different techniques. After working on AI-driven tools to enhance X-ray and mammography, French startup greamers are now aiming to work on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Instead of starting from scratch, Gleamer has already worked on Caerus Medical, an AI-powered MRI analytics, and has acquired a startup that is merging with Pixil. Greamers are part of a second wave of startups seeking to improve medical imaging using artificial intelligence. A few high-tech founders who created a startup on this topic in 2014 or 2015. Most of it went anywhere, but this space…