Author: TechBrunch
While some tech companies have lofty goals like transforming drug discovery or mining metals from asteroids through AI, others aim to solve some of the most infuriating everyday problems faced by ordinary people. Tennibot falls into the latter category, and wants to pick up tennis balls for you. Haisam Eletravi, co-founder and CEO of Tenibot, said in a recent episode of TechCrunch's podcast “Found” that he's been involved in tennis his whole life. As a child, his parents wanted his sister to become a tennis star, so they tasked Eletravi with practicing with her. A few years later, while earning…
Getting healthy is big business these days, and now a startup with a unique approach to using technology to help people get more active is announcing a major funding round and ramping up its growth. Munich-based EGYM, a maker of connected fitness equipment and personalized training technology that is also building a fitness marketplace between gyms and corporate wellness programs, has closed a $200 million-plus Series G round from L Catterton and Meritech, new backers of the startup. In an interview with TechCrunch, CEO and founder Philippe Roche-Schlander confirmed that the company is valued at more than $1.2 billion after…
When Lux Capital investor Deena Shakir struggled to explain to her three young children what her job was all about, she initially tried to buy them a Chia Pet, a doll that lets kids plant chia seeds on it and watch the seeds grow into something amazing. Shakir, who is an investor in health technology companies including fertility startup ALife Health and women's health company Maven Clinic, said she particularly liked that the doll was a unicorn. “They didn't get the joke, but I thought it was really funny,” she said. In 2020, in the midst of quarantine boredom, Shakir…
When is $14 billion in funding not enough? For a battery startup. Northvolt, which is seeking to create a European rival to Asia's battery giants, said on Monday it was halting construction of a factory expansion and laying off 1,600 employees, about 20 percent of its workforce. The company had planned to expand its Ett plant in northern Sweden, boosting annual production to 30 gigawatt hours. The expansion would have supplied cathode active material (CAM), a key component needed to make finished cells. The company also closed another CAM production site in Sweden on September 9. Without those plants, Northvolt…
OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it is rolling out Advanced Voice Mode (AVM) to a select number of its paid ChatGPT customers. The voice feature, which makes conversations on ChatGPT more natural, will first be rolled out to ChatGPT's Plus and Teams tier customers. Enterprise and Edu customers will have access to it starting next week. As part of the rollout, AVM will have a new design: The feature is now represented by a blue animated sphere rather than the black animated dot that OpenAI unveiled at a showcase of the technology in May. Once AVM is available, a pop-up…
Jim Adler, founder and general partner of Toyota Ventures, worries that advances in climate technology could fall into a “valley of death” if companies can't generate enough demand to survive. No wonder he's worried. Climate technology investment in the first half of 2024 declined for the second consecutive year in both total investment volume and deal volume, as investors shy away from funding capital-intensive, high-risk ventures with no clear path to market. One way climate tech can secure demand is through forward contracts, where a customer commits to buy an agreed-upon amount of a product by a specified date at…
Isabella Vincenza, one of CloudKitchens' early employees, never imagined she'd end up suing her former employer. Hired as a full-time sales rep in 2018, she became a fixture at CEO Travis Kalanick's President's Club dinners at his Bel Air home in 2020 and 2021. These dinners were invitation-only events exclusively for the top salespeople at CloudKitchens, a company that provides “ghost kitchens,” or delivery-only commercial kitchens. The get-together began with cocktails by the pool. Afterward, attendees mingled indoors and sat down to a chef-prepared dinner. Vincenza recalled that Kalanick greeted her with hugs and complimented her work. At times, he…
Moxie helps nurses open medi-spas by providing most of the tools they need to run their business, from invoicing software and marketing services to discount supplies. The startup raised a $10 million Series B led by existing investor Lachy Groom of Solo Venture Capital, with participation from SignalFire. The round comes just a year after the startup disclosed a $15.7 million Series A, which valued Moxie at nearly triple its previous valuation. “Our business has grown more than fourfold in the last year,” Moxie founder and CEO Dan Friedman said. “We didn't need the cash because we still had more…
There are only a few opportunities left to save up to $600 on individual tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. This limited-time offer ends on September 27th at 11:59PM PST, so this is your last chance to grab some great deals before the final countdown begins. Disrupt 2024 is the startup world's ultimate gathering: join 10,000 tech innovators, startup founders, and venture capital leaders at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. With 200+ sessions, 250+ expert talks, and endless networking opportunities, this event is the perfect destination for anyone serious about shaping the future of tech. Don't miss out:…
If your startup has even a passing connection to dealing with data pipelines, you're probably wondering how to take advantage of the current situation. Enterprises are looking for ways to get the most out of their data to power their generative AI products, and they need robust data services to do so. Founded in 2020, Airbyte started with a focus on building a low-code/no-code open-source data integration platform. Since then, Airbyte has raised $181.2 million in total, including a massive $150 million Series B round that came at a somewhat unconventional time in late 2021. Four years later, the company…