Author: TechBrunch

New York City, home to more than 60,000 gig delivery workers, is cracking down on cheap, uncertified electric bikes that have been causing battery fires across the city. While some e-bike providers might see such restrictions as a business problem, e-bike subscription startup Wiz sees it as an opportunity. “I think the market is transitioning from the Wild West to a mature market,” Whizz CEO and co-founder Mike Peregudov told TechCrunch. “We're fortunate to be here at this moment, because it's going to be very hard to break into this market once all the regulations are in place.” The New…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco is the can't-miss event for startup founders looking to make their mark in the tech world. This year, founders have three exciting ways to attend, each customized to maximize exposure, networking, and growth opportunities. Here's how founders can get involved this October: Join with Founder's Pass Investing in a Founder Pass provides unmatched value at a discount compared to the General Attendee Pass, which is open to everyone from stealth mode founders to Series D and beyond. Founder Pass holders have access to all attendee benefits, plus exclusive perks designed to enhance your Disrupt…

Google's newest startup program, announced Wednesday, aims to bring AI technology to the public sector. The newly launched “Google for Startups AI Academy: American Infrastructure” will provide participants with hands-on training from AI experts and support for companies solving problems in areas including agriculture, energy, education, public safety, healthcare, communications, transportation and urban development. Over the course of 12 weeks, startups that join this equity-free program will be guided through an AI curriculum developed by Google's People + AI Research (PAIR) team, participate in advanced sales and go-to-market workshops, gain access to industry connections, and of course, leverage Google's AI…

eBay's latest AI feature lets sellers replace the background of their images with an AI-generated one. The tool is currently available to iOS users in the US, UK, and Germany, and will be gradually rolled out to Android users over the coming months. Following in the footsteps of Amazon and Google, the e-commerce company on Tuesday announced the release of a new AI-powered background enhancement tool that automatically removes the background of an image and replaces it with one of the user's choice, such as placing the product on a flashy table or a colorful backdrop that reflects a specific…

If you're like me, you've tried every to-do list app and productivity system out there. But sooner or later, you end up giving up because managing your productivity system leads to even less productivity. Hoop, a productivity startup founded by a group of early Trello employees, wants to use AI to automatically generate and track to-do lists. The company today announced a $5 million seed round of funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Origin Ventures, Divergent Capital and Chingona Ventures. Image credit: Hoop The basic idea behind Hoop is that it uses AI to automatically grab potential tasks…

Back in 2014, Understory co-founder and CEO Alex Kubicek was on a mission to deploy a network of ground-level weather stations to track the weather in real time and anticipate needs, such as deploying resources to an area after or during a storm. At the time, Kubicek worked with Brian Dow to build a weather station with the goal of adding an extra 10 to 15 minutes to thunderstorm and tornado warnings, but it turned out that much of the data used to forecast the weather was from the 1980s. “We needed a better weather data set, so we teamed…

By now, most people have heard of AI agents: software that can perform a set of tasks autonomously. But Asana decided to take a different approach when it comes to AI. On Wednesday, the company announced a beta version of what it's calling an “AI teammate” to help with work transitions within organizations. Paige Costello, head of AI at Asana, said the company chose the name intentionally to signal a shift in how people think about interacting with AI in the workplace. “We believe the future of work is not just humans working with other humans, but humans working with…

Brendan Smith never intended to get into the critical minerals business. Initially, he thought his high-tech filters would be good for desalination. But he and his mentor, MIT professor Jeffrey Grossman, quickly dismissed it because it would be difficult to outperform existing systems. After “intentionally going off the rails” for a few years, they entered an entirely different industry: mining. Producing critical minerals is no easy business. Take copper for example: the world uses around 25 million tonnes of copper per year, but demand is expected to grow by 24% over the next decade due to an increase in buildings,…

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is complex, computationally expensive and not typically the focus of startups. But that's exactly what Boston and Berlin-based Dive is doing. Using both modern mathematical approaches and cloud computing, the company aims to change the way manufacturers use computer simulation and revolutionize a market largely dominated by a few incumbents. Dive's customer list includes BMW, BSH, Kärcher, Siemens and ZF, among others. Image credit: Dive The company announced on Wednesday that it had raised $10 million in a Series A round led by DE Shaw Group, but was spun out of German multinational Bosch in…

Every business, large or small, needs to choose software, and the larger the business, the more complicated the task. Some businesses have in-house tools and processes to narrow down the list of potential vendors and make a final selection, while others turn to companies like Gartner or G2 to guide them through the process. Taloflow, an early-stage startup and Y Combinator alumnus, believes it has come up with a better, software-driven way to help businesses select software by shortening decision time and lowering the overall cost of the process. The company announced Wednesday that it has raised $1.3 million in…