Author: TechBrunch
To extract more capacity from electric vehicle batteries, automakers are increasingly turning to silicon. Silicon, a widely available but fragile material, is expected to increase capacity by at least 20%. Sila, Group14, Envoix, and Amprius are all working to commercialize their silicon anode technology in hopes of meeting consumer desire for even greater EV range. Ionobel, a seed-stage startup, hopes to top that list by claiming its silicon material is cheaper than existing competitors. This small startup has an approach most similar to Sila and Group14. Both established companies impregnate porous graphite structures with silicone. Sila also adds a coating…
These days, just about everyone is trying to get a piece of generated AI action. While the focus is still on model vendors like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere, or big companies like Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon, there are actually startups that are trying to tackle the generative AI problem in a variety of ways. There are many. of the method. Fireworks.ai is one such startup. Although it doesn't have as much of a brand name as some other players, the company claims it boasts the largest open source model API with over 12,000 users. This kind of open source…
Sometimes the path to entrepreneurship is clear, even if the founders don't necessarily realize it. That's certainly the case for Jimmy Rojas, who took the first steps toward founding the startup Evoloh three years ago while working on hydrogen and energy systems as a graduate student at Stanford University. That continued as he was analyzing potential deals with his Baruch Future Ventures. “I always looked at hydrogen trading,” Rojas told TechCrunch. “I remember them joking that I was a terrible investor because I passed on every deal because I found problems with every company. After all, we started on our…
One of the most difficult things to do during pregnancy is learning what to eat to make your digestion comfortable and get the most nutrition. Once the baby is born, the nutritional guessing game ensues about the best foods for postpartum and breastfeeding. As part of our holistic approach to infertility treatment, Chiyo wants to be that support system by providing nutrition advice and meals in the form of a meal delivery service to women from fertility to postpartum. Chiyo provides users with digital guides and health coaching, and is also working on building what it believes is the “first-of-its-kind”…
Time is passing quickly! With only 4 days left, your chance to score an early bird discount on TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 is fast approaching. Do not miss it. Secure your tickets now and save $200 before the deadline of Friday, March at 11:59 PM Pacific Time. 29. Here's an overview of the insightful sessions that await you. “Taking a Series A: Common Pitfalls to Avoid as a Founder” with Alex Kayyal, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners: Experienced entrepreneur and venture capital veteran Alex Kayyal discusses early-stage startups. We will delve into the details of his journey. Learn about the…
As the cryptocurrency industry heats up again, funding for new startups is also increasing. Web3 infrastructure company 0G Labs has raised $35 million in a pre-seed round, the team tells TechCrunch exclusively. $35 million may sound like a lot for a pre-seed round, and it is. “Initially he wanted to raise $5 million to build the basic technology,” says 0G co-founder Michael Heinrich. 0G (also known as ZeroGravity) is creating a modular AI blockchain aimed at mitigating the pain points of on-chain AI applications in the Web3 ecosystem, such as speed and cost efficiency. Competitors include Celestia and EigenLayer, which…
Founder and CEO Elliott Horowitz said Beam hasn't exactly changed direction since our last conversation, but is more of a “rebrand.” About six months ago, the Manhattan-based startup made a concerted effort to broaden its focus. The development platform has previously focused on robotics companies. Although this is a large and rapidly expanding category, Horowitz explains that the company's vision is much bigger. “This platform has been and continues to be used for a very wide range of things, including robotics, including IoT and smart homes, industrial automation, and all of these things with sensors and actuators and computing. ,”…
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Thoras.ai founders Nilo and Jennifer Rahmani were never seen by their parents, who fled with their older siblings. I was forced to. Eventually, they immigrated to the United States and settled in Northern Virginia, where they gave birth to twin girls. They grew up to become engineers, working for Slack and the Department of Defense, respectively, helping her implement cloud-native solutions. In their previous jobs, the Rahmanis sisters recognized that there was a problem with the way engineers procured Kubernetes workloads, relying too much on intuition and not enough on data. Inheriting…
Borderless Capital, a Web3-focused investment firm, announced Tuesday that it will acquire CTF Capital, a quantitative trading and asset management firm headquartered in Miami with technical and operational teams in Latin America. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. This agreement marks Borderless' first acquisition since its founding in 2018. With this acquisition, Borderless Capital adds AI-powered quantitative trading expertise to its business. The deal also marks the company's geographic expansion into Latin America, with the company set to open a new office in Argentina, one of Web3's main centers of innovation, in the second quarter of this year.…
Controversial crypto-biometric venture WorldCoin has been suspended again, this time in Portugal, and has been almost completely banned from Europe. The order from the country's data protection authority follows a similar three-month suspension order issued by Spain's DPA earlier this month. Portugal was one of only two countries left in Europe where WorldCoin operated its own eye-scanning sphere after Spain's ban. This leaves Germany currently the only market in Europe where biometrics can be collected, as privacy watchdogs take urgent steps to address local concerns. Portugal's data protection authority announced on Tuesday that it had banned WorldCoin from local operations…