EnCharge raises $22.6M to commercialize its AI-accerating chips

Around a year ago, TechCrunch wrote about a little-known company developing AI-accelerating chips to face off against hardware from titans of industry — e.g. Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Meta, AWS and Intel. Its mission at the time sounded a little ambitious — and still does. But to its credit, the startup, EnCharge AI, is alive and … Read more

Foxconn raises Q4 outlook on strong year-end holiday sales

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a major Apple supplier, on Tuesday raised its outlook for the fourth quarter on strong year-end sales for the holiday peak season. The fourth quarter is traditionally the hot season for Taiwan’s tech companies as they race to supply smartphones, tablets and other … Read more

As pet owners turn to mobile insurance apps, Lassie raises $25M Series B led by Balderton

We last wrote about Lassie, a pet health app and insurance provider, when it closed an €11 million Series A round in 2022. It’s growth had been spurred by the boom in pet ownership during the pandemic (nearly half of all European households now own a pet, and and owners spend €23.5 billion on them … Read more

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup, quietly raises an additional $43M

Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded company developing implantable chips that can read brain waves, has raised an additional $43 million in venture capital, according to a filing with the SEC. The filing published this week shows the company increased its previous tranche, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, from $280 million to $323 million in early … Read more

DoorFeed raises another €7M for its platform allowing large-scale investors to hoover-up family homes

Institutional real estate investors have historically struggled to buy up tonnes of family homes (the so-called ‘Single Family rental sector’) so they can turn us all into rental slaves and lock millions to a rentier economy. A few startups are trying to ease the ‘pain’ of these rapacious harbingers of hyper capitalism. Immo Capital, a … Read more

OpenAI executive shakeup raises concerns about future of AI

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S. November 16, 2023. Carlos Barria | Reuters A wide swath of Silicon Valley has hitched its hopes and fortunes over the past few years to the kind of generative artificial intelligence technologies that OpenAI helped popularize. Many … Read more

China raises concerns with US over export controls, sanctions, tariffs

By Joe Cash BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s commerce minister expressed concern over U.S. curbs on semiconductor exports to China, as well as sanctions on Chinese firms and tariffs on Chinese imports, when he met U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday, his ministry said Friday. Wang Wentao told Raimondo in San Francisco: “it is very important … Read more

Shekel Mobility, a B2B marketplace for auto dealers in Africa, raises $7M led by Ventures Platform and MaC VC

The World Economic Forum states that Africa has an average annual demand for 2.4 million cars and 300,000 commercial vehicles. This demand is increasing because of a continent-wide increase in disposable income, strong middle-class growth and rapid urbanization. But while most cars meeting this demand are used, car ownership in Africa is less than 45 … Read more

Singapore-based startup EduFi raises funding for its student loan platform

EduFi, a fintech startup that enables financially strapped students to secure loans for their education, has raised $6.1 million in a pre-seed round led by Zayn VC with participation from Palm Drive Capital, Deem Ventures, Q Business and angel investors.  The Singapore-based startup has launched an artificial intelligence-powered study now, pay later (SNPL) lending platform … Read more

Rivian raises production forecast for 2023, narrows losses in Q3

Rivian continued to close the gap on losses, reduce costs and ramp up production in the third quarter with results that beat Wall Street expectations and suggested a rosier future, including raising its annual production guidance from 52,000 to 54,000 vehicles. The EV maker reported Tuesday (after markets closed) revenue of $1.33 billion, a figure driven … Read more