TechCrunch Startup News

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As India bans real-money games, Dream Sports, MPL start pulling the plug Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

Several Indian startups, including Dream Sports, MPL, and Zupee, are shutting down their real-money games after parliament passed a bill banning such games.

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YC-backed Oway raises $4M to build a decentralized ‘Uber for freight’ Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

The thousands of trucks zipping along U.S. highways are often only about half full -- something Oway wants to change with its 'ride-share for freight' software.

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Ecosia has offered to take ‘stewardship’ of Chrome. And it’s not a bad idea. Aug 25, 2025

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Berlin-based non-profit search engine Ecosia has asked a U.S. judge to turn Chrome into a foundation it controls, funding billions in climate projects.

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Group14 lands $463M to make silicon anodes for EVs, also, SRE.ai raises $7.2M for DevOps AI agents Aug 25, 2025

Show notes

The battery materials startup raised significant Series D funding to expand its manufacturing capability. At the same time, it bought out partner SK's stake in a joint venture.

The company helps automate complex enterprise workflows (like continuous integration and testing) — or, in other words, it makes DevOps capabilities more efficient as AI technology takes hold.

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New zero-day startup offers $20 million for tools that can hack any smartphone Aug 22, 2025

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Prices for hacking tools that allow governments to break into mobile phones keep going up, thanks to efforts by tech firms shoring up their cybersecurity.

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FieldAI raises $405M to build universal robot brains, plus Garage raises $13.5M to help firefighters buy equipment Aug 22, 2025

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FieldAI builds foundational AI models that help all kinds of robots learn and adapt to new environments using physics.

Also, YC backed Garage is a marketplace that sells specialized equipment commonly used in local governments and public safety.

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Dex is an AI-powered camera device that helps children learn new languages Aug 21, 2025

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A new gadget called Dex allows kids to take pictures of objects and the AI translates the word into different languages.

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AI crawler Firecrawl raises $14.5M and is still looking to hire agents as employees, also, Databricks CEO says fresh $1B will help him attack a new AI database market Aug 21, 2025

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Firecrawl nabbed Shopify’s CEO Tobias Lütke as an investor from a gutsy email after they discovered he was using the product. Also, The round, which pushes Databricks' valuation to $100B, was co-led by Insight Partners and Thrive. CEO Ali Ghodsi says he's found an enormous untapped AI agent market to spend the funds.

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Eight Sleep raises $100M to expand it AI-powered sleep tech Aug 20, 2025

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The sleep tech company raised from HSG, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, Y Combinator and big F1 names like Charles Leclerc and Zak Brown.

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Google vet raises $8M for Continua to bring AI agents to group chats Aug 20, 2025

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David Petrou, founding member of Google Goggles and Google Glass, wants to enhance group chats with AI.

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