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Venture & startup news
Fresh headlines from TechCrunch, Crunchbase News and VentureBeat — the deals, funds and founders everyone's talking about, updated throughout the day.
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 20, 2026
Eric Schmidt reportedly owns about half as much of Anthropic as CEO Dario Amodei
The former Google CEO owns about 1% stake in the leading AI lab, Bloomberg reported.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 20, 2026
Inspired Capital closes $450M fourth fund as New York pushes back on Silicon Valley’s gravitational pull
The raise comes as venture dollars pile up on the West Coast.…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 20, 2026
How To Build A Billion-Dollar Company Without Venture Capital
Founders can build billion-dollar businesses without venture capital by prioritizing customer revenue, pricing for quality, hiring exceptional talent and automating processes to scale efficiently, argues Nacho De Marco, …
- Crunchbase NewsOct 20, 2026
Fintech Funding Fell 21% In Q3 As Deals Grew Scarcer
All told, fintech startups raised $10.6 billion globally in the third quarter of 2026, down 28.4% from $14.9 billion in Q2 2026 and 21.4% from $13.5 billion in Q3 2025.…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 19, 2026
Amazon is taking its biggest shot at Nvidia yet with new TorchNeuron dev tool
Amazon wants to break Nvidia’s hold on PyTorch, the free toolkit used to build most AI apps, so that more developers run their apps on alternative chips like its own.…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 19, 2026
Replika’s founder built the AI assistant she pitched at Disrupt 12 years ago
Eugenia Kuyda's newest startup Wabi is positioned to take advantage of an idea she had more than a decade ago. Wabi offers a personal AI assistant with a twist, free and downloadable to anyone today.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 19, 2026
Tenstorrent hits $6.2B valuation to scale open-weight AI chips
After drawing acquisition interest earlier this year, the Nvidia challenger raised $1.5 billion to remain independent.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 19, 2026
AI assistant startup Town nabs unicorn valuation 4 months after launch
AI assistant startup Town nabbed a unicorn valuation on Monday, announcing a $108 million Series B round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures.…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 19, 2026
AI assistant startup Town nabs unicorn valuation 4 months after launch
AI assistant startup Town nabbed a unicorn valuation on Monday, announcing a $108 million Series B round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures.…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 19, 2026
LatAm Startup Funding Jumps 26% In Q3 As VCs Begin ‘Rediscovering’ The Region
A continued boom in late-stage and growth funding combined with a surge in seed-stage funding helped buoy venture investment in Latin America for the third quarter of 2026, Crunchbase data shows.…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 19, 2026
The FDE Bubble: Silicon Valley’s Most Expensive Game Of Pretend
Enterprise AI companies relying on armies of forward deployed engineers are disguising labor-intensive services as scalable software, inflating recurring revenue and valuations while falling short of autonomy claims, arg…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 19, 2026
Khosla Ventures doubles down on Even Healthcare to challenge India’s hospital economics
Even Healthcare reaches a $300 million valuation in a Khosla Ventures-led round as it plans to expand its hospital network in India.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 18, 2026
No agenda, no rush, no leaving San Francisco: Benchmark’s partners on investing in a frenzied market
Benchmark may have grown its funds and swapped out some partners, but onstage the five who are left sounded like friends who just happen to be running one of the Valley’s most storied firms…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 18, 2026
Disney agrees to hire the majority of Character AI’s workforce
The filing also says that the “vast majority” of Character.AI employees who were offered jobs at Disney accepted them. However, this is a stalking horse bid, so another company could come forward with a higher offer.…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 16, 2026
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Spending Contracts For Latest AI-Driven Startup Batch
Startup investors aren’t exactly hitting pause, but they did scale back on giant rounds this past week, with just two startup financings in the multiple hundreds of millions.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 16, 2026
An Nvidia insider-turned-VC on why robotics hasn’t hit its ChatGPT moment, yet
Amulya Vishwanath, who spent seven years leading product marketing for NVIDIA’s robotics platforms, says robotics is currently in its “Lego era,” with the basic building blocks like actuators, robotic hands, software, an…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 16, 2026
Physical AI is more than robots, says the Nvidia veteran now investing in it
Amulya Vishwanath, who spent seven years leading product marketing for NVIDIA’s robotics platforms, says robotics is currently in its “Lego era,” with the basic building blocks like actuators, robotic hands, software, an…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 16, 2026
Elorian’s first AI model wants to reason with images, not just about them
According to Elorian's evaluations, Glimpse outperforms even GPT-6 Astra on scientific chart reasoning and short-form video captioning, with competitive results on other visual reasoning tasks.…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 16, 2026
Tressfecta wants to make hair braiding a less arduous task for hairstylists
Tressfecta builds products for textured hair. Its first project is a tool called Plait Pilot that helps braiders with the initial process of separating hair from packs before braiding begins.…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 16, 2026
Veritas expands its anti-counterfeit chip to jewelry, trophies, and fragrance bottles
Counterfeiters are getting better at replicating brands' marks and passing off dupes, known as "superfakes," as genuine items. A startup called Veritas wants to tackle the problem with its own chip that verifies goods.…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 16, 2026
Asia’s Startup Funding At Near Record High In Q3, Driven By AI
Overall, investors put $38.5 billion into reported seed- through growth-stage financings for Asian startups in Q3, per Crunchbase data. Of that, a majority went to AI-focused companies, echoing the trends we’ve seen glob…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 16, 2026
Even Benchmark thinks AI is eroding the venture pact against backing rivals
Benchmark says the Valley’s rule against backing rivals is getting harder to keep.…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 15, 2026
When it came to Cal AI’s viral success, a small army of influencers paid off
The company generated over $30 million in revenue in two years and was acquired by MyFitnessPal for an undisclosed amount of money in March.…
- TechCrunch — StartupsOct 15, 2026
And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2026 is: Intero Biosystems
Intero Biosystems beat out 199 other Startup Battlefield companies to take home the $100,000 grand prize at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 15, 2026
Last chance to save up to $200 on your TechCrunch Founder Summit pass: Early booking ends October 16
Savings of up to $200 end October 16 for TechCrunch Founder Summit. These savings for Founder and Investor Passes vanish after Friday. Join 1,000 founders and investors on November 4 at Boston’s SoWa Power Station. Bring…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 15, 2026
The Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker
Over 127,000 workers at U.S.-based tech companies were laid off in mass job cuts in 2025, per a Crunchbase News tally, and the layoffs have continued into 2026. See the latest companies to cut roles.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 15, 2026
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Last day
Last day to be part of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Join 10,000+ tech leaders for a day of connections and insights. Save 75% on your pass now.…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 15, 2026
How To Build Your Team With Autonomous Humans, Not Just Autonomous Systems
As AI enables smaller, faster teams, companies should hire curious, adaptable people who challenge established practices and can be trusted to make independent decisions, according to guest author Eric Francia, who write…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 15, 2026
Cybersecurity Investors Put $6.8B To Work In The Third Quarter, Mostly In Larger Rounds
For the third quarter of 2026, global cybersecurity- and privacy-focused startups pulled in a total of $6.8 billion, per Crunchbase data. That’s up about 50% from the prior quarter and tied for the highest quarterly tall…
- Crunchbase NewsOct 15, 2026
Exclusive: Chariot Raises $10M To Help Consumers Fight Back Against Hidden Fees And Hard-To-Cancel Subscriptions
New York-based Chariot Claims has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Silverton Partners to help consumers pursue claims over alleged privacy violations, hidden fees and subscriptions that are difficult to canc…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 14, 2026
Save 50% on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ticket and join the last 2 days in San Francisco’s Moscone West
Get a 50% discount on the last two days of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, October 14-15, in San Francisco. Register now and join the rest of the startup ecosystem. Today, it's all about physical and software AI.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 14, 2026
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Day 2
Day 2 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, full of all themes across AI, as well as an investor-only session, more roundtables, Side Events, and more. Register to save 50% on your pass.…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 13, 2026
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Day 1
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 officially kicks off today. See what's in store for Day 1 (Oct. 13) at San Francisco's Moscone West. Don't miss it. Register for your pass now and meet 10,000+ tech leaders at the startup epicente…
- TechCrunch — VentureOct 13, 2026
The final Disrupt Stage lineup: Three days of conversations you won’t hear anywhere outside of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
The full TechCrunch Disrupt Stage lineup revealed, featuring Max Hodak, Mark Wahlberg, Benchmark partners, and more. Register now to save up to $100 on your pass and get a second at 50% off.…
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