Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Counterpoint: India smartphone shipments were flat YoY at ~153M; Apple shipped 14M iPhones, raising its share of shipments to a record 9%, up from 7% in 2024 — Apple's iPhone is gaining ground fast in India, shipping about 14 million units in 2025, based on market data shared exclusively with TechCrunch.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Google Photos' latest generative AI-powered feature, “Me Meme”, lets users create memes from their own images, launching first in the US — Google Photos will now let you make memes with your own images. On Thursday, Google introduced a new generative AI-powered feature called …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Snap updates its Family Center tool to let parents view daily screen time averages and a breakdown of time spent by specific app segment like Snap Map — Two days after settling a lawsuit accusing Snapchat of causing social media addiction and mental health issues, Snap announced that it's introducing new parental controls.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Sensor Tower: consumers spent $85B on apps globally in 2025, up 21% YoY, and, in a first, more money went on non-game mobile apps than on games, driven by GenAI — In 2025, consumers spent more money on non-game mobile apps than they did on games for the first time, according to the findings …
Anna Heim / TechCrunch: Ukrainian-founded language learning marketplace Preply raised a $150M Series D led by WestCap at a $1.2B valuation; the startup has a 150-person office in Kyiv — Language learning marketplace Preply is now valued at $1.2 billion after raising a $150 million Series D round that marks …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: PE firm Everstone combines India's Wingify, which helps A/B test sites, and France's AB Tasty, which improves e-commerce UX; Everstone bought Wingify for $200M — Private equity firm Everstone Capital is bringing together India's Wingify — a company that helps businesses test different versions …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Anthropic appoints Irina Ghose, a former Microsoft India managing director, to lead its business in India, which has the second-largest user base for Claude — Anthropic has appointed Irina Ghose, a former Microsoft India managing director, to lead its India business as the U.S. AI startup prepares to open an office in Bengaluru.
Kate Park / TechCrunch: Boston- and Tel Aviv-based Converge Bio, which uses AI trained on molecular data to help pharma and biotech companies develop drugs, raised a $25M Series A — Artificial intelligence is moving quickly into drug discovery as pharmaceutical and biotech companies look for ways …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: A profile of Eric Migicovsky's Core Devices, a five-person company that he says is “not a startup” and aims to be “sustainable”, as it builds new Pebble devices — Pebble's founder, Eric Migicovsky, is doing things differently with his reboot of the Pebble smartwatch brand and an AI ring.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Intel spinout and enterprise AI company Articul8 raised over half of a $70M Series B at a $500M pre-money valuation and expects the round to close in Q1 2026 — Articul8, an enterprise AI company spun out of Intel in early 2024, has secured more than half of a planned $70 million funding round …
Rebecca Szkutak / TechCrunch: AMD unveils new AI PC processors for general use and gaming at CES — AMD Chair and CEO Lisa Su kicked off her keynote at CES 2026 with a message about what compute could deliver: AI for everyone. — As part of that promise, AMD announced a new line of AI processors as the company thinks …
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch: African fintech Flutterwave acquires Nigerian open banking startup Mono, sources say in an all-stock deal valued at $25M to $40M; Mono raised $17.5M since 2020 — Africa's largest fintech company, Flutterwave, has acquired Nigerian open banking startup Mono in an all-stock deal valued between $25 million …
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: CES 2026: self-driving truck company Kodiak partners with Bosch to develop a hardware and software system to turn standard semi-trucks into autonomous vehicles — Self-driving trucks company Kodiak AI announced on Monday it is working with global automotive supplier Bosch to develop a system …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: India orders X to stop Grok from generating obscene content, giving it 72 hours to submit an action-taken report or risk losing its “safe harbor” protections — India has ordered Elon Musk's X to make immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok after users …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Pebble unveils the Pebble Round 2, a smartwatch with a rounded screen and basic health and activity tracking but no heart rate monitor, shipping in May for $199 — Shortly after bringing back the Pebble smart watch and launching a low-cost AI smart ring, Pebble is readying yet another new product: the Pebble Round 2.
Anna Heim / TechCrunch: Dealroom: 76 European deep tech and life sciences companies spun out from universities reached $1B valuations or $100M in revenue in 2025, or both — Universities and research labs have long been Europe's deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Tracxn: VC funding for Indian startups fell 17%+ YoY to $10.5B in 2025 across 1,518 deals, down ~39% YoY; AI startups raised $643M, up 4% YoY, across 100 deals — India's startup ecosystem raised nearly $11 billion in 2025, but investors wrote far fewer checks and grew more selective …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch: A profile of the Digital Security Helpline, run by Access Now, which gives 24/7 help to reporters and others who suspect they are victims of government spyware — For more than a decade, dozens of journalists and human rights activists have been targeted and hacked by governments all over the world.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch: Chainalysis and TRM Labs estimate that $2.7B was stolen in crypto in 2025 in total, up from $2.2B in 2024; the biggest hack was the $1.4B breach at Bybit — Cybercriminals stole $2.7 billion in crypto this year, a new record for crypto-stealing hacks, according to blockchain-monitoring firms.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch: Q&A with iRobot co-founder Colin Angle on the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy, regulatory pressure that killed Amazon's deal, his new robotics startup, and more — When iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Sunday, it marked the end of an era for one of America's most beloved robotics companies.
Marina Temkin / TechCrunch: Sources: Resolve AI, which is developing an autonomous site reliability engineering tool, raised a Series A at multiple valuation tiers, including at $1B — Resolve AI, a startup developing an autonomous site reliability engineer (SRE), a tool that automatically maintains software systems …
Anna Heim / TechCrunch: Berlin-based Mirelo, whose AI models can interpret video content to add matching sound effects, raised a $41M seed led by Index and a16z, after a $3M pre-seed — AI lets anyone create videos, but many AI video creation tools lack support for audio. Mirelo is building AI that adds soundtracks to match the video's action.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Fertility startup Inito, which offers an at-home health diagnostics platform, raised a $29M Series B and plans to use AI-designed antibodies to make new tests — Fertility startup Inito has raised $29 million in Series B funding to scale its at-home health diagnostics platform …
Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch: Runware, which operates a developer tool platform that generates images, video, and audio in real-time, raised a $50M Series A, taking its total funding to $66M — Flaviu Radulesc started Runware in 2023 when he was testing a text-to-image company and realized that, though genAI tech was powerful, it was slow in generating images.
Julie Bort / TechCrunch: Israeli startup Port, which offers a proprietary developer portal competitor to Spotify's open-source Backstage, raised a $100M Series C at an $800M valuation — Spotify may be synonymous with music streaming, but it's also got a wildly popular developer-tool side-hustle called “Backstage.”
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Harness, which uses AI to automate code testing, verification, security, and governance, raised a $240M Series E led by Goldman Sachs at a $5.5B valuation — AI DevOps tool Harness, founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal, is on track to exceed $250 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025, Bansal tells TechCrunch.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal says the Indian edtech startup's valuation has fallen from its $3.5B peak three years ago to less than $500M, and confirms M&A talks — Unacademy, once one of India's best-known edtech startups, may now be worth less than $500 million, 85% less …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Coinbase reopens app registrations in India after an over-two-year pause, letting users make crypto-to-crypto trades, and plans to open up crypto buying in 2026 — After a pause of more than two years, crypto exchange Coinbase has opened its app for registration in India.
Julie Bort / TechCrunch: Simular, which is building AI agents for Mac and Windows PCs, raised a $21.5M Series A led by Felicis; Simular has released its 1.0 version for macOS — Simular, a startup building AI agents for Mac OS and Windows, has raised a $21.5 million Series A led by Felicis, with existing seed investors NVentures …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Seattle-based Yoodli, which sells AI-powered communication training software, raised a $40M Series B led by WestBridge Capital, valuing the startup at $300M+ — Yoodli, an AI-powered communication training startup, has reached a valuation of more than $300 million — more than triple …
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: Waymo plans to issue a voluntary software recall over how its robotaxis operate around school buses following an NHTSA investigation opened in October — Waymo plans to voluntarily issue a software recall with federal safety regulators related to how its robotaxis operate around school buses …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Spotify releases Wrapped 2025, adding features like Wrapped Party, its first live interactive experience, a Top Song Quiz, Listening Age, and Wrapped Clubs — Spotify Wrapped is back. After last year's widely criticized flop that included an AI podcast as its highlight …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Indian e-commerce platform Meesho is set to launch an India IPO, seeking to raise $606M, targeting a post-issue valuation of ~$5.60B — Meesho, an Indian e-commerce rival to Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, is set to launch a roughly $606 million IPO marked by token sell-downs from early backers …
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: Point One Navigation, which develops precise location tech, raised a $35M Series C led by Khosla Ventures, a source says at a $230M post-money valuation — For San Francisco-based startup Point One Navigation, the value of ‘location, location, location’ extends well beyond real estate.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: India's November 21 labor law grants legal status to millions of gig workers, but their benefits are unclear and access to social security remains elusive — India has granted legal status to millions of gig and platform workers under its newly implemented labor laws, marking a milestone …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: A US bankruptcy judge ordered Indian edtech startup Byju's founder Byju Raveendran on Nov. 20 to pay $1B+ to US lenders, over missing funds from Byju's US unit — Byju Raveendran, the embattled founder of Indian ed-tech giant Byju's, has blasted a U.S. bankruptcy court's order directing him to pay more than $1.07 billion.
Anna Heim / TechCrunch: Finland-based NestAI raised €100M led by Finland's sovereign fund Tesi and Nokia to build AI products for defense applications, including for unmanned vehicles — Finnish startup NestAI has raised €100 million (about $115 million) in a funding round led by Finland's sovereign fund …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko is stepping down from the decentralized social network as part of its shift to a nonprofit structure overseen by a board — Mastodon's creator, Eugen Rochko, is stepping down as CEO of the open source, decentralized social network and X rival …
Anna Heim / TechCrunch: Danish startup Flatpay, which facilitates card payments for SMBs, raised €145M at a €1.5B valuation and says it “crossed €100M of ARR in October” — Flatpay, which facilitates card payments for SMBs, has joined the ranks of European fintech unicorns …
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch: Empower: US BNPL use has grown to 91.5M users, with 25% financing groceries, as default rates accelerate and most loans aren't reported, creating “phantom debt” — When Nigel Morris tells you he's worried about the economy, you listen. As industry observers know …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Apple updates App Review Guidelines to require apps to disclose and obtain users' permission before sharing personal data with third-party AI providers — Apple on Thursday introduced a new set of App Review Guidelines for developers, which now specifically state that apps must disclose …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: OpenAI says ChatGPT will now ditch em dashes if users tell it to; em dashes have become telltale signs that supposedly signals text written by AI — OpenAI says ChatGPT will now ditch the em dashes if you tell it to. The telltale sign that supposedly signals text written by AI has popped …
Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch: Boston-based Teradar, which aims to launch a solid-state sensor for autonomous cars in 2028 that it says can outperform lidar and radar, raised a $150M Series B — Matt Carey, the co-founder and CEO of Boston-based startup Teradar loves when people tell him: “I don't believe you.”
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Scribe, which helps enterprises identify where AI and automation investments will yield genuine returns, raised a $75M Series C at a $1.3B post-money valuation — After helping several enterprises document how work actually happens, Scribe has raised $75 million at a $1.3 billion post-money valuation …
Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch: Rivian spins off Mind Robotics as a new stand-alone industrial AI and robotics company; Mind Robotics raised a $115M seed led by Eclipse — Rivian has created its second spinoff company this year: an industrial AI and robotics venture called Mind Robotics.
Russell Brandom / TechCrunch: Inception, which is building diffusion-based AI models for code and text, raised a $50M seed led by Menlo and releases an update to its Mercury coding model — With so much money flooding into AI startups, it's a good time to be an AI researcher with an idea to test out.
Russell Brandom / TechCrunch: Microsoft built a simulated marketplace to test hundreds of AI agents, finding that businesses could manipulate agents into buying their products and more — On Wednesday, researchers at Microsoft released a new simulation environment designed to test AI agents, along with new research showing …
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch: Alphabet's X is increasingly spinning out independent companies via a dedicated Series X Capital fund, which has raised $500M+ with a minority Alphabet stake — Alphabet's X moonshot factory is shifting how it brings ambitious technology projects to market, increasingly spinning …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Bluesky says it has hit 40M users and plans to launch “dislikes” in beta to tailor content rankings and reply rankings — Social network Bluesky, which on Friday announced a new milestone of 40 million users, will soon start testing “dislikes” as a way to improve personalization on its main Discover feed and others.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: French online carpooling marketplace BlaBlaCar says India now accounts for ~33% of its carpool passengers and expects to reach ~150M passengers globally in 2025 — Every few weekends, 21-year-old student Lavanya Jain opens the BlaBlaCar app to find a lift from Noida on the outskirts …