Startups News

DeepSeek is raising its first outside funding at a $45B valuation, led by a Chinese state investment vehicle, to counter researcher poaching.

London-based startup Ethos secured $22.75M Series A led by a16z to build an expert network using voice onboarding to capture professional knowledge beyond job titles.

ElevenLabs names all $500M Series D investors — BlackRock, NVIDIA, and celebrity backers among them — as the voice AI startup confirms crossing $500M in annual recurring revenue.

Replit CEO Amjad Masad says strong margins and 300% net revenue retention give the company the financial footing to stay solo — for now.

Parag Agrawal's AI agent infrastructure startup closed a $100M Series B at a $2B valuation, nearly tripling from its Series A just five months prior.

Runway's CEO argues the company's video tools are a foundation for general world models with applications in gaming, robotics, and beyond.

The social app embeds AI characters into shared conversations, positioning itself as a mental-health-conscious alternative to solo AI companionship.

Defense startup Scout AI closes a nine-figure Series A to develop Fury, an AI model designed to command military assets and eventually autonomous weapons.

Pre-Series A startups have until May 27 to compete for $100,000 equity-free funding and investor access at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.