Author: TechCrunch News

In Brief Posted: 11:06 AM PDT · March 11, 2026 Image Credits:Breakout Ventures Breakout Ventures has closed a $114 million Fund III to back AI-focused early-stage startups working in scientific fields such as biology and chemistry.  The firm has already written checks to three companies and plans to invest in at least 20 companies through…

Uzum now reaches 20 million users and processes $11B in payments as it expands its e-commerce and fintech ecosystem across Uzbekistan…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation.” …

In Brief Posted: 2:26 PM PDT · March 8, 2026 Image Credits:Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg / Getty Images ModRetro, the vintage gaming startup by Palmer Luckey, is in talks to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. The company launched its first product, a Game Boy-style handheld device called the Chromatic, in…

In just over a week, negotiations over the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic’s Claude technology fell through, the Trump administration designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk, and the AI company said it would fight that designation in court. OpenAI, meanwhile, quickly announced a deal of its own, prompting backlash that saw users uninstalling ChatGPT and pushing Anthropic’s…

Retail investors are famously locked out of the startup world. Robinhood is attempting to change that by allowing the general public to invest in a portfolio of what it calls “some of the most exciting private companies operating today.” To do this, the company that pioneered the commission-free brokerage model has secured access to eight…

A typical merger-and-acquisition process is time-consuming and expensive, even for the largest, well-staffed private equity firms. In addition to spending countless hours meeting with senior executives of potential targets and modeling financial outcomes, these groups spend millions of dollars on external advisers: accountants, lawyers, and management consultants. Since expenses for external advisers are not reimbursed…

Amazon Web Services announced Thursday the launch of Amazon Connect Health. This AI agent-powered platform is meant to help healthcare organizations automate repetitive administrative tasks, including appointment scheduling, documentation, and patient verification, among other things. Amazon Connect Health is HIPAA-eligible and connects with electronic health record (EHR) software. The platform is currently partnered with EHR…

Want to tap into the energy of 1,100+ startup founders, investors, and tech leaders descending on Boston for the Founder Summit 2026 on June 9? Host your own Side Event during “Founder Summit Week,” happening June 4-10…

Image Credits:Decagon 10:32 AM PST · March 4, 2026 Decagon, an AI-powered customer support startup, is set to announce the completion of its first tender offer, allowing its more than 300 employees to sell a portion of their vested shares at the company’s latest valuation of $4.5 billion. The less-than-three-year-old company’s employee secondary is being…