General Catalyst just led a $63M bet on India’s travel payments market

Scapia, an Indian startup that combines travel booking with co-branded credit cards and mobile payments, said the deal doubles its valuation.

Imperagen raises £5 million to use quantum physics, AI on enzyme engineering

Biotech company Imperagen announced on Thursday a £5 million ($6.7 million) seed round led by PXN Ventures, with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone.

Sam Altman makes ‘mic drop’ offer to every Y Combinator startup

Altman offered to have OpenAI invest in every single startup in this Y Combinator class: tokens for equity.

You don’t need to be an AI startup to raise. Lucra has $20M to prove it. 

Slapping “AI” on your startup’s pitch deck is basically table stakes right now. When a founder raised $20 million from Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest for an eSports gamification loyalty startup withou…

OpenAI barrels towards IPO that may happen in September

A day after Elon Musk lost his lawsuit that threatened OpenAI’s structure, leadership and finances, OpenAI is reportedly back to prepping for its IPO.

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close in one week: Window to nominate and apply for the most promising startups ends May 27

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close May 27. Pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt, get investor access, win $100K, plus more scaling perks. Nominate an early-stage founder or submit your startup here.

NanoClaw creator turns down $20M buyout offer, raises $12M seed instead

NanoCo, the company behind OpenClaw alternative NanoClaw, has raised a $12 million seed after a viral launch, the founders tell TechCrunch. 

Quartermaster is building a maritime hive mind

The Arlington, Virginia-based startup has raised $42 million to equip ships with sensors that blow the current AIS tech out of the water.

From teen hacker to Iron Dome researcher, this founder raised $28M to fight AI phishing

Ocean, an agentic email security platform, raised funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners.