Startups

خلاصہ: Vema predicts cheap hydrogen could change where data centers are builtVema Hydrogen drills wells to stimulate hydrogen production deep underground, which could result in some of the cheapest hydrogen available.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Y Combinator Was By Far The Most-Active Fintech Investor in 2025, Data ShowsGlobal venture funding to fintech startups increased by 27% in 2025 to its highest level in several quarters, boosted by later-stage deals, Crunchbase data shows. All told, global venture funding to financial technology startups totaled $51.8 billion for the year compared to $40.8 billion in 2024, per Crunchbase data. The investors who provided all that capital included a mix of private equity and alternative investors, with venture capital firms and accelerators next in line. Interestingly, the most-active investor in the space by far all year, in terms of deal volume, was startup accelerator Y Combinator , which participated in 151 deals involving fintech startups last year. That’s up 24.8% compared to the 121 deals it wrote checks into in 2024. The next most-active investor in 2025, Antler , participated in nearly one-third as many deals, taking part in 51 rounds. YC also topped the list of most-active investors in rounds of $5 million or above, participating in 64 such transactions. That’s up 146% compared to the 26 such deals that YC participated in during all of 2024, signaling a huge spike in interest on the accelerator’s part in the space. (We reached out to YC for comment, but didn’t hear back.) Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz was next, writing checks into exactly half as many investments (32). Its pace was also up — by more than 50% — compared to 20 fintech deals over $5 million in 2024. A16z was also one of the most-active venture investors globally across all startup sectors last year, per Crunchbase data. Other active fintech investors include other accelerators and the usual suspects, per Crunchbase data: Coinbase Ventures , FJ Labs , Plug and Play , General Catalyst , Techstars , Ribbit Capital , Accel and QED Investors . Leading $100M+ rounds When it comes to leading or co-leading rounds of $100 million or more, MGX , Intercontinental Exchange , Sequoia Capital , Paradigm and Citadel Securities topped the list, Crunchbase data shows. Notably, many of the largest deals involved blockchain or crypto companies and prediction marketplaces. In October, trading prediction market Polymarket raised $2 billion in a deal led by NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange . In March, cryptocurrency exchange Binance received a massive $2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX. And in early December, New York-based Kalshi announced it raised $1 billion in Series E funding at an $11 billion valuation. Crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm led the financing. That raise came shortly after the company raised a $300 million Series D co-led by a16z and Sequoia at a $5 billion valuation. Crypto exchange Kraken in November raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation. Post-seed lead investors When it comes to leading or co-leading post-seed rounds, Sequoia Capital and Ribbit Capital tied for first place, with each firm doing so for a total of 11 fintech investments in 2025. That’s up from leading or co-leading six and five deals, respectively, in 2024. QED Investors, a16z and Accel tied for third with 10 deals each. For QED, the pace was the same as in 2024, when it also led or co-led 10 post-seed fintech investments. However, it was a big jump for a16z, which had only led or co-led two post-seed fintech deals in 2024. Related Crunchbase query: Financial Services Global Funding 2025 Related reading: Fintech Funding Jumped 27% In 2025 With Fewer Deals But Bigger Checks Here Are The Fintech Companies That Could Go Public In 2025 Crypto Giant Binance Scoops Up $2B From Abu Dhabi’s MGX Kalshi Secures $1B To Expand Predictions Market Platform Illustration: Dom GuzmanSource InformationPublisher: Startups Archives - Crunchbase NewsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Avalanche thinks the fusion power industry should think smallerAvalanche has raised $29 million in fresh funding to pursue its unique approach to fusion power, which can currently fit on a table.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: 6 Trends In Tech And Startups We’re Watching In 2026, From An IPO Boom To More Huge AI DealsLast year was the third-strongest on record for global venture funding , trailing only the peaks in 2021 and 2022 . It was also a surprisingly strong year for IPOs and we saw an uptick in startup M&A numbers. All that sets the stage for what the industry insiders we spoke with expect will be another robust year for startup investment, acquisitions and new public-market listings. At the same time, there’s growing concern about capital concentration as venture dollars accumulate in a relatively small cohort of companies, many of them based in the San Francisco Bay Area . With that, here’s a closer look at six trends we expect to see unfold in 2026. 1. A strong showing from the IPO market Although the IPO window didn’t stay open the whole year, 2025 turned into an unexpectedly strong one for new offerings. At least 23 U.S.-based companies listed above $1 billion in value in 2025 compared to nine in 2024. Total valuations at IPO price for those billion-dollar listings reached at least $125 billion — more than doubling year over year. This year, experts we spoke with expect that momentum to continue. In this market, “a profitable company — particularly one that either is an AI play or has a good story of how AI will be a tailwind for their business — are good candidates for a 2026 IPO,” Aman Singh , a corporate partner at Fenwick & West who was involved with the CoreWeave , Figma and Navan IPOs, told my colleague Gené Teare in late December. Among the companies most closely watched for potential offerings this year are fintech unicorns such as Plaid and Revolut , and buzzy AI companies including OpenAI , Databricks and Cohere . Still, in the first month of this year, some of that enthusiasm has tempered. As contributing reporter Joanna Glasner notes, even when open, the IPO window is always just a quick market turn from slamming shut once again . So while a new offering from a buzzy company like SpaceX or OpenAI would help prop the window open, more humdrum IPOs from run-of-the-mill enterprise SaaS startups probably won’t be enough to fuel a new IPO boom. 2. A flurry of M&A activity Startup acquisitions are also expected to become more common this year, especially if the IPO market does gain steam. “A healthy IPO market tends to increase M&A activity rather than reduce it,” Anuj Bahal , technology, media and telecoms deal advisory and strategy leader for KPMG US , told contributing reporter Mary Ann Azevedo . “Many companies pursue dual-track strategies, simultaneously preparing for an IPO while exploring M&A, which gives them greater flexibility and leverage in negotiations. The threat of a public offering can be used as a bargaining chip to drive up a startup’s sale price.” Last year, there were around 2,300 M&A deals for venture-backed startups, per Crunchbase data. Industry insiders we spoke with said they expect dealmaking to continue at a steady pace in 2026 , in part as larger companies make strategic buys for startup talent, and as startups last funded in the boom five years ago look for exit opportunities. “On the one hand, big corporates are snapping up seed/Series A startups for talent and tech — we can call that the AI acqui-hire trend. Many teams with fewer than 100 employees have landed $100 million-plus exits,” Lukas Hoebarth , EY-Parthenon Americas technology sector leader, told us. “On the other hand, a cohort of 3- to 6-year-old unicorns that stalled on IPO plans is finally selling.” 3. Strong funding, especially for these sectors Four investors who spoke with Mary Ann all concurred that they expect another uptick in venture funding this year, with predictions ranging from a 10% to 25% year-over-year increase. Those investors expect funding in 2026 will continue to concentrate into AI-related companies and adjacent sectors such as robotics and defense tech, at the expense of areas like climate tech, crypto and vertical AI that doesn’t have a strong differentiation or moat. “Last year demonstrated that it’s difficult to survive as an AI wrapper company,” George Mathew , managing director at Insight Partners told Mary Ann last month. “Even the vertical AI providers have to be deeply embedded into industry workflows to differentiate themselves from a foundation model doing more of the repetitive work in the market.” Many of the investors also said they expect capital to concentrate on two ends of the startup spectrum: big growth rounds for established players to maintain a market lead, and larger seed and early-stage deals to promising startups that look poised to disrupt. “I expect net new dollars to concentrate more in seed and growth deals, primarily because the seed rounds are getting quite large thanks to fundraises by the likes of neolabs, neoclouds, and others. Furthermore, the capital needs of existing high-growth companies will continue to grow due to dependencies on frontier lab and hardware spend,” Menlo Ventures partner Tim Tully told us. Already, we’re seeing those predictions about the rise in early-stage megarounds pan out . 4. Capital concentration and heightened AI bubble fears Last year’s venture funding disproportionately went to a select group of companies. OpenAI, Scale AI , Anthropic , Project Prometheus and xAI each raised more than $5 billion in 2025. Altogether, those five companies raised $84 billion, or 20% of all venture funding last year — an unprecedented amount for the largest fundings in any given year, an analysis of our data shows. Last year was also defined by new startup records: the largest private funding round of all time ($40 billion to OpenAI), the largest private valuation ever recorded (SpaceX’s $800 billion valuation), and the largest venture-backed acquisition on record ( Wiz ’s $32 billion purchase by Google ). All that’s to say: Investors placed bigger, bolder and riskier bets on a smaller cohort of companies. That...

خلاصہ: How Sequoia-backed Ethos reached the public market while rivals fell shortThe profitable life-insurance platform was one of the first major tech companies to test the 2026 public markets.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Guys, I don’t think Tim Cook knows how to monetize AIOne intrepid Morgan Stanley analyst dared to ask how Apple will make money on its AI investments. The answer will not shock you.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: The iPhone just had its best quarter everGrowth in regions like China and India are credited with pushing Apple's phone sales higher than ever.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest $50 billion in OpenAIIf a deal materializes, it would mean Amazon is backing competing startups in the race for AI supremacy.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Medium gives employees Friday off to participate in national strike protesting ICEMedium gives its employees the option to take the day off to protest on Friday.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Microsoft won’t stop buying AI chips from Nvidia, AMD, even after launching its own, Nadella saysMicrosoft says its own chip leapfrogs those made by other cloud providers like Amazon and Google. But it needs more.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Fintech firm Marquis blames hack at firewall provider SonicWall for its data breachThe fintech giant said it plans to "seek recoupment of any expenses" from its firewall provider SonicWall after a 2025 data breach exposed customer firewall configurations.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Satya Nadella insists people are using Microsoft’s Copilot AI a lotWith Microsoft spending many billions on data centers, and rumors that no one is using its AI, CEO Satya Nadella shared some usage numbers.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and xAI in talks to merge, report saysThis merger would bring the Grok chatbot, Starlink satellites, and SpaceX rockets together under one corporation.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Apple buys Israeli startup Q.AI as the AI race heats upApple announced its acquisition of Q.AI for a reported nearly $2 billion, making it the company's second-largest acquisition to date.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more

خلاصہ: Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides to and from San Francisco International AirportWaymo has worked for years to gain access to SFO.Source InformationPublisher: TechCrunch StartupsOriginal Source: Read more