Equator closes $55M fund to bring more private capital to African climate tech

African venture capital firm Equator has raised $55 million for its first fund, which will back climate tech startups through one of the most difficult and often overlooked phases in their journey: the early stage. Climate tech startups in African countries have to navigate a tougher funding landscape than their counterparts in more developed economies, … Read more

Eric Schmidt joins Relativity Space as CEO

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is taking over as the CEO of Relativity Space, a 9-year-old rocket startup, a company spokesperson confirmed in a statement to TechCrunch. This is Schmidt’s first CEO job since he left Google nearly 15 years ago. On Monday, Schmidt told employees of Relativity Space that he made a significant investment … Read more

Apple’s next major OS updates will bring the biggest design overhaul in years

Apple’s next set of major updates for the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems could bring the biggest design changes across the company’s platforms in years, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. The revamp, set to come in with iOS19, iPadOS 19 and macOS 16, will refresh icons, menus, apps, windows, and system buttons while simplifing … Read more

Reshape Energy is using an acquisition playbook to drive energy upgrades for commercial real estate

Reshape Energy is betting on a more integrated approach to accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment. Founded in Munich, Germany back in May 2024, the startup is led by a team with expertise scaling energy businesses, including the German division of Octopus energy and energy price comparison platform Verivox. It’s focusing on selling energy … Read more

Elon Musk says DOGE involvement is making it harder to run his businesses

In an interview with Fox’s Larry Kudlow on Monday, billionaire Elon Musk admitted that his involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Donald Trump’s initiative to reduce federal spending, is making it tougher to run his many businesses: X, Tesla, xAI, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and Starlink. “How are you running your other … Read more

Meet the new VC firm secretly backed by Volkswagen

A new venture firm called Leitmotif has been on a quiet blitz for the last 16 months, funding around 20 startups broadly focused on decarbonization. Its portfolio includes EV companies, space and battery plays, and four nuclear fusion startups. But the firm has only said its funding is from “European industrial interests.” Now, Leitmotif has … Read more

Asana CEO Dustin Moskovitz is retiring

Dustin Moskovitz is retiring from Asana, the software company he founded in 2008. Asana, a task management platform, announced his retirement as part of the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report, CNBC reported. Moskovitz informed the board he intends to move into a chair role when a new CEO starts. The company raised more than $450 … Read more

Startup studio Hexa acquires majority stake in Veevart, a vertical SaaS platform for museums

Hexa is trying something new. Instead of fostering startups from the ground up and incubating them for the first year or so, the Paris-based startup studio is acquiring a majority stake in Veevart, a vertical software-as-a-service company for museums that provides solutions for ticketing, fundraising, CRM and collection management. Hexa is a familiar name in … Read more

Radiology AI software provider Gleamer expands into MRI with two small acquisitions

Medical imaging is a broad term that encompasses several distinct technologies. After working on AI-powered tools to enhance X-rays and mammographies, French startup Gleamer now aims to tackle magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Instead of starting from scratch, Gleamer has acquired two startups that have already been working on AI-powered MRI analysis: Pixyl and Caerus Medical. … Read more