October 03, 2025

TechCrunch Top 3

Paid, the AI agent 'results-based billing' startup from Manny Medina, raises huge $21M seed: Paid offers an interesting contribution to the AI agentic world: a platform for "results-based" billing. Read More

Vibe-coding startup Anything nabs a $100M valuation after hitting $2M ARR in its first two weeks: The problem with most vibe-coding companies is that they don't provide all the infrastructure that nontechnical users need to launch a functional product. Anything is attempting to solve this problem. Read More

A new search engine raises $1.1M to let obsessive fans dive down internet rabbit holes: Lore raises $1.1 million to build a personalized search engine for fandom culture. Read More

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Must-Reads

Former Microsoft execs launch AI agents to end Excel-led finance: Maximor has come out of stealth with a human-in-the-loop agentic platform that does the finance team's grunt work. Read More

Former OpenAI and DeepMind researchers raise whopping $300M seed to automate science : Periodic Labs has raised from a tech industry who's who, including Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos. Read More

OpenAI is the world's most valuable private company after private stock sale: OpenAI employees sold $6.6B in shares, leading company's valuation to jump to $500B. Read More

AI recruiter Alex raises $17M to automate initial job interviews: The Y Combinator startup raised a Series A led by Peak XV Partners. Read More

Visa crackdowns are blocking students' study-abroad dreams, so India's Leverage Edu is rerouting them: Leverage Edu places over 10,000 students annually into universities across 11 countries. Read More

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Last but Not Least

New deep tech fund Wave Function Ventures raises $15 million: Former SpaceX Falcon 9 engineer Jamie Gull, who started the fund, has already made nine investments. Read More

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September 26, 2025

TechCrunch Top 3

Startup founders say Trump's $100K H-1B fee is a 'talent tariff' that will hurt innovation: The price hike for H1B visas could have detrimental impact on the startup industry, experts say. Read More

Juicebox raises $30M from Sequoia to revolutionize hiring with LLM-powered search: The recruiting startup has over 2,500 customers, including recruiters at Perplexity, Ramp, and OpenAI. Read More

Smartphone maker Nothing to spin off its affordable CMF brand: Nothing is making its affordable devices brand CMF into a separate entity with headquarters in India. Read More

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Must-Reads

IPO-bound Flipkart gains key approvals to relocate to India: Flipkart is set to become the most valuable startup to shift its headquarters back to India ahead of a planned IPO. Read More

Steph Curry's VC firm just backed an AI startup that wants to fix food supply chains: While building AI for food supply chains may sound unglamorous, Burnt argues that decades of failed tech rollouts have left operators skeptical of "tech tourists" with no industry experience. Read More

What top VCs want from AI founders: Inside the investor lens with Jon McNeill, Aileen Lee, and Steve Jang at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Jon McNeill (DVx Ventures), Aileen Lee (Cowboy Ventures), and Steve Jang (Kindred Ventures) share what AI founders need to know now: from defensibility to term sheets. TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 takes place October 27–29 in San Francisco. Register before tomorrow ends to save up to $668. Read More

Y Combinator launches 'Early Decision' for students who want to graduate first, build later: The program allows students to apply while still in school, get accepted and funded immediately, and defer their participation in YC until after they graduate. Read More

Doorstep raises $8M seed to help find missing food deliveries: Doorstep integrates into existing delivery apps and then, using phone sensors, tracks when a driver has entered a building, gone up an elevator, and made it to the desired doorstep. Read More

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Join 10,000+ founders, investors, and innovators at Disrupt 2025 — the ultimate stage for breakthroughs. From AI to IPOs, Disrupt is where ideas scale, deals spark, and the future takes shape. Don't miss your chance to be part of it on October 27-29 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Register before today ends to save up to $668 on your ticket.