October 23, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

AI assistant startup Town nabs unicorn valuation 4 months after launch: AI assistant startup Town nabbed a unicorn valuation on Monday, announcing a $108 million Series B round co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures. Read More

Legal AI startup Legora raises $550M Series E at $8.8B valuation: Legal AI startup Legora announced Wednesday that it raised a $550 million Series E round, valuing it at $8.8 billion. Read More

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Startup Battlefield 200: Celebrating outstanding achievements: Among the Startup Battlefield 200 were many industry-defining companies exhibiting and pitching on the Showcase Stage. Here are the standouts. Read More

A graphic for TechCrunch Founder Summit's 25% off discountA graphic for TechCrunch Founder Summit's 25% off discount

Go Beyond the Bay Area, Join Us at Founder Summit

At TechCrunch Founder Summit on November 4 in Boston, you can deepen your expertise on hiring, product market fit, pitching, founder leadership, and much more in a dynamic, intimate environment. Get ahead of the competition and show the world what the East Coast can build with a 25% discount using the code Daily25.

Must-Reads

Warhound raises $200M to engineer war dogs and arm them with Anduril gear: Warhound, the brainchild of Ben Lamm and Palmer Luckey, emerges from stealth to genetically engineer dogs for military and law enforcement. Read More

Year-old AI lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at a $6B valuation: Just 9 months after raising a $180 million seed round, Flapping Airplanes has landed a $1 billion Series A for its mission to build AI models "without ingesting half the internet." Read More

Eric Schmidt reportedly owns about half as much of Anthropic as CEO Dario Amodei: Eric Schmidt’s fortune is about to get even bigger. Read More

Fusion startup Helion is developing new semiconductors that could double output of its power plants: Helion now has another $225 million to help speed development of its first fusion power plant, due to provide Microsoft with electricity in 2028. Read More

Disney agrees to hire the majority of Character AI’s workforce: The filing also says that the “vast majority” of Character.AI employees who were offered jobs at Disney accepted them. However, this is a stalking horse bid, so another company could come forward with a higher offer. Read More

Last but Not Least

OpenAI working on new $30B raise at $1.25T valuation ahead of IPO: Should OpenAI command an over $1 trillion valuation with this round, it would break records as the most highly valued private company ever. Read More