Google taps gen-AI to help users in India search through government welfare schemes
Google announced a bunch of generative AI-focused tools in India at its Google for India event. The features include visual results like images and videos and information on government schemes. Google said today that in the coming weeks, users will be able to get summaries of more than 100 government-led
Read moreFrench VC firm Founders Future just acquired an equity crowdfunding platform, Sowefund
Here’s an interesting move. Founders Future, a well-known VC firm in the French tech ecosystem, acquired an equity crowdfunding marketplace called Sowefund. While terms of the deal remain undisclosed, Sowefund has been profitable since 2022 with around 20 employees. Following this move, Founders Future now has two separate yet complementary
Read moreGM, Cruise and Honda to launch robotaxi service in Japan
General Motors, self-driving car subsidiary Cruise and Honda plan to launch a robotaxi service in Japan under a new joint venture, the three companies announced today. The companies intend to launch the service with the custom-built Cruise Origin vehicles in central Tokyo in early 2026. The service will start with
Read moreElon Musk answers Tesla pricing question with anti work-from-home rant
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images On Tesla’s Q3 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said people who work from home take advantage of the people who cannot work from home and are “detached from reality.” In the middle of talking about rising interest rates and their effect
Read moreElon Musk warns Cybertruck won’t be profitable until 2025
Tesla CEO Elon Musk issued a warning Wednesday about the soon-to-be delivered Cybertruck that might sound familiar to those who closely followed the company’s Model 3 “production hell” era. The gist? Scaling production of a vehicle like the Cybertruck is hard and it’s going to take awhile before it’s profitable.
Read moreTrans healthcare startup Plume lays off dozens of workers
Plume, a startup founded to offer essential online healthcare services to trans people across the U.S., laid off more than two dozen workers in October, several sources close to the company told TechCrunch. Transphobia is rife within the healthcare industry; it’s one reason why transgender patients struggle to access basic
Read moreZero to Employment Hero: HR unicorn nabs $167M to be Australia’s ‘biggest export since Atlassian’
In a startup world where down rounds prevail and much beyond low-million Series A raises are practically (but not totally) unheard of, those rare megabuck funding rounds stand out just that little bit more today than they did even a year ago. With that in mind, Employment Hero, an Australia-based recruitment,
Read moreMade Renovation, which intrigued, then infuriated, its customers, is shutting down
In August, we reported that a four-year-old, venture-backed remodeling startup called Made Renovation was failing its customers, by their own telling. Though it marketing itself as a one-stop shop to beautify bathrooms — it offered potential customers a variety of templates, then promised to pair them with in-house project managers,
Read moreSequoia faces Congressional scrutiny over investments in China
One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent investment firms will face government scrutiny over its investments in China. Sequoia Capital has received a polite but pointed request from Congress to enter into more detail on how it will prevent further U.S. investment dollars from advancing Chinese interests. Sequoia announced in June
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