What happened today
AI and software-business headlines from 13 publications, refreshed every four hours. We link out — the story stays with whoever reported it.
Last refreshed 1h ago · 173 stories held
Today
5 stories- 4hLess than 24 hours to apply for a Side Event at Founder Summit 2026The clock is almost out. You have less than 24 hours left to apply to host a Side Event during TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026. Applications close tonight at midnight PT. Connect with the Boston startup ecosystem through November 1–7 by hosting your own Side Event. Bring your community, start an impactful conversation tTechCrunch Startups
- 7hYour Investors Can Make Or Break Your Startup. Here’s Who Founders Actually Need On Their Cap TableFor startup founders, the goal shouldn’t be assembling a cap table filled with whoever was willing to invest, but rather intentionally constructed around investors who bring different forms of value. Guest author Antonia Dean, a partner at Black Operator Ventures, shares three things founders should look for in their iCrunchbase News
- 7hNautical And Marine Startups See Stepped-Up FundingOver the past year, venture backers have poured close to $3 billion into good-sized rounds for marine-related startups in sectors ranging from defense tech to clean energy, per Crunchbase data. Top areas for investment include autonomous sea vessels, water robots, electric watercraft, and ocean data.Crunchbase News
- 7hReporter’s Notebook: Europe’s Sovereign AI Push Needs Customers As Well As CapitalCrunchbase News Research Lead Gené Teare moderated panels and spoke with leaders building Europe and the Middle East’s AI ecosystems at HumanX in Amsterdam. Here we share a snippet of her conversation with Axelera AI CEO Fabrizio Del Maffeo and AI71 CPTO Mehdi Ghissassi.Crunchbase News
- 18hThe founder's guide to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Everything you need to knowTechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is built around one question: How do you build an enduring company in the AI era? Our programming and speaker lineup reflect that.TechCrunch Startups
Yesterday
7 stories- 20hKevin Mandia's new ‘agent swarm' security startup Armadin raises $255.5M at $2.5B valuationKevin Mandia, best known as the founder of Mandiant, has a new startup that is using agent swarms to test and protect enterprises.TechCrunch Startups
- 1d20VC x SaaStr: Anthropic's S-1 Leaks, Instinct Hits $10 Billion in 33 Days, AMD Buys World Labs, and Meta Poaches MongoDB's CEOBenchmark's Jack Altman joins Harry Stebbings, Rory O'Driscoll and Jason Lemkin: AMD buys World Labs for $8.2B, Meta hires away MongoDB's CEO, a mock Investment Committee on Jev at $10B, and Oura pulls its IPO two days before pricing This week's episode had a guest in the fourth chair: Jack Altman, General Partner at BSaaStr
- 1dThe 10 Most Important Learnings From a16z's Latest State of Markets: Horizontal B2B Trades at 2.7x Revenue, New Startups Are Growing 500%+, and 55% of Unicorns Have Under 2 Years of Runwaya16z Growth just published its September State of Markets deck. It runs 90 slides, and most of it covers macro: chips, memory, power, defense, robotaxis, and what they call the rotation “from bits to atoms.” All of that matters, but it isn't where most of us work. The B2B, venture, and startup sections are SaaStr
- 1dExclusive: Homeward Raises $120M To Help Homeowners Buy And Sell More Quickly As Housing Market StallsHomeward, a startup that helps homeowners buy before selling their existing homes or get cash offers for their properties, has raised a $120 million Series D round, Crunchbase News reports exclusively.Crunchbase News
- 1dYou’ll Know if That New VP is Going to Fail at the First Board Meeting. Here Are The Clear Tells.When a new CRO / VP Sales shows up to the first board meeting and doesn't know: – The top accounts cold– The top deals in flight cold– Their team and leaders cold– The top deals at risk cold There's like 0% chance it will work out — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) September 2SaaStr
- 1dNuclear Startup Funding Is Up, But The Sector's Public Markets Take A Bearish TurnSo far in 2026, investors have poured more than $6 billion into companies focused on developing both fission and fusion nuclear energy technology and infrastructure, per Crunchbase data. That’s far ahead of any comparable period, including last year, the prior record-setter.Crunchbase News
- 1dDear SaaStr: When Should We Start Pushing For Multi-Year Contracts?Dear SaaStr: When Should We Start Pushing For Multi-Year Contracts? For most of us: stop pushing for them in the Age of AI. The market has shifted, and fighting it costs you more than it gains. Here's the reality: shorter contracts are now the norm across B2B + AI, and it's rational buyer behavior, not... Continue ReadSaaStr
Wednesday, September 30
7 stories- 1dFactory CEO just accused his VC board adviser of spying for CognitionVC Chris Degnan and former board adviser to Factory AI has taken a job as chief revenue officer for competitor Cognition -- and everyone is arguing on X about it.TechCrunch Startups
- 1dIs Neko Health’s body scan worth it? Spotify billionaire’s startup has come to AmericaSpotify founder Daniel Ek’s Neko Health raised $700 million to build a business around scanning your body, but it’s not the only company centering its roadmap around a new kind of preventative healthcare. Midjourney is building its own body scanner, while Function Health has also raised significant capital to build outTechCrunch Startups
- 2dCerebras Systems’ Andrew Feldman on whether AI can keep scaling at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Cerebras Systems CEO and co-founder Andrew Feldman will explore the growing demand for compute, energy, and infrastructure, how Cerebras is approaching those constraints differently, and what comes next if today’s AI hardware reaches its limits.TechCrunch Startups
- 2dRestate lands $20M as the need for durable infrastructure increases with AI agentsInstead of building its durable execution engine on top of an external database, the company developed its own storage, replication, and redundancy layers. This architecture allows Restate to be exceptionally fast and lightweight.TechCrunch Startups
- 2d3 days left to exhibit: Turn visibility into your next opportunity at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026Three days left to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Book by October 2 at 11:59 p.m. PT to showcase your startup to 10,000+ founders, investors, operators, and tech leaders.TechCrunch Startups
- 2d“This Is a Pretty Fancy Dinner. That Probably Means I'm Overpaying.” A Dreamforce Lesson From a Top 5 CustomerDreamforce this year was an epic rebirth in many ways of AI for CRM, and a lot more than CRM. I'll share more thoughts on that soon. But being back there brought up a memory from a Dreamforce years ago that I think about more than almost anything else from those EchoSign days. A Top... Continue ReadingSaaStr
- 2dTwo Google alumni raise $11.3M to back AI startups that enterprises will actually pay forBAG Ventures announces close of a $11.3M Fund I to invest in all things AI.TechCrunch Startups
Tuesday, September 29
4 stories- 2dOura Hits Pause On IPO While Anthropic’s Prospectus Reveals The Cost Of Its AI AmbitionsAlthough Oura has postponed its planned offering that could have raised as much as $2.2 billion, Anthropic is still making a move toward the public markets along with AI cloud provider Nscale and other companies lining up potential fourth-quarter listings.Crunchbase News
- 3dWhat 17,000 Subscription Apps Tell Us About Free Trial Length: Annual Plans Convert 86% Better With 30-Day Trials, Monthly Tops Out at Two Weeks, and AI Apps Hit a Wall at 16 DaysRevenueCat just published one of the richest datasets on free trials out there. They have the data, at least for mobile subscriptions apps, where they power 60%+ of the subscription management. SaaStr Fund made the very first investment in RevenueCat back in 2018, so I've watched this dataset grow from a few hundred apSaaStr
- 3dTiny Health Raises $33M To Explore What Gut Data Can Reveal About Future HealthAustin-based Tiny Health has raised $33 million in a Series B funding round led by B Capital to help it meet growing demand for its at-home microbiome tests.Crunchbase News
- 3d9 Things Your New Head of Product Should Do in Their First 30 DaysDear SaaStr: Where should a new head of product focus in their first 30 days? My strong advice is speak with data. And that may mean at first — not speaking too much! 🙂 "When I joined Harvey, I did a listening tour with 60 lawyers and law firms my first few weeks." CPO @harvey Anique... Continue ReadingSaaStr