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 13m ago · 186 stories held
Today
7 stories- 2hRippling Ran 2,100 Scored Agent Runs Per Model on Real Payroll Data. The Cheapest Model Tied the Most Expensive One.Rippling Tested 15 AI Models on Real Payroll Data. The Cheapest One Tied the Most Expensive One. Rippling's President and CPO Matt MacInnis published something most B2B companies have and almost none share: a real test of AI models doing real work inside a real production system. Not a leaderboard. Not made-up tasks. ASaaStr
- 2hAnthro Energy breaks ground on factory that could pave the road to solid-state batteriesBattery materials startup Anthro Energy has broken ground on a Louisville factory to make electrolytes, including those for solid-state batteries.TechCrunch Startups
- 3hDaniel Ek's body-scanning startup Neko Health opens first US office, in New YorkThe scanning and bloodwork health startup founded by Spotify's founder will officially launch in New York in about a month.TechCrunch Startups
- 4hOn Your Next Big Deal? Double Your Pricing."Want to go upmarket? Then double your pricing on your next deal. Not on your existing customers. They bet on you. But if your biggest customer is $10k today, try charing $20k to the next one. You'll learn. Fast." pic.twitter.com/bVTHLO5pkM — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 18, 2026 ThereSaaStr
- 5hVCs Pour Billions Into Physical AI As The Next Wave Of AI Investing Takes ShapeIn the first half of 2026, global venture funding in the physical AI space totaled $47.4 billion across 521 deals, per Crunchbase data. That’s up dramatically — almost 4x — compared to the second half of 2025 when startups in the sector raised $12 billion across 470 deals.Crunchbase News
- 5hReach Capital raises $265M Fund V to back AI founders building to ‘expand human potential'Reach Capital announced Tuesday an oversubscribed $265M Fund V.TechCrunch Startups
- 6hDetroit startup Grounded raises $5M to customize electric and gas-powered vansThe company has shifted from making van-life builds to custom outfitting vehicles for small businesses, all while the EV landscape in the US changed dramatically.TechCrunch Startups
Yesterday
7 stories- 20hSave up to $300 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 pass until August 21If you’ve been circling around Disrupt, then now’s the best time to lock in your pass and start getting ready to join the rest of the startup community gathering in San Francisco from October 13-15 at Moscone West!TechCrunch Startups
- 21hHiggsfield raises $400M Series B, quadrupling its valuation in 8 months to $5.4BHiggsfield, founded by former Snap exec Alex Mashrabov, lets users create AI images and videos.TechCrunch Startups
- 21hSound-powered fire protection startup gets $15M to snuff out fires before they turn catastrophicSonic Fire Tech raised its new funding to help get its sound-powered fire protection system into everything from commercial kitchens to apartment buildings.TechCrunch Startups
- 1dTerra Industries closes $52M seed round to build defense infrastructure for the Global SouthAfrican defense tech company Terra Industries announced an additional $18 million in funding, bringing its seed round to $52 million.TechCrunch Startups
- 1dWe Churned Notion After 7 Years. Our AI Agent Took Its Last Job.We canceled Notion last week after 7 years. I didn't know until Amelia mentioned it in passing on The Agents podcast. Seven years, zero support tickets, zero feature requests, zero escalations. We loved it enough that one of our teammates got invited to present at their user conference. Notion did nothing wrong. We stoSaaStr
- 1dSemiconductor Giants Are Busy Backing Startups This YearMassive AI spending has helped push earnings and valuations for semiconductor industry leaders to record levels, prompting the sector's giants to invest record sums in artificial intelligence and robotics startups.Crunchbase News
- 1dDear SaaStr: How Can I Become a Better VP of Sales?Dear SaaStr: How Can I Become a Better VP of Sales? The hard truth: most VPs of Sales fail not because they can't sell, but because they don't understand what the job actually is. It's not managing a team. It's not building process decks. It's not attending QBRs. It's making your number — quarter after... Continue ReadSaaStr
Sunday, August 16
2 stories- 1dJason's Takes on This Week's 20VC x SaaStr: The Agents Never Suggested Canva, The Meme You Can't Outrun, and Why I Only Underwrite Founders NowMy cut on what Canva's drop to 20% growth means if you're running a pre-AI product, hiring against Anthropic, and holding a VC/investment mark you set in 2021. Canva cutting 2026 growth from 30% to 20% was the convo this week. We churned Canva at SaaStr. We churned Notion too. Neither did anything wrong, and... ContinuSaaStr
- 2dThe 0% Quota Club (And Why the Same Mediocre Rep Hits 70% at One Company and 0% at Yours)In sales orgs with extreme product market fit, tight processes, and substantial support … medicore sales reps can often hit 50%-90% of quota. Sometimes even more for stretches In sales orgs without all 3, they often hit 0% of quota — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) August 8, 2026 There's a pattern I've seenSaaStr
Saturday, August 15
3 stories- 3dGamma's CEO: Why Getting to $100M ARR Without A Sales Team Worked. And Why It Was a Mistake.Gamma crossed $100M ARR with 50 employees. Profitably. 50 million users. 600,000 paying subscribers. For most of that run, no sales team at all. That works out to $2M in ARR per employee, at a price point where the average paying customer is worth about $167 a year. Nobody gets there by hiring reps. They... Continue ReSaaStr
- 3dEvery fusion startup that has raised over $100MFusion startups have raised $7.1 billion to date, with the majority of it going to a handful of companies.TechCrunch Startups
- 3dDear SaaStr: What's Your #1 Opener in Sales?Dear SaaStr: What's Your #1 Opener in Sales? The best opener is sharing how a very similar company or a competitor uses your product — and the exact specific ROI that customer gets. Everyone wants to know the playbooks of similar companies and competitors. How often does your sales team actually do this? Put in... ContSaaStr
Friday, August 14
3 stories- 3dThe Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Data, Neolab, AI Infrastructure, Defense And AI Coding LeadDatabricks is back raising another $5 billion, after it raised that amount just eight months ago. The largest fundings this week also went to an AI neolab, data center and electricity storage, defense, coding and biotech. Let’s take a look.Crunchbase News
- 4dMeta's ‘open' AI, and a $250M deal gone very wrongMeta released Glimmer this week, an open-weight AI model anyone can download and run on their own hardware — a contrast to Muse Spark, the company’s more powerful model that stays locked behind its own APIs. The release landed alongside a letter from Mark Zuckerberg arguing AI should TechCrunch Startups
- 4d40 Companies Joined The Unicorn Board In July, The Highest Count In 4 YearsThe sectors leading the herd to the Unicorn Board in July, by count, were financial services, robotics, AI orchestration, multimodal AI, energy and semiconductors, with the U.S. adding nearly half of the month's newly minted unicorns.Crunchbase News
Thursday, August 13
3 stories- 4dInvestors sue Selena Gomez alleging fraud tied to her mental health startupThe plaintiffs say they invested nearly $1.2 million in the company, and are accusing Gomez of failing to build and market the startup.TechCrunch Startups
- 4dDatabricks wanted to raise $1B, investors wanted $15B. It settled on $5B at a $190B valuation.AI is expensive, Ali Ghodsi tells TechCrunch. With so many investors wanting into his latest round, he said yes to more than planned.TechCrunch Startups
- 5dHow A Teenage Carpenter Became The Founder Of AI Construction Startup Trunk ToolsOur second in a series of articles about non-tech founders getting venture funding features Sarah Buchner, a "blue-collar worker by background" who set out to find a way to help construction companies manage their projects more efficiently using AI agents.Crunchbase News
Wednesday, August 12
4 stories- 5dAI coding startup Cognition reportedly already in talks to raise at $40B valuationCognition may be looking to raise another mega round just a few months after raising $1 billion at a $26 billion valuation.TechCrunch Startups
- 5dWhy Stream ring-maker Sandbar says the future of AI wearables is voiceAI notetaking hardware has taken off over the past couple of years, with credit-card-sized devices, pendants, pins, and even transcribing earbuds all promising to capture your meetings and turn them into summaries and action items. Now, a whole wave of wearables — rings especially — are bettingTechCrunch Startups
- 6dExclusive: ClearJet raises $25M to build the ‘Uber of Cargo’Austin-based ClearJet, an AI-enabled logistics technology startup connects shippers with unused cargo capacity on commercial flights, has raised a $25 million Edison Partners-led Series B, it tells Crunchbase News exclusively.Crunchbase News
- 6dSector Snapshot: Fitness Startup Funding Is Rebounding, But Investors Want AI And Data, Not TreadmillsVenture investors seem to be more upbeat than they have been in years about the future of fitness and wellness. Startup investment in those categories totaled more than $3.6 billion in the first half of this year, putting 2026 on pace to come in about a third higher than 2025.Crunchbase News
Tuesday, August 11
2 stories- 7dThe VC Firm That Helped Build Latin America's Startup Scene Is Crossing Into Silicon ValleyMonashees, one of Latin America's oldest and most influential VC firms, believes the next phase of the region's startup ecosystem requires a permanent Silicon Valley presence, opening a San Francisco office last year. We spoke with firm partner Fabiola Quinzaños to talk through the firm's evolution and how it is meetinCrunchbase News
- 7dAI-Native, Not AI-Sprinkle: Why AI Is A Business Change, Not A Technology ChangeCompanies unlock AI’s biggest productivity gains not by adding AI tools to existing workflows, but by redesigning teams, roles and daily work around AI. The broader lesson, argues Bob Morse, co-founder and managing partner of Strattam Capital, is that achieving transformational gains like 3x productivity requires CEO- Crunchbase News