When Phia‘s founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni decided to build an AI startup, they targeted an area they understood well: online shopping. The founders, who met at Stanford when they were randomly paired up as roommates, understood e-commerce because they had spent hours upon hours trying to find the right items to expand their…
As grids come under strain from growing demand from data centers and EVs, geothermal startups have been racing to unlock energy that lurks deep within the Earth. Now, one startup has developed the world’s hottest geothermal well — one that harbors enough energy to power thousands of homes. Mazama Energy said today that it had…
Katie Hill’s dream home isn’t on the market — but one day, it will be, and she wants dibs. That, and a bit of neighborly envy, is how she got the idea for her startup, Unlisted Homes, which is a Top 20 Startup Battlefield finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. “I’ve always imagined myself as an…
Tutoring is one of the most effective tools for improving a child’s education, yet very few kids in the U.S. receive it. A 2023 survey of the nation’s largest school districts found that fewer than 10% of students received tutoring. One factor is that tutoring is too expensive for many families, often costing hundreds or…
India’s free digital payments revolution has upended how money moves — but not how fintechs make it. Now, Flipkart’s fintech arm Super.money is partnering with Kotak811, the digital offering of one of India’s top commercial banks, Kotak Mahindra Bank, to change that, bundling UPI payments, savings, and secured credit into a single account aimed at…
Even after reviewing résumés, cover letters, and interviews, choosing the right candidate for a job can be a mysterious process. Hiring managers often rely on their biases about the world or gut feelings to inform their decision, making the process far from an exact science. That’s why Sarah Lucena built Mappa, an AI-powered behavioral intelligence…
On Monday, researchers at cybersecurity giant Kaspersky published a report identifying a new spyware called Dante that they say targeted Windows victims in Russia and neighboring Belarus. The researchers said the Dante spyware is made by Memento Labs, a Milan-based surveillance tech maker that was formed in 2019 after a new owner acquired and took…
LG Uplus, one of the largest telecom operators in South Korea, has confirmed to TechCrunch that it has reported a suspected data breach to Korea’s national cybersecurity watchdog KISA, but did not say when the results of its investigation would be available. All three major South Korean telecom providers, SK Telecom, KT Telecom, and now…
As companies push to increase efficiency and stay competitive, they’re encouraging, or in some cases outright requiring, workers to know how to use AI tools. However, the push for AI use has exposed a training gap. “There are few solutions available on the market that are dedicated to non-technical people,” Aureliusz Gorski, founder and CEO…
If you were wandering the Expo Hall at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, or watching our pitch stage earlier Tuesday, you might have noticed a familiar face from Pied Piper. Thomas Middleditch, who starred in HBO’s popular “Silicon Valley” show that prominently featured Disrupt back in 2014, had a planned takeover of Australian startup (and Battlefield 200…
