Yelp is releasing multiple AI-powered updates Tuesday, including an updated AI assistant that can answer questions about restaurants, bars, local attractions, or retailers. The assistant can also scan a physical menu to provide information about dishes. Additionally, the company is improving search with support for natural language and voice queries, and highlighting popular offerings on…
Africa’s electric mobility story has often been one of promise over progress. Infrastructure is scarce, power grids are unreliable, and most markets still run on cheap imported motorcycles. But Dubai-headquartered Spiro has spent the past two years trying to rewrite that narrative. The company just announced a $100 million investment round led by The Fund…
X is launching a marketplace for inactive handles that will allow Premium subscribers to request and purchase usernames. The marketplace will offer both free and paid options for requesting or acquiring eligible handles. Rare handles could be priced at anywhere from $2,500 to over seven figures, X says. “Priority” handles refers to usernames that often…
Today begins the 7-day countdown to TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, the flagship tech conference bringing together 10,000+ leaders, VCs, operators, and innovators, taking place at Moscone West in San Francisco, October 27–29. To celebrate the countdown, we’re offering a special 60% discount for your plus-one. Buy your pass and save up to $444, plus get 60%…
A team of researchers from Google Research and UC Santa Cruz released DeepSomatic, an AI model that identifies cancer cell genetic variants. In research with Children’s Mercy, it found 10 variants in pediatric leukemia cells missed by other tools. DeepSomatic has a somatic small variant caller for cancer genomes that works across Illumina short reads,…
For most enterprise companies, AI is either a promise that has yet to deliver or a security risk. The effort of Lithuania’s most famous entrepreneur duo to solve that conundrum has garnered attention — and funding. Just months after Nexos.ai came out of stealth with an $8 million funding round led by Index Ventures, Nord…
OpenEvidence, a tool that doctors and nurses have likened to ChatGPT for medicine, plans to announce a $200 million raise at a $6 billion valuation, The New York Times reports. The fresh funds come three months after the startup raised a $210 million round at a $3.5 billion valuation, a testament to the intense investor…
In a region long defined by fragmented enterprise systems, outdated compliance tools, and HR software that rarely talks to finance, Cercli is building a unified alternative for MENA businesses with AI at its core. The Dubai-based startup, founded by ex-Careem operators Akeed Azmi and David Reche, has announced an oversubscribed $12 million Series A round led by…
A Waymo robotaxi was recently spotted driving around a school bus that had its red lights flashing, and federal safety regulators have opened an investigation as a result. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Monday morning that its Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened an investigation after seeing footage from early October of…
When Shin Starr set out to build an autonomous kitchen, the company knew that the gimmick of robotic cooking wouldn’t carry the business. What would make Shin Starr’s OLHSO Korean BBQ food truck successful is if it could cook and deliver a hot, fresh, tasty meal at a reasonable price. “At the end of the…
