October 16, 2025

Zepto raises $450M at $7B valuation as Indian quick-commerce market heats up: Indian quick-commerce startup Zepto said it has raised $400 million in a funding round led by a new investor, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), a U.S.-based pension fund. Read More

General Intuition lands $134M seed to teach agents spatial reasoning using video game clips: Late last year, OpenAI reportedly tried to buy Medal and its vast trove of video game data for $500M. Today, the company spun out a frontier research lab that's using that data to build AI agents that understand how they move through space and time, a concept called spatial-temporal reasoning. Read More

India's Kuku snags $85M as mobile content wars intensify: Kuku plans to expand beyond India with a U.S. launch slated for next year. Read More

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How a headphone site operator built loyalty startup Lantern to solve his own problems: After struggling to retain customers at his e-commerce site Headphones.com, founder Andrew Lissimore built his own loyalty solution — and it's now a startup called Lantern. The Shopify-native platform helps brands boost retention through customizable loyalty, referrals, and account management tools. Read More

Pinterest adds controls to let you limit the amount of 'AI slop' in your feed: Pinterest is rolling out new controls that let users limit how much AI-generated content appears in their feeds. The company is also making its AI content labels more visible. Read More

Microsoft, AWS and Google are trying to drastically reduce China's role in their supply chains: Microsoft, Amazon and Google are ramping up efforts move production of their products and data centers outside of China, Nikkei reported, citing supply chain sources. Read More

Amazon launches pay-per-visit virtual healthcare service for kids: Amazon's One Medical is expanding into pediatric care with a new pay-per-visit virtual health service for children ages 2 to 11. Starting at $29 for message-based visits and $49 for video calls, the service treats common conditions like pink eye, eczema, and rashes, and also handles medication renewals Read More

Spotify partners with record labels to create 'artist-first' AI music products: Spotify has announced new partnerships with major record labels — including Sony, Universal, Warner, and Merlin — to build "responsible AI" tools that protect artists' rights and ensure fair compensation. The initiative will let artists opt in or out of AI use. Read More

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Final 2 days to claim your exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: With less than 48 hours to secure your table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, now is the time to step in before a competitor takes your place. Read More

Aquawise will show off its AI-driven water-quality tech at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Aquawise uses satellite images and a physics-based AI model to monitor and predict water quality at aquaculture farms. Read More

The full Space Stage agenda at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: The future of tech launches here: The Space Stage agenda is full at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. Join 10,000 tech leaders to hear what's next in space tech from top voices like Baiju Bhatt, Will Bruey, Bridgit Mendler, and more. Register now to save up to $624. Read More

Claude Agent has become the first third-party AI agent to be built natively into JetBrains IDEs. Powered by Anthropic's Claude Agent SDK, it delivers advanced agentic coding inside familiar workflows. With the addition of Claude Agent, JetBrains introduces a multi-agent IDE experience, empowering developers to do even more with the tools they already know and love.

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Apple loses another AI exec to Meta : Yang's departure marks the latest in a string of exits from Apple's AI unit, putting the company into jeopardy in the lead up to a much-anticipated Siri revamp scheduled for March.   Read More

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