Browsing: Fundraising

Four years ago, a startup lab launched that wasn’t quite an incubator, accelerator program, or venture firm. UP.Labs, as it was called then, built startups designed to solve problems for corporate customers such as Alaska Airlines and Porsche, as well as for the outside world.

Chinese AI startup Manus, which earlier this year had to break offa merger with Meta, is in discussions to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation now that it has resumed operations as an independent company, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.

Jeff Lawson has already helped build a company with more than $4 billion in revenue and 300,000 customers worldwide. After scaling Twilio into a public company, his next challenge reaches well beyond software: bringing fusion power to the grid as co-founder and CEO of Inertia.

Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), the venture division of private equity firm Bain Capital, has raised a new, $1.6 billion fund, which is 14% larger than its previous $1.4 billion fund the firm announced three years ago.

Voice AI has emerged as one of the hottest sectors in AI, with investors pouring in billions of dollars to serve use cases ranging from automating customer support and sales calls to creating meeting notetakers and developing AI smart glasses that use voice as the primary interaction surface.

If you’re looking for opportunities to demo your breakthrough to VCs and build a powerful lead-gen, then thisFriday, September 18 at 11:59 p.m. PT, is your last day to book your exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. 

Profound, which builds marketing software to help brands appear in AI search results, on Tuesday said it has raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation, less than seven months after it raised a $96 million Series C.

Europe has a new unicorn: Italian startup Exein has just raised a $270 million funding round led by Headline at a $1.7 billion valuation on the promise of providing a cybersecurity layer for physical AI — an evolution of its initial focus on IoT.

While OpenAI has filed confidentially for an IPO, the company will not be going public this year

The absolute last chance to apply to host an official Side Event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is tonight, September 11, at 11:59 p.m. PT.