Beauty booking startup Fresha hits $1 billion valuation with KKR backing

Beauty and wellness booking marketplace Fresha says it has raised $80 million investment from KKR’s Next Generation Technology Growth fund, KKR’s growth equity arm.

Imperagen raises £5 million to use quantum physics, AI on enzyme engineering

Biotech company Imperagen announced on Thursday a £5 million ($6.7 million) seed round led by PXN Ventures, with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone.

Sam Altman makes ‘mic drop’ offer to every Y Combinator startup

Altman offered to have OpenAI invest in every single startup in this Y Combinator class: tokens for equity.

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close in one week: Window to nominate and apply for the most promising startups ends May 27

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close May 27. Pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt, get investor access, win $100K, plus more scaling perks. Nominate an early-stage founder or submit your startup here.

Forget the feed: Status AI raises $17M to turn social media into interactive entertainment

Interactive social media site Status announced Tuesday $17 million in combined seed and Series A funding, with investors including General Catalyst, YC, LightShed Ventures, and Abstract.

Stilta raises $10.5M from a16z and YC to help companies rediscover the patents they forgot they had

Stilta announced Tuesday a $10 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors in the round include YC and operators from companies like OpenAI, Legora, and Lovable. 

Theo Baker spent four years investigating Stanford. Before he leaves, here’s what he found.

“There’s a common refrain among [young] people in this world that it’s easier to raise money for a startup right now than to get an internship. Which is remarkable, right?”

For Eclipse, the $2.5B Cerebras win is just the start of realizing its physical-world thesis

Investing in the real world was lonely for Lior Susan 10 years ago. Now his firm finds itself at the center of the tech world’s action.

Marketing operating system Nectar Social raises $30M Series A led by Menlo

AI-powered marketing platform Nectar Social announced Thursday that it raised a $30 million Series A round led by Menlo Ventures and its Anthology Fund, which was created alongside Anthropic.

$60B AI chip darling Cerebras almost died early on, burning $8M a month

Cerebras Systems was 2026’s biggest tech IPO so far. But years ago, it burned through hundreds of millions working on a chip many believed impossible.