<p>8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, is seeking nearly $1 billion for its sixth fund, according to a regulatory filing. The Austin-based firm’s latest fund aims to raise nearly 14% more than its previous $880 million flagship vehicle, which closed in February 2023. TechCrunch has reached out to the firm for [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Lily Vittayarukskul (pictured above) was studying aerospace engineering when her aunt was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Her aunt had lived under the same roof as Vittayarukskul while she was growing up and helped raise her. “We went all in on her care,” she recalled. Post-chemotherapy, Vittayarukskul’s aunt “became very frail,” so her family &#8212; [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When it comes to the world of cybersecurity, identity is often thought of as a “perimeter” around an organization. So many breaches begin through techniques like password theft, phishing, and credential stuffing; ergo, securing the identities of not only users, but also applications and machines, is the key to securing the whole system.&nbsp; Easier said [&hellip;]</p>

<p>After more than a year of helping solar installers sell, plan, and finance panels for residential and small commercial building owners, Niko found another opportunity.</p>

<p>Martin Fengler knows a lot about the weather. Fengler got his PhD in mathematics, focused on numerical weather prediction, before working for Meteomedia AG, a network of weather stations in Switzerland and Germany. But while he knew a lot about weather forecasting from the prediction side, he realized the gaps that remained on the consumption [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Until a few years ago, it used to be difficult to make payments across borders almost anywhere in the world. But it&#8217;s still a big problem in Africa, where fragmented, disconnected systems, high fees, and poor infrastructure make it tough for businesses and individuals to move money quickly and affordably. The majority of people and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>SoftBank is negotiating a $500 million investment in Skild AI, a software company building a foundational model for robotics at a $4 billion valuation, Bloomberg and Financial Times reported. The 2-year-old company raised its previous funding round of $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation last July from investors, including Jeff Bezos, Lightspeed Venture Partners, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Openvibe&#8217;s clever app that integrates multiple open social networks, including Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, and Threads, just got a boost toward its future development. The company on Tuesday announced that it has received outside investment of $800,000 in a round led by Czech Founders VC, which includes backing from WordPress.com and Tumblr parent company, Automattic, as [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Geek Ventures is raising a Fund II, according to a recent SEC filing.  The firm, founded in 2021 by Ihar Mahaniok, focuses on investing in early-stage immigrant founders. Mahaniok immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus and spoke to TechCrunch a few years ago about how hard the venture ecosystem can be for immigrants.&nbsp; “Talent is [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Falls are common for older people living semi-independently. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they&#8217;re the leading cause of injury for adults aged 65 and up. On average, about 10% of these falls are serious, requiring medical attention. Yet many fall victims don&#8217;t get the treatment they need. George Netscher, a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Quibim, a Spanish startup that&#8217;s developing foundational AI models for medical imaging spanning oncology, immunology, neurology, and metabolic disorders, has raised $50 million in a Series A round of funding. The cash injection comes as AI makes ever deeper inroads into healthcare, spanning everything from drug discovery to clinical trials. Quibim, for its part, is [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Quantum computing remains something of a holy grail in the world of technology: It promises a huge leap in computing power, but only if someone can figure out how to square away the fault rates that prevent any scaling of the tech. Now, one of the more promising quantum startups in Europe is announcing a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Helion&#8217;s unorthodox approach to fusion power and relative secrecy has earned it plenty of fans — and critics. But don’t count its investors among the naysayers.</p>

<p>Barcelona-based business travel management platform TravelPerk has raised $200 million at a hefty $2.7 billion valuation — almost double the $1.4 billion valuation at its previous fundraise last year. Alongside the raise, TravelPerk also announced it has acquired Swiss startup Yokoy to bring native expenses management into the fray. With the travel and tourism industry [&hellip;]</p>

<p>LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Siddhartha Mukherjee, cancer researcher and author of the book “The Emperor of All Maladies,” have co-founded an AI-powered drug discovery startup, Manas AI. The company, which will initially focus on breast cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma, has raised $24.6 million in seed funding from Hoffman, General Catalyst, and Greylock. Manas [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Companies that want to build AI voice into their products are rushing to work with ElevenLabs, the startup that develops synthetic voice technology like voice cloning and dubbing tools. Now ElevenLabs is turning up the volume on its business with a huge Series C raise, just a year after a sizable Series B. The New [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was supposed to be a short one in the U.S., as it started with a holiday. But Inauguration Day kept some founders busy, and the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Landy Liu knows how hard it is to save for a home.  While working at mortgage startup Better.com, he spent years dealing with first-home home buyers who felt overwhelmed when it came to shopping for homes. By the time it was his turn in 2022, mortgage rates had nearly doubled, and he found himself in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Seattle-based Madrona Ventures is celebrating its 30 years in business by raising $770 million in fresh capital. This is the firm&#8217;s largest fundraise to date, exceeding $690 million across two funds Madrona closed in 2022.&nbsp; While an 11% capital pool upsize may not seem significant, any increase at a time when many venture outfits are [&hellip;]</p>

<p>To cut costs and minimize geothermal’s footprint, Bedrock drills deeper.</p>