<p>Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of France’s most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to its $6 billion valuation, its global market share is still relatively low.&nbsp; However, the recent [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Kesha may have taken the dollar sign out of her name, but now, the singer is thinking about money again &#8212; not for herself, but to fund the seed round of her new startup, Smash. According to Kesha&#8217;s Instagram post, Smash will be a &#8220;community-based platform to connect and protect music creators,&#8221; which aligns with [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Google I/O didn&#8217;t stop startups from taking their chances and announcing some big deals this week. </p>

<p>From a struggling family tea estate to an innovative climate venture, Alt Carbon has raised $12 million in a seed round as it plans to scale its carbon dioxide removal work in the South Asian nation. The climate tech startup, which locks away carbon for thousands of years through enhanced rock weathering on farmlands, attracted [&hellip;]</p>

<p>LM Arena, a crowdsourced benchmarking project that major AI labs rely on to test and market their AI models, has raised $100 million in a seed funding round that values the organization at $600 million, according to Bloomberg. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)&nbsp;and UC Investments, which manages an investment portfolio for the University of California, led the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>There is a new accounting software in town, coming in with a fresh $17.2 million raise and a desire to shake things up. The company, Filed, hopes to automate the grunt work. “The tax industry is facing a genuine crisis,” Leroy Kerry, Filed’s co-founder CEO, told TechCrunch. Many CPAs are approaching retirement while a dwindling [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Meta is launching a new program to incentivize startups to adopt its Llama AI models. The program, Llama for Startups, provides companies &#8220;direct support&#8221; from Meta&#8217;s Llama team, as well as funding in certain cases. Any U.S.-based firm that is incorporated, has raised less than $10 million in funding, has at least one developer on [&hellip;]</p>

<p>An increasing number of meetings have an AI note-taker present that transcribes the call and provides action items. Siro wants to do the same for sales folks who are on the ground and talking to customers face-to-face. The company on Wednesday announced it has secured $50 million in a Series B round led by SignalFire [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Looking to make a splash at TechCrunch All Stage 2025? Our Side Events initiative is a fantastic opportunity to engage with Boston&#8217;s tech community in a dynamic and memorable manner. Plus, we&#8217;ll assist in promoting your event at no cost to you! Submit your event here by June 10. Throw your own Side Event at [&hellip;]</p>

<p>If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to showcase your newest innovation to a massive AI community, this is it! You have until this Friday, May 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT, to secure one of the few remaining exhibit tables at TechCrunch Sessions: AI and position your brand at the center of the conversation [&hellip;]</p>

<p>If you’re a founder looking to grow your startup, chances are you’re wrestling with more than just product or capital. Talent, scale, and smart execution are the real battlegrounds. That’s exactly what TechCrunch All Stage 2025 is built to address on July 15 at Boston’s SoWa Power Station. Rob Biederman, managing partner at Asymmetric Capital [&hellip;]</p>

<p>When you claim to have the world’s most powerful video intelligence platform, you probably know a thing or two about foundational models. We&#8217;re pleased to announce that TwelveLabs CEO Jae Lee will be joining us on the main stage at TechCrunch Sessions: AI, happening June 5 at UC Berkeley&#8217;s Zellerbach Hall. One of the biggest [&hellip;]</p>

<p>We’re thrilled to announce that Danielle Perszyk, the leader of Amazon AGI SF Lab’s human-computer interaction efforts, will be taking the main stage at TechCrunch Sessions: AI on June 5 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. The AGI SF Lab is at the forefront of developing foundational capabilities for AI agents that can operate in the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Our rebranded Boston summit, TechCrunch All Stage (formerly Early Stage), is back on July 15! And we are looking for some incredible volunteers to help us make this event happen. If you are interested in finding out what goes into building tech events, apply to volunteer. If you are selected, not only will you get [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In the U.S., a number of startups aim to be the corporate spend manager of choice for small and large businesses. Brex, Ramp, and Mercury are among those companies, just to name a few. Moving north of the border to Canada, the options are fewer, but growing. Keep is a startup that has built a [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Google DeepMind is at the forefront of AI innovation, and no one is more poised to speak to this than Senior Product Manager Logan Kilpatrick. We are pleased to announce he will be joining us on the main stage at TechCrunch Sessions: AI, happening June 5 at UC Berkeley&#8217;s Zellerbach Hall. TC Sessions: AI is [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The global assistive technology market was valued at more than $22 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow substantially by 2030. Despite the potential market size, many founders building tech to help people with disabilities struggle to secure the kind of early funding needed to get their companies off the ground in the first [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Alation plans to integrate Numbers Station&#8217;s products into its own as soon as the end of this quarter, Alation co-founder and CEO Satyen Sangani told TechCrunch.</p>

<p>Brex has once again made the surprising, but perhaps realistic, decision to partner with another one-time competitor. This time Zip, the CEOs of both companies told TechCrunch exclusively.&nbsp; In April 2022, fintech Brex announced it was making “a big push” into both the enterprise and software. The news was notable considering that Brex originally was [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Gravitee, a platform designed to help companies manage their APIs and other digital traffic pipelines, has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by Sixth Street Growth with participation from Riverside Acceleration Capital and Albion VC. The new capital, which brings Gravitee&#8217;s total raised to just over $125 million, will be used [&hellip;]</p>