Now Rippling is counter suing tiny startup Runlayer

In Brief Posted: 12:41 PM PDT · August 8, 2026 Image Credits:J Studios / Getty Images NextSlide recently announced that it’s joining OpenAI, with the presentation startup’s team members now working on ChatGPT. The NextSlide website currently displays a note from founder Ahmed Beshry describing the startup’s product as one “that could turn prompts, notes, documents, or research into a polished, editable presentation.” The ultimate goal, Beshry said, was “to make visual communication more accessible and help more people express their ideas clearly.” So by joining OpenAI, the team will “continue pursuing that same mission: building AI products that help people create, communicate, and turn their ideas into meaningful work.” The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. In a note on LinkedIn, Beshry said the announcement is coming “a few months late,” as the acquisition took place “earlier this year.” Beshry was previously a co-founder at Caper AI, a smart cart/cashier-less checkout startup acquired by Instacart in 2021. Topics Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Latest in AI

Another former Uber executive is joining Travis Kalanick’s robotics and industrial AI startup Atoms, just a few weeks after it raised $1.7 billion. Gautam Gupta, the former finance chief under Kalanick, said in social media posts on Wednesday that he has has joined Atoms as chief financial officer. Gupta spent more than four years at Uber until he left in July 2017, just a few weeks after Kalanick resigned as CEO. (Gupta had announced his intention to leave that May.) Hiring Gupta continues a trend of Kalanick getting the Uber band back together at Atoms. Earlier this year, Atoms acquired mining autonomy startup Pronto, which is run by former Uber (and former Google) self-driving engineer Anthony Levandowski. According to LinkedIn, a number of former top Uber employees who worked with Kalanick also work at Atoms, which was previously called CloudKitchens. “On many levels, this round is a bit of unfinished business. Fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens, and will now finish at Atoms,” Kalanick wrote when he announced the $1.7 billion funding round last month. Uber even joined the round as an investor, reuniting the company with the founder it pushed out in 2017 after a series of scandals and complaints of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination. Uber hasn’t disclosed how much it contributed. The Information reported $100 million, a figure that TechCrunch has also been able to confirm. Kalanick has said he wants Atoms to work on mining, food, and transportation, though his posts to date about the startup have been less about specifics and more about wanting to “go up against the final boss, Nature and its fierce resistance to change.” Gupta invested in Uber in 2012 when he was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, and then joined the company in 2013. “[T]he single biggest reason I joined was – Travis. I believed he possessed a magical mix of genius and intensity that made me want to bet on the person, not the market,” Gupta wrote Wednesday. “First one in, last one out, every day. Breaking down walls of regulations, unions, city bureaucracies, etc. Had he not pioneered ridesharing, I don’t think anyone else had the fortitude to fight through one adversity after another to create a whole new market worth hundreds of billions out of nothing.” Gupta wrote Wednesday that A*, the VC firm he co-founded in 2020 after three years at Opendoor, invested in Atoms in what was the “largest investment in the history of our fund.” Gupta is stepping down from A* to take on the CFO role at Atoms, according to his LinkedIn profile. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane. You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal. View Bio

Indian electric vehicle startup River on Wednesday said it had raised $120 million to scale manufacturing for its next phase of growth. The Series C round was led by Indian investors Elev8 Venture Partners and Claypond Capital, with participation from Singularity AMC, Anicut Capital, 360 ONE Asset, JIF Capital, and HDFC AMC, alongside existing backers Yamaha Motor, Al-Futtaim Group, and Mitsui. Less than 10% to 12% of the round comprised venture debt, and the equity funding raised was entirely primary capital, with no secondary share sales, founder and CEO Aravind Mani (pictured above, right) told TechCrunch. The round brings River’s total capital raised to $144 million. Founded in 2021, River is among a bunch of startups in India’s rapidly expanding electric two-wheeler market, competing with newer entrants such as Ather Energy and Ola Electric as well as legacy manufacturers Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor. This market has so far been the biggest source of EV adoption in India. Unlike most of its rivals, River has built its business around a single electric moped model, dubbed Indie, which it launched in 2023. The startup says it now sells about 6,000 vehicles a month through more than 75 stores across India, and has so far sold more than 50,000 units. River has sought to pitch the Indie as a utility-focused vehicle instead of competing across multiple consumer segments, Mani said, adding that the startup’s biggest achievement over the past year had been learning how to scale manufacturing. “There was a point in time when we were making 20 vehicles a day. Today we make 300 vehicles a day, and that scale-up has not been easy. This is the steepest learning curve for any company out there,” he said. River IndieImage Credits:River The ₹155,000 ($1,630) Indie offers a claimed range of about 99 miles, as well as optional accessories. Mani said the startup’s typical customers are self-employed people aged between 28 and 35. Driven by rising sales of the Indie, River’s revenue increased by 330% in the fiscal year ended March 2026, while monthly revenue reached about ₹1 billion (around $11 million), Mani said. River expects to become operationally profitable once monthly production reaches 20,000 to 25,000 vehicles, which Mani said the startup aims to achieve by 2028–29. Gross margins, currently approaching double digits, should improve as production scales, he said. While the single-model focus has helped River gain traction, it plans to introduce two more models from next year. “The restriction is the capacity. I don’t have capacity to do one more model today in my current factory,” Mani said. River is nearing capacity at its first manufacturing facility on the outskirts of Bengaluru, which can now produce about 10,000 vehicles a month following recent upgrades, and the startup expects to fully utilize the plant by early next year, he added. Construction on a new facility is expected to begin within the next two months once the location is finalized, Mani said. The first phase is slated to be commissioned by mid-2027, and is expected to have an annual production capacity of about 700,000 to 800,000 vehicles. The startup also plans to expand its retail footprint to more than 200 stores by March 2027, and grow that to about 400 outlets by March 2028. The new round, Mani said, marked a shift in what investors were backing. Earlier financings supported product development and technology, and the new investors are betting on the startup’s ability to scale now that it has demonstrated traction. He added that while Silicon Valley investors had long recognized India’s EV opportunity, many underestimated how local consumers would adopt electric two-wheelers. “They understand macroeconomics. What they don’t understand is the customer behavior,” Mani said. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Image Credits:Slava Blazer Photography 8:00 AM PDT · August 4, 2026 Want to tap into the energy of 1,100+ startup founders, investors, and tech leaders descending on Boston for the Founder Summit 2026 on November 4th? Host your own Side Event during “Founder Summit Week,” happening November 1-7! Whether it’s a networking mixer, workshop, morning run, fireside chat, or cocktail hour — you call the shots. Create a moment. Build your community. Increase brand visibility with a Side Event. Why host a Side Event? Along with extending the energy beyond the venue and the actual event, you’ll get: Visibility to the full TechCrunch audience. Featured on the official agenda, Side Events page, and mobile app. Highlighted in attendee emails and articles. A community discount code for your team and guests. Must-know details about Side Events Check out the full details on the Founder Summit 2026 page. As the host, you’ll handle the event details, and we’ll help spread the word. There’s no fee to be listed, and everything must be: In-person and Boston-based. Held November 1-7 (only post-5 p.m. ET events will be allowed on November 4). 18+ only (21+ if there’s alcohol). Apply now to make a brand impact at Founder Summit 2026 Let’s make it happen! Hosting a Side Event is an easy way to grow your network and connect your brand to Boston’s startup crowd. Apply here to lock in your Side Event before the deadline. This is your moment to show up and stand out. Topics When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Image Credits:Wispr 9:29 AM PDT · August 3, 2026 Dictation app Wispr Flow is preparing to launch a meeting notetaker, according to the tool’s updated Terms of Service. The company also sent an email to its customers about the change in both its terms and its privacy policy to accommodate related features. Upon investigation, the refreshed terms have added sections about the use of meeting data and the notetaker. The company said the notetaker will generate transcripts, summaries, actions, and insights, writing: “For Notetaker, Input may also include Meeting Data, including meeting audio, participant information, meeting metadata, speaker labels, meeting transcripts, and other information processed in connection with a meeting. Output may include AI-generated meeting transcripts, summaries, action items, meeting insights, speaker attribution, and other meeting-related content.” With the launch, the startup will take on other meeting notetakers such as Granola, Fireflies, Read AI, Otter, and Fathom. Wispr Flow’s co-founder Tanay Kothari had previously talked about building an AI assistant in interviews. With a meeting notetaker, Wispr Flow would gain additional context about its users and could automate more tasks beyond cleaning up spoken sentences. It’s not clear if the startup wants to launch a Granola-style notetaker that relies on system audio and transcribes the meeting without keeping a recording, or build a full-fledged meeting recording tool. To date, Wispr Flow has raised more than $81 million, with the company valued at $700 million at its last round. In May, Bloomberg reported that the company was in talks for a new round, valuing it at $2 billion. Wispr Flow didn’t respond to our request for further comment. Topics When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web. You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing im@ivanmehta.com or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal. View Bio

Aluminum has left an indelible mark on the world — more than 3 billion tons of red mud, a waste product of the refining process, are currently stored in open-air ponds or mounds. But to Sumedh Gostu, co-founder and CEO of Fast Metals, there’s treasure in the caustic waste. “It is a very rich resource,” he told TechCrunch. “If you attack with the right chemistry, it can be very profitable.” Gostu thinks Fast Metals has found that chemistry, which just so happens to be partially comprised of another waste stream, also produced from alumina refineries. The startup recently raised a $4.3 million pre-seed round led by New Climate Ventures with participation from Azolla Ventures, Astor Swiss, and Rio Tinto’s accelerator, Founders Factory. Red mud’s vermillion hue comes largely from rusted iron, which is the most common compound in the mix. But the byproduct also contains critical minerals, including titanium, aluminum, and rare earth elements. Despite its mineral riches, red mud has largely been ignored because it has been too expensive to separate those minerals from the iron oxide, Gostu said. “We are removing that impediment,” he said. Gostu had designed most of the process during his doctoral studies at the Colorado School of Mines. But one piece was missing, until one day, while talking with his fellow co-founder Anthony Staley, things fell into place. “We were like, ‘oh wait, theres’s a waste stream which can make the whole process very economical, and it’s lying right there,’” Gostu said. Fast Metals applies this waste stream, along with other chemicals, to red mud over six different steps. Different minerals fall out along the way, each of which can be sold. “Iron pays for the opex, and the other stuff is profit,” Gostu said. The profit potential is significant. Titanium dioxide sells for around $2.50 to $3 per kilogram, while scandium oxide sells for about $750 per kilogram. With the fresh funding, Fast Metals plans to scale up its process. The startup has a commercial contract with Metalox, a mineral processor, to treat one ton of red mud and refinery waste per week later this year. When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence. Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor. De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College. You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing tim.dechant@techcrunch.com. View Bio

In Brief Posted: 2:29 PM PDT · July 28, 2026 Image Credits:Malte Mueller / Getty Images Spur Intelligence, a cybersecurity startup based in Lake Mary, Florida, has raised a $200 million round led by Insight Partners. Spur, founded in 2017 — five years before ChatGPT’s public launch — was prescient. The startup’s tech helps enterprises distinguish legitimate human users from increasingly well-hidden bot traffic to help identify fake users and threats. “As sophisticated criminal VPNs, residential proxy networks, and anonymization infrastructure proliferate, organizations are increasingly operating with a critical blind spot: they can see the activity, but not the infrastructure behind it,” Insight’s Thomas Krane said in a written statement. Detecting malicious traffic has, of course, been a hill corporate security teams have been climbing for eons. But nothing compares to the onslaught facing them today. As of mid-2026, bots are now more active on the internet than humans are, Cloudflare reported last month. “Thought it would be end of 2027, then early 2027, but agentic traffic growing so fast that bots have now passed human traffic online for the first time in the Internet’s history,” Cloudflare founder and CEO Matthew Prince posted on X last month, pointing to his company’s latest traffic report. Topics Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Latest in Startups