Despite all the talk of doom and gloom about the economy, entrepreneurship is actually on the rise in the U.S.: In 2024, an average of 430,000 new business applications were submitted every month, marking a 50% rise from 2019. But the number of accountants these new businesses will need to maintain their books, file taxes, and do related accounting work is dipping. Nearly 75% of CPAs are expected to retire in a decade, and fewer graduates are choosing accounting because it simply doesn’t pay as much as fields like technology and finance. Serial entrepreneur David Phillips sees an opportunity to…
Author: Olsi
Teleo describes itself as a construction robotics startup, but its mission is bigger than automating heavy equipment like excavators and tractors. Today, Teleo’s retrofitted machinery allows its customers to operate their existing fleets semi-autonomously. In the future, the startup sees the data it collects as a key enabler for the robotics industry to reach its “ChatGPT moment.” That isn’t an aspiration to reach the same level of hype surrounding ChatGPT. Instead, Teleo CEO Vinay Shet sees an opportunity for robotics companies—and namely the one he runs—to gather vast datasets similar to amounts used to build ChatGPT in order to make…
Crusoe, a rumored OpenAI data center vendor, has secured $686 million in new funding; filing shows that the investment will be used to expand its infrastructure and enhance its technology offerings. This significant financial backing underscores the growing demand for cloud computing services and positions Crusoe as a key player in the industry. Crusoe Energy, a startup building data centers reportedly to be leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, is in the process of raising $818 million, according to an SEC filing. The filing indicates that Crusoe has secured $686 million of the $818 million total that it hopes to…
Electric passenger boat startup Candela has topped off its most recent raise with another $14 million, the company announced Thursday, and has sold the first of its ferries in the U.S. — bound for Lake Tahoe. Candela makes a series of all-electric hydrofoiling watercraft, meaning the body of the boat rises above the surface of the water on fins as it gets up to speed. This looks a little precarious but is actually quite stable (I’ve piloted one myself) and helps reduce water resistance, raising range and smoothing out the ride. Earlier this year, the Swedish company raised $25 million…
Last-mile delivery, the very last step of the delivery process, is a common pain point for companies. According to one survey, nearly 90% of retailers struggle with their last-mile delivery operations, either because of technical issues, costs, or a combination of both. Bill and Lisa Catania understand this well. The husband-and-wife team founded OneRail, a last-mile delivery solutions business, in 2018. Bill previously founded a digital coupon company, M-Dot Network, which was acquired by retail transaction processing org Inmar in 2011. An avid stock racing fan, Bill also previously managed web properties that syndicated racing news and results to media…
Ten years after pitching onstage at The Tech Spot Disrupt in London, fintech N26 has reported its first ever quarterly (pretax) profit. The challenger bank with millions of customers across Europe generated a net operating income of €2.8 million during the third quarter of 2024 (or $2.9 million at current exchange rates). This is an important milestone for the startup but also significant news for the fintech industry. Challenger banks like Monzo, N26, Revolut, and Starling used to be some of the most hyped startups in Europe. They raised billions in funding, expanded aggressively, and overspent to reach that next…
The funding round, led by prominent investors, aims to bolster Zepto’s expansion plans and enhance its delivery infrastructure. As e-commerce continues to evolve rapidly, the startup is poised to capitalize on the shifting consumer behaviors in the Indian market. Zepto has secured $350 million in new funding, its third round of financing in six months, as the Indian quick-commerce startup strengthens its position against its competitors ahead of a planned IPO next year. Indian family offices, wealthy individuals, and asset manager Motilal Oswal invested in the round, which maintains Zepto’s $5 billion valuation. Motilal co-founder Raamdeo Agrawal, family offices of…
Nuclear startup Kairos Power received approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to start construction on two test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The permit marks a significant milestone for Kairos, which in October inked a deal with Google to provide 500 megawatts of electricity for its data centers. The fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactors are scaled-down versions of what Kairos hopes to ultimately build to supply Google with electricity starting in 2030. And while the new reactors are technically test beds, Kairos intends to connect the power plant to the grid, spokesperson Ashley Lewis told TechCrunch. The Hermes 2 reactors will…
Anthropic has raised an additional $4 billion from Amazon and has agreed to train its flagship generative AI models primarily on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division. The OpenAI rival also said it’s working with Annapurna Labs, AWS’ chipmaking division, to develop future generations of Trainium accelerators, AWS’ custom-built chips for training AI models. “Our engineers work closely with Annapurna’s chip design team to extract maximum computational efficiency from the hardware, which we plan to leverage to train our most advanced foundation models,” Anthropic wrote in a blog post. “Together with AWS, we’re laying the technological foundation—from silicon…
Daricus Releford always wanted to be a founder. In high school, he ran a hot dog station and in college launched a chocolate-covered strawberry business, making millions in sales before moving to Silicon Valley to pursue his dreams in tech. Entrepreneurship simply runs in his family, he told The Tech Spot. “My grandfather was one of the first Black hotel owners in the U.S., and my mom always started businesses. I think it’s just in my blood,” he continued. It’s no wonder then that no matter what tech job he took, he always found himself going back to launching something…
