Wednesday, March 26, 2025
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Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we’ve got the tea on Block’s layoffs, a hefty fund for Emergence Capital, and Rivian’s next venture. We’ve also got AI that can detect cheating students, Microsoft’s jump into deep research, algorithms that can unearth critical minerals, a chip-fueled antitrust fight, Instagram’s attempts to improve child safety, and more. Let’s go! — Rebecca
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Image Credits:MARCO BELLO/AFP / Getty Images
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1. Layoffs are trending again : Jack Dorsey’s fintech startup Block laid off 931 people yesterday, and TC got its hands on the email he sent to staff. Dorsey explains his strategy behind the cuts, broken into three buckets: strategy, performance, and middle management. Read More
2. Can VCs be unicorns, too? Emergence Capital has closed its seventh fund at $1 billion — quite the feat in today’s venture capital landscape. Like others, Emergence appears to be going all in on AI, specifically with a focus on B2B. Read More
3. Time to shred: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe had the crazy idea to boil down the company’s EV tech into something smaller and more affordable. Today, that idea has become a micromobility spinout startup, and it’s already secured $105 million from Eclipse Ventures. Read More
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Image Credits: izusek / Getty Images
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🎃 Cheater, cheater: How can you tell when a student is using GenAI to write their papers? One AI edtech startup, Brisk, might have a solution. Its tool helps teachers identify telltale signs of AI plagiarism and the company has scored $15 million in funding on the back of decent traction. Read More
🔍 And anotha’ one: Microsoft is joining OpenAI, Google and xAI in the “deep research” arena. The company says it will add its own reasoning AI model to its Copilot chatbot in the form of two little helpers: Researcher and Analyst. Read More
⛏️ X marks the spot: TC got the scoop that Earth AI’s algorithms have found deposits of critical minerals in parts of Australia that other mining outfits had ignored for decades. “The actual, real frontier [in mining] is not so much geographical as it is technological,” the startup’s founder, Roman Teslyuk, told TC. Read More
🔥 Data inferno: ConfigHub emerged from stealth today with $4 million in funding. The startup is the brainchild of three cloud industry veterans (from Weaveworks, Kubernetes, and Salesforce) who want to “get people out of config hell.” Read More
🧑💻 PSA: TC’s Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai has updated his guide on how to tell if your online accounts have been hacked, from Apple to LinkedIn to Discord. Check it out, and stay safe out there. Read More
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🤑 Ka-ching! Banking startup Mercury, which scored big after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, has raised $300 million at a whopping $3.5 billion valuation, reports The Wall Street Journal. Sequoia led the round and will join the company’s board. Read More
🔮 Crypto goes mainstream: The Financial Times reports that Fidelity Investments plans to launch its own stablecoin as part of a push into digital assets. The move comes as the U.S. prepares its first regulatory framework for crypto. Read More
🥊 Fight’s on: Qualcomm has launched a global antitrust campaign against Arm Holdings, reports Bloomberg. Arm is Qualcomm’s biggest supplier, but Qualcomm says the Softbank-backed company has been restricting access to its tech after 20 years of business together as they now compete in the semiconductor space. Read More
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🚸 A solid four years after Facebook determined that Instagram was toxic for teen girls, the company has launched a new program in partnership with schools. Students can now narc on posts or accounts that are leading to bullying and other teen safety issues. The move comes as policymakers are working to ban social media access for kids under 13. Read More
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