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This Week’s Most Interesting Startup Stories
Several stories this week remind us that just because something didn’t work earlier doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying from a different angle. Plus, one M&A that gives us a break from other WordPress news.
New Wave: A New Wave of Desalination Startups
A new wave of desalination startups is working on deep-sea reverse osmosis, a technology that’s becoming easier to deploy and could bring savings, with projections that it could produce water using 30% to 50% less energy than onshore reverse osmosis.
Filling the Gap: YC’s Latest Batch
YC’s latest batch had plenty of AI startups, and some interesting enterprise ones, but the accelerator has reduced its focus on developing markets. In Africa, local accelerators backed by African YC alumni are taking this as an opportunity with new programs.
Bett(h)er: WaveForms AI
WaveForms AI, a new audio large language model (LLM) company, hopes to make AI more personable with its own foundational models. Its founder, Alexis Conneau, is obsessed with the movie ‘Her,’ but also thinking hard about how not to create a dystopia. ‘We want to do precisely the opposite of what the company in that movie does,’ he told TechCrunch.
Automatic for the Bots: WPAI Acquisition
WPAI, a startup that builds AI solutions for WordPress, is getting acquired by Automattic. Its team will lead WordPress’ AI efforts.
This Week’s Most Interesting Fundraising Stories
Europe
- Tiger Global: Known for its ‘spray and pray’ strategy, the 15th fund of hedge fund Tiger performed particularly poorly, with paper losses standing at more than 15%, according to a recent disclosure.
- Lead Edge Capital: In an interview, Lead Edge Capital founder and managing partner Mitchell Green told TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos that there is "too much money chasing too few companies that are overvalued." This makes his firm increasingly steer away from typical venture capital deals and toward buyout-like ‘control deals’ more commonly associated with private equity.
North America
- Elon Musk’s DOGE: Senator warns of national security risks after Elon Musk’s DOGE granted ‘full access’ to sensitive Treasury systems.
- OpenAI: Sam Altman: OpenAI has been on the “wrong side of history” concerning open source.
Top News
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