UK-based legaltech startup Lawhive, which offers an AI-based, in-house “lawyer” through a software-as-a-service platform targeted at small law firms, has raised £9.5 million ($11.9 million) in a seed round to expand the reach of AI-driven services for “main street” law firms. To date, most legaltech startups that have deployed AI …...Read More

Bluesky now allows heads of states to sign up for the social network Social networking platform Bluesky lifted its ban on sign-ups for heads of state over the weekend. This means various office holders can join the platform. Bluesky’s move comes ahead of major general elections in countries like the …...Read More

OpenAI is expanding to Japan, with the opening of a new Tokyo office and plans for a GPT-4 model optimized specifically for the Japanese language. The move is significant for a few reasons. It underscores the opportunity the company sees to court business in the country, and highlights how OpenAI …...Read More

Social media startup ShareChat’s valuation has cratered below $2 billion from nearly $5 billion in a new funding round, a source familiar with the situation told TechCrunch, marking a steep decline for the nine-year-old Indian startup that boasts over 400 million users in the South Asian market. The Bengaluru-based startup, …...Read More

Pula, an insurtech based in Kenya, has since 2015 been keen on enhancing the access to agricultural insurance by small-holder farmers across emerging markets, shielding them against losses from pests, diseases and/or extreme weather events like floods and droughts. So far, the insurtech has supported 15.4 million farmers in Africa, …...Read More

TechCrunch Mobility: Cruise robotaxis return and Ford’s BlueCruise comes under scrutiny Plus, a Faraday Future whistleblower case and humanoid robots in car factories Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — …...Read More

It’s a long way from pedal bikes to Formula 1. But that’s precisely the quantum leap that AI-based startup Neural Concept and its co-founder and CEO, Pierre Baqué, made in just six years. In 2018, the company’s fledgling software helped develop the world’s most aerodynamic bicycle. Today, four out of …...Read More

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at how two fintech companies serving the underserved are faring, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big story PayJoy is an …...Read More

Generative AI is coming for healthcare, and not everyone’s thrilled Some experts don't think the tech is ready for prime time Generative AI, which can create and analyze images, text, audio, videos and more, is increasingly making its way into healthcare, pushed by both Big Tech firms and startups alike. …...Read More

Tesla drops prices, Meta confirms Llama 3 release, and Apple allows emulators in the App Store Heya, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that recaps the past few days in tech. Google’s annual enterprise-focused dev conference, Google Cloud Next, dominated the headlines — and we had …...Read More