Funding rounds, IPOs, exits and shutdowns, without the noise.

Humanly has acquired CareerArc to combine its AI hiring tools with CareerArc's recruitment marketing software. This acquisition is part of Humanly's ongoing expansion through multiple recruiting technology acquisitions.

Booking Holdings is launching a new AI travel startup called Vayo in Seattle with a planned $100 million investment. Vayo offers AI agents to manage travel bookings and plans to expand its services to flight and hotel bookings soon.

Microsoft's stock reached a record high, increasing its market value to over $4 trillion after reporting 43% growth in its Azure cloud platform. The stock rebounded significantly following earlier losses and new AI initiatives.

USAFacts, founded by Steve Ballmer, launched its first YouTube debate special featuring Ben Shapiro and Scott Galloway discussing economic issues using government data. The program aims to provide a factual basis for public policy debates.

Brinc Drones named Joe Levy as chief revenue officer and previously announced a $125 million funding round in July. Fred Hutch Cancer Center appointed Jessie Minton as vice president and chief digital and information officer, creating a new combined role.

Prime Intellect acquired Moondream, a Seattle-based vision AI startup founded by AWS veterans. The acquisition focuses on integrating Moondream's technology to improve AI model inference speed, with Moondream's co-founders joining Prime Intellect to lead related work.

Helion Energy, a fusion energy startup and Y Combinator alum, announced $465 million in new funding in June, raising its total capital to over $1.5 billion. The company is advancing fusion technology and recently expanded its office in Seattle.

LinkedIn released a list of the top 10 Seattle startups, but nearly half of the companies listed are not actually headquartered in the Seattle region.

Researchers at UW Medicine's Institute for Protein Design used AI to engineer reusable molecular proteases that can repeatedly destroy disease-related proteins, potentially enabling treatments at lower doses for conditions like Alzheimer's and ALS.

Fab2, an Austin-based semiconductor startup, closed a $500 million Series A round led by Fundomo, reaching a $3.7 billion valuation. The company focuses on building compact chip factories and manufacturing equipment.

Tink was sold to Visa for approximately $1.9 billion in 2022. The article discusses the founder's experience with scaling Tink and the challenges of compliance in complex markets.

Marklo AI, founded by Jessica Herrin, raised $5 million in a seed round led by Forerunner with participation from Freestyle Capital and angel investors. The startup provides AI-driven marketing campaign planning software and is expanding its product and team.

Mosqitter is developing its mosquito traps into an AI-powered surveillance network to identify mosquito species, monitor populations, and provide early warnings of mosquito-borne disease risks.

Apate.ai uses AI agents to go undercover and get scammed in order to gather fraud intelligence, differing from typical AI uses like speeding up workflows or shipping products.

Hiyd developed a biometric sensor that attaches to existing watches without using magnets or adhesives. The technology was created by former Apple engineers.

TimeTeller, a German startup, developed a saliva test kit to help users understand their circadian rhythm and aims to reduce side effects from cancer treatments.

Colossal Biosciences announced a new AI platform to accelerate de-extinction efforts. Peter Diamandis launched a new fund to support startups using this platform.

CedarDB offers a database engine that supports both transactional and analytical data, addressing traditional database limitations. Its approach has become more relevant with the rise of agentic AI.

Intero Biosystems is providing lab-grown human intestines to drugmakers as an alternative to animal testing and aims to scale production and expand its organoid technology.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Day 2 features sessions on AI themes, investor-only meetings, roundtables, and side events. Registration offers a 50% discount on passes.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 is offering a 50% discount on tickets for the last two days of the event in San Francisco, focusing on physical and software AI.

Freightmate settled a trade secrets lawsuit filed by Flexport regarding the use of about 2,000 confidential shipping documents. The founders acknowledged acquiring and using some documents but denied building their product on them, and no liability was found by the court.

Winbond Electronics, led by alumnus Arthur Chiao, donated $12 million to the University of Washington's College of Engineering to support scholarships, research, faculty hiring, and interdisciplinary collaboration in fields like semiconductors, AI, quantum tech, and advanced manufacturing.

Peter Lee, Microsoft's longtime research leader, is leaving to join the Mercedes Formula 1 team as an AI advisor. He will work on AI applications related to car physics, predictive models, and regulatory guidance for AI in F1.