Friday, April 11, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we've got one more entry in the founder-to-fraud pipeline; a startup that risked everything to survive; and a twist in the Nikola bankruptcy case. We've also got an AI startup raising $2 billion; a company that helps women freeze their eggs for free; Stripe's customer feedback strategy, Bluesky updates, and more. Let's go!

TechCrunch Top 3

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1. Mechanical Fintech: Albert Saniger, the founder of AI shopping app Nate that promised a "universal" checkout experience, has been charged with defrauding investors after the app was found to be powered by hundreds of human contractors in the Philippines. Read More

2. Get comfortable with discomfort: Chef Robotics was poised to be interred in the graveyard of failed food tech companies. But today, it's thriving and just raised $23 million. Founder Rajat Bhageria says he saved the company by risking millions of dollars in revenue and turning away signed customers. Read More

3. What a twist! EV startup Lucid Motors has come out as a surprise winner in the bankruptcy auction of Nikola's Arizona factory and other assets. Lucid committed around $30 million for the buy, and plans to make offers to around 300 former Nikola employees. Read More

Morning Must-Reads

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🤳 Let them eat ads: Social photo-sharing app BeReal will start rolling out ads, starting in the U.S., the land of advertising. As BeReal sniffs out potential brands, the company says it has about 40 million monthly active users, including 5 million in the U.S. Read More

🤑 The hype is neverending: Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines Lab is reportedly aiming to raise a $2 billion seed round at a valuation of "at least" $10 billion. Nobody really knows what the company does, but it's got dozens of high-profile AI researchers in its ranks. Read More

🌲Throwing money at problems: Microsoft is buying 3.7 million metric tons of carbon removal credits from a pulp and paper mill project developer. Microsoft aims to be fully carbon-negative by 2030. Read More

📞 Stay humble: Stripe's CEO and co-founder Patrick Collison says he invites customers to join management team meetings every other week to gather "candid feedback." It's an interesting strategy, especially as the company grows at an impressive pace. Read More

🥚 The cheapest eggs in town: Cofertility has raised a $7.25 million Series A to offer women egg freezing services at no cost, in exchange for donating half the retrieved eggs to those unable to conceive. It's a boon at a time when the procedure costs up to $15,000. Read More

Around the Web

🇺🇸 Made in the USA: 404Media has an interesting look at what it takes to manufacture high-tech devices in the U.S. Purism makes a smartphone, the Liberty Phone, in the U.S. and its founder goes into a good amount of detail on the entire process. Read More

👂A new lease on life: The Verge has a story about how an unused nuclear plant in Washington got repurposed into an advanced acoustics testing facility for NWAA Labs. The company makes its bread by helping other businesses verify how much sound their products make or how well their products dampen sound. Read More

😬 Cutting corners: OpenAI has slashed the time and resources it spends testing the safety of its AI models, reports The Financial Times. Staff and third-party groups get just days to conduct "evaluations" rather than weeks, leading to less thorough tests. Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: NurPhoto / Getty Images

👍 Finally! I've been waiting for Bluesky to add chat reactions in its DMs feature, and the day has come at last. Bluesky is also revamping its search page, calling it "Explore" to direct users to trends, suggested accounts, Starter Packs, and more. Still no edit button, though. Read More