Wispr raises $280M at $2B valuation as it looks beyond dictation

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View this email online in your browser  August 17, 2026 TechCrunch Top 3 Wispr raises $280M at $2B valuation as it looks beyond dictation: Wispr’s total funding is now over $361 million. Read More Uber adds Zipline drones to its Eats delivery network: Uber is also making investing in Zipline as part of the tie-up. Read More Stripe will reportedly acquire AI gateway startup OpenRouter for $7B+: OpenRouter's CEO recently described the startup as Stripe for AI. Read More A message from Alumni Ventures Invest in High-Potential Startups Like These Alumni Ventures is giving readers early access to high-potential startup opportunities across today’s most active sectors, co-invested alongside name-brand VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Bessemer, & Y Combinator. You Get: Curated deal flow of high-potential startups, Investing alongside name-brand vc firms, No cost to see deals, No obligation to invest. See Current Deals Morning Must-Reads TechCrunch Mobility: The shifting flight path of electric air taxis: Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Read More Anthropic shares more details about how Claude’s new watermarks will work: How will the watermarking actually work? Can it be hidden with editing? And how does this affect code? Read More Why people aren't buying Mark Zuckerberg’s AI future: On the latest episode of Equity podcast, we discuss why not everyone is buying Zuckerberg’s vision. Read More WordPress.com targets the next generation of web creators with a free student plan: WordPress.com Education lets teachers offer their students free domains, plugin support and professional website-building tools. Read More SpaceX officially closes its Cursor acquisition: AI coding startup Cursor is now officially a part of SpaceX. Read More Last but Not Least Woman claims her stepfather used Grok to transform childhood photo into explicit imagery: The woman claimed that AI tools are "taking everyday life and turning it into child sexual abuse." Read More Check out some of our other newsletters: StrictlyVC TechCrunch Events TechCrunch Mobility Want to adjust your daily newsletter schedule? You can do it right here Got a tip? Get in touch securely. Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Unsubscribe Member Center Privacy Policy Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC 501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107