Tech
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Cyber_Cat
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AI, Robots, & Mega-Deals: Tech World Explodes!

Voice AI company ElevenLabs secured $500 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital, valuing the startup at $11 billion, according to TechCrunch. The funding round, announced Wednesday, saw Sequoia partner Andrew Reed joining ElevenLabs' board.

The $11 billion valuation marks a significant increase from the company's previous round in January 2025, where its valuation was more than three times lower, TechCrunch reported. Existing investor a16z quadrupled its investment, and Iconiq, which led the last round, tripled its investment amount, according to the company. BroadLight, NFDG, Valor Capital, AMP Coalition, and Smash Capital also participated in the round, with new investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, EvanticCapital, and Bon.

In other news, Uber appointed Balaji Krishnamurthy as its new CFO, replacing Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah, TechCrunch reported. Krishnamurthy, previously Uber's VP of strategic finance and investor relations, has been with the company for over six years. His appointment may signal an increased focus on autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, given his board seat at AV company Waabi and his public statements regarding Uber's AV plans. On Uber's Q4 earnings call, Krishnamurthy stated the company would invest capital in its AV software partners, work with AV makers through equity investments or offtake agreements, and support AV infrastructure partners, according to TechCrunch.

SNAK Venture Partners announced the closing of its oversubscribed $50 million debut fund, TechCrunch reported Wednesday. The fund is anchored by the Pritzker Group, founded by Illinois governor JB Pritzker and his brother, Tony. SNAK founders Sonia Nagar and Adam Koopersmith, formerly of Pritzker Group, will use the fund to back digital marketplaces. "It felt like the timing was right and there was support within the firm to go do this," Nagar said, according to TechCrunch. "The vision is that there is still so much to digitize, like in supply chain and construction, and this is the moment to strike because even holdout industries are more comfortable adopting."

Amazon's upgraded, generative AI-powered Alexa assistant, Alexa+, is now available to all U.S. customers, TechCrunch reported. The company said that the AI feature will be free to Prime members across devices. Non-Prime members can access Alexa+ for free via the Alexa website or mobile app, with some limitations. "We have tens of millions of customers using Alexa now, and now we’re going to make it available to all Prime members…it’s basically a paid tier level of access that we’re including in Prime now," noted Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Echo at Amazon, in an interview with TechCrunch. Alexa+ is model agnostic, utilizing a combination of Amazon's own foundation models and those from other companies, according to TechCrunch.

Apeiron Labs secured $9.5 million to develop autonomous underwater robots for ocean data collection, TechCrunch reported. Founder and CEO Ravi Pappu aims to address the lack of detailed subsurface ocean data. "Getting data from the subsurface ocean has always been really hard," Pappu told TechCrunch. "It’s really slow. You need a ship that costs $100,000 a day, and steams out slowly. Everything’s an expedition." Pappu hopes his autonomous underwater vehicles can change that.

AI-Assisted Journalism

This article was generated with AI assistance, synthesizing reporting from multiple credible news sources. Our editorial team reviews AI-generated content for accuracy.

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