July 31, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Cursor makes its biggest India push yet ahead of SpaceX acquisition with localized pricing: Cursor says India is now its third-largest market globally and plans to expand local hiring and enterprise sales. Read More

Enigma raises $71M to make controlling a robot as easy as adjusting the volume: The massive seed round was led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Sarah Guo's Conviction Partners. Read More

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026’s new Smart Money Stage explores fintech, payments, AI, and everything between : Money has evolved into far more than the cash in your wallet or your bank account. And at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, we’re devoting an entire stage to that progression. Read More

Must-Reads

Claude Opus 5 became downright ruthless when tasked with running a vending machine: Andon Labs' latest vending machine simulation shows Opus 5 lied and colluded its way to become the best AI capitalist ever. Read More

Synthetic-user startup Simile raises $200M at $2B valuation 5 months after $100M Series A: Add another member to the fast-and-furious AI unicorn club: Simile. Read More

Smallest.ai raises $13M to build ultra-fast voice AI that sounds genuinely human: The startup is building voice models designed to make AI phone calls pass the Turing test. Read More

Repeat founder Ryan Williams raises $10M seed for an AI startup for private credit managers: Ellis AI announced Thursday its emergence from stealth with $10 million in seed funding. Read More

Okta buys AI security startup Permiso — source says for about $200M: The deal gives Okta identity threat detection capabilities as enterprises seek to secure AI agents and other non-human identities across cloud environments. Read More

Disrupt 2026: Where deals and ideas ignite

Oct 13–15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, 10,000 founders, investors, and operators gather for high-signal insights, curated connections, and real momentum.

Last but Not Least

MCP startup Runlayer accuses Rippling of stealing its product idea: Runlayer is suing Rippling after Rippling evaluated the startup's MCP gateway product and then opted to build one itself. Read More

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