April 29, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Parallel Web Systems hits $2B valuation five months after its last big raise: The AI agent-tool startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has raised $100 million, led by Sequoia, months after raising a previous $100 million. Read More

Google Photos uses AI to make the iconic closet from 'Clueless' a reality: Google says the new feature will leverage AI technology to automatically create a copy of your wardrobe that's based on the pieces of clothing appearing in your Google Photos library. Read More

Fusion power startup Zap Energy pulls a partial pivot, adding nuclear fission to the mix: Surprise! Fusion startup Zap Energy says it will be developing fission reactors alongside its fusion devices. 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.

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Afternoon Must-Reads

Uber is in the hotel business now, thanks in part to AI: Uber announced several new features on Wednesday during its annual event, which push far beyond the company's original ride-hailing purpose and deeper into its users' lives. Read More

Google gains 25M subscriptions in Q1, driven by YouTube and Google One: Google added 25M paid subscriptions in Q1, reaching 350M total, as YouTube and Google One grow. Read More

Jack Dorsey-backed Vine reboot Divine launches to the public: Divine offers access to an archive of roughly 500,000 Vine videos, restored from a backup of the original service, and allows creators to post new Vines once again. Read More

Roku’s $3 streaming service, Howdy, reaches 1M subs, per recent report: Roku’s $2.99 streaming service Howdy has topped 1M subscribers, showing demand for cheaper, low-commitment alternatives to pricier streamers. Read More

Google Translate now lets you practice pronunciation: When you translate a word, sentence, or phrase, you can navigate into the "Practice" menu to find a "Pronounce" button, which shows you phonetics that you can say out loud to practice speaking the translated text. Read More

A message from Fidelity

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Last but Not Least

Colby Adcock's Scout AI raises $100M to train its models for war: We visited its bootcamp: We visited Scout AI's training ground where it's working on AI agents that can help individual soldiers control fleets of autonomous vehicles. Read More

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