July 17, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Phia accused of 'cookie stuffing,' taking affiliate credit on purchases it didn't earn: Phia, the shopping startup founded by Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe, and her friend Sophia Kianni is under fire for a practice known as “cookie stuffing,” which helped the product receive commissions and credit for sales it did not actually generate, per a Bloomberg investigation. Read More

DeepSeek reportedly in talks to raise $1.5B, then IPO: DeepSeek, the Chinese large language model developer, is said to be preparing for a 2027 IPO debut as it also looks to raise around $1.5 billion in new funds at a $71 billion valuation. Read More

Charles Hudson shares the common mistakes he’s seen after investing in 500+ startups: In this week’s episode of Build Mode, Isabelle Johannessen talks with Precursor Ventures' Charles Hudson about the headwinds facing early-stage founders today and the most common mistakes founders should avoid in order to get funded. Read More

Must-Reads

Anthropic, Blackstone bet the next trillion-dollar AI business is implementation, not just models: Anthropic-backed Ode launches as AI labs bet that embedding forward-deployed engineers inside enterprises is the key to accelerating enterprise AI adoption. Read More

AI-powered travel agency Fora hits unicorn status, raises $60M: Travel agency Fora announced a $60 million Series D round led by Forerunner and Tactile Ventures, valuing the company at $1 billion. Read More

Sheryl Sandberg leads $10 million investment in AI-powered vehicle inspection service: The startup, founded in 2021, lets enterprise customers use smartphones to scan and spot vehicle damage. Read More

No product? No problem. This Disrupt 2026 session shows how to get pre-seed funding with conviction, storytelling : It’s not just you: AI startups are taking in a huge amount of seed funding, and in the process making things harder for anyone looking for funding even at a pre-seed stage. We’ve covered the trend in detail, and at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt event, we want to help pre-seed founders now being held to seed-stage expectations. With AI making the development of a minimum viable product swifter than ever, is there even hope for a founder who has a compelling idea, but nothing concrete to show for it? That’s what our “Winning Pre-Seed Without a Product” panel will seek to answer. And it's just one of the many sessions you can look forward to at our popular Builders Stage at Disrupt 2026. That’s where our most pointed conversations and workshops take place, tackling everything from getting your hands dirty with operational decisions, fundraising, go-to-market strategies, and other vital subjects. And you can be a part of it all by getting your ticket to attend Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco at Moscone West, October 13-15, at the best prices you’ll find for the remainder of the year. As for this specific session, we’ve gathered a great trio of speakers to provide their expertise on this nuanced and pivotal topic. Sandhya Venkatachalam: Founder, managing partner, Axiom Partners Venkatachalam both knows a thing or two about having a successful exit, and what investors are looking for when taking the plunge with companies that eventually succeed through an acquisition of their own. Her current role is overseeing the newly launched Axiom Partners, which is an early-stage, $52 million venture fund that’s focused on connecting founders to top-class AI practitioners to help fuel AI that leads to real-world improvements. Previously, she worked as a GP at Khosla Ventures Read More

Indian AI coding startup Emergent becomes a unicorn with $130M Series C: The startup has reached a $120 million annualized revenue run rate and more than 200,000 paying customers. 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

Hermes agent maker Nous Research in talks for new funding at $1.5B valuation: The company is raising at least $75 million, led by Robot Ventures, with significant participation from USV and other prominent investors. Read More

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