June 26, 2026

TechCrunch Top 3

Slate Auto's radically simple electric truck starts at $24,950: The Jeff Bezos-backed startup finally revealed more pricing details for its debut EV, including a $29,950 starting price for the SUV variant, and boosted the base range to 205 miles. Read More

HaloBraid raises $7M from Seven Seven Six to end the six-hour hair salon appointment: HaloBraid aims to help salons speed up braiding with its first device, slated to launch later this year, that acts as a braiding assistant for professional stylists. Read More

Former Infosys chief has a new startup that wants to challenge the IT services world: Backed by Mayfield and Aramco Ventures, Vishal Sikka’s new venture brings together veterans from SAP, Infosys, and VianAI. Read More

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Must-Reads

WhatsApp gets new chief as Meta taps India's CRED founder Kunal Shah and invests $900M in startup: WhatsApp gets a new boss, as Will Cathcart moves to a new role at Meta, while Shah steps down as CEO of Indian fintech giant CRED to replace Cathcart. Read More

Here’s why Slate changed the battery in its cheap EV truck: While there was probably a moment when Slate’s leadership had to green-light the switch from one battery type to another, the momentum toward that decision had been building for years. Read More

Robotaxis drive miles just to get cleaned and charged; this new startup wants to fix that: Aseon Labs, which came out of Y Combinator's 2026 spring cohort, has raised $10 million from Crane Venture Partners and others. Read More

AI was supposed to kill engineering jobs, but new data suggests they're the most resilient: While AI dominates the layoff narrative, engineers are actually making up a larger share of new hires, according to SignalFire data. Read More

General Intuition's $2.3B bet that video games can train AI agents for the real world: General Intuition has raised $320 million to scale AI trained on millions of hours of gameplay, betting action data can help AI develop something closer to human intuition. 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

a16z-backed Base Power is offering cheaper electricity to the power grid that needs it most: Base Power is skipping the PJM's troubled interconnection queue by placing its batteries at people's homes, offering backup services in exchange. Read More

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