e Readers Reviews: Say hello to the newest AI unicorn

Monday, January 22, 2024

Good morning, friends, and welcome to TechCrunch AM for Monday, January 22, 2024. Today we have a new AI unicorn, electric supercars, a startup acquisition, and notes on how TikTok may finally have hit the ceiling. It's going to be a busy week, so let's get to it!

– Alex

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AI voice cloning is big business: ElevenLabs just raised $80 million at a valuation north of $1 billion in a round backed by a16z, Sequoia Capital and others. The startup is developing AI-powered tools to create and edit synthetic voices, and is building a marketplace for voices, which is cool, as long as voice actors can still make money. It was last valued at around $100 million last year.
Did you charge your Lambo? Italian supercar maker Lamborghini has tapped an MIT-sourced piece of battery technology to help electrify its lineup. Don't think that supercars should be electric? Google "Rimac" to learn the error of your ways.
The only one who can stop TikTok is TikTok: Meta, Snap and X have struggled for years to grab a share of TikTok's growth, but there now seems to be one company that can finally rope it in: TikTok itself. Sarah Perez reports that the introduction of TikTok Shop might have been detrimental for the short-form video app's growth curve in the U.S.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

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Chronosphere buys Calyptia: Startup M&A could be a big theme this year, so we're keeping close tabs on startups that are feeling acquisitive. Today, Chronosphere, a startup that offers a cloud-native observability platform, has acquired Calyptia, which is commercializing some open source tech. The deal could broaden the remit of Chronosphere's suite of offerings.

XRP eyes enterprise future: The regulatory fog that crypto has endured for a while in the United States is lifting ever so slightly, which is making crypto projects big and small more bullish on the future. Ripple and its XRP token are no exceptions, Jacquelyn Melinek reports.

Sony and Zee will not merge: Sony is not going to end up closing a merger of its Indian unit with media conglomerate Zee Entertainment to form a $10 billion giant. Sony is bummed about the deal's failure, which underscores just how large and important the Indian market is for digital entertainment companies and tech startups alike.

Captain looking to command $50M more: Speaking of India, a local startup called Captain Fresh is hunting for $50 million. The company operates a harvest-to-retail marketplace for animal protein, which is a fancy way of saying that it connects fishermen and others of their ilk to places that sell their goods to consumers. Nekkanti Sea Foods, SBI Investment, Evolvence, Tiger Global and Prosus Ventures are in the mix as potential backers for its next round.

AI bossware may be messware: AI is cool, but not all it’s going to be used for will be. Bossware is one such category. Sure, companies have been using software to keep tabs on employees for years, but AI opens up all sorts of new ways to dig into how productive workers are, and how they might be tuned. If that sounds miserable, that's because you aren't a CEO! (Note: I am also not a CEO.)

Team Equity recently interviewed Aileen Lee, and has a deep dive with Crunchbase's Gene Teare coming this week on all things 2023 venture capital. Remember to tune in!

$3.7M more for Kenyan agtech: Shamba Pride just snagged a new funding round for its business that provides last-mile distribution for farm inputs and tackles price exploitation and quality issues for farmers. African startups have seen venture demand for their shares wither in the present downturn, so this round is a notable transaction.

We have even more: EU rules are affecting how Meta deals with user accounts; LoanDepot was breached; and AI might not be coming for as many of our jobs as we feared.

Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko / Getty Images

Before you go

Former stablecoin company Terraform has filed for bankruptcy protection.

If you're thinking, "Wait, that hadn't happened already?", you aren't alone. The parent company of failed algorithmic stablecoin Terra, Terraform Labs wiped out at least $40 billion in market value and played a role in the collapse of the crypto market in May 2022. Quelle surprise.