Les Amis is an app designed to make it easy for women to form friendships and attend local events. Also, why did Paradigm built a spreadsheet with an AI agent in every cell? The company raised a $5 million seed round and is releasing it's AI-powered spreadsheet to the general public. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the premise of Focus Friend, a productivity app created by Honey B Games and Hank Green, the longtime online creator/entrepreneur/educator/sock salesman. Though the app was soft launched last month, Focus Friend is only now gaining momentum on the App Store charts — likely because Green and his brother, author John Green, are posting about it more — reaching No. 4 among all free apps and No. 2 among productivity apps. Also, another crypto company is headed for the public markets. This time, it’s Gemini Space Station Inc., the New York-based crypto exchange and custodian bank founded by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It humorously calls this family the Model Zoo because one is like the size of a fly's brain and the other the size of a chicken's. Also, Ultrahuman acquires viO HealthTech to launch enhanced cycle and ovulation tracking. Cycle and Ovulation Pro is available starting Friday as a premium PowerPlug in the Ultrahuman app for $3.99 per month or $39.99 per year for users in the U.S., U.K., EU, Australia, and Canada; and Loveable projects $1B in ARR within next 12 months. Loveable is a vibe coding startup growing phenomenally quickly, according to new sales projections from CEO Anton Osika. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While an Anthropic spokesperson confirmed that the AI firm did not acquire Humanloop or its IP, that’s a moot point in an industry where IP lives in the brain. And what Humanloop’s team is bringing to Anthropic is experience developing the tools that help enterprises run safe, reliable AI at scale. Also, India’s Rapido begins testing food delivery to take on Swiggy, Zomato. Rapido's beta food delivery service has popped up in three key localities in Bengaluru before a broader rollout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cohere has hired Joelle Pineau, Meta's former VP of AI research who previously oversaw the tech giant's fundamental AI research (FAIR) lab. In her newly created Chief AI Officer role, Pineau will oversee AI strategy across Cohere's research, product and policy teams. Also, Monarch Tractors won’t be built by Foxconn after Ohio factory sale. The tractors were the only vehicles being built by Foxconn in Ohio after Lordstown Motors, Fisker Inc., and IndiEV went bankrupt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Self-driving truck maker Waabi has hired autonomous vehicle industry veteran and Uber Freight CEO, Lior Ron, to step in as chief operating officer, as the startup looks to scale its commercial operations ahead of its planned launch of driverless trucks on public highways later this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neuralink has been making serious progress. Soon Sam Altman and OpenAI could be backing a challenger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As more solid rocket motor suppliers are coming online, a supply chain chokepoint looms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ultraviolette aims to expand its electric motorcycles to 40 European countries, as well as Latin America and Southeast Asia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chowdeck, a Lagos-based food delivery startup that has stayed profitable in a notoriously tough and low-margin market, has raised $9 million in Series A funding to launch a quick commerce strategy and expand into more cities in Nigeria and Ghana. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truemeds has taken a different route from other Indian online pharmacies — and it has helped the startup double its revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"I think we're still kind of feeling out the space," CEO Brian Chesky told investors on the Q2 earnings call. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coding assistant startups are highly unprofitable, says a source familiar with Windsurf financials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI-generated “brain rot” videos are popping up all over the internet and getting a lot of attention. Currently gaining traction among younger users, these clips feature wild characters, like a shark wearing sneakers and a ballerina with a cappuccino for a head. One startup driving this trend is OpenArt, founded by two former Google employees in 2022. It touts around 3 million monthly active users. In other news, OpenAI astounded the tech industry for the second time this week by launching its newest flagship model, GPT-5, just days after releasing two new freely available models under an open source license. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went so far as to call GPT-5 “the best model in the world.” That may be pride or hyperbole, as TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff reports that GPT-5 only slightly outperforms other leading AI models from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI on some key benchmarks, and slightly lags on others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lava is a digital wallet that lets merchants use credits to facilitate transactions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Celebrity Lockets is a new feature where celebrities can engage with their most loyal followers on their home screens. Also, Tavity, the one-year-old startup raised a Series A led by Insight Partners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is a juicy competitive move for both companies after AWS faced an onslaught of criticism over its progress with AI. In other news, the AI audio-generation unicorn ElevenLabs announced the launch of a new model that allows users to generate music that's cleared for commercial use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-The AI sales automation startup raised fresh funds, led by CapitalG, just months after its last round. -While the ActivityPub integration is a main selling point for Ghost 6, this major release includes a number of other changes and new additions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenMind is building humanoid robot operating software designed for robots that interact with people and other robots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Germ's new app lets users send end-to-end encrypted messages on Bluesky. TechCrunch speaks with the Germ founders to hear why they came up with the idea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices