Ethiopian plastic upcycling startup Kubik get...

The two wildly fast-growing rivals have raised massive sums, pushed into each other's home turf and now have dueling ad campaigns. Plus, Shapes, an app where humans and AI characters chat together in shared group conversations, is emerging from stealth with $8 million in seed fun ...  Show more

Ships and planes carrying parts to the front lines would be vulnerable to attack. Defense startup Firestorm Labs thinks the answer is a drone factory that fits inside a shipping container. Also, BMW i Ventures has launched a new $300 million fund and will invest in early-stage th ...  Show more

Bay Area-based robotics firm Figure this week announced that its humanoid officially took its first steps — a milestone it hit a few days shy of of the company’s first anniversary.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

China- and U.S.-based Pony.ai said Monday its valuation has surged to $8.5 billion after the first close of its Series D funding round. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

In the spring, founders desperate for ideas about how to keep their companies afloat called in to get advice from our investors. Several months later, the economy is still far from recovering, so we called the founders back to see if the investors’ advice was working. Learn more ...  Show more

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds ...  Show more