Author: Arabian Media staff

India’s appetite for instant convenience — once confined to food and grocery delivery — is expanding into house help. That shift has helped Snabbit, an on-demand home-help startup, secure $30 million in new funding and lift its valuation to $180 million, up from $80 million five months ago. The all-equity Series C round — Snabbit’s third fundraise in nine months — was led by Bertelsmann India Investments, with participation from existing backers Lightspeed, Elevation Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners. The latest infusion brings the startup’s total funding to $55 million. Snabbit’s fresh funding follows a sharp rise in activity, with…

Image: Supplied The GCC is in the midst of a talent transformation. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 projects, the UAE’s expanding financial hub, and large-scale infrastructure investments across the region are creating unprecedented demand for skilled professionals. But with this growth comes risk. A wrong hire today is no longer a simple HR misstep; it’s an enterprise-level vulnerability. Unlike a traditional “bad hire” who simply underperforms, a wrong hire is someone who actively misrepresents who they are, their identity, their qualifications, or their experience. In markets where regulation and trust are tightly intertwined, that distinction is critical. A single oversight could…

For three days this week, 20 startups participated in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt. Each was selected to represent the best of the Startup Battlefield 200 and competed for a chance to take home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. After all that intense pitching, we have a winner. These startups were hand-picked to compete in Startup Battlefield, and all of them presented a live demo in front of the VCs and tech leaders who judged the competition. After hours of deliberations, TechCrunch editors pored over the judges’ notes and narrowed the list down to five finalists: Charter Space,…

Valuations have surged since Donald Trump’s return. Are investors heading for disappointment? Source link

Image: Supplied BlackRock Saudi Arabia and the Public Investment Fund (PIF) will launch of new mutual funds through their joint platform, BlackRock Riyadh Investment Management (BRIM), marking a deepening of their collaboration to develop Saudi Arabia’s capital markets. The new funds will target Saudi systematic active equities and MENA fixed income, and will be available to both local and global investors. The move follows the success of BRIM, which was established in April 2024 with an initial investment mandate from PIF and aims to channel more capital into Saudi markets. The announcement was made at the PIF Asset Management Forum,…

The 2024 runner-up in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, geCKo Materials, returned to the stage at this year’s show to debut new products as it pushes deeper into commercializing its tech. Founder Dr. Capella Kerst revealed four new uses of geCKo’s super-strong dry adhesive: a semiconductor wafer handling tool, a robotic gripper for smooth surfaces (like solar panels or glass), a curved robotic “end effector” for more irregular shapes, and an all-purpose gripper for robotic arms. The geCKo tech is inspired by the way real-life lizards use their feet to grip surfaces. Kerst positions it like a new form of…

Waymo and Zoox robotaxis are a regular sight on San Francisco streets and soon Uber, through a partnership with Lucid and Nuro, will descend on the city as well. It is exactly how San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie likes it. “I think we should be the testbed for emerging technology and AI and health care tech — and all of it,” Lurie said Wednesday on the main stage of TechCrunch Disrupt. “We always have been, and under my leadership, we will continue to lead and lean in.” Lurie added that he is proud of the success that Waymo, the Alphabet-owned…

After a small startup exit and being turned down by every VC firm he applied to, Tim Chen began angel investing and eventually stumbled into raising his own fund.   Now, as the solo investor behind Essence VC, he just closed his fourth fund at $41 million “without even trying.” Chen’s secret weapon? Being technical enough to debate PhD founders on implementation details while understanding the market dynamics that turn scrappy startups into category leaders.  Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Julie Bort sat down with Tim Chen to explore the rise of solo VCs and who’s rewriting the traditional venture playbook. …

Teenagers are trying to figure out where they fit in a world changing faster than any generation before them. They’re bursting with emotions, hyper-stimulated, and chronically online. And now, AI companies have given them chatbots designed to never stop talking. The results have been catastrophic. One company that understands this fallout is Character.AI, an AI role-playing startup that’s facing lawsuits and public outcry after at least two teenagers died by suicide following prolonged conversations with AI chatbots on its platform. Now, Character.AI is making changes to its platform to protect teenagers and kids, changes that could affect the startup’s bottom…

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is here! If you’re still on the fence about attending in person, dive into the extensive schedule of speakers, networking opportunities, workshops, after-parties, and more that’s available here. There’s still plenty of time to get a last-minute ticket, and we’re giving a 50% discount since there’s just one day left! If you’re not able to attend in person, the next best thing is to check out our livestream of the Disrupt Stage, which features some of our most prominent speakers and the highly anticipated Startup Battlefield 200 pitch competition. We’re streaming via YouTube, so you can catch…