Recapping this week in startups

View this email online in your browser 

September 18, 2026

 

TechCrunch Top 3

The 9 buzziest startups from Y Combinator’s latest Demo Day, according to VCs

The 9 buzziest startups from Y Combinator’s latest Demo Day, according to VCs: From floating reactors to brain chips: VCs picked their favorite YC startups from the summer batch. Read More

Pulley, a Carta rival, is shutting down: Cap table management platform Pulley, backed by General Catalyst, Stripe, and Founders Fund, announced that it's closing shop in December. Read More

AI infrastructure company Cornelis raises $205M to chip away at Nvidia's dominance: The company also announced a product called Active Compute Fabric, a network technology that targets the fact that much GPU time is wasted waiting for data to arrive. Read More

A message from PTC for Startups

Turn breakthrough ideas into market-ready products

Early-stage companies can access no-cost product development software from PTC. Spend less time overcoming engineering obstacles and more time building products customers want.

Apply Today

Must-Reads

Clean tech startup Fluxnium found a way to tap 50,000 years' worth of nuclear fuel

Clean tech startup Fluxnium found a way to tap 50,000 years' worth of nuclear fuel: Fluxnium's fibers can extract uranium directly from seawater, which has enough of the nuclear fuel to power thousands of generations. Read More

PrismML hopes its tiny LLM will change how we all use AI: If AI lab PrismML isn't on your radar yet, it should be. Read More

Former Infosys chief's AI startup nabs another $53M: The Palo Alto startup says it has landed multiple seven-figure enterprise contracts within months of launch. Read More

Robinhood’s Abhishek Fatehpuria on winning the modern financial consumer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Robinhood’s Abhishek Fatehpuria on winning the modern financial consumer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register now to save up to $200 before September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Read More

Open or closed AI? Nvidia's Nader Khalil and Sydney Sykes take on one of the decisions shaping next-gen startups at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026: Nvidia's Nader Khalil and Sydney Sykes discuss one of the decisions shaping next-gen startups on the Builders Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Read More

A message from Invest Hong Kong

Asia’s #1 Fintech Center Welcomes U.S. Fintechs to HONG KONG

Hong Kong – Asia’s Fintech capital, Innovation Hub to the Greater Bay Area and gateway to the Chinese Mainland – invites U.S. Fintechs to join a U.S. delegation for Hong Kong FinTech Week 2026, November 2–6. Access a curated program, meet key players in Hong Kong’s fintech ecosystem and discover how YOU can grow YOUR Fintech in Asia’s World City!

More Information Here

Last but Not Least

Khosla-backed Mazama Energy just raised $135M to drill deeper into superhot-rock geothermal

Khosla-backed Mazama Energy just raised $135M to drill deeper into superhot-rock geothermal: Geothermal startup Mazama is drilling three miles underground to tap superhot rock, with one well capable of generating 15 MW of electricity 24/7. Read More

Check out some of our other newsletters:

StrictlyVC

TechCrunch Events

TechCrunch Mobility

FacebookXInstagramLinkedInBluesky

Got a tip?
Get in touch securely.

Want to advertise on TechCrunch? advertise@techcrunch.com

Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter.

Unsubscribe
Member Center
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2026 TechCrunch Media LLC

501 2nd Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94107