Techcrunch blog!: FAA gives Joby Aviation OK to start flight-testing its electric air taxis

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Today's top stories include Joby Aviation saying it's reached some milestones that will bring the company closer to getting its first electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle — eVTOL for short — into production.

We are also much ado about Nothing — well, Carl Pei's Nothing, that is. The smartphone maker now has something in the way of $96 million in new funding to launch the Phone (2).

Next, Proton makes its password manager open to all, and we are introduced to Flowie, a new French startup that wants to better manage the way money moves between companies.

And China might be seeing some additional restrictions in its effort to get chips from the United States.

Image Credits: Joby Aviation

More top stories

Everyone loves a new feature: DoorDash introduces a slew of new features for both users and its deliverers, including a new way for delivery people to earn.

No SSN, no problem: I'm stealing part of Mary Ann's headline for this intro, but I can't help it. It is too good. Maza, a fintech startup aimed at undocumented immigrants, raised $8 million in new funding.

May the (Sales)force be with you: Again, I couldn't do better than Paul's headline on Unaric exiting stealth with $35 million to buy and consolidate Salesforce-ecosystem startups.

Work that flow: Back-office functions need some love, too. Enter workflow automation startup Parabola, which secured $24 million.

Moving on: Fairphone CEO Eva Gouwens is stepping down from the smartphone company, and the search is on for a new one.

Listen up: Today's Equity podcast was a particularly popular one with readers. Perhaps it's because Nubank's CEO explains what the U.S. could learn from LatAm fintech.

Reeling it in: Bluu Seafood grabs another $17.5 million in capital to bring its cultivated fish products to market.

Let’s hope this gets “addressed”: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office notified filers of years-long address data leak.

Managing data: Databricks builds a data mesh with the launch of Lakehouse Federation.

Just a Gleamer: French startup Gleamer secured $29.5 million to continue developing AI software for radiologists.

Also add these to your reading list:

Astrix Security, which uses ML to secure app integrations, raises $25M

Slang taps AI to answer phone calls for brick-and-mortar businesses

TikTok could soon bring its new e-commerce store to the U.S.

PayPal launches support for tap to pay on Android for merchants using Venmo and Zettle in the U.S.

Techstars raising $150 million for new accelerator fund

Image Credits: Bluu Seafood

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Vertical AI: The next logical iteration of vertical SaaS

According to Paris Heymann, a partner at Index Ventures, the current wave of AI-powered products and services can be sorted into three layers:

Foundational models
AI infrastructure
AI applications

“Some of these applications will be broadly horizontal,” he writes in TC+, “but many AI applications will also be vertical, or industry-focused.”

Two more from the TC+ team:

Snowflake and Databricks are putting the data stored in their services to work

Legacy automakers suffer another blow as Aston Martin spurns Mercedes-AMG's electrified tech

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Vertical AI: The next logical iteration of vertical SaaS image

Image Credits: MirageC / Getty Images

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