Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we have the details on Subaru's new electric SUV; we learn more about two startups that just raised $12 million Series A rounds; and we've got an exclusive interview with Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow. Enjoy!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Subaru

⚡️ It's electric! Today Subaru revealed a new all-electric vehicle, the 2026 Trailseeker SUV, at the New York International Auto Show. This new EV is comparable in size to Subaru's Ascent SUV and could be a substantial competitor to the Rivian R2, which is expected to go into production in 2026.

💰 Dough for Deck: Deck, a startup that claims to be "the Plaid for the rest of the internet," raised its second round of funding in nine months. The company, which helps users compile structured data from their online accounts, just raised a $12 million Series A round.

🤖 Lightweight AI: Microsoft researchers claim they developed the largest bitnet, or 1-bit, AI model. This model, casually named BitNet b1.58 2B4T, can run on CPUs and is the first bitnet with 2 billion parameters, according to Microsoft.

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Chemistry VC

🧪 Catching up with Chemistry: Today's episode of Equity features a chat with Mark Goldberg, a former partner at Index Ventures and current co-founder and general partner at new VC Chemistry. Goldberg talked about the state of fintech, what's going on with the IPO market, and more.

📈 More models: OpenAI has been on a model-releasing run this week. Today, the company announced two more models, the o3 and o4-mini, which are both reasoning models that "think through" questions before responding. OpenAI said o3 is its most advanced reasoning model yet.

🍺 Too early to call it a comeback: Despite a frothy economy, U.S. startups were able to raise $91.5 billion in Q1, the second-strongest fundraising quarter in a decade, but that doesn't mean the outlook for the rest of 2025 is good.

🔩 Back at Bolt: One-click checkout company Bolt is expanding. The company, led by CEO Ryan Breslow, is launching a consumer app that allows users to buy and sell crypto, send peer-to-peer payments, and more. Breslow gave TechCrunch the details exclusively.

📀 Cash for Capsule: Capsule, the AI-powered video editing assistant, raised new funds and upgraded its product. The upgraded editor includes AI suggestions support for real-time collaboration. The company raised a fresh $12 million in venture funding.

Around the web

🇺🇸 Drone dilemma: Silicon Valley has piled into defense tech startups building drones in the past few years. But while many of these drone companies lean on the American Dynamism narrative, their tech is loaded with parts from China.

👀 Watchdog Waymo: The Los Angeles Police Department obtained and published video footage from a Waymo to call on the public for help finding a car involved in a hit-and-run. This shows that law enforcement is looking at Waymos as a source for surveillance footage.