Startups

The Information team’s approach to covering up-and-coming companies focuses on previously unreported news of funding, plus the impact on the surrounding tech and finance ecosystems. Our newsroom produces The Information 50, an annual list of promising startups.
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Recent Articles about Startups
Shiv Verma, Robinhood CFO and president of Robinhood Ventures
Dealmaker

Y Combinator Startups Get a New Backer: Robinhood

By Julia Hornstein · Aug 13, 2026 6:00pm PDT
For years, venture investors have scouted potential investments in the graduating classes of Y Combinator in the hope of backing the next Stripe, Airbnb and DoorDash. Robinhood is now pitching this playbook to individual investors, with a new fund to invest in early-stage startups that participate in the accelerator. On Thursday, Robinhood’... For years, venture investors have scouted potential investments in the graduating classes of Y...
Art by Clark Miller.
Exclusive

OpenAI, Anthropic Data Demand Turns Startups’ Slack Threads Into Prized Assets

By Alix Coutures · Aug 13, 2026 6:00am PDT · 1 comment
Eight days after AI agent startup Warmly in late June agreed to be acquired by HubSpot, CEO Maximus Greenwald found an unusual email in his inbox. Mercor, a San Francisco startup that pays contractors to train AI models for labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, was offering to buy or license Warmly’s code base and records of its tasks and... Eight days after AI agent startup Warmly in late June agreed to be acquired by HubSpot, CEO...
Art by Mike Sullivan
Dealmaker

M&A Buzz Centers on Data Software Startups

By Alix Coutures · Jul 16, 2026 4:31pm PDT
We just published our list of more than 160 enterprise software startups that could be acquired this year. To compile it, we screened hundreds of privately held companies and singled out those worth more than $1 billion that haven't raised a publicly announced financing since June 2024. To understand the M&A forces across enterprise... We just published our list of more than 160 enterprise software startups that could be acquired...
Wayve, May Mobility, Einride and Nuro self-driving vehicles. Photos: Wayve, May Mobility, Nuro, Einride, Getty. Art: Shane Burke
Startups to Watch

Nine Self-Driving Startups Chasing Waymo’s Lead

By Alex Perry · May 8, 2025 10:30am PDT · 5 comments
For years, self-driving cars were a feature of the sci-fi future. But Waymo’s leap from testing to ferrying paying customers in four cities has made robotaxis a reality. That’s set off a race among newcomers and industry stalwarts to expand new businesses that support autonomous vehicles. Below we provide exclusive details on nine startups worth... For years, self-driving cars were a feature of the sci-fi future. But Waymo’s leap from testing...
Skild AI robots. Photo by Skild AI
Startups to Watch

9 Robotics Startups to Watch

By Rocket Drew · Dec 27, 2024 6:00am PST · 4 comments
To train artificial intelligence–powered robots to pick a book off a shelf a decade ago, researchers had to direct the robots to perform the task roughly 500 times before the robots learned to imitate the motion, recalls Brad Porter, founder and CEO of Collaborative Robotics, which is developing robots to work in hospitals and warehouses.... To train artificial intelligence–powered robots to pick a book off a shelf a decade ago,...
Image by Clark Miller and Midjourney.
Startups to Watch

Eight Startups Challenging Nvidia in AI Chips

By Kevin McLaughlin, Anissa Gardizy, Jon Victor and Aaron Holmes · Aug 24, 2023 6:00am PDT · 1 comment
Nvidia dominates the market for graphics processing units used to train artificial intelligence models, although rivals like AMD and Intel are trying to catch up. Now some scrappy startups are entering the fray with alternative designs for AI chips they claim work better and more efficiently than Nvidia’s GPUs. Other startups are targeting... Nvidia dominates the market for graphics processing units used to train artificial intelligence...