Year: 2026

OpenAI seeks to one-up Anthropic with new customer privacy protections A competition is developing between OpenAI and Anthropic over who can provide the best privacy protections for enterprise customer data. Powered by WPeMatico https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/openai-seeks-to-one-up-anthropic-with-new-customer-privacy-protections/

Cognition CEO denies report that SpaceX tried to acquire the startup SpaceX was reportedly in talks to buy AI coding startup Cognition. SpaceX has already acquired Cursor as it races to catch up to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in enterprise AI. Powered by WPeMatico https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/cognition-ceo-denies-report-that-spacex-tried-to-acquire-the-startup/

Travis Kalanick kicks off another round of VC bashing: ‘1% are helpful’ After raising $1.7 billion for his new robotics company Atoms, Travis Kalanick is introspective about the role VCs have played in his career. Powered by WPeMatico https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/19/travis-kalanick-kicks-off-another-round-of-vc-bashing-1-are-helpful/

Bootstrapped and profitable: Taimi and Hily set their sights on IPO readiness Jake Vygnan and his fellow Kyiv co-founders made an unusual bet when they moved into mobile dating: rather than build one app, they built two in 2017. Hily targets the mainstream dating market, while Taimi is a fully

Computomics raises €6.3M to scale climate-smart plant breeding German agritech company Computomics has raised €6.3 million in Series B funding to scale the commercial deployment of its climate-smart breeding platform. The round was led by Convent Capital Agri Food Fund, which invested €5 million, with participation from existing investors High-Tech

Lithuania’s LITILIT lands €8M to take femtosecond lasers into mass manufacturing Vilnius-based femtosecond laser manufacturer LITILIT has received an €8 million loan from the Lithuanian National Development Bank ILTE.  The company manufactures lasers based on patented technology that enables scalable production and facilitates integration into industrial systems. By bringing femtosecond

Klarna loses two more senior executives Powered by WPeMatico https://sifted.eu/articles/klarna-exective-pair-exit/

Can Europe finance its sustainability ambitions? Powered by WPeMatico https://sifted.eu/articles/can-europe-finance-its-sustainability-ambitions-brnd/

ARR fever hits fintech: ‘We are still relevant’ Powered by WPeMatico https://sifted.eu/articles/fintech-arr-fever/

UK government under pressure to change non-compete rules Powered by WPeMatico https://sifted.eu/articles/non-compete-law-uk-government/