Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome back to TechCrunch PM! I took a break from listening to the Y Combinator startups pitch to bring you today's top stories. If you've been following quantum error correction, you'll love what Microsoft and Quantinuum are doing. We also have an update on Fisker's federal investigation, some new AI features, Facebook elbowing in on TikTok's territory and a number of venture rounds. — Christine

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Microsoft

Quantum computing's major breakthrough: Microsoft and Quantinuum teamed up to combat quantum error correction and said they were able to run more than 14,000 experiments without a single error. Read More

Doors that won't open: That's where Fisker's Ocean SUV finds itself in some trouble with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Read More

Sora, Higgsfield, Higgsfield, Sora: Snap's former generative AI chief launched Higgsfield AI, an AI-powered video creation and editing platform designed for more tailored, personalized applications. It's his challenger to OpenAI's Sora. Read More

Afternoon must-reads

Still got it!: If you take anything away from the first day of Y Combinator's Demo Day, it has to be that artificial intelligence is everywhere. Read More

WhatApp goes up, WhatsApp comes down: This afternoon, Meta's apps — including WhatsApp and possibly Messenger and Instagram — were facing outages and intermittent issues. Read More

To get an AI assistant, you have to be Brave: Brave's AI assistant, Leo, will now be available for iPhone and iPad users. The AI assistant allows people to ask questions, summarize pages, create content and more. Read More

OnePlus' magic photo eraser: The startup's AI Eraser will have you removing unwanted parts of your photos whenever you want. Read More

Facebook-off with TikTok: Facebook has a new, full-screen video player that can record vertically. Read More

Your procurement all Zip-ped up: Meet Zip, which describes itself as a "leading Intake and Procurement Orchestration platform and Intake-to-Pay suite." Frederic Lardinois writes that this may not be the most exciting space to play in, but it's essential if "you know how Byzantine the process of buying even the most basic things can be." Read More

Oura's new features: The smart ring manufacturer has a new section on its app called Oura Labs where it will test out new features and get user feedback. The first is Symptom Radar, which tracks strain markers on your body to detect an onset of changing health. Read More

Oh, the stories you'll tell: From the co-founders of podcast sponsorship marketplace Podcorn comes Storiaverse, a short-form entertainment platform that offers a multi-format reading experience, combining animated video and written content. Read More

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Money, money, money

Team management app Homebase welcomes $60 million Series D to give SMBs "superpowers." Read More

Home From College, a career platform for young professionals and college students looking for their first job or internship, raised $5.4 million in a seed round led by GV. Read More

Venture firm Maniv may be growing in every direction — and now has a $140 million new fund — but it still considers itself a "seed stage fund at heart 'that occasionally breaks its own rules.'" Read More

AI startup SiftHub raised $5.5 million in seed funding to build out an AI assistant for sales teams. Read More

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Around the web

Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz is smarting after losing a director seat vote battle with Walt Disney Co. The Los Angeles Times has more.

Meanwhile, if you were on today's Y Combinator Demo Day, you would have heard a few pitches for AI-generated music. The Verge reports that while AI-generated songs are getting longer — around three minutes now — they are not necessarily getting better.

And Mashable has a look at three new features coming to the iPhone.