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Eight U.S. and Indian venture capital and private equity firms — including storied investors Accel, Blume Ventures, Celesta Capital, and Premji Invest — have formed an unusual coalition to back India’s deep tech startups, pledging more than $1 billion over the next decade to strengthen U.S.-India tech ties. The alliance addresses longstanding funding concerns. In April, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal drew criticism after slamming domestic startups for focusing on food delivery instead of innovation, contrasting them with Chinese firms in a presentation titled “India vs. China: The Startup Reality Check.” Several investors and founders countered that India lacks capital…

Lithium has become the default choice for battery-powered systems, but its limitations — from volatile supply chains to short lifespans — are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Offgrid Energy Labs, a deep-tech startup based in India, wants to make lithium less central, especially when it comes to battery storage. The seven-year-old startup, incubated at IIT Kanpur, has developed a proprietary zinc-bromine-based battery system as an alternative to lithium-ion technology. Called ZincGel, it delivers 80–90% of the energy efficiency of conventional lithium batteries, but at a significantly lower levelized cost of storage, the startup said. As power demand grows worldwide, countries…

School is back in session, football fields are full of action and the local Spirit Halloween is doing a brisk business: welcome to September. Turns out that September is a sneaky-good month for festivals and fun events too, as it’s the month when summer celebrations go out with a bang (often around Labor Day) and the first hints of autumn start appearing in the form of harvest festivals. From Oktoberfest parties, jazz festivals and some late-season state fairs to global arts gatherings and quirky events you have to experience to believe, there’s a September 2025 event waiting for you. Aloha Festivals…

Aging demographics, labor shortages, the adoption of GenAI, and the 2023 implementation of e-invoicing are driving companies to automate finance, tax, procurement, and HR in Japan. Yet only 16% of digital transformations succeed, and that’s only 4–11% in traditional industries. The main barriers? Weak leadership commitment, a rigid culture, and a lack of digital talent. LayerX offers an AI SaaS platform to help enterprises scale back-office automation. LayerX, a Japanese AI SaaS startup that enables businesses to cut back-office workload, has raised $100 million in a Series B round led by Technology Cross Ventures (TCV), marking the U.S. fund’s first…

Labor Day Weekend signals the unofficial end of summer.But before travelers start making those shoulder season plans, it’s worth looking back on some of the most notable travel advisories from the past few months. Here are the most important travel advisory updates from summer 2025.Mexico – Level 2The U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory for Mexico on August 12, encouraging travelers to exercise increased caution due to terrorism, crime and kidnapping. Officials advise Americans to avoid travel to six states within the North American country and reconsider visiting at least seven states. The vast majority of Mexico’s tourist hotspots fall…

NEW YORK (AP) — Naomi Osaka is bringing the Labubu fad to the U.S. Open — all the way to at least the quarterfinals.Osaka has played four matches at the Grand Slam tennis tournament so far this year, each time toting a different version of the popular plush toy attached to her racket bag. And she’s won each time, too, including a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Coco Gauff on Monday.At her postmatch news conference, four-time major champion Osaka pulled her latest U.S. Open Labubu — a shiny, silver one — from the pocket of her black jacket and introduced the…

Five years ago, investor Katelin Holloway made what she calls a “literal moon shot” investment. A founding partner of the generalist venture firm Seven Seven Six admits she and her team had “no clue” what rocket company Stoke Space was talking about when they pitched the firm on its reusable launch technology. “We knew full well we were not the specialist,” she says. Since then, Holloway has also invested in Interlune, a company planning to harvest helium-3 from the moon and sell it back to Earth for quantum computing and medical imaging applications.  Holloway is well aware of the skepticism…

Volunteers are needed, and time is ticking! With just over a month until TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 hits San Francisco, we’re calling on students, aspiring founders, marketers, and event pros to step behind the curtain and help the TechCrunch events team pull off one of the largest and most anticipated startup events of the year, taking place October 27–29. The deadline to apply is September 30 Whether you’re looking to build your network, learn what it takes to launch a company, or get a front-row view from tech leaders like Aaron Levie (Box), Sarah Franklin (Lattice), and Elad Gil, volunteering is…

BOBRYK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian students near the front line of Russia’s invasion started their first day back to school underground to ensure their safety, marking the fourth year that schools have kept lessons going despite the war. This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors. School students listen to their teacher during a lesson, in the basement of a municipal building during the first day in school in Bobryk, Sumy region, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. The Bobryk school was forced to move to the basement due to endless alarms. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) School students listen to…

Every founder says they want visibility, traction, and growth. But with just 10 tables left and 5 days to grab one, the window to make that happen at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 is closing fast. If you’ve been thinking about joining 10,000+ startup and VC leaders in San Francisco on October 27–29, this is your moment. Lock in your place on the Expo floor where ideas, capital, and connections collide. Here’s what’s waiting for you at your table Real investor exposure: We’re talking foot traffic from the likes of Sequoia, a16z, General Catalyst, Y Combinator, and more. They walk the floor.…