Journey acquires mental health startup Felt to enhance its employee assistance program

Employee-focused mental health company Journey is acquiring Felt, a startup formerly known as Mine’d that specializes in matching individuals with therapists using artificial intelligence. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Journey, which offers a mental health employee assistance program used by companies like Walgreens and Universal Music Group, says the acquisition aligns…

Ontario Teachers mints new unicorn in Indian fintech Perfios

Teachers’ Venture Growth, the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, is investing $80 million in Perfios, an Indian fintech that provides real-time credit underwriting solutions to banks and other financial institutions. The new investment values Perfios at a valuation of over $1 billion. 15-year-old Perfios, which raised a $229 million…

Remote driving startup Phantom Auto is shutting down

Phantom Auto,  a remote driving startup that launched seven years ago amid the buzz of autonomous vehicle technology, is shutting down after failing to secure new funding, TechCrunch has learned. Phantom Auto, which had raised a total of $95 million, developed a teleoperation platform that allowed a remote driver, sometimes located thousands of miles away,…

The loneliness of the robotic humanoid

Perhaps a few years from now, the halls of the Georgia World Congress Center will be peppered with humanoid robots the week of Modex. In 2024, however, Digit stands alone at the supply chain show. It’s a testament to Agility’s healthy head start over competitors like Figure, Tesla, 1X and Apptronik. This time last year…

Ready Player One creator debuts ‘Open,’ a metaverse battle royale experience

Earlier this year, Readyverse Studios – co-founded by blockchain tech company Futureverse and Ernest Cline, the mind behind the sci-fi franchise Ready Player One – announced “The Readyverse,” an interactive platform for metaverse games and experiences. Readyverse Studios partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to help bring the popular novel to the metaverse across web3.…

Feeeed is a reader app that goes beyond tracking RSS feeds

In the last 12 months, reader apps have adopted AI to change how users consume news. Instagram co-founders’ now discontinued Artifact introduced AI-powered summaries and headlines. Newer apps like Bulletin and former Twitter engineer’s Particle are taking similar approaches. However, developer Nate Parrott’s app Feeeed (it’s four Es), which is available for iPhones and iPads,…