TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Mach Industries

1. War! What is it good for? Getting government contracts, apparently. Sequoia-backed Mach Industries, a defense tech startup led by a 21-year-old, just landed a contract with the U.S. Army, and is building its first weapons factory in California. Read More

2. Mistral's CEO Arthur Mensch is urging the world's biggest telecoms confabs to invest in building data center infrastructure and becoming "hyperscalers" to boost Europe's AI ecosystem. He also called for decentralizing the cloud market, which is currently dominated by Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Read More

3. Changing tides: General Catalyst is now calling itself an "investment and transformation company," and amid this shift, three key investors have left the firm, TC has learned. Read More

Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Cino

💵 No more waiting: Reminding friends to Zelle you money is not fun, and with the price of *gestures widely* everything today, splitting the bill at the moment of payment is becoming essential. Enter Cino, which wants to make that process easy as pie. Read More

🚕 RoboTexas: Starting today, Uber users can now hail a Waymo robotaxi in Austin — just in time for South by Southwest! The autonomy-averse will still be able to ride with a human driver, and both options will be priced the same. Read More

💾 QuantWare is one of several emerging quantum computing startups focused on more practical advancements over huge breakthroughs — like how to scale bottlenecks in quantum processing units. The startup claims its hardware is already powering quantum computers for customers in 20 countries. Read More

✈️ Travel is still hot, despite economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Case in point is Mews, a Dutch SaaS platform for hotel management that just raised a fresh $75 million financing led by Tiger Global, a new backer. Read More

🔍 The new SEO: The way people search is changing with the rise of AI chatbots, which means old-school SEO is becoming passé. Scrunch AI wants to help businesses prepare for a world in which AI bots and agents, rather than humans, are the ones visiting and indexing websites. Read More

☀️ Powered by the sun: Energy storage systems are essential for relying on solar power. Dutch cleantech startup Moonwatt is working on a battery-based system that's located at solar plants to help them manage variabilities in power output. Read More

Around the web

🔮 Crypto on the rise: French crypto trading firm Flowdesk has raised a $52 million Series B extension, bringing the round to a total $102 million, reports The Block. It's a mix of equity and debt and will be put towards expanding existing services. Read More

💆 Sure, why not have AI do massages? Bloomberg reports that a startup called Aescape has raised $83 million from investors like Valor Equity Partners and basketball player Kevin Love to replace the soothing touch of a human masseuse with an AI-powered robotic arm. Coming to an Equinox near you. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

🎮 It's a-me, Mario! In a move that touches my Millennial heart, researchers at Hap AI Lab are using Super Mario Bros. as a benchmark for large language models. Anthropic's Claude 3.7 is currently leading, followed by Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro. Read More