Recapping this week in startups

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July 18, 2025

 

TechCrunch Top 3

Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts

Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts: Hadrian wants to revolutionize American manufacturing through automation. Read More

Boulevard raises $80M to power self-care boom driven by Botox and GLP-1 surge: The nine-year-old salon and spa software provider has hit a valuation of nearly $800 million. Read More

‘Utopian’ city California Forever announces huge tech manufacturing park : Solano Foundry is a 2,100-acre manufacturing park that can host 40 million square feet of advanced tech manufacturing space. Read More

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Must-Reads

A former OpenAI engineer describes what it’s really like to work there

A former OpenAI engineer describes what it’s really like to work there: A senior engineer describes the thrill, chaos, and exhaustion of working at OpenAI this past year while launching its coding agent Codex. Read More

Lovable becomes a unicorn with $200M Series A just 8 months after launch: Only eight months after its launch, Sweden's Lovable has raised a $200 million Series A round led by Accel at a $1.8 billion valuation. Read More

Meta acquires voice startup Play AI: Meta has acquired Play AI, a startup that uses AI to generate human-sounding voices. Read More

As the browser wars heat up, here are the hottest alternatives to Chrome and Safari in 2025: We’ve compiled an overview of some of the top alternative browsers available today aiming to challenge Chrome and Safari. Read More

A cloud seeding startup did not cause the Texas floods: Despite conspiracy theories, there's no way that cloud seeding operations days before the storm could have influenced the floods, scientists say. Read More

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Last but Not Least

A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs

A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs: A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. Read More

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