June 13, 2025

Powering next-gen services with AI in regulated industries 

Businesses in highly-regulated industries like financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals, and health care are increasingly turning to AI-powered tools to streamline complex and sensitive tasks. Conversational AI-driven interfaces are helping hospitals to track the location and delivery of a patient’s time-sensitive cancer drugs. Generative AI chatbots are helping insurance customers answer questions and solve problems. And agentic…

Investing in overlooked European ecosystems

May 9, 2025
John Tsioris sold InstaShop to Delivery Hero for $360 million. Nate Clarke took Tyme from startup to global digital bank. In this candid conversation at the StrictlyVC event in Athens, the two entrepreneurs open up about what drives them, how they’re choosing their next bets, and why they’re investing in ecosystems that others overlook.

The US is reviewing Benchmark’s investment into Chinese AI startup Manus 

May 9, 2025
Manus AI is one of the hottest AI agent startups around, recently raising $75 million at a half-billion dollar valuation in a round led by Benchmark. But two unnamed sources told Semafor that the investment is now under review by the U.S. Treasury Department over its compliance with 2023 restrictions on investing in Chinese companies. […]

Google I/O 2025: What to expect, including updates to Gemini and Android 16

May 9, 2025
Google I/O, Google’s biggest developer conference of the year, is nearly upon us. Scheduled for May 20 to 21 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, I/O will showcase product announcements from across Google’s portfolio. Expect plenty of news relating to Android, Chrome, Google Search, YouTube, and — of course — Google’s AI-powered chatbot, Gemini. Here’s […]

Remember Moviefone? Well, it’s back.

May 9, 2025
For millions of movie enthusiasts in the ’90s, Moviefone’s 777-FILM number was the go-to source for obtaining showtimes. Now, under new ownership, Moviefone is trying to make a comeback. On Friday, as part of its 35th anniversary celebration, Moviefone announced the relaunch of its mobile app and a new nationally syndicated broadcast TV series. Set […]

These investors are betting on Greece’s founders

May 9, 2025
Several of Greece’s region’s most active early-stage investors joined StrictlyVC and TechCrunch at our event in Athens to share where they’re placing bets, how founder expectations are shifting, and why Europe’s next wave might be its strongest yet. The conversation explores everything, like emerging ecosystems, cross-border growth, and what it takes to win deals in […]

The Department of Labor just dropped its investigation into Scale AI

May 9, 2025
The U.S. Department of Labor has dropped its investigation into Scale AI’s compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to a source directly familiar with the matter.  The FLSA is a federal law that regulates misclassification of employees as independent contractors and unpaid wages. TechCrunch first reported that Scale was the subject of such […]