Y Combinator narrows its focus

TechCrunch Newsletter [TechCrunch PM Logo]( By [Christine Hall]( Wednesday, February 14, 2024 Good afternoon, and welcome to TechCrunch PM. Love is in the air today, as is some big news. Today we get into Y Combinator’s call for startups, some robotics jobs if you have the skills, why dating apps aren’t getting the job done and a handful of funding rounds. — [Christine]( [ image] Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch [Make your money hustle with Betterment, the automated investing and savings app that makes it easy to be invested]( Sponsored by [Betterment LLC]( [With automated investing technology and tax-smart tools designed to help maximize your returns, Betterment puts your money to work and your mind at ease. Start investing at betterment.com today. Investing involves risk. Performance not guaranteed.]( [Learn More]( TechCrunch PM Top 3 [Y Combinator sets its sights on new areas](: Spatial computing, climate tech and applications of AI technology join the newly announced list of startup incubator Y Combinator’s newest request for startups. That’s not to say it won’t accept companies in other industries, but it’s all about what the investors will ultimately like. [Seeking a robotics job?](: We’ve got you covered with this list of companies and the number of open roles. [Rasa raises $30M](: We’ve featured enough stories in this newsletter lately to confidently say that conversational AI is having a moment. Rasa is the latest startup attracting venture capital attention in this area for its approach to making interacting with chatbots more human-like. [TechCrunch PM Top 3 image] Image Credits: Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch, with stock photos from Getty under license More top reads [Roses are red](: We can’t do Valentine’s Day without some dating news. It might come as a surprise that dating app downloads are slowing down. Why? There are actually a number of reasons, and some may not surprise you. [Where do satellites go after they are retired?](: We’ll have to ask SpaceX, which made the decision to de-orbit 100 of its Starlink satellites that were discovered to have a flaw that has not been identified yet. [Slack’s search gets smarter](: Throw away those conventional search tools — Slack has a few new features designed to make finding all that institutional knowledge hiding in channels more accessible. Summaries are big now — [just ask Otter]( — so you’ll see one of those in Slack, too. [Classify this under emails we don’t like to get](: The U.S. military had the unpleasant job of notifying 20,000 people that their personal information was exposed during a large spill of unclassified emails. [The security hits keep coming](: We learned that a researcher scanning the internet came across some sensitive company information belonging to BMW. [Developers like Apple’s Vision Pro](: And they are wasting no time in designing apps. Two weeks after its debut, there are now over 1,000 apps specifically made for the new device. [Who would have thought robots don’t like routine?](: Robots, in many ways, were built to help humans avoid the mundane. However, software designed for robots tries to correct that, leading to problems. Jacobi Robotics is out to fix that. [Startups, but ethically started](: Over on TechCrunch+, Haje speaks with some founders who have come up with an alternative organizational structure for more sustainability and regenerative business practices. [Get growing](: Hippo Harvest lands $21 million to combine robotics and AI with indoor farming to grow lettuce for Amazon Fresh and others. [More top reads image] Image Credits: skodonnell / Getty Images under a CC BY 2.0 license. On the pods Today’s [Equity]( walks through the week’s leading startup and venture capital news. Alex gets into [Bret Taylor’s new startup](, a bunch of new funding rounds in fintech and software, some new funds and mushrooms. Lots of mushrooms. [Listen here](. [On the pods image] Image Credits: Bryce Durbin [Read more stories on TechCrunch.com]( Newest Jobs from Crunchboard - [Enterprise Software & Service Manager at Valley Water (San Jose, CA, USA)]( - [Senior Cyber Security Analyst at Valley Water (San Jose, CA, USA)]( - [Business Systems Supervisor at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States)]( - [Business Systems Supervisor at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States)]( - [Sr Application Developer at Game Creek Video (Hudson, NH, USA)]( [See more jobs on CrunchBoard]( [Post your tech jobs]( and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Instagram]( [Flipboard]( [View this email online in your browser]( [Privacy Policy]( | [Terms of Service]( | [Unsubscribe]( © 2024 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103