Best of TechCrunch — September 2025

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   After selling to Spotify, Anchor’s co-founders are back with Oboe, an AI-powered app for learning

   Former Anchor co-founders launched Oboe, an AI-powered learning platform that generates personalized courses on any topic through simple prompts. The app offers nine different learning formats including text, audio lectures, podcast-style discussions, games, and interactive tests. Built with a multi-agent AI architecture, Oboe creates courses within seconds while ensuring accuracy and personalization. Users can access free courses and create up to five monthly courses for free, with paid tiers offering 30 or 100 additional courses. The startup raised $4 million in seed funding led by Eniac Ventures.

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   Nothing launches AI tool for building mini apps using prompts

   Nothing unveiled Playground, an AI-powered tool that enables users to create mobile widgets and mini apps using simple text prompts. Currently limited to widgets like flight trackers and virtual pets, the platform allows deployment to Nothing's Essential Apps ecosystem. The launch follows Nothing's $200M funding round and CEO Carl Pei's vision for AI-first operating systems. While promising, similar vibe-coding approaches on mobile have struggled with security and maintenance challenges.

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   Marissa Mayer will close her old AI startup, sell assets to her new AI startup

   Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is shutting down her consumer software startup Sunshine and transferring its assets to her new AI startup Dazzle, which aims to build an AI personal assistant. Sunshine, founded in 2018, struggled with low adoption for its contact management and event planning apps despite raising $20 million. All employees and most investors are moving to the new venture.

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   Venezuela’s president thinks American spies can’t hack Huawei phones

   Venezuela's president claimed that Huawei phones cannot be hacked by American intelligence agencies, but security experts disagree. Huawei's custom hardware and HarmonyOS operating system may actually make their devices more vulnerable due to newer, less-tested code compared to established platforms like iOS and Android. The NSA has a documented history of targeting Huawei infrastructure and devices, with leaked documents from 2014 revealing extensive penetration of the company's systems for espionage purposes.

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   TechCrunch·32w

   It isn’t your imagination; Google Cloud is flooding the zone

   Google Cloud is pursuing a strategy to capture emerging AI startups while industry giants like Nvidia, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Amazon form massive exclusive partnerships worth hundreds of billions. Google's COO Francis deSouza reveals that 60% of generative AI startups use Google Cloud, with the company offering $350,000 in credits, technical support, and open infrastructure access. This approach contrasts with competitors' mega-deals, positioning Google to benefit from the next wave of AI unicorns before they become too expensive to court.

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