Welcome to Startups Weekly. Sign up <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> to get it in your inbox every Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n If this newsletter comes across as a deranged delirium of barely coherent words, then blame TechCrunch Disrupt. This week, the TechCrunch team descended on San Francisco\u2019s Moscone Center to celebrate one of the biggest to-dos in the startup world: TechCrunch Disrupt. The center of gravity of Disrupt to many is Startup Battlefield. On Thursday, we announced the winner<\/a>: BioticsAI, which built an AI-based platform that plugs into an ultrasound machine to prevent fetal malformation misdiagnosis. BioticsAI has been quietly working on its solution for the past two years and today unveiled its product onstage, impressing the judges sufficiently to win them the top slot, with much fanfare and an oversized $100,000 check to see them on their way in their startup journey.<\/p>\n The runner-up was thermal battery company Electrified Thermal Solutions<\/a>, which stores energy as heat rather than as electricity \u2014 helpful for heavy industry applications such as metal production, glass and cement manufacturing, and cement-making.<\/p>\n Congratulations to the winners!<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been hosting panels (and throwing side-eye at some of the Battlefield companies\u2019 slides<\/a>) all week, but apparently other things happened this week, too.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Parallel Health<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Disrupt is a great place to do a spot of networking and all that, but we break a hell of a lot of news as well. Here are some of the best-read stories from Disrupt:<\/p>\n Spit here, sir<\/strong>: I covered Portable Diagnostics Systems, which is planning to bring reports of that drug test to a cop car near you<\/a>.<\/p>\n Viruses to help your skincare regimen<\/strong>: Parallel Health taps into the power of phages<\/a> to make your skin healthier.<\/p>\n Yeah, but what if we used paper instead<\/strong>: Flint is a Singapore startup that says it has come up with a way to replace the lithium in a battery with\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Theo Wargo\/Getty Images for TIME<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Our transportation team has been firing on all cylinders \u2014 or whatever the EV equivalent of that is \u2014 this week, with a bunch of super-popular stories. The DOJ is taking a look at Elon Musk<\/a>. In the past, Tesla says it doesn\u2019t provide \u201cperks\u201d to its executives, but allegations have come to light that pulls that into question. Musk is in the news a lot at the moment; I\u2019m glad I\u2019m not part of his comms team. He says he limited Ukraine\u2019s Starlink<\/a> to prevent an attack on Russia, and that X will charge users \u201ca small monthly payment\u201d<\/a> to use its service, and that Starship is \u201cready to launch,\u201d <\/a>while the FAA doesn\u2019t quite agree. Dramaaaaaa.<\/p>\n In the rest of the transportation space, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is planning to make the company\u2019s EVs more affordable,<\/a> starting with their computers.<\/p>\n The scooter last-mile-mobility business is rough. Scooter operator Bird acquires Spin scooters from Tier for a bargain-basement $19 million<\/a>. Which makes sense \u2014 last year, Spin bailed out of a bunch of markets<\/a> after it failed to get reasonable traction, and it went through several rounds of layoffs to try to keep the company afloat.<\/p>\n Also this week, I published a story on TC+ about how motorcycle legend Erik Buell sees the future of electric motorbikes<\/a>. TL;DR: Less vroom, more zoom, and ADAS systems will make it safer to be a motorcyclist even on U.S. roads, where drivers truly have no clue that motorbikes exist 99% of the time. Speaking from experience, there. x<\/p>\n Snazzy suitcase scooter<\/strong>: Honda has had various super-compact scooters on the market over the years, and its Motocompacto e-scooter<\/a> caught Darrell\u2019s imagination with its irresistibly, heartbreakingly dorky and adorable looks.<\/p>\n Quiero alquilar ese auto<\/strong>: Being able to subscribe to a car is tempting for a lot of folks. Ingrid reports that Spanish car subscription company Revel just raised $125 million<\/a> to take its business up a gear.<\/p>\n A charged fundraising environment<\/strong>: Apropos Europe, Harri reports that French battery maker Verkor raises $2.1 billion<\/a> to build a gigafactory.<\/p>\n Want some merch?<\/strong>: Lorenzo reported that one of the FBI\u2019s most wanted hackers is trolling the U.S. government<\/a> \u2014 to much lolz and confusion.<\/p>\n Goes great with penguin: <\/strong>Ron reports that Terraform fork gets renamed OpenTofu<\/a> and joins the Linux Foundation.<\/p>\n Moar startup banks<\/strong>: Banking, especially for startups, took a hit when SVB took a nosedive, but Mary Ann reports that, armed with First Republic alums, Citizens Bank unveils a new startup-focused private bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n Countin\u2019 carbon<\/strong>: Paul reports that European carbon accounting startup Plan A raises $27 million<\/a> from a mix of VC and corporate heavyweights.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nTop news from TechCrunch Disrupt<\/h2>\n
Startups going places<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nTop reads on TechCrunch this week<\/h2>\n