TechCapsules

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, Benchmark will present its entire current partnership—Jack Altman, Peter Fenton, Chetan Puttagunta, Everett Randle and Eric Vishria—on a single stage for the first time. The “What We Believe Now” session will shift from retrospective venture analysis to forward‑looking speculation about where the next wave of startups will emerge, which founder assumptions need revisiting, and which hidden opportunities remain. Benchmark, fresh from raising roughly $2 billion across a $750 million flagship fund and a $1.25 billion growth fund, will leverage its diversified [...]

Global Airlines, a British startup that plans to launch long‑haul services using a pre‑owned Airbus A380, now faces compulsory liquidation after creditors filed a winding‑up petition in London’s High Court. The petition, lodged on May 29 2026, seeks to freeze the company’s assets and force liquidation, a move accelerated by mounting debts, unpaid maintenance costs and the aircraft’s idle status at Tarbes‑Lourdes‑Pyrénées Airport since July 2025. The A380, registered 9H‑GLOBL, logged only 62 flight hours over two round‑trips under a short‑term [...]

India’s spacetech sector has entered a commercialisation phase, raising $252.9 million in 2026, nearly double the 2025 total. Skyroot Aerospace became the first Indian spacetech unicorn after a $60 million round and successfully launched its Vikram‑1 rocket, now pursuing a $200 million follow‑up. Pixxel, backed by Temasek, secured a record $100 million Series C, the largest single funding round for an Indian space company. Government funds—₹1,600 cr from IN‑SPACe’s Antariksh VC and ₹834 cr from the RDI fund—backed early‑stage ventures. Startups now face heightened [...]

ConsoneAI, a Wetherby‑based AI firm, has been named a finalist in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2026 Emerging Technologies Competition for its drug‑development platform, DioScor. The system predicts drug efficacy and side‑effects across genders, ethnicities, and age groups in 90 seconds, using AI to model human and animal responses while accounting for genetic and demographic variables. Founder Mo Kosar highlighted the platform’s potential to shorten drug approval timelines and reduce bias in clinical trials. DioScor also offers a [...]

Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, is unlikely to pursue an initial public offering next year, according to a senior Hyundai executive who declined to be named. The company has yet to deploy its flagship Atlas robots at scale and remains unprofitable, delaying a potential U.S. market debut. Hyundai’s robotics ambitions spurred a record‑high rally in its shares earlier this year, but the lack of a clear timetable or valuation target for a Boston Dynamics [...]

India is transitioning from a technology importer to a creator, with public research institutions, corporate R&D, and deep‑tech startups driving growth in semiconductors, communications, space, and healthcare. Patent filings have risen, and indigenous products are emerging, yet R&D spending remains low and commercialisation weak. Talent shortages and limited research capacity hinder full market penetration. Government policy pushes for innovation, but stronger industry‑research links, technology transfer mechanisms, and support for frontier technologies are needed to close gaps and [...]

VIT’s annual technology festival, graVITas’26, opened its second day with 227 events and an expected 40,000 participants. Students from mechanical, electronics, electrical, and communication engineering showcased projects in robo wars, drone racing, toycathon, big band theory, and map quest. Robo wars featured 15‑kg and 60‑kg categories, requiring teams to repair damaged robots within 20 minutes. Drone teams navigated obstacle courses over 200 m, with speed and precision determining winners. The fest also hosted a capital‑hunt startup pitch, attracting [...]

Vals, a San Francisco AI‑benchmarking startup founded in 2024, raised $40 million in a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz after an earlier seed round from 8VC and Bloomberg Beta. Co‑founder Rayan Krishnan, a former Palantir intern and Stanford AI lab student, says the company was created to address outdated public benchmarks that can be gamed by model developers. Vals offers private, industry‑specific tests—covering law, finance, coding and emerging areas such as mental‑health, cybersecurity and the law of armed [...]