Niobia takes the guesswork out of some of tech’s most expensive mistakes; Giraffe Bio aims its bespoke biomolecules at the looming copper shortage

0:01This is TechCrunch.

0:30right. Prompt, inspect, edit, and publish in one place at a whole new pace. So I was new to this whole website building thing, but Framer helped me get set up and running incredibly fast. For instance, I wanted to add a blog to my website. It was super easy. Starting with a basic blog page template, I added some breakpoints and then jumped into customizing my layout, adding my own special touches with Framer's intuitive tools, and bam, I was ready to start letting my thoughts flow. See why thousands are trusting Framer to help build their websites. Learn how you can get more out of your site from a Framer specialist or get started building for free today at Framer.com slash TC Startups for 30 % off a Framer Pro Annual Plan.

1:13That's Framer.com slash TC Startups. Rules and restrictions may apply. San Francisco-based startup Niobia is betting big on a critical but often overlooked part of battery and chip making. helping engineers understand how and why things go wrong. Its AI software flags production defects and lets engineers ask a chatbot what caused them, aiming to deliver answers in minutes rather than days. How it works, broadly speaking, the company's customers place AI agents on their product lines to look for defects, then loop in human engineers to work out what might cause a product to fail. The agents run on self-contained GPUs mounted directly on manufacturing equipment, much like a sensor.

2:04They can spot pinhole-sized flaws, such as scratches. Niobia's AI also gathers all the data in one place so engineers can ask a chatbot what went wrong and dig deeper into the cause. Speed is so critical because chips and batteries are some of the world's most important products, while also increasingly in short supply. As manufacturers continue to develop and improve their technologies, things inevitably go awry during research and development. Engineers then spend days or longer figuring out a fix before they can restart production. Each flaw or mistake can prove costly, sometimes running into the millions of dollars, and set back manufacturing timelines.

2:49Niobea co-founders Godoff Jha and Harveen Carr both have PhDs in chemistry and have worked at chip makers and battery manufacturers, giving them firsthand experience with the challenges within the industry. In a call ahead of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where the company is a battlefield finalist, Jha explained that while what Niobea does is specialized, it serves a multi-billion dollar market that includes some of the biggest battery and semiconductor makers today. It's extremely niche, she said. Maybe people will never know about it. But it's like behind the scenes, this is powering everything.

3:30We just don't see it in the regular world. Every product around you, like glasses or shoes, slippers, wallets, and headphones, these processes touch every single part of it. Niobea's agents run on open source models that the company trains further with battery and chip research and other data. That training is what lets them identify pinhole-sized defects. Jha said that Niobia chose open-source models largely because its customers don't want their highly sensitive company information going into a public AI cloud where it might be used to train the model. The startup also outlines how it approaches cybersecurity, given the high-stakes race among adversarial nations to innovate in the battery and chip space.

4:16Niobia, for instance, lets its customers hold their own encryption keys, so that the startup cannot decrypt the customer's data. Jha said that the company's priority for now is to focus on three specialties, such as film coating, electroplating, and fluidized bed reaction. He said that the company also wants its technology to become more autonomous, with the eventual aim of building out a fully self-driving factory for its customers. Between the AI data center boom and economy-wide electrification, the world will need a lot more copper. By 2040, copper supplies could fall 25 % short of demand.

5:02That will be a tall order for the mining industry, which boosts production mostly by opening new mines, which is a costly, luck-driven endeavor. Typically, just 0.3 % of prospective mines pan out. A new wave of critical minerals startups have been working on new ways to squeeze more copper out of existing mines, using biotechnology mostly by focusing on heap leeches, where microbes help separate minerals from waste. Endolith has created Olympic-caliber microbes, SIBO is working on its own strains, and Transition Metal Solutions has developed prebiotics to boost microbial activity. Giraffe Bio is taking an alternative approach.

5:51The startup develops mineral-specific chemicals to help mines recover up to 5 % more copper. In mining, that amount is really very material. Most companies would be happy with an additional 1-2%. The startup says it can extract more copper because it's able to engineer compounds specific to each mine's mineral content. To bring the technology out of the lab, GiraffeBio recently raised a$6.4 million seed round led by Orion Industrial Ventures, with participation from BHP Ventures, Air Capital, and Baruch Future Ventures, as well as others. Rather than douse ores with bacteria thought to facilitate copper extraction, the company grows engineered microbes in a bioreactor to produce the bespoke compounds.

6:44Those chemicals are then inserted into a mine's existing process. The startup is beginning with copper, but it says its platform can be tailored to other minerals as well. The startup's compounds are used in a mine's flotation process. In flotation, chemicals help minerals either float or sink in a bath of water, allowing the operators to skim the desirable minerals off the top. The tighter the chemicals bind to the minerals of interest, the more that can be recovered. Mines also use chemicals called depressors, which bind to unwanted compounds like arsenic and sink them out of the mix, leaving more desirable products at the top.

7:27Giraffe Bio is using the same biotech platform to develop depressors as well. In addition to improving mine production, Giraffe Bio can supplant toxic chemicals in the flotation process too. That's all for now. For the latest tech news, go to techcrunch.com.

8:09No purchase necessary. 50 U.S. and D.C. age 18+. See play at mcd.com for rules and play at mcd.com slash AMOE for info and playing without purchase by mail by November 2nd. Chance card game ends November 8th. Game ends November 22nd, 2026. See rules for prize details. Monopoly is a registered trademark of Hasbro.