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Meet Vurt, the mobile-first streaming platform for indie filmmakers embracing vertical video

Short video platforms like TikTok have changed the streaming landscape, prompting traditional streaming services like Disney+, Peacock, and Netflix to explore short-form video features. This shift raises the question of how indie filmmakers can capitalize on this vertical video trend. 

Enter Vurt: a mobile-first vertical streaming platform designed specifically for independent filmmakers to upload their micro series or feature films in a vertical mobile-first format. 

The platform announced its launch on Tuesday, with more than 100 episodes of original micro-series, full-length films, and TV shows spanning various genres currently on the platform. There are even films featuring Kevin Hart and Vivica A. Fox. The company says a new original title is released on the platform each week. 

Image Credits:VURT

As audiences increasingly gravitate towards content tailored for mobile devices, the adaptation of traditional storytelling methods to fit vertical formats feels like a natural progression. Vurt sees its platform as a solution that aligns with this future. 

The success of “micro-drama” platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox has proven that there is a sizable market eager for engaging, bite-sized content. This segment has exploded from niche status to a multi-billion-dollar industry.

As reported by Appfigures, ReelShort was projected to achieve about $1.2 billion in gross consumer spending in 2025, whereas DramaBox generated $276 million in consumer spending last year. Even TikTok launched its own micro-drama app in January. Vurt also finds itself in direct competition with emerging apps like Watch Club, which features microdrama stories created by SAG-AFTRA and WGA actors and writers. 

What truly distinguishes Vurt is its approach to content distribution. Unlike traditional streaming services that often involve lengthy distribution processes through aggregators or major companies, Vurt allows creators to submit their content directly. Once approved, filmmakers can upload their projects, making them available to audiences within a 48-to-72-hour timeframe.

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For creators looking to monetize their work, Vurt operates on an AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) model, enabling them to generate revenue through ad placements on their titles. Plus, Vurt offers a non-exclusive licensing agreement with a 50/50 revenue split, providing filmmakers with a fair opportunity to profit from their creations.

Image Credits:VURT

The brainchild behind Vurt, Ted Lucas, is the founder of Slip-N-Slide Records, which has sold millions of records for artists like Trick Daddy, Trina, Rick Ross, and Plies. The idea for Vurt emerged from Lucas’s own experiences while distributing his documentary “Miami Kingpins.” He recognized the distribution challenges facing many filmmakers and wanted to find a solution.

“Not every content creator and filmmaker has the resources and access to overcome these hurdles. I realized that it’s a problem that I could potentially fix,” Lucas told TechCrunch.

Vurt’s founding team brings years of industry experience: Eric Tomosunas, who founded Swirl Films, director and producer Mark A. Samuels, and angel investor Hilmon Sorey. Additionally, Tarik Brooks, a former executive at BET and REVOLT, serves as an advisory figure.

With young viewers primarily consuming content on their mobile devices, it’ll be interesting to see how the vertical format resonates with independent creators and major streaming services alike. Could we one day see full-length vertical shows on Netflix, or original films on TikTok? It’s too soon to predict the future, but the movement towards vertical storytelling is undeniable.

“The way people consume content has already changed, and we’re building something that fits that future,” Lucas said.

Vurt is now available for free on the App Store and Google Play. There’s also a web version that mirrors streaming services but remains dedicated solely to vertical content.

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Gecko Robotics lands the largest U.S. Navy robotics deal yet

The U.S. Navy has inked its largest robotics deal yet as the military branch looks to use robots to keep up with its fleet maintenance.

Gecko Robotics, a Pittsburgh-based company that makes robots and sensors for inspecting large industrial assets, has signed a five-year IDIQ (indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) deal with the U.S. Navy and U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the company announced on Tuesday. The deal starts with an initial $54 million award and has a $71 million ceiling.

The Navy will use Gecko’s robots and sensors to monitor the status and health of the U.S. Navy’s assets and fleets of ships, starting with 18 ships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Gecko founder and CEO Jake Loosararian told TechCrunch that the company’s robots will crawl into every nook and cranny of the ships to create a detailed digital replica — sometimes called a “digital twin” — of each vessel. The company’s software will help the organization monitor the assets and recommend maintenance, trying to get ahead of problems before they arise and reduce maintenance times and cost.

“Once you create that digital representation using the robotic systems of the health and the condition of these assets, and even the digitization of the environment itself, then you can accelerate how quickly you can make decisions and repair,” Loosararian said. “You want to be able to build this living, breathing model that ensures that you’re reducing days into the future that these assets have to spend [out of service].”

This deal is meant to help the Navy reach its goal of having 80% ship readiness by 2027. Today, about 40% of the Navy’s fleet is unavailable at any given time due to the long maintenance cycles on these vessels.

“It’s like $13 billion to $20 billion a year in maintenance,” Loosararian said. “At a time when you need every asset you can get, that’s pretty critical. And these assets aren’t getting any younger either.”

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Gecko has been working with the U.S. Navy for four years. After a port engineer stationed in Japan reached out to learn more about the company, Gecko conducted an evaluation and a drew up a preventative maintenance plan. The Navy was impressed, and the relationship grew from there, leading up to Tuesday’s deal.

“We’re helping to ensure that our critical assets live as long as they can and never are down,” Loosararian said. “I want to live in a world where we don’t have ships going through maintenance cycles, because we just know what’s broken and what to fix while they’re actually deployed. That’s my vision of the future, whether it’s a military asset or it’s a power plant.”

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Amazon adds 1-hour and 3-hour delivery options in the US

Amazon is launching one-hour and three-hour delivery options across many cities in the U.S. as the e-commerce giant looks to compete with instant delivery companies like Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats.

The e-commerce giant is making more than 90,000 items available via this new delivery system. If an item can be delivered to a user within one or three hours, they’ll see a label saying so next to that item on the Amazon app. There’s also a filter for these new delivery options in the app and on the site.

Image Credits:Amazon

Amazon Prime subscribers will be charged $9.99 for one-hour deliveries and $4.99 for three-hour deliveries. If you don’t have a Prime subscription, you’ll pay $19.99 for one-hour deliveries and $14.99 for three-hour deliveries.

Amazon said it is making the one-hour delivery option available in hundreds of cities in the U.S., including parts of major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., as well as Des Moines, Boise, and American Fork. The three-hour option is available in over 2,000 U.S. cities and towns.

The company is also launching a dedicated storefront to house items eligible for these new delivery options.

“Our customers are busier than ever and are looking for new ways to save time while keeping their households running. We saw an opportunity to use our unique operational expertise and delivery network to help make customers’ lives a little easier while unlocking even more value for Prime members,” Udit Madan, senior vice president of Worldwide Operations at Amazon, said in a statement.

The company said it is using its existing, same-day fulfillment sites for the new delivery options.

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This isn’t the first time Amazon has tried its hand at instant deliveries. The company previously launched one-hour deliveries under the “Prime Now” service in 2014, but it was discontinued in 2021. And then in December 2025, it piloted a 30-minute delivery option in Seattle and Philadelphia.

The company has been trying to get into the quick-commerce game worldwide. In India, the company in 2024 launched Amazon Now, a 10-minute delivery service for groceries and other items, and last year expanded it to several cities. Amazon launched the service in the United Arab Emirates last October, promising deliveries within 15 minutes.

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Gamma adds AI image generation tools in bid to take on Canva and Adobe

Gamma, a platform that lets you use AI to create presentations and websites, is launching a new image-generation product for making marketing assets as it seeks to better compete with the likes of Canva and Adobe.

The company says its new product, called Gamma Imagine, will let users employ text prompts to create brand-specific assets like interactive charts and visualizations, marketing collateral, social graphics, and infographics. Gamma currently provides more than 100 templates, which you can use alongside its AI tools to build the kind of assets that you need.

To power its data-driven asset generation features, the company is integrating with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Make, Zapier, Atlassian, n8n, and Superhuman Go.

“As we started working with a lot of our early users, we realized that in the presentations they want to create, there was a variety of graphical design use cases that they all also had,” Grant Lee, Gamma’s CEO and co-founder, told TechCrunch. “So we worked alongside them to develop basically a new set of tools that allows them to go far beyond just the traditional presentation format,” he said.

Lee believes Gamma sits well between tools for professionals like Adobe or Figma, and legacy tools like Microsoft PowerPoint.

“We think we can serve the very long tail of knowledge workers and business professionals whose demand for their job is to communicate visually, but they just don’t have the tools. They need to pull in a design resource to be able to help with this stuff, and we want to make an-AI native approach that serves their needs in the sort of middle that we feel is really underserved,” he said.

Last November, Gamma raised $68 million in a Series B round led by a16z, at a $2.1 billion valuation. At that time, the company said it had ARR of $100 million, and 70 million users. The company told TechCrunch that it is approaching 100 million users now.

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