Author: TechBrunch

Google has announced further changes to the way it displays search results in the European Union in response to ongoing complaints about its non-compliance with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA). This includes what it calls a “short-term test” of simple “Blue Link” style search results for hotel queries in three EU markets (Belgium, Estonia and Germany). The company suggests this is similar to how its search engine originally worked. Displayed results. Under the EU's flagship market competitiveness reform, violations are subject to heavy penalties of up to 10% of annual global sales (or higher for repeated violations). Google's…

SoftBank-backed online shopping site Meesho became the first Indian e-commerce company to deploy a GenAI-powered voice bot for customer support, reducing some of its expenses by 75%. The Bangalore-based e-commerce startup announced on Tuesday that its AI bots are now fielding 60,000 customer calls every day in English and Hindi. The startup, which also counts Elevation and Prosus among its backers, plans to add support for six more Indian languages. Meesho has over 160 million customers in India, 80% of whom live in small cities, towns and villages. The startup is valued at $4.9 billion and has annual sales of…

Using AI to accelerate biotechnology is quickly becoming standard practice, and companies providing services to rapidly deploy this technology are seeing significant uptake and new investment. One such company is Cradle, which focuses on protein design and just raised $73 million to build out its lab and team. Cradle emerged in 2022 as part of a wave of companies exploring the use of language models in biotech. The company's founder and CEO, Steph Van Grieken, memorably called strings of amino acids and bases “an alien programming language,” but AI models can still be parsed to some extent. It's a language.…

In the fight against climate change, battery technology is critical as the world turns to electrification to drive decarbonization. But rising demand is drawing attention to the limitations and shortcomings of the current generation of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology. This is where Morion, a spin-out company from the University of Cambridge, wants to get involved. The British startup is developing next-generation lithium-sulfur (Li-S) technology. Li-S batteries offer the advantage of higher energy density and supply chain resilience compared to lithium-ion batteries due to their higher sulfur content, and are expected to perform much better. Some minerals essential to lithium-ion batteries…

The documentation that must be done in parallel with new drug development is a very labor-intensive process. There is not much software used and there is a lack of professional writers. Paris-based Biolevate helps medical writers get their work done faster using NLP and a platform that goes from visual document reading to writing assistance. It has now raised €6 million in a seed funding round led by EQT Ventures. CEO Joel Berrafa told TechCrunch: “Nathan Chen (COO) and I have been friends for 25 years. We both understand how slow and difficult research and development of therapeutics and access…

Volta, a startup with teams split between two headquarters in Milan and Paris, raised a pre-seed round of €6 million ($6.3 million) to develop a new vertical software-as-a-service platform focused on B2B sales. ) has been secured. From a more practical perspective, the Volta team promotes their product as the equivalent of Shopify, but with a focus on B2B transactions. Shopify, the e-commerce giant that helps people create online stores and easily sell products to consumers, offers a B2B commerce platform, but Volta believes it's worth starting a company focused on B2B transactions. That's what I think. According to Volta,…

In June, Google announced the Google Developer Program. This is a free program that provides developers with access to resources designed to help them build applications using Google services. With “millions” of developers currently registered (according to Google), the company is introducing a second paid tier to commercialize the program. On Monday, Google launched Google Developer Program Premium Membership. This is a $299 annual upgrade from the standard Google Developer Program. This adds several benefits, including one-on-one consultations with Google Cloud experts and access to Google Cloud Skills Boost e-learning programs, Google's on-demand training program. In addition to consultations and…

According to Bleacher Report, Milwaukee Bucks player Giannis Antetokounmpo has launched a venture capital firm, Build Your Legacy Ventures, that will focus on investing in sports and entertainment. Antetokounmpo will serve as general partner. The fund is “not just about capital. It's about building partnerships and opening up my network to accelerate the growth trajectory of companies,” he said in a press release. “I want to help other entrepreneurs grow and succeed, especially those who face barriers.” Antetokounmpo became the latest athlete to enter the venture capital world. Specifically, Serena Williams has Serena Ventures, Kevin Durant has Thirty-Five Ventures, Stephen…

Elon Musk's high-profile role on Donald Trump's transition team has led to the selection of Musk's friends, many of them Silicon Valley venture capitalists, as collaborators. It is reported that there are. For example, the name of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, especially co-founder Marc Andreessen, is mentioned repeatedly. He, along with Antonio Gracias and Joe Lonsdale, was asked to work with Musk's advisory committee, the Department of Government Efficiency, which is looking at ways to overcome technical challenges in collecting data on federal programs. The Washington Post reported on Sunday. They are among the few other Silicon Valley bigwigs who…

Many VCs were probably happy when ServiceTitan withdrew its S-1 notice regarding its impending public offering on November 18th. A successful IPO by the company, which develops operating software for trading businesses, could be just what the quiet IPO market needs to start shaking up. However, the timing of ServiceTitan's IPO may not be entirely based on the company's anticipated favorable market conditions. The company agreed to terms of the transaction in 2022, essentially setting a deadline for it to go public by May 2024 or risk diluting its stock. Now that the deadline has come and gone, ServiceTitan will…