Author: TechBrunch
Creator marketplace startup Agentio builds an automated platform for YouTubers to sell ad slots to brands, raises $12 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark with participation from returning investors Craft Ventures and AlleyCorp was procured. With the new funding, the startup aims to expand its market for YouTubers and improve its AI technology to determine whether creators are brand-safe for companies. Agentio was founded in 2023 by former Cameo president Arthur Leopold and former Spotify automated content marketing team leader Jonathan Meyers. To date, we have raised more than $16 million in total funding. Last year, the company…
Three former GitHub executives and engineers have founded a new startup that brings the benefits of the most popular open source package manager to enterprises. The startup, called Workbrew, has emerged from stealth today with a mission to reduce the risks of “shadow IT” practices, giving enterprise administrators and security teams central control and visibility into Homebrew deployments across their organizations. We provide To further its commercial push, the startup has raised $5 million from developer-focused VC firm Heavybit, Essence VC, Operator Collective, and a number of angels, including GitHub co-founder and former CEO Tom Preston-Werner. Collected funds. Homebrew is…
Generative AI has completely changed the way we write, or even writing at all. Now, startups want to become the next chapter in that story: AI protagonists replacing the role of publisher. Spines is a self-publishing platform that claims to be able to do all the work for publishers faster and cheaper because it is powered by artificial intelligence. That task list includes editing the text, offering suggestions to improve it, and giving users honest predictions about who will read their published work. Provides cover design and layout options. Distribute your finished product in e-book or print-on-demand format. Spines' pitch…
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared Alphabet's partnership with and investment in AI rival Anthropic, concluding that the company is not subject to investigation under current merger rules. The announcement marks the start of a formal “Stage 1” investigation by the CMA into Google's parent company's various investments in Anthropic, a three-year-old San Francisco-based startup that develops large-scale language models (LLMs) and related chatbots. This took place one month after the company announced that it would start. It's similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's own Bard, and is called Claude. Alphabet reportedly invested $300 million in Anthropic…
In a tight labor market, the best way to attract and retain talent is to care about employee well-being. These efforts have a boost as Mexico approaches full employment, but especially with the recognition that economic, physical, and mental health are interconnected. “The main problem that needs to be solved in Mexico is the financial problem,” said Mexico-based entrepreneur Nima Pourshasb (center in photo above). His startup, Minu, not only helps Mexican employees provide more than 50 employee benefits, including telemedicine, but also offers paychecks so they don't have to stress about waiting for payday. I also have access to.…
Instagram is testing a feature that allows users to reset their recommendations, the company announced Tuesday. When you reset recommendations, you start over and retrain the app's algorithms about the content you enjoy on your Explore page, home feed, and Reels tab. This feature is aimed at users who feel that content recommendations are no longer serving their interests. For example, if you used to like recipe videos but are no longer interested, that type of content might be the only one you'll see on your Reels or Explorer pages. This new addition is similar to a feature TikTok introduced…
Asian News International, one of India's largest news agencies, faces OpenAI in a lawsuit that could set a precedent for how AI companies use copyrighted news content in the world's most populous country. sued. Asian News International filed a 287-page lawsuit in the Delhi High Court on Monday, alleging that the AI company illegally used its content to train AI models and generate false information attributed to the news agency. he claimed. The lawsuit marks the first time that an Indian media organization has taken legal action against OpenAI over alleged copyright infringement. During a hearing on Tuesday, Judge Amit…
The graphics processing unit (GPU) is the chip on which most AI models run and is energy-intensive. Goldman Sachs predicts that AI will increase electricity demand by 160% by 2030 as a result of accelerated adoption of GPUs in data centers. This trend is not sustainable, argues analog and memory circuit designer Vishal Sarin. After working in the chip industry for more than a decade, Sarin launched Sagence AI (previously named Analog Inference) to design energy-efficient alternatives to GPUs. “Applications that have the potential to truly popularize practical AI computing are limited because the devices and systems processing the data…
Yuka is a popular health app that allows users to scan food barcodes and instantly see a health ranking based on additives, sugar, saturated fat, and fiber. It also scans cosmetics and highlights harmful substances such as endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, allergens, and irritants. Yuka then recommends healthier options and helps consumers make more informed and prudent decisions. Since its introduction in France in 2017, Yuka has uncovered significant issues with major companies regarding harmful ingredients that many customers were unaware they were consuming. For example, French supermarket chain Intermarche changed 900 recipes and removed 140 additives due to pressure from…
Demand for HR technology solutions is growing in Africa, and Senegal's Socium is looking to capitalize on opportunities in the continent's French-speaking countries. Since 2021, Socium has been building HR solutions for users in 21 French-speaking African countries and plans to continue to focus on regions where it enjoys first-mover advantages. Socium co-founder Samba Lo (CEO) revealed these plans to TechCrunch, saying the startup has also raised $5 million in seed funding to fuel its growth plans in the region. “So, for us, developments in Francophone Africa are very interesting because we have the same economic community, we have very…