Author: TechBrunch

A 2018 Supreme Court decision removed the requirement that e-commerce retailers must have a physical location within a state to be able to collect sales tax on residents' purchases within that state. did. The decision was a boon for the state, but a headache for e-commerce sellers. Kintsugi aims to reduce and automate the burden of consumption tax calculation and filing for businesses. The San Francisco-based company's AI technology connects to a company's billing and payment systems and understands which states they owe sales tax in. Next, register the user in the correct state. From there, the system can automatically…

Global travel continues to gain momentum, with the World Travel and Tourism Council predicting industry revenue will exceed $11 trillion this year. Consumers are moving away from so-called “revenge travel” in the wake of COVID-19, and are allocating a higher percentage of their budgets to a wider range of experiences away from home. The addition of AI has renewed investor interest in startups that are disrupting the world with something new. Aboard the travel train, Berlin-based Tourlane, an agency-like platform that allows users to plan and budget their trips by bundling flights, accommodation, activities and tickets, has raised new funding.…

To stay competitive, some companies are rushing to adopt AI, but they may be unsure of the best way to integrate AI into their business. Ilya Varchanov, co-founder and CEO of Team-GPT, thinks he has the answer to their concerns. In 2023, Varchanov and Ilko Kacharov, Yavor Belakov, Katya Vapsarova, and Maria Varchanova launched Team-GPT as a software suite of AI tools (such as Claude and ChatGPT) that companies can integrate into their workplace systems. Valchanov said offering a suite makes it easier for companies to manage these tools. Otherwise, separate subscriptions are required for each feature. He also said…

As the influencer economy grows, startups like PassionFroot, Agentio, and One Impression, as well as social platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, are building marketplaces that connect brands and creators. Miami-based startup Influur leverages two unique aspects of the platform: fast response times from creators and financial tools to ensure on-time payments. The company is developing a suite of tools to help brands better track their campaigns. The company is also considering introducing new financial products for creators, such as loans, debit cards, and credit cards. To support these efforts, Influur has raised $10 million in Series A funding from…

Snapchat will enhance location sharing in its parental control hub, Family Center, the company announced Thursday. Users have been able to share their location with others on Snapchat for quite some time, but the latest additions allow parents to share their location on the app when their teen leaves or arrives at a designated location, such as school. You can now receive alerts from within Family Center. Previously, parents had to find their teenager on Snap Map or visit their profile to see where they were. This new feature allows parents to see their child's location directly within Family Center,…

Indian video editing platform InVideo launches an AI-powered generative video creation feature that allows you to generate video clips using prompts. The platform, backed by Tiger Global, Peak XV and others, is calling this release InVideo v3.0. You can use text prompts to generate videos in a variety of styles, including live-action, animation, and anime styles, and export the resulting videos in formats suitable for YouTube, Shorts/Reels, and Linkedin. Users can also edit these videos by prompting them to make changes or additions to specific parts of the clip. Image credit: Screenshot by TechCrunch InVideo has not developed a proprietary…

PayPal is launching several features that will allow users in groups to pool money with friends and family to collectively pay for trips, vacations, gifts, and more. The company is launching the feature in the US, Germany, UK, Italy and Spain ahead of the holiday season. “Reboot” might be a better verb here. PayPal actually introduced a pool feature some time ago, fancifully called “money pools.” It debuted in 2017, perhaps as a reaction to people coming up with the idea earlier and getting a lot of attention to it. However, PayPal ended this service worldwide in November 2021. At…

The U.S. government has confirmed that hackers with ties to China have infiltrated multiple U.S. telecommunications service providers and gained access to wiretapping systems used by law enforcement to monitor American citizens. In a joint statement released on Monday, CISA and the FBI said they had uncovered an “extensive and significant” cyber espionage operation in which China-linked actors compromised the networks of “multiple telecommunications companies” in the United States. did. CISA and the FBI have not named the compromised organizations, but the Wall Street Journal reports that telecommunications providers whose networks were compromised include AT&T, Lumen (formerly CenturyLink), and Verizon.…

Many startups and large technology companies have been working on building artificial intelligence to code software. Now, another new player is coming out of the shadows to throw his hat into the ring, with a mission to solve the many problems that arise when humans and all AIs write code together. Tessl is building what it calls an “AI native” platform that developers and their teams can use to create and maintain software, and is currently opening a waiting list for anyone interested in trying it out. The word “under construction” is used here very specifically. Tessl's products are not…

Startup inspiration can come from anywhere. But for Atlas.co*, a freemium browser-based real-time mapping tool built by a team of (initially student) engineers based in Oslo, Norway, there's a business opportunity in competing with expensive legacy. The realization that mapping software might strike the founder during class. “When I took an introductory GIS class, [geographic information system]Half the class couldn't download it because their computers didn't meet the software requirements,” CEO and co-founder Fredrik Moger told TechCrunch. “That's a barrier in general, right? And I think Adobe was facing the same problem probably 10 years ago, and then Figma came…