Author: TechBrunch
The first thing Promise Bio CEO Ronel Veksler wants you to know about the biotech company he co-founded is that it's not just another AI drug discovery company. Instead, he's bringing precision medicine to autoimmune diseases. Tel Aviv-based Promise Bio has developed a cloud-based AI platform that can detect various post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins from a single blood sample. Before Promise's technology, identifying one of these 200 protein modifications required a separate test. These PTMs are key to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as autoimmune diseases. “It's very substantial, it's like going from a black and white…
Wiz co-founder and vice president of research and development Roy Resnick told CNBC last week that the company has reached $500 million in annual recurring revenue and plans to double that to $1 billion in 2025. he said. He also reiterated that a $1 billion IPO was a prerequisite for Wizz's IPO, which he promised employees last summer when Wiz pulled out of talks to acquire Google for $23 billion. TechCrunch reported at the time that the cloud security startup's ARR was about $350 million in May, but by the time it exited Google in July, it was already at…
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 just days away, we’re gearing up for an incredible three-day event packed with interactive sessions! From October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, dive into dynamic conversations around the most pressing issues and cutting-edge tech innovations to help empower your growth, facilitated by an industry leader. Don’t miss your chance to pocket ticket savings and participate in these Roundtables! Register now to lock in up to $400 in savings on individual ticket types before door prices go up. These rates are valid only until October 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Scroll down for the complete…
In just five days, San Francisco's Moscone West will come alive with 10,000 startup and VC leaders for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It will be a powerful event that brings together innovative minds from around the world. Time is running out to save up to $400 on individual tickets or bring your Plus 1 to get two Expo+ passes for the price of one. These deals end on October 27th at 11:59pm PT, so act fast. Secure your discounted tickets here. Why attend Disrupt 2024? Over 10,000 startup and VC leaders Build powerful connections with 10,000 technology innovators, startup founders, and…
TikTok announced Wednesday that it will offer a STEM feed by default to all users in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Previously, feeds were only turned on by default for users under 18. The social network says the expansion will make it easier for people to find educational content on the app. The feed is enabled by default for all users in these countries, but you can turn it off by going to the app's settings and navigating to the “Content Settings” section. TikTok initially launched its STEM feed after claims that TikTok is harmful to teens and…
Andreessen Horowitz has a large cluster of Nvidia H100 GPUs to help its portfolio of AI startups meet their computing needs, the venture capital firm confirmed for the first time on Wednesday. The program, called “Oxygen,” allows portfolio companies to train or operate AI models without negotiating market prices. A16Z's Oxygen cluster gives startups breathing room to compete with big tech companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft in building AI models at scale. Over the past few years, these companies have been engaged in bidding wars for GPUs, particularly the AI industry standard H100, often winning deals by promising larger,…
Granola's notepad app has become a popular tool among venture capitalists, who use it to record meetings and augment notes with AI technology. This made it easier for the startup to raise $20 million in Series A funding from a large group of investors, and the team was able to raise the funds in about a week. “I think all the investors who ended up getting a term sheet had been using this for a while,” says Granola co-founder Sam Stephenson. He said the team received so much inbound interest that they hosted about 12 investor conversations in just one…
Character.AI was sued after a 14-year-old Florida boy committed suicide. The boy's mother said he became hooked on the chatbot on the platform. Sewell Setzer III, a ninth-grader in Orlando, spent months talking to a chatbot using Character.AI's AI role-playing app, according to the New York Times. Setzer developed an emotional attachment to one bot in particular, named “Danny,” and began to constantly send emails and distance himself from the real world. Setzer confessed to the bot that he was considering suicide and sent a message just before he died. This morning, Character.AI announced that it is introducing a number…
Matt Peters has worked for cybersecurity vendors for over 10 years. He was a team leader at Check Point, was promoted to vice president of worldwide operations at FireEye, and spent more than four years as chief product officer at Expel, a managed detection and response company. Peters says there was a surprising commonality between all of these experiences. IT teams were frustrated because technology expectations rarely matched reality. Organizations demand a lot from their IT departments. According to one poll, nearly one-third of the average corporate banking staff gets a response from their IT department within an hour. Roughly…
Amazon Go helped pioneer the concept of a completely contactless store, but other companies like 7-Eleven and Walmart are also moving into this space. And the field is growing, in part due to the proliferation of several startups, including Standard Cognition, Zippin, AiFi, Grabango, and Trigo, offering their technology to retailers. But in Europe, Portuguese startup Sensei is growing its contactless store platform and has now raised €15 million in a Series A funding round led by BlueCrow Capital. Also participating were new investors Lince Capital, Explorer Investments and Kamay Ventures (the investment arm of Coca-Cola and Arkor Group), as…