Author: TechBrunch
ElevenLabs, a startup that develops AI-powered tools for creating and editing synthetic speech, is making its Reader app available globally, with support for 32 languages. The app, which was first released in the US, UK and Canada in June, allows users to upload text content such as articles, PDF documents and e-books and listen to them in a variety of languages and audios. Reader currently supports languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, French, Hindi, German, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Italian, Tamil and Swedish. ElevenLabs, which became a unicorn earlier this year after raising $80 million from Andreessen Horowitz and other investors, offers…
Chipmaker AMD, which is closing in on Nvidia, today announced a major acquisition to bolster its position as an “ecosystem” partner for companies building large-scale AI businesses: It will buy ZT Systems, a provider of computing design and infrastructure for AI, cloud and general-purpose computing, for $4.9 billion. The deal is a combination of cash and stock and includes a contingent payment of up to $400 million if certain performance criteria are met. The plan would combine AMD's computing infrastructure design business with ZT Systems, and AMD said it was exploring the sale of ZT Systems' data center infrastructure manufacturing…
Amazon is considering moving its payments services in India into a standalone app, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, as the e-commerce giant looks to expand acceptance of Amazon Pay in the country. Amazon Pay is currently integrated into the company's flagship e-commerce app in India, allowing users to send money to individuals and merchants, pay bills, buy insurance and travel tickets, invest in mutual funds and digital gold, purchase travel tickets, and more. The U.S. tech giant has been considering separating its payment services from its e-commerce app for about a year and plans to move forward…
Emerging economies face trade deficits, with demand for dollars, which account for the majority of global trade, exceeding supply. This imbalance raises costs and slows trade. In Africa, the problem is exacerbated by a lack of technology solutions to serve the liquidity needs of large corporations and multinationals, with many cross-border payment platforms opting to develop consumer-facing products. Waza, a Y Combinator-backed payments and liquidity platform, has emerged from stealth with $8 million in seed funding. The startup claims to make it easier for African businesses and traders to manage and pay suppliers globally. The company says it is targeting…
There are now many carbon accounting and emissions management platforms. But startups tracking the emissions problem tend to tackle the easiest problem to solve first: direct greenhouse gas emissions from a company's owned sources. In climate industry jargon, these are called “scope 1.” “Scope 2” emissions relate to greenhouse gas emissions from the energy a company uses. Scope 1 and 2 together only account for about 25% of global emissions. The rest fall into scope 3 emissions, which are hidden in the supply chain and therefore very difficult to track. Startups are beginning to address these supply chain emissions: Clearly,…
The Financial Times reports that some parents are skeptical of the South Korean government's plans to introduce tablets with AI-enabled textbooks into classrooms. The tablets are due to be introduced next year, and teachers will be using the AI textbooks for all subjects except music, art, physical education and ethics by 2028. The government hasn't revealed many details about how it will work, other than to say the materials will be customised for different learning speeds and teachers will be able to use a dashboard to monitor how students are doing. In response, more than 50,000 parents signed a petition…
The best startups thrive in a tough venture capital market, while others struggle to raise new capital. If you can't raise money and aren't a self-sustaining company, your best bet is to get acquired, even if for a fraction of your previous valuation, or you'll run out of money and go out of business. These acquisitions can be a huge disappointment for founders and senior employees, who dreamed of building a huge, valuable company that would make them wealthy, but in reality, their shares are worth little or nothing and they may have to take on a role in the…
The fintech sector, which saw significant growth during and immediately after the pandemic, found itself in a rather tough spot in 2024. But while the rapid pace of fundraising has slowed, many fintech companies continue to grow and expand their teams. To get a better understanding of how many fintech companies fit this category, I put out a call asking which fintech companies were hiring. In just over an hour, I received over a dozen responses. Just a few days later, I had heard from dozens more. Even as someone who writes regularly about this space, I was surprised by…
HR startup Rippling has grown to over 3,200 employees and a $13.5 billion valuation. Despite its size, the company's founder and CEO, Parker Conrad, still approves every expense report over $10 and handles routine HR tasks like payroll — because he needs to use his company's product on a daily basis to do so. “One of the things I love about this company is that I'm the main user of Rippling,” he said on a recent episode of TechCrunch's Found podcast. In addition to payroll and expense approvals, he uses the product to manage benefits and set HR policies, all…
Late yesterday, Representative Nancy Pelosi released a statement in opposition to SB 1047, a California bill that seeks to regulate AI. “The view of many members of Congress is that SB 1047 is well-intentioned but poorly informed,” Pelosi said. Other Bay Area lawmakers, Zoe Lofgren, Anna Eshoo and Ro Khanna, have also raised concerns about the bill, which she described as “doing more harm than good.” The bill was recently amended to address concerns from critics such as AI company Anthropic and is now up for a vote in the California Assembly. Because it is a state bill, Pelosi and…