Author: TechBrunch
Conversational AI platform Parloa has secured $66 million in Series B funding, a year after the German startup raised $21 million from a raft of European investors to fuel international growth. did. The company is particularly focused on the U.S. market, with Parloa opening a New York office last year. The company said the location helped it secure deals with “several Fortune 200 companies” in the region. In its latest installment, Parloa has secured Altimeter Capital, a US-based VC firm known for its previous investments in Uber, Airbnb, Snowflake, Twilio, HubSpot, and more, as a lead backer. AI and automation…
Madica, an investment program launched by US-based investor Flourish Ventures to support pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 venture companies by the end of the year, with its first three deals After the establishment of the agreement, the company has stepped up its fundraising activities. Revealing its plans to TechCrunch, Madica is aiming for up to 30 startups by the end of the three-year program, which began in the middle of last year, after launching in late 2022, and hinted that it will accelerate investment next year. The program's first investments announced today include Kola…
A French startup has raised a significant seed investment to “reimagine computing infrastructure” for developers who want to build and train AI applications more efficiently. The company, called FlexAI, has been operating in stealth since October 2023, but the Paris-based company officially launched on Wednesday with €28.5 million ($30 million) in funding, along with its first The company is announcing its product, an on-demand cloud service. For AI training. This is quite a change for a seed round and usually means substantial founder pedigree, which is the case here. Brijesh Tripathi, co-founder and CEO of FlexAI, previously his GPU giant…
Glance, which operates a lock screen platform for Android smartphones, is setting its sights on the US market. The Indian startup recently launched a pilot program in partnership with US companies Motorola and Verizon, and plans to fully launch in India later this year, people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The Bangalore-headquartered startup is backed by investors including Google and Jio Platforms, and has already made significant inroads in India, Southeast Asia, and Japan, where it expanded last year. Glance's technology delivers a customized feed of news, local events, sports updates, media content, and interactive games directly to users'…
The Senate passed a bill included in a foreign aid package that would ban TikTok if owner ByteDance doesn't sell it within a year. The Senate passed the bill 79-18 on Tuesday after the House passed it overwhelmingly over the weekend. President Joe Biden must sign the bill into law and is expected to do so on Wednesday, according to a statement released by the White House. Notably, the House of Representatives passed a similar standalone bill in March that would ban TikTok or force a sale within a six-month period. However, the Senate never took up the bill. This…
Company X, formerly known as Twitter, will soon release a TV app dedicated to videos uploaded to the social network. X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced On Tuesday, the company announced that a new app will bring “real-time, engaging content” to smart TVs. The app's interface is very similar to his YouTube one, as seen in the teaser video shared by Yaccarino. The app will feature a trending video algorithm designed to help users stay up to date on popular customized content, as well as AI-powered topics that organize videos by theme. The app also supports cross-device viewing, so you can…
News that HeadSpin's former founder will be sent to prison on fraud charges is further evidence that the last boom in the twin worlds of startups and venture capital has spawned more than a little fraud. The founder in question, Manish Lakhwani, is facing a prison sentence and a hefty fine for lying to investors, a lie that enabled his company to raise nine figures worth of funding. The company is adamant and probably wants this whole situation to disappear from the public eye. That's understandable, but the Ratchwani story — The New York Times says that Rashwani “nearly quadrupled…
Keeping your home or office at the right temperature requires a lot of energy. Approximately one-third of the carbon pollution in the United States comes from buildings, mostly from heating and cooling. Bedrock Energy, co-founded by Jocelyn Lai, believes it has found at least a partial solution. The startup aims to decarbonize climate control by installing geothermal heating pumps. Although currently focused on large commercial buildings, the core technology could potentially power almost any HVAC system. Lai appeared on TechCrunch's Found to talk about her company and its hope to reduce the cost of proven technologies that address the climate…
Perplexity, an AI search engine startup, is a hot asset right now. TechCrunch has learned that the company is currently valued at $3 billion, up from $2.5 billion, and has raised at least another $250 million. The news comes on the heels of two other major financings that have seen the company's valuation skyrocket in the past four months. In January, the company raised nearly $74 million at a valuation of $540 million (up from $121 million in April 2023). And in early March, the company closed on $56 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. The increases have…
Fisker said it plans further cuts in the next two months after cutting 15% of its workforce as EV startups scramble to raise capital to survive. If Fisker is unable to raise the funds, it plans to file for bankruptcy protection within the next 30 days, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The crisis-hit company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it had just $54 million in cash and equivalents as of April 16, with another $11.2 million not immediately accessible. Fisker said in his filing that it is currently trying to raise…