Author: TechBrunch

OpenAI began rolling out ChatGPT's advanced voice mode on Tuesday, giving users access to GPT-4o's ultra-realistic voice responses for the first time. The alpha version was released today to a small number of ChatGPT Plus users, and OpenAI said the feature will be gradually rolled out to all Plus users in fall 2024. When OpenAI first showed off GPT-4o's voices in May, the feature wowed audiences with its fast response and striking resemblance to real human voices, especially one. The voice, named Sky, resembled that of actress Scarlett Johansson, who played the artificial assistant in the film Her. Shortly after…

In May, Spotify quietly started charging for song lyrics, limiting free users to seeing lyrics for just three songs per month, a move that was seen as an attempt to get more users to pay for the service. After receiving numerous complaints, the company has decided to expand the monthly limit. Starting today, Spotify will increase the limit on the number of lyrics that free users can view. Users around the world will see this change. A company spokesperson told TechCrunch: “At Spotify, we're always testing and improving, which means feature availability may vary across tiers, markets, and devices. In…

Airtable today announced that it has acquired Dopt, a startup focused on helping other startups build product onboarding experiences for new users. Dopt introduced several features earlier this year that allowed users to add AI-based assistance tools to their services, which is the main reason for Airtable's acquisition of the company. The acquisition was completed at the end of last month, and Dopt plans to shut down its service on August 15. The Dopt team will join Airtable's AI group. It's all part of Airtable's holistic approach to AI, co-founder and CEO Howie Liu told TechCrunch. The company, like many…

AI hardware is all the rage in the startup world, but the response so far has been mixed: Two notable examples, Rabbit and Humane, have released devices with disappointing results, while a16z-backed Limitless and Exor-backed Bee AI are working on their own screenless AI wearables. Avi Shiffman, a Harvard dropout who built a Webby Prize-winning COVID-19 tracking website, is working on an AI device he's calling “Friend,” which, as the name suggests, is worn around the neck and designed to be treated as a companion. Shiffman has raised $2.5 million at a $50 million valuation from investors including Caffeinated Capital's…

Europe is routinely criticized by tech industry observers for having too few “growth capital” funds, and that's true when compared to the U.S. That said, the space is far from nonexistent: growth equity investor Kennet just announced it has raised €266 million for its largest fund to date, Kennet VI, which is already being deployed in B2B SaaS companies across Europe. Kenet specializes in backing established B2B SaaS startups that are founder-owned and either highly capital efficient or fully bootstrapped, i.e. built without outside capital. A great example is Grip, the conference networking app that raised $13 million in 2021,…

Intelmatix, a deep-tech B2B startup targeting companies in the MENA region who want to leverage the power of AI to aid in decision-making, has closed a $20 million Series A funding round, one of the largest funding rounds for a company of its kind in the region. The startup, which has offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, London, UK, and Boston, US, was founded in 2021 but only released its enterprise AI platform, EDIX, in March 2024. The company told TechCrunch that it has secured 10 enterprise customers so far, but with its new deep pockets, it plans to expand its…

Historically, passive income has been associated with investing in real estate, such as rental properties. FranShares is a Chicago-based startup that wants to offer investors another form of passive income: the opportunity to invest in franchises with as little as $500. For those unfamiliar, a franchisor is the party that owns and licenses a franchise business model, such as McDonald's. A franchisee is the party, often a local businessman, who purchases the license and operates one or more franchised locations. Many people dream of becoming a franchisee, but being able to pay or borrow sufficient cash is a major barrier…

The fundraising environment has been tough for emerging managers, defined as venture capital firms raising capital for the first to third time. But Katie Jacobs Stanton, the former Twitter media chief who founded Moxie Ventures in 2019, said raising a third round of funding was much easier than she expected. Moxxie, which invests in pre-seed and seed-stage startups, announced Tuesday that it has closed its third fund on $95 million, beating its target of $85 million. When the company began raising funds, Stanton and general partner Alex Rotter, a former senior vice president of engineering at Twitter, told limited partners…

Maximize your brand's exposure at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, one of the tech industry's most anticipated events. From October 26th to November 1st, you'll have the perfect opportunity to host side events to network with top tech innovators and showcase your brand to a wider audience. Don't miss out: Applications close in September. What are side events? Side events will provide brands with a unique opportunity to engage with over 10,000 Disrupt attendees, their own networks and the Bay Area tech community. Host a variety of in-person activities: industry meetups, VC office hours, workshops, fun runs, happy hours, and more. The…

HealthEquity is notifying 4.3 million people following a March data breach affecting personal and protected health information. In a data breach notification filed with the Maine Attorney General, the Utah-based health benefits management company said that while the exposed data varies by individual, most of it is account registration information and information about benefits managed by the company. HealthEquity said the data could include customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, information about their employers and dependents (if they have any), and some payment card information. HealthEquity provides employees of companies across the U.S. with access to workplace benefits…