Author: TechBrunch

Block, the company behind Square, Cash App, and other services, today announced a new program that allows merchants using Square's solutions to convert a percentage of their daily sales into Bitcoin. The feature is rolling out in the U.S. starting today, and will send 1% to 10% of Square merchants' daily sales to their personal Cash App accounts. This amount will be converted to Bitcoin at the end of the day. Once the transaction is completed, the seller will receive confirmation of the conversion. Block said the Bitcoin conversion feature will be available to all sole proprietorships or individual member…

Diddo is an API for streaming services and other platforms to integrate shoppable videos, allowing consumers to purchase clothing and accessories featuring their favorite characters directly on their screen. The company announced Wednesday that it had raised $2.8 million in seed funding. Diddo was founded in late 2022 by Rishi Nair, Ryan Sullivan, and Pamela Chen for Nair and Sullivan's mother, who is a fan of “Selling Sunset” and wants to dress like her favorite reality TV star. It started as a Google Chrome extension built on . Now, the company has developed an API that uses proprietary computer vision…

Spotify announced Wednesday that it has submitted a new version of its app for EU users with pricing information and basic site information. Importantly, this version does not include a link to his website. The music streaming company said it does not agree with Apple's new Digital Markets Act (DMA) changes that would impose a “core technology fee” on developers with more than 1 million downloads a year. The company said the new update includes minimal details in line with the European Commission's ruling. “Despite Apple's efforts to impose new fees on developers, we remain committed to giving consumers a…

All-around highly generalizable generative AI models were, and perhaps still are, the name of the game. But as cloud vendors large and small increasingly join the generative AI fray, new models are emerging that focus on the most deep-pocketed potential customers: enterprises. Case in point: Cloud computing company Snowflake today announced Arctic LLM, a generative AI model described as “enterprise grade.” Snowflake says Arctic LLM, available under the Apache 2.0 license, is optimized for “enterprise workloads,” including database code generation, and is free for research and commercial use. “I think this is the foundation for us at Snowflake and our…

Tomorrow is the day everyone has been waiting for! TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 begins in Boston. We look forward to seeing you at the venue. We expect over 1,000 attendees to spend a full day covering all things early-stage startups. A quick reminder of what lies ahead as you prepare to immerse yourself in the world of startup success. Speaker highlights Edith Yeung, General Partner, Race Capital, Emily Knight, President, The Engine Accelerator James Currier, General Partner, NFX Jess Lee, Partner, Sequoia Rudina Seseri, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Glasswing Ventures Sara Choi, Partner , Wing Venture Capital Tom Blomfield, Group…

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided whether a close partnership and employment practices involving Microsoft, Amazon and three AI startups fall within the scope of the Merger Rules, and the implications that the arrangement could have. We have begun a preliminary investigation to see if there is. Competition in the UK market. The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of Big Tech's approach to M&A in the world of AI, with critics arguing that so-called “quasi-mergers” have emerged as a trend of the times as a way to avoid regulatory oversight. are doing. At the same time, governance…

Automation continues to be a key theme for enterprises, especially with the rise of AI as a tool to help fix more mundane, resource-intensive and fragmented aspects of how security and other IT functions operate. It is emphasized. To capitalize on this trend, Dublin-founded Tines, one of the largest startups in the field, announced $50 million in funding. Although Tines started with its roots in security workflow automation, it has been adopted in other parts of the IT environment. Now, on the back of a 200% increase in revenue over the past 18 months, the company plans to use the…

Hinge has added a “Hidden Words” feature to its app, which filters out likes that include comments containing that phrase or word. It works much like a mute filter on social media apps. Hinge allows users to send messages when they like a profile. That message can contain any text. Rivals such as Bumble introduced a similar feature called “compliments” in 2022. Hinge, which is owned by Match Group, is using this new word-hiding feature to try to reduce online harassment through these messages. If a Like with a comment includes a word you've added to your muted list, your…

When Trace's future co-founders Greg Tran, Martin Smith, and Sean Couture joined Magic Leap in spring/summer 2015, the startup's profile was about the same. After years of secrecy, the augmented reality company captivated Silicon Valley's imagination with in-device footage and ended the year with $827 million in funding. The story of the intervening years has been one of highly-promising startups being heavily funded and struggling to find market fit. Mr. Tran stepped down as creative director in January 2020, and Mr. Couture and Mr. Smith retired in July 2020 and February 2021, respectively. Trace was founded in 2021, with Tran,…

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…