Author: TechBrunch
Chang She, previously VP of Engineering at Tubi, is a Cloudera veteran with years of experience building data tools and infrastructure. But when she started working in her AI field, he quickly ran into traditional data infrastructure issues that prevented her from putting her AI models into production. “Machine learning engineers and AI researchers are often locked into substandard development experience,” she told TechCrunch in an interview. “Data infrastructure companies don't understand the machine learning data problem at a fundamental level.” So Chang (one of the co-creators of the wildly popular Python data science library Pandas) co-founded LanceDB in collaboration…
Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 stunned companies that relied on oil and gas energy. Suddenly, renewable energy became essential to survival. But what's the best way to buy one? This was the germ of the idea behind trawa, a Berlin-based renewable energy supply company that recently raised €10 million in a seed round led by Balderton Capital. This funding round brings the startup's total raised to over €12 million. Trawa's pitch is to simplify energy purchasing and management for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by leveraging two things: An AI-powered platform that allows businesses to buy from…
If you live in the US, you may be using apps like Venmo or Cash App to pay back friends or split bills with your roommate. Lydia is a French startup that has turned payments into mobile apps and services for consumers. Now, with 8 million users, the company finds itself in an interesting position. Do you want to add more financial services to increase your average revenue per user? Or simplify your app so that as many people as possible can use Lydia to send and receive money from their mobile phones? Do you want to? The company essentially…
Cargo ships that enter a commercial port incur costs called “payments'' and “port call expenses.'' These may include port fees, towing fees, and pilotage fees. It's a complex patchwork, with every port performing its own steps, many of which are done on spreadsheets. The global cost of port calls exceeds $220 billion annually, including all ships. Now, Harbor Lab, the Greek maritime software startup we last covered when it raised a €6.1 million seed round, has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round led by European VC Atomico. According to Harbor Lab, the cost of ship calls is…
Indian insurance startup Go Digit has raised $141 million from dozens of investors as part of an initial public offering that begins Wednesday. Indian investment trusts managed by Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Bay Pound, Mirae Asset Management, Steadview Capital, HSBC, as well as SBI, ICICI, Axis, Tata, and Edelweiss. served as the anchor backer for the IPO. , Go Digit disclosed in a stock exchange filing. Founded by former KPMG executive and insurance industry veteran Kamesh Goyal, Go Digit sells auto, health, travel and accident insurance. The startup simplifies the insurance purchasing and reimbursement process,…
Climate change isn't just about removing carbon from the atmosphere or building more fuel-efficient cars. It also concerns the food we eat. This is the focus of Peak Bridge, a global fund manager in the agri-food tech sector. The company recently completed his $187 million capital commitment to PeakBridge Growth Fund II to invest in innovation in these areas. This will bring the company's total assets under management to over $250 million. Luxembourg-based PeakBridge is a member of the Edmond de Rothschild Private Equity Partnership. The company was founded in 2020 by general partners Eric Seaver and Nadav Berger. “We…
Accion, a global nonprofit organization, announced on Tuesday that Accion is a $152.5 million fund targeting large financial institutions, including microfinance, serving small and medium-sized businesses currently excluded from the global financial system. Announced the launch of the Digital Transformation Fund. The company said in a statement that it will provide these companies with growth capital and strategic support for their “digital transformation.” For more than 60 years, this nonprofit organization has been active in the financial services field. First, by developing and scaling solutions tailored to small business orders, smallholder farmers, and women. Second, we provide investment and advisory…
Meta's newest social network, Threads, is launching its own fact-checking program after piggybacking on Instagram and Facebook's networks for several months. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said the company “recently” introduced the ability for fact checkers to evaluate and mark false content in threads. However, Mosseri did not provide details on when exactly the program was rolled out or whether it was limited to specific regions. It is also unclear which organizations are Thread Meta's fact-checking partners. We've asked the company for more information and will update the story if we hear back. The move appears to be primarily aimed at…
Ilya Sutskever, one of OpenAI's co-founders and longtime OpenAI chief scientist, has left the company. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced This news was posted by X on Tuesday evening. “This is very sad for me. Ilya is without a doubt one of the greatest minds of our generation, a leader in our field, and a dear friend,” Altman said. “Without him, OpenAI would not be what it is today. He has personally meaningful work to undertake, but I will forever be grateful to him for what he has done here.” I am deeply grateful to all of you and remain…
Google is reinventing itself for the AI era, introducing a new way to filter only text-based links as it provides an AI overview within search results. A new “Web” filter that appears at the top of the results page will allow users to filter text links in the same way they currently filter images, videos, news, and shopping. The news was announced on Tuesday Via Post to X During Google I/O, the company's developer conference, the company unveiled news such as AI-curated search results and an overview of AI in search, which marked a major shift at Google. We've released…