Author: TechBrunch

Deezer is the latest music streaming app to introduce an AI playlist feature. The company announced on Monday that some paid users will be able to use the “AI Playlist” feature to create custom playlists with text prompts. The release of the new feature comes months after Spotify and Amazon Music began testing personalized AI playlist generators with their users, while YouTube is also said to be testing a prompt-based AI radio feature. Deezer said 5% of its paying subscribers will have access to the beta feature, which will allow users to create new playlists from prompts describing mood, genre,…

While real-time payments are becoming the norm for individuals and businesses, that's not yet the case for cross-border transactions, and Carriza wants to change that, starting in Latin America. Founded in 2021 by Ezra Kebrave, an American entrepreneur who now lives in São Paulo, Brazil, Caliza offers an alternative to sending money via SWIFT, which is standard in the Americas but can take days to settle. Instead, Caliza offers an API and front-end payment system that uses cryptocurrency stablecoins (specifically Circle’s reserve-backed USDC) and an existing real-time payments network to enable instant transfers and provide U.S. digital dollar accounts to…

The construction industry has a problem with delayed payments. Studies show that due to factors such as delays, multiple payment tiers, and cost overruns, it takes an average of two to three months for construction companies to get paid. The cost of missed construction contract payments is expected to reach $273 billion in 2023, accounting for 14% of total project spending that year. Matthew Calvano, along with Henry Bradlaugh and Francisco Enriquez, saw the problem as being due to back-office inefficiencies, so in 2021, the three co-founded Adaptive, a platform that provides tools to simplify payments and accounting for general…

When VanMoof declared bankruptcy last year, around 5,000 customers who had pre-ordered electric bikes were left in the cold. Now VanMoof has relaunched under new management, and the company's current owners are offering those same customers a €1,000 discount on new bikes to buy them. It was a bold strategy, a gamble that abandoned customers who liked VanMoof bikes would shell out a few thousand euros more. Before its bankruptcy, VanMoof required customers to pay nearly the full amount when they pre-ordered to give the startup working capital, but this resulted in long wait times for delivery. Prices for bikes…

Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world's population. Demand is also growing as the population in South and Southeast Asia grows. However, a significant portion of rice production still relies on traditional cultivation methods, which emits large amounts of methane, a major contributor to climate change. Methane is about 30 times more effective at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but dissipates faster than carbon dioxide. Rice production also requires large amounts of freshwater, about 3,000 liters per kilogram of rice, or 20 million liters per hectare of rice farmland. Mitti Labs aims to use…

More and more hackers are targeting regular people with the goal of stealing their crypto, perhaps getting into their bank accounts, or simply stalking them. These types of attacks are still relatively rare, so there’s no need for alarm. But it’s important to know what you can do to protect yourself if you suspect someone got into your email or social media account. A few years ago, I wrote a guide to help people protect themselves, and understand that most of the companies you have an account with already offer you tools to take control of your accounts’ security, even…

There’s now a general consensus that generative AI will fundamentally transform business, and that companies and individuals that don’t get on board will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. At the same time, as companies explore this technology more deeply, they will want evidence, real business metrics that show how AI is actually improving business performance and revenue. You can't (and shouldn't) just trust vendor promises, but it's hard to see a direct correlation between, say, Microsoft Copilot and overall business performance. So should CIOs just take it on faith? In this week's Clouded Judgement newsletter, investor Jamin…

Google's parent company, Alphabet, may be on the verge of making the biggest acquisition in its history. The Wall Street Journal reports that Alphabet is in talks to acquire Wiz for about $23 billion. The deal hasn't been finalized yet, but the WSJ reports it could be coming together soon. Wiz offers an all-in-one cloud security approach that ingests data from cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, and scans it all for security risk factors. Alphabet executives likely see the acquisition as a way to bolster Google's cloud business, which grew 28% to $9.57 billion…

The collapse and bankruptcy of BaaS fintech company Synapse has revealed just how treacherous things can become in the interdependent fintech industry when one of the key players runs into trouble. Synapse operated a service that allowed other companies, primarily fintechs, to incorporate banking services into their own offerings: For example, a software provider specializing in payroll for companies with many 1099 subscribers used Synapse to offer instant payments capabilities, while other providers used it to offer specialized credit and debit cards. The San Francisco-based startup has raised a total of just over $50 million in venture capital funding, including…

While AI fatigue is real for some, venture capitalists are clearly not tired of the space. According to the latest data from Crunchbase, over $35.5 billion was invested in AI startups worldwide in the first half of 2024 alone. Five of the six venture capital rounds of over $1 billion raised in the first half of 2024 were by AI companies. Many other AI startups have also successfully raised mega rounds of over $100 million. U.S. startups raised two $1 billion rounds in the first half of the year, accounting for nearly two-thirds (64%) of mega rounds. Here are the…