Author: TechBrunch
MIT professor Mike Stonebraker has been at the forefront of database technology for more than 50 years. The former Turing Award winner invented the Ingres database and his Postgres database and helped launch many companies including Streambase Systems (which he acquired by Tibco in 2013), VoltDB, Tamr, and SciDB. Now 80 years old, he knows a thing or two about database technology and starting a company. His latest project, DBOS, puts the database at the center of the software stack and reduces the operating system to a small kernel of low-level functionality. In today's data-centric world, he believes Linux has…
Nanonets, a startup that uses AI to automate back-office processes, has raised $29 million in a new funding round led by Accel, aiming to improve the accuracy of automated processes involving large amounts of unstructured data. Processing unstructured data from documents such as invoices, receipts, and purchase orders often requires repetitive tasks and significant human resources. Primarily targeting the financial services sector, Nanonets says his company's AI platform aims to improve the efficiency of these processes and make them more cost-effective. The startup, an AY Combinator alumnus, has built an AI platform through which it offers no-code solutions that help…
This year's early stage social gathering in Boston is fast approaching. That means it's time to add three more names to the ever-growing list of high-performance smart speakers and answer your hottest questions. Today, we're excited to announce that Tobi Coker from Felicis, Julia Neagu from Quotient AI, and Nabiha Saklayen from Cellino are on the scene and ready to hit the ground running next month. Regular readers of TechCrunch will remember that Cellino won the 2021 Battlefield event. The company later raised $80 million in a round in which Felicis also participated. Quotient is a bit of a secret…
AI may be the “IT” of the moment. But that doesn't mean it's easier to implement. According to the 2023 S&P Global Survey, approximately half of companies with at least one AI project in operation are still in the pilot or proof-of-concept stage. There are many reasons for slow startups, but commonly cited challenges include data management, security, and computing resources. Roughly half of companies responding to an S&P poll said they are not ready to implement AI and do not intend to do so within the next five years or more. Fortunately, there is a growing number of products…
Tavus, a four-year-old generative AI startup that helps companies create digital “replicas” of individuals for automated, personalized video campaigns, confirms $18 million in new funding, It can be built into its own software, which has opened up its platform to third parties to integrate their technology. Reports date back to August that Tavus had raised “approximately $18 million,” but details have not been released. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has indeed raised $18 million in a Series A round led by Scale Venture Partners, an early-stage VC firm that has previously backed companies like Box, HubSpot, and DocuSign.…
Peak XV aims to become a key LP in the company's future business and explore investments across various asset classes, creating an 'Evergreen' fund funded by investment partners and an extended team. a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The most influential investor in India and Southeast Asia revealed the news to its limited partners at its annual general meeting in New Delhi this week. With the “forever” fund, Peak XV aims to bring “a culture of high accountability and collaboration with LPs” and a “differentiated” ability to grow as an organization, according to LP sources familiar with the…
Self-driving car software company Applied Intuition has raised $250 million in a round that values the startup at $6 billion to advance the adoption of artificial intelligence in the automotive, defense, construction, and agriculture sectors. This impressive funding round is the latest example of investors' enthusiasm for AI. Applied Intuition seems to have hit a particularly sweet spot for VCs looking for AI product startups with big budgets to break into large-scale industries (one area of focus is defense). There seem to be endless opportunities. The Series E round was led by Lux Capital's Bilal Zuberi, investor Elad Gil, and…
Although recordings of your voice may seem harmless, they can actually reveal not only your identity, but also additional data such as your mood. But it can also discover diseases you may be suffering from. Although people may not realize this yet, companies that process data are increasingly recognizing that they need to treat voice as personally identifiable information. This is especially true in Europe from a GDPR perspective. Many companies want to build AI based on voice data, but this often requires removing biometric information first. Nijta wants to help in this regard by offering AI-powered voice anonymization technology…
UK-based Ada Ventures is an unusual VC. Rather than just talking about SaaS and AI, we hunt down founders who are committed to inclusivity and diversity. Rather than confuse LPs, this methodology attracted them, and the final close of the second fund reached the $80 million level (the first close last October reached $44.7 million). ). The fund's LPs include British Business Bank, University of Edinburgh, Big Society Capital, Legal & General Capital, Atomico, Danish Export Investment Fund (EIFO) and Molten Ventures. Additionally, founding investors including Taavet Hinrikus (founder of Wise) and Illusian (family office of Supercell co-founder and CEO…
Sunlight is one of the cleanest forms of energy and the EU is determined to make sure we harness the giant fusion balls in the sky to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. Indeed, as part of its REPowerEU plan, the European Commission is considering introducing regulations that would require the installation of rooftop solar energy panels on most new and public and commercial buildings by 2026. However, not all European countries receive a lot of sunlight. Spain is one of the sunniest countries in Europe, so you might think solar power would be popular. Peak sunshine hours in Spain…