Author: TechBrunch
Captions, the video editing app backed by a16z, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Captial, has launched a new feature that takes existing unedited videos and adds custom graphics, zooms, music, sound effects, transitions and motion backgrounds based on the content. AI editing has some limitations: The video must be vertical with only one person in the frame, speaking. Importantly, if you don't have such a video or it's not your style of videography, you can still create a short prompted video using Captions' AI avatar and later send that video to the AI editing feature to create a fully edited video…
Samsara Eco produces and sells fossil-free polymer resins that can be integrated into supply chains, potentially replacing plastic packaging and textiles with more sustainable alternatives. The Australian startup took a major step forward on Wednesday, securing an additional $65 million (A$100 million) in all-equity funding. The round was co-led by Temasek and Mainsequence, an Australian deep tech investment fund. The investment also included new and existing backers including DCVC, Hitachi Ventures, Lululemon, Titanium Ventures and Wollemi Capital, bringing the total amount Samsara has raised since its founding in 2020 to $73 million (A$164 million). Samsara CEO and founder Paul Riley…
Rainforest, a startup that builds payment processing into other software platforms, has raised $20 million in Series A funding, less than a year after announcing the closing of its seed funding round. While successive rounds of funding were more common in 2021, they are less common in this new environment. Rainforest's traction likely helped it attract new investor Matrix Partners, as well as returning investors including Accel, Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures and Ardent Venture Partners. In total, the company has raised $31.75 million. Rainforest says it has seen a 17-fold increase in payment volume in…
While artificial intelligence startups continue to garner attention with big venture capital rounds, there's also ample opportunity for companies building tools that make it easier to work with data-heavy applications like AI. This is especially true for organizations that still have one foot (or both) in the traditional data camp. In the latest example of such an opportunity, data connectivity solutions provider CData has raised a whopping $350 million in growth funding, a round that values the company at more than $800 million after the funding, a source close to the company confirmed to TechCrunch. CData has about 7,000 large…
The airline industry is on track to hit a record $996 billion in revenue this year, driven by a surge in travel demand, but profit margins remain razor-thin: Total airline costs are expected to hit $936 billion, according to industry group IATA, and revenue per passenger is expected to be about $6.14 — roughly the price of a latte in New York. Looking to boost profits, more airlines are turning to controversial dynamic pricing techniques, which vary fares and amenity prices based on travelers' willingness to pay. Despite a lukewarm response from consumers, 258 airlines now use some form of…
No-code CRM and workflow automation platform Creatio announced Wednesday that it has raised $200 million in funding led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from StepStone Group and current investors Volition Capital and Horizon Capital. “The problem we're trying to solve is serving the needs of knowledge workers,” said Catherine Kostereva, co-founder and CEO of Creatio, “and we're talking about 1.7 billion people around the world. [who we want to help] Automate your workflows with the power of no-code. Image credit: Creatio Demand for software continues to grow, but the number of developers hasn't kept up, she noted. Of course, Creatio…
Activity tracking platform and community Strava is shutting down Fatmap, the Europe-based 3D mapping platform it acquired last January. In an email sent to users this week along with an online support page, Fatmap said its website and app will be shut down on October 1, 2024, and that in the meantime, users will have the option to transfer their Fatmap routes to Strava. The company says it's “bringing Fatmap's 3D mapping and other features to Strava,” but digging into the details makes it clear that a number of features will be omitted in the move. “Google Maps for the…
More than a year and a half after its spin-off from PhonePee, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has quietly started rolling out its own payments app, called Super Money, as it expands its fintech ambitions. The Walmart-owned company's new app, currently in beta on the Play Store, allows users to make mobile payments via UPI, an interoperable network that is the most common way Indians conduct online transactions. To lure customers, Super.money promises “real cashback,” not “useless rewards,” for paying, sending and receiving money via the app, the Android app description says. The Flipkart Group-owned company also plans to expand its…
An increasing number of elderly people are choosing to spend their retirement years at home rather than in a nursing home. A survey by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that about 90% of people over the age of 65 want to continue living in their own homes as they age, meaning there's plenty of work for home care agencies that care for seniors primarily during the day, and sometimes just a few hours a day or week. Sensi.AI claims that the technology it has developed will help home care agencies virtually monitor the health of elderly people…
With new generative AI startups like Eleven Labs, you might think that translation services are the hottest market. But speech translation predates another market that startups have been targeting for a while now: content translation. This remains a big market, as companies with international operations need to translate content around the world. The $106 million raised to date by companies like Portugal's Unbabel (which recently raised $60 million) is proof of that. Content translation specialist EasyTranslate has been around since 2010, using machine learning models to identify the best freelance translators to translate specific types of content. But now the…