Author: TechBrunch
Cryptocurrencies were popular with many investors before the world turned to artificial intelligence thanks to advances in generative AI. So when some venture capital firms began rapidly switching focus between AI and cryptocurrencies, industry onlookers scoffed at their opportunism. Meanwhile, a wave of entrepreneurs has emerged who enthusiastically support the convergence of AI and cryptocurrencies.Vitalik Buterin, the core founder of the Ethereum blockchain network, sparked a frenzy last month when he posted an article pondering his four possible applications of “AI + Crypto” Among his Twitter followers. The use case is not yet proven at scale. A Singapore-based startup is…
TikTok will launch an in-app campaign next month to reach users in each of the European Union's 27 member states and direct them to “trusted information” as part of preparations to combat disinformation risks related to this year's local elections. We are launching localized election resources. “Next month, we will be launching in-app election centers in local languages for each of the 27 EU countries to help people easily distinguish fact from fiction. Local electoral commissions and civil society organizations “In collaboration with TikTok, these election centers will be a place where our community can find trustworthy and authoritative information,”…
Alan's meteoric rise In the French tech ecosystem, “'' is both figurative and literal. A few years ago, the startup's offices were confined to one floor of a nondescript office building near Canal Saint-Martin in Paris. Over time, the company added another floor, and then another… Today, the 550-employee company also occupies the top floor of the building. There is a kitchen in the corner and a common area with a beautiful view of the typical Parisian gray tin roof. This morning, Alan's co-founder and CEO Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve and Chief Revenue Officer Ludovic Bauplé held a press conference with reporters.…
Bold, a financial technology company building electronic payments infrastructure in Colombia, has raised $50 million in Series C funding in a round led by existing investor General Atlantic. The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, joined existing investors InQLab and Amador in this round. Bold co-founder and CEO Jose Velez told TechCrunch that Bold has raised a total of $130 million. Bold offers low-cost payment terminals called dataphones that allow small businesses to accept link payments and other local payment methods. “COVID-19 has accelerated the transition to electronic payments, or digital payments, in this country, and…
KTrust, a Tel Aviv-based security startup, takes a different approach to Kubernetes security than many competitors in the space. KTrust takes a more proactive approach than just scanning Kubernetes clusters and their configurations for known vulnerabilities. Deploy automated systems to attempt to hack into systems. This allows security teams to focus on the actual attack path, not just the long list of potential security vulnerabilities. So KTrust is essentially a read-in-the-box team. However, research firm Gartner prefers to call it Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM). Ktrust today came out of stealth and announced a $5.4 million seed funding round led…
Mushrooms are having a bit of a time. Whether it's in the form of functional drinks, using mushroom roots to make alternative proteins, creating materials like leather, or the mushrooms themselves, fungi are finding an audience. I am. Spacegoods is the latest startup to join the bandwagon. The London-based wellness brand utilizes functional mushrooms and nootropics to create a line of powder blends that touts boosting energy, relaxation, mood, and overall well-being. . E-commerce entrepreneur Matthew Kelly founded a company called Neon Beach, which he grew to £10m, but closed in April 2022 after failing to survive supply chain issues…
Germany-based Early Bird Health has announced the final completion of its second fund of €173 million (approximately $185 million). This is more than double the size of Early Bird's first dedicated healthcare fund, Health I, which reached €85 million at final close. While the funds are similar in investment theme and stage, this will allow Early Bird Health to write bigger checks. The company plans to invest primarily in Europe, including the UK, which could be good news for health tech startups in the region, many of which have been left cash-strapped by the collapse of telemedicine company Babylon. .…
Kenya-based EV startup ROHM raises $24 million in Series A round, including up to $10 million in debt commitment from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), to scale production of electric motorcycles and buses was procured. Equator, an Africa-focused climate technology VC fund, led the round, with participation from multiple investors including At One Ventures, TES Ventures, Renew Capital, The World We Want, and One Small Planet. This investment comes as Roam doubles its assembly. move The bus model was launched last year, a few months after the company opened a new, large-scale motorcycle assembly plant. “Our goal this…
Andrej Karpathy, a widely respected research scientist, today announced his retirement from OpenAI. This is the second time Karpathy has left a top AI company, and he said his departure was not due to any incident, issue or drama. Karpathy, a founding member of OpenAI, left in 2017 to join Tesla. He left Tesla where he led the Autopilot team in 2022, and almost he returned to OpenAI. one year ago. Karpathy also has a huge following on social media and his YouTube, where he posts thought-provoking writing about the emerging universe and videos explaining the inner workings of AI.…
foundry group, an 18-year-old venture firm with approximately $3.5 billion in assets under management, has quietly decided to shut down and not raise any more funds. The move was unexpected considering the company announced a $500 million fund last year. Boulder, Colorado-based Foundry first announced on January 19 that its current fund would be its last. The venture firm has been investing since 2007 and announced a $500 million fund, according to Crunchbase. Foundry 2022 — 8th time — May 2023. Over the years, Foundry hasCo-founder and partner Seth Levine said the firm has invested in more than 200 companies…