January 2024
Update, 1/31/23 at 1:15 PM ET: Pokimane has now confirmed she left Twitch to stream on YouTube. One of the most popular streamers on Twitch, Pokimane announced today that she…
Block, the fintech company whose subsidiaries include Square, Cash App and Afterpay, is laying off staff at a tumultuous time for tech industry workers. That’s according to an internal memo…
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CEOs from Meta, TikTok, Snap, X and Discord head to Congress for kids’ online safety hearing
CEOs from some of the biggest social platforms will appear before Congress on Wednesday to defend their companies against mounting criticism that they have done too little to protect kids and teens online. The hearing, set to begin at 10 a.m. ET, is the latest in a long string of congressional tech hearings stretching back…
OpenAI is pushing adoption of GPTs, third-party apps powered by its AI models, by enabling ChatGPT users to invoke them in any chat. Starting today, paid users of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s…
Spend management startup Ramp has acquired AI-powered startup Venue as it expands its procurement offering. Venue was founded in 2022 by TK Kong, Young Kim, and Kevin Chan, and its…
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Why there’s no clear winning pricing strategy in B2B SaaS
New data from Maxio indicates that both consumption and subscription pricing have their advantages when it comes to growth, but not at the same time.
PayPal has begun company-wide layoffs, according to multiple reports, including an article published by The Information. It is not yet clear at the time of writing how many people will…
Some IRS employees still access TikTok despite ban on government devices
The TikTok ban on U.S. government devices is proving hard to enforce. A month after the IRS was found to be in non-compliance with the federally mandated ban on the…
Building a solid rulebook around AI policies in the workplace now can help prevent plenty of headaches in the future.
Apple revealed today that users earned more than $1 billion in Daily Cash from spending on Apple Card last year. The tech giant also announced that Apple Card has topped…
Heart failure monitoring startup Acorai turns heads with oversubscribed seed
Swedish medical device startup Acorai is pairing proprietary sensing hardware and machine learning software with the goal of putting a non-invasive heart pressure monitoring tool in the hands of clinicians…
Nile raises $11.6M in seed funding to build a Postgres-powered data layer for SaaS applications
SaaS needs a new data system. That’s the driving idea behind Nile, a startup that aims to create this data system with serverless Postgres at its core. Co-founded by Sriram…
TikTok tests a feature that would bring TikTok Shop links to more videos
TikTok is experimenting with a feature that has the ability to make all posts on the app shoppable, as first reported by Bloomberg. The move is part of the company’s…
Reading the fine print of Apple’s DMA rules: 25 things app developers need to know
Apple last week announced new rules for EU app developers to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). After being designated as a “gatekeeper,” the EU required Apple to make…
Inngest, a startup that makes it easier for developers to build and manage serverless backends, today announced that it has raised a $6.1 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz,…
Aurora Solar lays off 20% of employees after reportedly missing growth targets
The SaaS startup, which provides software to solar installers, reportedly missed its growth targets for the past year.
What makes startups more likely to succeed is the quality of the team, their ability to execute, and their sense of timing.
Drone couriers and virtual faces among Alchemist Accelerator’s demo day highlights
Today is demo day at Alchemist Accelerator, which focuses on very early stage startups from technical founders. Fifteen companies are presenting in this batch, but here are several we thought…
Watch SpaceX launch a Northrop Grumman resupply mission to the ISS
SpaceX is teaming up with Northrop Grumman today to deliver more than 8,000 pounds of cargo, fresh food and scientific experiments to astronauts on the International Space Station. The NG-20…
If you build a truly great product, people will happily pay for it. Just check out how well Apple and Tesla have done.
Studio’s new online school for musicians uses AI to create custom curriculums
MasterClass rival Studio launched today its first AI-powered online school for musicians, songwriters and producers to learn from top artists in the industry, create new songs, get feedback from like-minded…
Instagram Threads triples downloads in December, reaching the top 10; X falls to No. 36
Instagram Threads is gaining traction after growth stalled last year, which had some prematurely wondering if the app was already dead. New data indicates that’s not the case — in…
SMOK VC’s second fund is another signal that Poland’s tech scene is hitting its stride
In 2007 I was running late for my speech at the Polish Stock Exchange, but the cool reception I received there suggested I should perhaps not have bothered. Speaking about…
Now with $5M, Leal invests in AI-driven customer engagement for LatAm merchants
Leal enables merchants to create a customer database to then offer cashback and rewards products to loyal shoppers on everyday purchases.
PadSplit, a marketplace for affordable shared housing, surpasses 10K+ units
PadSplit aims to address the lack of supply, access and affordability in the rental market with its co-living marketplace designed specifically for lower-income workers, which includes flexible commitment terms and…
Airfocus bags $7.5M for its take on project management software
In 2017, Malte Scholz, then a project manager at a 200-person startup, was struggling to find a product management tool that worked both for him and the teams under his…
Ubiquity Ventures secures $75M for Fund III to invest in ‘software beyond the screen’
Sunil Nagaraj describes “software beyond the screen,” as using software to navigate, perceive, understand and control the real physical world.
GPUs’ ability to perform many computations in parallel make them well-suited to running today’s most capable AI. But GPUs are becoming tougher to procure, as companies of all sizes increase…
Haven Energy lands $7M Series A 9 months after its seed round
The startup’s platform helps speed the installation of batteries to back up home and small commercial solar installations.
Kore.ai, a startup building conversational AI for enterprises, raises $150M
In the midst of a wave of tech industry layoffs, it’s heartening to see some startups succeeding despite the dour market outlook. Kore.ai, a company developing enterprise-focused conversational AI and…
