RevenueCat, a top subscription management platform for apps that monetize via in-app purchases, is now flush with new capital as it expands to the web. The company has closed on a $12 million Series C led by Adjacent, following the launch of a new product, RevenueCat Billing, that allows web app developers to integrate subscription purchases into any website. Later, it will also support Roku. The … [Read more...]
Paystand acquires Teampay to be DeFi version of ‘Venmo for B2B payments’
Paystand has acquired spend management software startup Teampay to create what the companies describe as a “no-fee B2B digital payment and spend powerhouse.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Teampay has raised $65 million since it was founded in 2016. The combined company services over 1 million businesses running on a commercial blockchain to more than 1 million participants. It … [Read more...]
The impact of TikTok’s ban in other countries could signal what’s ahead for the U.S.
On April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if its owner ByteDance doesn’t sell the app. The bill requires ByteDance to secure a deal within nine months, with a 90-day extension available to close it. After this deadline, the U.S. will bar app stores from listing the app. TikTok will challenge this decision in courts with a long legal battle ahead of us. But many … [Read more...]
Petlibro’s new smart refrigerated wet food feeder is what your cat deserves
Ding, ding, ding! Dinner is served. Fresh out of the cold tin can. Petlibro, a pet tech startup that designs automatic food and water dispensers for cats, launched its first refrigerated smart feeder on Thursday. The company’s new “Polar Wet Food Feeder” aims to solve a widely known problem among pet owners: how to keep their cat’s wet food fresh while they’re away. While dry cat food can stay out … [Read more...]
Carv raises $10M Series A to help gamers monetize their data
Carv, a data layer platform that lets web3 gaming and AI companies, as well as gamers, control and monetize their data, has raised a $10 million Series A round led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. Carv’s new round comes approximately five months after it received a strategic investment led by HashKey Capital. The startup did not disclose its valuation and the total funding it has raised … [Read more...]
Ex-NSA hacker and ex-Apple researcher launch startup to protect Apple devices
Two veteran security experts are launching a startup that aims to help other makers of cybersecurity products to up their game in protecting Apple devices. Their startup is called DoubleYou, the name taken from the initials of its co-founder, Patrick Wardle, who worked at the U.S. National Security Agency between 2006 and 2008. Wardle then worked as an offensive security researcher for years … [Read more...]
India’s ICICI Bank exposed thousands of credit cards to ‘wrong’ users
ICICI Bank, one of India’s top private banks, exposed the sensitive data of thousands of new credit cards to customers who were not their intended recipients. The Mumbai-based bank confirmed to TechCrunch Thursday that its digital channels “erroneously mapped” about 17,000 credit cards issued in the past few days to “wrong” users. The issue came to light after some customers raised concerns on … [Read more...]
Watch it and weep (or smile): Synthesia’s AI video avatars now feature emotions
Generative AI has captured the public imagination with a leap into creating elaborate, plausibly real text and imagery out of verbal prompts. But the catch — and there is often a catch — is that the results are often far from perfect when you look a little closer. People point out strange fingers, floor tiles slip away, and math problems are precisely that: problematically, sometimes they don’t … [Read more...]
Meta could face further squeeze on surveillance ads model in EU
Meta’s tracking ads business could be facing further legal blows in the European Union: An influential advisor to the bloc’s top court affirmed Thursday that the region’s privacy laws limits on how long people’s data can be used for targeted advertising. In the non-legally binding opinion, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos said use of personal data for advertising must be limited. This is … [Read more...]
TikTok pulls feature from Lite app in EU over addiction concerns
TikTok suspended a gamification feature in the European Union following an intervention by the bloc. With attention on TikTok’s growing pile of US legal woes, the announcement went mostly unnoticed when it occurred late local time Wednesday. TikTok’s move came just two days after the EU opened an investigation into a so-called “task and reward” mechanism on the TikTok Lite app, citing concerns … [Read more...]
Playruo lets you try game demos from your web browser
It’s still unclear whether cloud gaming will ever become the next big thing. The appeal is clear: The game you’re playing runs in a data center near you, and the video output is directly streamed to your local device. When you interact with the game, everything is relayed back to the data center. When it works, it’s an amazing experience. It’s a flexible, easy way to play games across multiple … [Read more...]
Edonia grabs €2M to turn microalgae into less bitter-tasting ground meat alternative
As the world’s population continues to grow, the need to be able to feed everyone is something a number of entities are working on. Paris-based Edonia, is one of the startups working on creating protein ingredients using microalgae. Edonia joins companies like Bevel, AlgaeCore Technologies, Algenuity and NewFish that are all tapping into the global market for commercial algae expected to be valued … [Read more...]
Swiggy, the Indian food delivery giant, seeks $1.25 billion in IPO after receiving shareholder approval
Swiggy plans to raise $1.25 billion in an initial public offering and has secured approval from its shareholders, the Indian food delivery and instant commerce startup disclosed in a filing to the local regulator. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which competes with publicly-listed Zomato and StepStone Group-backed unicorn Zepto, plans to raise $450 million through issuance of new shares and … [Read more...]
Mark Zuckerberg says Threads has 150 million monthly active users
Meta’s Twitter/X rival Threads is growing at a stable pace. The social network now has more than 150 million monthly active users — up from 130 million in February — Mark Zuckerberg mentioned during the company’s Q1 2024 earnings call. Since the last quarterly earnings call, Threads has notably taken steps towards integrating with ActivityPub, the decentralized protocol that powers networks like … [Read more...]
Xaira, an AI drug discovery startup, launches with a massive $1B, says it’s ‘ready’ to start developing drugs
Advances in generative AI have taken the tech world by storm. Biotech investors are making a big bet that similar computational methods could revolutionize drug discovery. On Tuesday, ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, an affiliate of Foresite Capital, announced that they incubated Xaira Therapeutics and funded the AI biotech with $1 billion. Other investors in the new company, which has … [Read more...]
Anduril moves ahead in Pentagon program to develop unmanned fighter jets
Anduril Industries has taken another step forward in its quest to become the next great American prime, this time by beating out major defense companies to develop and test small unmanned fighter jet prototypes. The venture capital darling beat out Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman on the deal, under the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. General Atomics was the … [Read more...]
IBM moves deeper into hybrid cloud management with $6.4B HashiCorp acquisition
IBM wisely gravitated away from trying to be a pure cloud infrastructure vendor years ago, recognizing that it could never compete with the big three: Amazon, Microsoft and Google. It has since moved onto helping IT departments manage complex hybrid environments, using its financial clout to acquire a portfolio of high-profile companies. It began with the $34 billion Red Hat acquisition in 2018, … [Read more...]
Rabbit’s R1 is a little AI gadget that grows on you
If there’s one overarching takeaway from last night’s Rabbit R1 launch event, it’s this: Hardware can be fun again. After a decade of unquestioned smartphone dominance, there is, once again, excitement to be found in consumer electronics. The wisdom and longevity of any individual product or form factor — while important — can be set aside for a moment. Just sit back and enjoy the show. Despite … [Read more...]
JioCinema, the Indian streaming service, launches 35-cent tier to box out Netflix and Prime Video
JioCinema, the popular Indian on-demand video-streaming service, introduced a new monthly subscription plan on Wednesday, with the lowest tier costing just 35 cents. The revamp in the pricing strategy comes as the market-leading service seeks to exert greater pressure on rivals including Netflix and Prime Video and “redefine the narrative of premium entertainment.” The service — backed by Asia’s … [Read more...]
Eric Schmidt-backed Augment, a GitHub Copilot rival, launches out of stealth with $252M
AI is supercharging coding — and developers are embracing it. In a recent StackOverflow poll, 44% of software engineers said that they use AI tools as part of their development processes now and 26% plan to soon. Gartner estimates that over half of organizations are currently piloting or have already deployed AI-driven coding assistants, and that 75% of developers will use coding assistants in … [Read more...]