Insight VC describes Databricks’ wild $10B deal and the bad advice the CEO ignored
It's been a wild week for investors clawing their way into Databricks’ record-breaking $10 billion fundraising, one of the VCs leading the deal told technewss.
“There were calls that went well late into the night, and that’s okay, that’s how good opportunities emerge,”
AI boom masks fundraising struggles for non-AI startups
Earlier this year, IVP general partner Tom Loverro proclaimed that the post-pandemic downturn is over, and companies that made it this far should prioritize growth over cost-cutting.
Yet, the companies still struggling to raise their next round of financing at a higher valuation or survive altoget
Bob Lee verdict: Cash App creator’s killer found guilty of second-degree murder
A San Francisco jury has found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing of Bob Lee, the Cash App creator and former CTO of Block, according to NBC Bay Area on Tuesday. The jury found Momeni not guilty of first-degree murder, meaning jurors decided the murder of Lee was not premedi
Commonwealth Fusion Systems just picked its first commercial site partly because of its proximity to Washington, DC
Commonwealth Fusion Systems will build its first commercial-scale power plant just outside of Richmond, Virginia, the company announced Tuesday, with a goal of hooking it up to the grid in the early 2030s.
Fusion power has long been derided as being decades away, but the new milestone assumes the
Bridgy Fed, a project to connect the open social web, is now becoming a nonprofit
Bridgy Fed, which is working to connect the social network Bluesky with the wider fediverse (i.e., the open social web), which includes sites like Mastodon and others, will be the first app incubated within a new nonprofit called A New Social. The organization, announced Tuesday, aims to bring toge
This fintech processed $1B in payments through word-of-mouth
Welcome to technewss Fintech! This week, we're diving into:
How Juicyway processed more than $1 billion in cross-border payments.
CarDekho SEA's first round of external funding.
A fintech using AI to match financial advisers with prospective clients.
And more!
P.S. We're t
Grammarly acquires productivity startup Coda, brings on new CEO
Grammarly is acquiring productivity startup Coda, the company announced on Tuesday. As part of the deal, Coda's CEO and co-founder Shishir Mehrotra will become the new CEO of Grammarly.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition will help turn Grammar
Stephen Curry’s Penny Jar Capital files to raise a Fund II
Penny Jar Capital, the early-stage firm founded by Bryant Barr and Richard Scudellari and where basketball star Stephen Curry serves as a special adviser, has filed to raise a Fund II with no target amount, according to an SEC form filed in October.
The firm also filed in October to raise what a
Google joins $90M investment into Cassava to bolster Africa’s digital infrastructure
With cloud spend continuing to surge, tech companies are scrambling to meet demand for the necessary infrastructure, with the growing need for AI compute only adding fuel to the fire.
By way of example, Microsoft and BlackRock have created a $30 billion fund to support new data centers and energy
Google says customers can use its AI in ‘high-risk’ domains, so long as there’s human supervision
Google has changed its terms to clarify that customers can deploy its generative AI tools to make “automated decisions” in “high-risk” domains, like healthcare, so long as there’s a human in the loop.
According to the company’s updated Generative AI Prohibited U
UK consults on opt-out model for training AIs on copyrighted content
The U.K. government is consulting on an opt-out copyright regime for AI training that would require rights holders to take active steps if they don’t want their intellectual property to become free AI training fodder.
The rise of generative AI models that are trained on vast quantities of d
Slip Robotics snags $28M for its bots that can load a truck in five minutes
Drop by any given loading dock and a buzz of forklifts — loaded up with goods — can be spotted maneuvering in and out of truck trailers. This logistical dance can take up to an hour to fill a trailer, leaving truck drivers in idle limbo.
The founders of Atlanta-based Slip Robotics say they
SoundCloud introduces a cheaper plan for artists
Music streaming platform SoundCloud announced Tuesday that it is introducing a new, cheaper paid plan for artists simply called Artist, while renaming its Next Pro plan to Artist Pro.
The new basic tier will cost $39 per year and put some limits on features like track amplification, distribution,
FTC bans hidden junk fees in short-term lodging, live-event ticket prices
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission passed a rule on Tuesday banning hidden “junk fees” for live events, hotels, and vacation rentals. The agency says the new rule prohibits “bait-and-switch pricing,” and other practices that hide total prices and bury junk fees in the live-ev