Harmonyze wants to build AI agents to help franchisors make sense of unstructured data

For some businesses, there is a clear path to growth that doesn't involve acquiring other companies or expanding organically: franchising. The U.S. has more than 800,000 franchise businesses, according to Statista, and that number is predicted to keep growing year over year. But franchising a b

Lux Capital made its first investment in Brazil, a $4M seed for AI fintech Magie

Brazil fintech Magie raised $4 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital, marking the firm's first investment in Brazil. The company, which has raised $5.1 million in total, is creating an AI-powered financial assistant. The current product allows people to send money and pay bills through Wha

Dropbox acquires Index Ventures-backed AI scheduling tool Reclaim.ai

Dropbox has acquired AI-powered scheduling tool Reclaim.ai, which counts Calendly and Index Ventures among its backers. The development was revealed in a blog post on Reclaim.ai’s website Tuesday. Dropbox hasn’t disclosed the terms of the deal. Reclaim.ai, which was founded in 2019 by

Opkey, an AI-based ERP testing platform, raises $47M

Companies are experimenting with services like ChatGPT to help workers write memos, answer questions, and much more. Yet, one of the clearest signs of how much traction AI is really getting in the world of enterprise IT is how often it figures in the more routine applications that organizations use

Kenyan HR and payroll startup Workpay lands Visa as investor in $5M round

Businesses across Africa face challenges managing payroll, especially in a landscape with different regulations, remote employees, and hybrid workplaces. About 80% of small and medium-sized businesses still use Excel and Google Sheets, as they can't afford or maintain complex payroll systems.&n

VC leading Bolt's hoped-for $450M deal confirms he's offering 'marketing credits'

Ashesh Shah, the founder and CEO of The London Fund is, as you might imagine, bullish on Bolt. The London Fund is a U.K. venture firm with “over $1 billion in cash and assets” in AUM that is leading a proposed $450 million raise for Bolt, a one-click checkout startup that has been embro

This new accessible Xbox nunchuk controller has 3D-printable joystick parts

Microsoft demonstrated its leadership in accessible gaming hardware again on Wednesday with the announcement of a new one-handed joystick controller for Xbox and PC. The Xbox Adaptive Joystick works with the company’s already robust accessibility hardware stack, and even includes support for

Telecom that enabled Biden deepfake scam will pay FCC $1M

Early this year, AI-powered fake audio of President Biden reached voters in New Hampshire. The FCC struck back swiftly, identifying the perpetrator as the Texas-based Life Corporation, which has been behind similar scams over the years, and whacked them and an associated individual with a $6 millio

OpenAI’s opposition to California’s AI bill ‘makes no sense,’ says state senator

OpenAI broke its silence on California’s most controversial AI bill on Tuesday, officially expressing opposition in a letter to California state Senator Scott Wiener and Governor Gavin Newsom. The AI giant argued that SB 1047, introduced by Wiener in February, would stifle innovation and push

August was Medium’s first profitable month — ever

August was online publishing platform Medium’s first profitable month — ever. That’s according to Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine, who on Wednesday published a recap of Medium’s recent digital Medium Day 2024 conference. Stubblebine says that Medium had over a million subscrib

This founder had to train his AI not to Rickroll people

Flo Crivello was monitoring outputs from the AI assistants his company Lindy makes when he noticed something strange. A new client had asked her Lindy AI assistant for a video tutorial that would help her better understand how to use the platform, and the Lindy responded in kind — that's when

Gamified rower startup Aviron branches out into bikes

Call it a reverse Peloton. Toronto-based Aviron, best known for its connected rower, has released a stationary bike. The Fit Bike runs $2,400, though the company has taken $400 off the price right out the gate. That places the system between Peloton's entry-level Bike ($1,500) and Bike+ ($2,500

D-ID launches an AI video translation tool that includes voice cloning and lip sync

AI video creation platform D-ID is the latest company to ship a tool for translating videos into other languages using AI technologies. However, in this case, D-ID also clones the speaker’s voice and changes their lip movements to match the translated words as part of the AI editing process.

Typing these four characters could crash your iPhone

A newly discovered bug causes iPhones and iPads to briefly crash. All you need to trigger the bug are just four characters.  On Wednesday, a security researcher found that typing “”:: can cause the Apple mobile user interface, called Springboard, to crash.  TechC