Tape It launches an AI-powered music recording app for iPhone
Earlier this year, Apple officially discontinued Music Memos, an iPhone app that allowed musicians to quickly record audio and develop new song ideas. Now, a new startup called Tape It is stepping in to fill the void with an app that improves audio recordings by offering a variety of features, incl
Meet retail’s new sustainability strategy: Personalization
We have been raised to believe in recycling, but it has mostly been a sham — only 9% of all plastic waste produced in 2018 was recycled. The beauty industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging every year, little of which is recycled. Globally, an estimated 92 million tons of textile wast
Virtual meeting platform Vowel raises $13.5M, aims to cure meeting fatigue
Meetings are an inevitable part of the work day, but as workplaces became more distributed over the past 18 months, Vowel CEO Andy Berman says we are steadily moving toward “death by meeting.”
His virtual meeting platform is the latest to receive venture capital funding — $13.5 million — wi
Mobius Labs nabs $6M to help more sectors tap into computer vision
Berlin-based Mobius Labs has closed a €5.2 million (~$6.1M) funding round off the back of increased demand for its computer vision training platform. The Series A investment is led by Ventech VC, along with Atlantic Labs, APEX Ventures, Space Capital, Lunar Ventures plus some additional an
Apple's dangerous path
Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review.
Last week, we dove into the truly bizarre machinations of the NFT market. This week, we’re talking about something that’s a little bit more impactful on the current state of the web — Apple’s NeuralHash kerfuffle.
Customer experience startup Clootrack raises $4M, helps brands see through their customers' eyes
Getting inside the mind of customers is a challenge as behaviors and demands shift, but Clootrack believes it has cracked the code in helping brands figure out how to do that.
It announced $4 million in Series A funding, led by Inventus Capital India, and included existing investors Unicorn India V
YouTravel.Me packs up $1M to match travelers with curated small group adventures
YouTravel.Me is the latest startup to grab some venture capital dollars as the travel industry gets back on its feet amid the global pandemic.
Over the past month, we've seen companies like Thatch raise $3 million for its platform aimed at travel creators, travel tech company Hopper bring in $1
Agility Robotics' Digit gets a warehouse gig
A new video from Agility Robotics showcases an increasing familiar sight: advanced, autonomous robots performing boring warehouse tasks. It's not the sort of video that tends to be hugely viral for a company, rather, it's the sort of meat and potatoes proof of concept that companies like Bo
Goodcall picks up $4M, Yelp partnership to answer merchant inbound calls
Even without staffing shortages, local merchants have difficulty answering calls while all hands are busy, and Goodcall wants to alleviate some of that burden from America's 30 million small businesses.
Goodcall's free cloud-based conversational platform leverages artificial intelligence to
Insurify, a ‘virtual insurance agent,’ raises $100M Series B
How many of us have not switched insurance carriers because we don't want to deal with the hassle of comparison shopping?
A lot, I'd bet.
Today, Insurify, a startup that wants to help make it easier for people to get better rates on home, auto and life insurance, announced t
Sanas aims to convert one accent to another in real time for smoother customer service calls
In the customer service industry, your accent dictates many aspects of your job. It shouldn’t be the case that there’s a “better” or “worse” accent, but in today’s global economy (though who knows about tomorrow’s) it’s valuable to sound America
Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan will share their vision of our AI-powered future at Disrupt
We’ve had visionary investors onstage before, and we’ve had science fiction authors onstage — but never at the same time, let alone a pair who collaborated on a unique book of stories and essays that make an optimistic prediction of our AI-infused future. Sinovation founder Kai-Fu Lee
Compound Foods brews up $4.5M to make coffee without beans
Maricel Saenz, founder and CEO of Compound Foods, is among the over 80% of Americans who love a cup of coffee daily. And she also loves the environment.
However, when the Costa Rican-born entrepreneur, now living in the Bay Area, saw how climate change was affecting coffee growers around the world
NVIDIA’s latest tech makes AI voices more expressive and realistic
The voices on Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant and other AI assistants are far ahead of old-school GPS devices, but they still lack the rhythms, intonation and other qualities that make speech sound, well, human. NVIDIA has unveiled new research and tools that can capture those natural speech