When Anomalo’s co-founders left Instacart in 2018, they thought they could put machine learning to work to solve data quality problems inherent in large data sets. Five years later, the company’s idea is even more relevant as data quality takes center stage with large language models. Today, the startup announced a $33 million Series B,…
As conversational AI begins to take over the world, chatbots are being given a new lease of life. However, there are clear hazards on the road ahead. Parcel delivery giant DPD recently had to disable part of its online support chatbot after it swore at a customer. A user managed to convince the chatbot to be…
Aniai, a startup that has built a burger-grilling robot, Alpha Grill, said today it has raised $12 million, bringing its total raise to $15 million. The money will go toward launching its first manufacturing facility, Factory One, in South Korea. The firm will also be deploying a cloud-based AI software platform for the robot called…
X, formerly Twitter, today announced support for passkeys, a new and more secure login method than traditional passwords, which will become an option for U.S. users on iOS devices. The technology has been adopted by a number of apps as of late, including PayPal, TikTok, WhatsApp, and others. Today we’re excited to launch Passkeys as…
Phone season is in full swing. Last week Samsung introduced its new Galaxy S24 flagship, and the next few weeks will see a deluge of devices up to and including those unveiled at Mobile World Congress at the end of February. Today, however, is OnePlus’ time to shine. The Oppo-owned phone maker just debuted its…
Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion, is willing to cut its valuation to below $2 billion as it hunts for new funding, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, once India’s most valuable, is looking to raise $100 million to $300 million in new funding via a rights issue and the…
In the middle of a long funding winter, AC Ventures’ latest news will give Southeast Asian startups hope. The Jakarta, Indonesia–based venture firm announced today it has raised $210 million, finishing the final close on its fifth fund, called ACV Fund V. Limited partners include the World’s Bank’s IFC and investors from the United States,…
Remember the Virtuix Omni? I’ll never forget trying out an early version of the virtual reality treadmill in a hotel suite many E3s ago. The system, which features a concave platform and slippery shoes, was clever enough to influence Ready Player One’s take on the space. The electronics-free system finally started shipping earlier this year.…
Danny Rimer is an investor and partner at Index Ventures. The founders I work with know I think about John Coltrane a lot. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how he transformed jazz with a harmonic progression known as “Coltrane changes.” Popularized on his 1960 album “Giant Steps,” Coltrane changes are characterized by rapid and frequent…
There’s a lot of money in voice cloning. Case in point: ElevenLabs, a startup developing AI-powered tools to create and edit synthetic voices, today announced that it closed an $80 million Series B round co-led by prominent investors including Andreessen Horowitz, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and entrepreneur Daniel Gross. The round, which also had…
