Instagram added two features to Reels yesterday: text-to-speech and voice effects. These features are popular already on TikTok, but now, creators can use them on Instagram too. This marks yet another effort from Instagram to keep up with TikTok when it comes to short-form video, as Instagram offers big reels bonuses to incentivize creators, Text-to-speech…
We last heard from Ometria, an “AI-powered” customer marketing platform allowing brand and retailers to personalize marketing messages, in 2019 when it raised $21 million in a Series B. It’s now completed a $40M Series C round, led by InfraVia Growth, with participation from existing investors Octopus Ventures, Sonae IM, Summit Action, Adjuvo, Columbia Lake…
Indonesia-based startup GoTo Group announced today it has secured more than $1.3 billion in the first close of its pre-IPO funding. The latest round was led by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), with participation from Avanda Investment Management, Fidelity International, Google, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Primavera Capital, SeaTown Master Fund, Temasek, Tencent and Ward Ferry.…
The fall hasn’t been kind to Disney’s streaming ambitions. Disney+ added just 2.1 million subscribers in its fourth quarter, giving it a total of 118.1 million customers. That’s in line with the company’s already cautious estimate (in the “low single-digit millions”) and 60 percent more total customers than a year earlier, but well below what some…
Ample, a startup developing battery swapping technology for electric vehicles, has scored another $30 million from The Blackstone Group and Spanish multinational financial services company Banco Santander. The San Francisco-based company should be at or near unicorn status, considering its valuation back in August was $890 million, according to Pitchbook. Unicorn status means a company…
Crypto giveth, and crypto confuseth the heck out of Wall Street. In the wake of Coinbase’s earnings report yesterday afternoon, shares of the U.S. crypto exchange are off sharply this morning. What happened? Public-market investors continued to underestimate how volatile the crypto market is, leaving them to over-index on gains and over-despair on less impressive…
Investor interest in African fintech continues to grab headlines with large fundraises. Today, Africa’s largest digital payments network MFS Africa joins the fray. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has raised $100 million in Series C financing — split between $70 million equity and $30 million debt. Private equity fund AfricInvest FIVE co-led the Series…
A federal judge has ruled that Apple can’t push back the deadline to update App Store policies, as previously ordered in the court’s decision on California’s Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit. Though Apple largely won that lawsuit when the judge declared that Apple was not acting as a monopolist as Epic Games had alleged, the…
Unity has just announced its intent to acquire Weta Digital, the legendary visual effects company co-founded by Peter Jackson, for a massive $1.625 billion. Whether or not you recognize the name, you’ve seen Weta Digital’s work. From Lord of the Rings to Avatar to Shang-Chi, if its the kind of movie where people say “you…
On Tuesday, Flagship Pioneering, the major investor behind Moderna, announced yet another addition to their portfolio of RNA-curious companies. Following a year of hype around mRNA, a new company, called Alltrna, will now focus on developing medicines based on Transfer RNA or tRNA. At this point, you’re likely familiar with the idea that messenger RNA…
