ai agent

Chinese AI startup Manus reportedly gets funding from Benchmark at $500M valuation

AI /

Chinese startup Manus AI, which works on building tools related to AI agents, has picked up $75 million in a funding round led by Benchmark at a roughly $500 million valuation, according to Bloomberg. The company will use the money to expand to new markets, including the U.S., Japan, and the Middle East, Bloomberg noted, […]

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Twin’s first AI agent is an invoice retrieval agent for Qonto customers

AI /

When Twin came out of stealth in January 2024, AI agents were more of a theoretical concept than a reality. Today, the Paris-based is releasing an automation agent in partnership with Qonto, the fintech startup that offers business bank accounts to more than 500,000 customers across Europe. If you want to automate repetitive tasks, there

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Outreach founder Manny Medina has a new startup that helps AI agents get paid

AI /

As the year of the AI agent takes shape, a new trend is emerging: startups offering the picks and shovels that help employers build a workforce of bots. Manny Medina, best known as the founder and former CEO of the $4.4 billion valued sales automation company Outreach, just launched one such startup called Paid, he

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Browser Use, the tool making it easier for AI ‘agents’ to navigate websites, raises $17M

AI /

We may not have an agreed-upon definition of AI “agent” yet, but a multitude of startups want to create “agentic” tools to automate various tasks online. One such firm, Browser Use, has attracted a ton of interest from developers and investors thanks to its solution that makes websites more “readable” for AI agents. Browser Use

Browser Use, the tool making it easier for AI ‘agents’ to navigate websites, raises $17M Read More »

A job ad for Y Combinator startup Firecrawl seeks to hire an AI agent for $15K a year

AI /

Last week, an ad from the Y Combinator job board for a tiny startup called Firecrawl went viral on X.  That’s because the ad wasn’t for a human. “Please apply only if you are an AI agent, or if you created an AI agent that can fill this job,” the job posting read.  The seven-person

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Sam Altman’s World now wants to link AI agents to your digital identity

AI /

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the technology world by surprise on Thursday with the release of Operator, his company’s first AI agent that can act autonomously on the web. But OpenAI is not Altman’s only venture that’s trying to capitalize on the popularity of AI agents. Altman’s World project now wants to create tools that

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The race is on to make AI agents do your online shopping for you

Fintech /

Millions of Americans will pop open their laptops to buy gifts this holiday season, but tech companies are racing to turn the job of online shopping over to AI agents instead. Perplexity recently released an AI shopping agent for its paying customers in the United States. It’s supposed to navigate retail websites for you, find

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Bret Taylor’s customer service AI startup just raised $175M

AI /

Sierra, the AI startup co-founded by OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, has raised $175 million in a funding round that values the startup at $4.5 billion. Sierra, founded by Taylor and longtime Google exec Clay Bavor, focuses on selling AI-powered customer service chatbots to brands like WeightWatchers and Sirius XM. There’s an “agent” component, as well.

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