Billing might not be something that the average person thinks about on a regular basis. But for companies — particularly those in the business of selling software — it’s massively important. They rely on billing systems to ensure that customers pay on time and have a range of ways to pay. The trouble is, configuring […]
Arjun Vora and Tito Goldstein were working on the corporate side of Uber when they realized that HR software largely wasn’t built to manage hourly staff. Many hourly workers lacked a way to complete basic self-service tasks, the pair perceived, like clocking in and changing payment accounts. After interviewing hundreds of Uber drivers, Vora, an
No one likes standing in line. I was reminded of just how awful the experience can be last Saturday, while being herded like cattle through a two-hour queue for a nightclub in unseasonably cold weather. I’d not soon repeat the experience. Fortunately, there’s a startup for that. LineLeap, backed by Y Combinator, lets people pay
LineLeap lets users pay to skip the line at bars Read More »
Stefanos Loukakos, formerly a director at Meta’s business-focused Messenger division and, briefly, the tech giant’s blockchain org, noticed several years ago that online retailers were struggling to connect with potential shoppers. The problem, in his opinion, was that their marketing campaigns weren’t tailored enough. Merchants were sending generic social media, text, and email blasts that failed to
Connectly, now backed by Alibaba, taps AI to personalize text messages to customers Read More »
Can AI ever fully replace translators? Not likely. AI translations tend to lack the lexical richness of their human-translated counterparts, mainly because AI models make choices based on probability — not lived experience. Certainly, AI can produce “accurate” translations, but the translations lack the spice of life, like a textbook version of the source text.
Smartcat secures $43M for its AI-powered translation platform Read More »
Progress, a Bedford, Massachusetts-based software firm, on Monday announced that it intends to acquire file management platform ShareFile for $875 million in cash and credit. Progress CEO Yogesh Gupta said that the deal, which is expected to close by November 30, will bolster Progress’ portfolio with tools to help businesses more efficiently share — and
Progress acquires file management platform ShareFile for $875M Read More »
Salesforce has acquired Own Company, a provider of data management and protection solutions, for $1.9 billion in cash. In a press release, Salesforce GM Steve Fisher said in a statement that Own “underscores [Salesforce’s] commitment to providing secure, end-to-end solutions that protect our customers’ most valuable data.” “Data security has never been more critical, and
Salesforce acquires data management firm Own for $1.9B in cash Read More »
For financial institutions, complying with regulations is becoming a costlier proposition. According to a recent poll, 76% of financial services firms increased their compliance expenditure from 2022 to 2023, with most blaming new laws. With the cost of compliance averaging out to around $10,000 per employee these days, many firms are searching for ways to
Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI startup co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised over $1 billion in capital from investors including NFDG (an investment partnership run by Nat Friedman and SSI CEO Daniel Gross), a16z, Sequoia, DST Global and SV Angel. SSI told Reuters that it plans to use the tranche to
Ilya Sutskever’s startup, Safe Superintelligence, raises $1B Read More »
Magic, an AI startup developing models to generate code and automate a range of software development tasks, says that it’s raised a large tranche of cash from investors including ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt. In a blog post on Thursday, Magic said that it closed a $320 million fundraising round with contributions from Schmidt, Jane Street,
