Xpeng launched the G9 Flagship SUV, the fourth production vehicle in its lineup that will set a “new benchmark” for automated driving technology in passenger vehicles, the Chinese electric vehicle startup said Wednesday. The automaker says the G9 will come with an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) that eventually will cover both city and highway … Read more
IndieBio (part of SOSV) is a biotech investor and accelerator that has started shifting more and more toward climate tech in recent years. The current cohort is batch 13, for fall 2022, and we’ve taken a closer look at the five that stood out the most. IndieBio tells us that this batch is going big … Read more
Between the climate crisis and global pandemics, we’re living in remarkably fraught times. Undaunted by the magnitude of the challenges, Silicon Valley has been hard at work seeking to mitigate the threats, extend help to the overlooked, and prepare for a new kind of future. Some of the most promising and cutting-edge advancements in climate … Read more
The chess world is currently consumed by a drama as lurid and compelling, in its way, as the Don’t Worry Darling fracas. Involving implications of cheating at the highest levels of play, the feud between the world champion and an upstart challenger has prompted speculation on the existential threat to chess posed by an AI … Read more
Twitch plans to standardize its revenue sharing agreement with streamers, reshaping the earnings landscape for top creators who have historically been able to pocket a bigger portion of the money they generate through paid subscriptions on the platform. In a blog post on Wednesday, Twitch President Dan Clancy explained that while the “vast majority” of … Read more
Deepfakes, AI generated porn, and a thousand more innocent uses — there’s been a lot of news about neural network-generated images. It makes sense that people started getting curious; were my photos used to train the robots? Are photos of me in the image-generating training sets? A brand new site tries to give you an … Read more
Crypto token prices have been trending downward for the past year, with BTC and ETH both down over 50% since last September. Yet despite the downturn in cryptocurrency prices, early-stage web3 startups have shown remarkable resilience in their valuations, Seth Ginns, managing partner and head of liquid tokens at digital asset investment firm CoinFund told … Read more
Apple began assembling some of its devices in India and Vietnam a few years ago, slowly cutting its reliance on China. The Cupertino-giant is now gearing up to make the two nations key global manufacturing hubs, according to analysts at JP Morgan. In a report they sent to clients Wednesday, JP Morgan analysts said Apple … Read more
Speech recognition remains a challenging problem in AI and machine learning. In a step toward solving it, OpenAI today open-sourced Whisper, an automatic speech recognition system that the company claims enables “robust” transcription in multiple languages as well as translation from those languages into English. Countless organizations have developed highly capable speech recognition systems, which … Read more
Sophie Alcorn Contributor Share on Twitter Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributor Dear Sophie: Is … Read more
Voxel51, a startup developing a platform to analyze unstructured data, such as images and videos, has raised $12.5 million in a Series A round led by Drive Capital, with participation from Top Harvest, Shasta Ventures, eLab Ventures and ID Ventures. Founder and CEO Jason Corso tells TechCrunch that the new capital will be put toward … Read more
Logitech is unveiling a brand new device today that is both intriguing and easy to understand. The Logitech G Cloud is a handheld console that focuses primarily on cloud gaming services, such as Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now. While Logitech is better known for its computer peripherals, webcams and gaming accessories, the company … Read more
Amazon today announced it’s bringing a new accessibility option to its new line of Fire tablets with the addition of “Tap to Alexa” functionality — a way to interact with the company’s Alexa voice assistant without actually speaking. The feature was first introduced in 2018 on the Echo Show, as a way for those with … Read more
Salesforce is the most successful SaaS company in the world. AWS is the biggest infrastructure player, and the two giants have gotten together over the years whenever it makes sense. As a couple of examples, the two signed an agreement in 2016 for Salesforce to use AWS infrastructure. In 2018, they got together to make … Read more
Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan probably consider the saying “It takes a village” to be more than just a mere adage. In 2019, the two women co-founded Chief, a private membership network designed to connect and support women executives. Chief clearly touched a nerve and filled a need. In March — three years post-launch — … Read more
Repairable electronics firm Framework just announced a new take on the company’s signature laptop. Produced in association with Google, the company is releasing the Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition. As the name suggests, it’s an iteration of the Framework Laptop specifically designed for ChromeOS. Image Credits: Framework The system is up for preorder in the U.S. … Read more
One of the most popular communities on TikTok is #BookTok, which is a made up of users who discuss books and share their recommendations with others. TikTok is aware that the community is a big part of its platform and notes that the #BookTok hashtag has more than 77 billion view globally. Now, the company … Read more
This deep into 2022, you might think that SPAC deals were over, done, dusted, forgotten. And yet, TechCrunch recently reported that Intuitive Machines is pursuing a SPAC-led debut to the public markets as we speak. You might not be familiar with the company if you don’t keep close tabs on the space business. Let me … Read more
In recent months, Google has been steadily adding new tools to help consumers choose more sustainable options when using its services like Google Maps, Google Flights, and hotel search. On Tuesday, the company announced it’s expanding these efforts with the addition of a handful of new features that allow travelers to better filter their searches … Read more
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: What does breaking into venture capital look like today, … Read more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to settle charges against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney (MSSB) for its “astonishing” failure to protect the personal identifying information of some 15 million customers. MSSB, now known as Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, is the wealth and asset management division of banking giant Morgan Stanley, which this week … Read more
RiverSouth is called the smartest building in North America and features a wild array of technology for tenants, business owners, and real estate managers. Kode OS underpins the building’s systems, a real estate platform developed by the Detroit-based startup, Kode Labs. The platform ingests data from any number of systems and provides users with a … Read more
Envoy launched in 2013 with the promise of bringing visitor management for individual companies into the modern age. When the pandemic hit, it quickly pivoted to control who could come into an office based on factors like local regulations, their state of health and vaccination status. Today, the company announced the next step in the … Read more
A new startup wants to make it easier for any company to sell phone and data plans as part of their own branded mobile network subscriptions — and to help, it has secured the backing of big-name investors including Google’s early-stage venture capital arm Gradient Ventures and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Gigs, which was founded … Read more
Cash flow can make or break a small business; in fact, issues in this area account for 82% of small business failures, according to U.S. Bank data. Robbie Bhathal, co-founder and CEO of Brightflow AI Image Credits: Brightflow Brightflow AI is injecting technology into this problem with its forecast and analysis tools so that small … Read more
Pie Insurance, which provides workers’ compensation insurance to small businesses, has closed on a $315 million Series D round of funding. In 2021, the size of this round wouldn’t have turned heads. But in today’s environment, where investors are pulling back and venture funding has slowed considerably, a $315 million raise stands out. The financing … Read more
SentinelOne, an AI endpoint security firm that went public last June, has announced the launch of S Ventures, a $100 million fund to invest in the generation of enterprise cybersecurity startups. The launch of S Ventures comes at an interesting time for the cybersecurity market. While startups in this sector have long weathered the current … Read more
Sexual wellness company Dame Products is targeting audiences at a new price point after raising $7 million in new Series A funding. The New York–based company launches the Dip vibrator on October 12, which it describes as “an unintimidating, inclusive entry point to pleasure for people who are in the early stages of their sexual … Read more
If you’ve experienced any form of harassment on Twitter in the last couple of years, then you’ve probably heard of Block Party. And if you haven’t, lucky you! Developed by software engineer and tech diversity advocate Tracy Chou, Block Party helps people curate a safer experience on Twitter. By building on top of Twitter’s API, … Read more
It’s been four months since Spotify’s debuted its virtual Spotify Island on Roblox, which made it the first music streaming service to have an official presence within the gaming platform. Today, Spotify launched a new space-themed digital destination on Roblox called Planet Hip-Hop, which will soon feature up-and-coming female rapper Doechii. Spotify Island’s new Planet … Read more