There are plenty of resources to learn English, but not so many for near-native speakers who still want to improve their fluency. That description applies to Stan Beliaev and Yurii Rebryk, and this is what inspired them to create Fluently. Making use of AI, Fluently operates as a coach that gives users feedback and tips … Read more
Welcome to our 100th pitch deck teardown! This week, I’m taking a look at MegaMod’s seed-stage pitch deck. MegaMod seems to be the latest darling of the gaming industry and just pocketed a cool $1.9 million, bumping its post-money valuation to $27 million. With a mission to revolutionize the game creation process, MegaMod says it … Read more
Marketing and sales software giant HubSpot said on Friday that it’s investigating a cybersecurity incident. On Friday, rumors of some kind of cyberattack against HubSpot began circulating on social media. When reached for comment, HubSpot spokesperson Camille Uzel told TechCrunch that on June 22 the company “identified a security incident that involved bad actors targeting … Read more
VCs Jonathan Triest and Brett deMarrais see their ability to read people and create longstanding relationships with founders as the primary reason their Detroit-based venture firm, Ludlow Ventures, is celebrating its 15th year in business. It sounds silly, attributing their longevity to what’s sometimes called “Midwestern nice.” But is it crazy? Maybe not. Before Ludlow, … Read more
Up to now, the humanoid robotics industry has been all promises and pilots. While important in the eventual deployment of new technology, these programs involve a small number of robots and often don’t graduate into anything more meaningful. On Thursday, however, Agility announced that it has entered into a formal deal following a successful pilot … Read more
TechCrunch is joining forces with Google Cloud as its lead partner for Startup Battlefield 200. This event will highlight and support the most promising startups from around the globe at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, which will take place in San Francisco from October 28-30. At the heart of this collaboration is a shared vision of fostering … Read more
Riffing on what he sees ahead for the future of AI, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview published Thursday that he deeply believes that there will not be “just one AI.” Touting the value of open source to put AI tools into many people’s hands, Zuckerberg took a moment to disparage the efforts … Read more
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that the company will begin to surface AI characters made by creators through Meta AI studio on Instagram. The tests will begin in the U.S. The social media company’s announcement comes on the same day as a16z-backed chatbot company Character.ai is rolling out the ability for users to … Read more
On Wednesday, Evolve Bank and Trust, a financial institution that’s popular with fintech startups, announced that it had been victim of a cyberattack and data breach that could have affected its partner companies as well. The incident, according to the company’s statement, involved “the data and personal information of some Evolve retail bank customers and … Read more
Amazon is folding its Amazon Clinic telehealth service into its primary care business One Medical, the company announced on Thursday. The company explained in today’s blog post that, to simplify Amazon’s primary care offering for customers, the service has now been rebranded to Amazon One Medical Pay-per-visit, and now offers more affordable per-visit pricing. Customers … Read more
