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☆ Inside Europe's tech hubs: France's AI push puts it on the rise
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-27 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +31 min

Brimming with entrepreneurs and around 1,000 startup companies, it embodies France's exciting tech industry. So if you could rank Europe's tech hubs, what would be your top three? But I'm really excited about Lisbon actually, I know the Mayor of Lisbon pretty well, have been hearing really positive things. I mean things like that could just be completely deprioritized, which is essentially what has been helping us move things forward in France. Under Macron what have been for you the big positives that have come out of his presidency and tech push more broadly.

Persons: Tom Chitty, Roxanne Varza, Bruno Le Maire, Tom Chitty The, you'll, Arjun, I've, Roxanne, Macron, we'd, we've, Tom Chitty Let's, Xavier Niel, he's, Roxanne Varza That's, we're, I'm, Roxanne Varza Paris, Tom Chitty Arjun, Arjun Kharpal, What's, There's, you've, haven't, They're, Roxanne Varza Big, Tom Chitty U.S, Arjun Kharpal It's, who's, that's, there's, they've, we'll, Tom, Tom Chitty We'll Organizations: Meta, Google, CNBC, Uber, Accel, Dealroom, Mistral, Viva Tech, Sequoia Capital, Big Tech, Microsoft, French Finance, London Stock Exchange, London . Locations: Paris, France, French, Europe, beyondthevalley@cnbc.com, London, Berlin, U.S, Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, Bay, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Old, Shoreditch, London . Tel Aviv

But, not all AI startups are created equal. AdvertisementBusiness Insider surveyed nine VCs who invest in AI startups at firms like Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, and Sapphire Ventures. Startups building AI's "picks and shovels" are a better bet than yet another LLMStep aside, OpenAI and Anthropic. In contrast, unstructured data encompasses various formats such as text documents, images, audio files, emails, social media posts, and videos. Some AI investors say they're shying away from point solutions—think online payment processing or project management—in favor of full-stack solutions.

Persons: —, Harvey, Navin Chaddha, Chip Hazard, they're, Kahini Shah, there's, Rak Garg, Garg, Shah, Lauri Moore, Moore, Chaddha, Capital's Moore, she's Organizations: Service, Accel, Business, Bain Capital Ventures, Flybridge, Sapphire Ventures, Google, Meta, Mayfield Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Obvious, Investors, Obvious Ventures, Foundation, Dig Ventures Locations: Mayfield, Hazard, Flybridge

☆ Britain looks to upstage France with play for world's third major AI hub after U.S., China
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-26 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

But key challenges face the country as it looks to become the world's third-biggest AI hub. At the London Tech Week conference in the Olympia events venue earlier this month, tech executives from around the world touted London and the U.K. as a place to invest. London vs. FranceLondon is facing heated rivalry from France for the title of European AI leader. Can the UK keep its European AI crown? Seeking regulatory clarityAnother key source of uncertainty for tech leaders is the future of AI regulation in the U.K.

Persons: Mike Kemp, Alex Kendall, — Kendall, Wayve's, Brent Hoberman, Wayve, it's, Salesforce, Janet Coyle, Coyle, Arthur Mensch, Hanno Renner, that's, Europe's, CNBC's, Philip Belamant, Zilch, Matthew Holman, Cripps, Holman Organizations: Global, London Tech, Sage, Google, London, Partners, Viva Tech, Accel, CNBC, Mistral France Paris, Alpha, Alpha Germany Heidelberg, Face France Paris, France Paris, United, United Kingdom London, Kingdom London, Tech, European Union Locations: London, United Kingdom, China, Olympia, SoftBank, San Francisco, Vancouver . U.S, France London, France, Brazil, Silicon, Europe, Paris, Berlin, Alpha Germany, Germany, Brexit, Britain

☆ BeReal staffers hit with layoffs weeks after new ownership takes control
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-25 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

French gaming company Voodoo recently acquired social media app BeReal in a €500 million deal. Voodoo is now set to lay off a chunk of BeReal staffers, sources say. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementFrench gaming company Voodoo is already cutting a chunk of BeReal staffers just weeks after acquiring the company in a deal worth 500 million euros, Business Insider has learned. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: BeReal, — Organizations: Voodoo, Service, Business

☆ Nvidia-backed AI startup Synthesia now lets you make multilingual video presentations using just your phone or webcam
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Synthesia, which says it's used by nearly half of the Fortfune 500, uses AI avatars for all kinds of purposes. Synthesia's AI video assistant can produce summaries of entire articles and documents. SynthesiaSynthesia also launched a new AI video assistant which can produce summaries of entire articles and documents. The company's competitors include AI video tools Veed, Colossyan, Elai, and HeyGen. And Chinese-owned social media app TikTok also recently debuted Symphony Assistant, a product that allows creators to make their own AI avatars.

Persons: Synthesia, hasn't, Victor Riparbelli, Riparbelli, they're, Synthesia Synthesia Organizations: Nvidia, CNBC, Microsoft, Accel Locations: London, Nigerian

☆ The best-funded generative AI startups in Europe have something in common: Big Tech experience
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

That figure rose to more than a third (38%) for the top 40 European and Israeli generative AI companies in terms of venture funding raised, and 60% for the top 10 generative AI companies for funding levels. Google bought British AI lab DeepMind in 2014, and the firm's tech is now key to AI products including its Gemini generative AI tools. Many AI founders are professors, tooAccel noted universities play a major role in the creation of generative AI startups. British universities are the most popular study destination for generative AI founders, Accel's research found. France's Ecole Polytechnique is the second-highest academic founder factory in Europe, with 7% of generative AI founders having studied there.

Persons: Arthur Mensch, Porte de Versailles, Dealroom, Harry Nelis, Europe's, Nelis, Timothee Lacroix, Guillaume Lample, Laurent Sifre, Karl Tuyls, Charles Kantor, Mistral, Accel, —, Lourdes Agapito, Agapito, Matthias Niessner, Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild Organizations: Viva Technology, Parc, Chesnot, Getty, Accel, Apple, Google, Microsoft, CNBC, Mistral France Paris, Alpha, Alpha Germany Heidelberg, Face France Paris, France Paris, United, United Kingdom London, Kingdom London, Facebook, Research, Meta, Amazon, Stanford University, British, University College London, UCL, University of Cambridge, France's Ecole Polytechnique Locations: Paris, France, Europe, Israel, Israeli, Alpha Germany, United Kingdom, British, London, France's

☆ Decagon raises $35 million from Accel and A16z to build AI customer support agents. Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck it used.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-18 | by ( Sri Muppidi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AI startup Decagon builds AI agents to automate customer support for enterprise customers. Founded in July 2023, Decagon uses generative AI to automate customer support for enterprise customers. The company has emerged from stealth and raised $35 million in funding for its seed and Series A rounds. Accel led the company's $30 million Series A, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, A*, and Elad Gil. A16z led the company's $5 million seed round.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, —, Jesse Zhang, Ashwin Sreenivas, Zhang, Elad Gil, A16z, Decagon, Aaron Levie, Howie Liu Organizations: Accel, Service, Decagon, Business

☆ Nory, an Irish AI-powered restaurant management startup, just raised $16 million with this 14-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Nory, an Irish startup, has raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Accel. Founded in 2020, Nory uses AI to help restaurants manage payroll, inventory, and more. AdvertisementNory, an Irish startup that provides an operating system for restaurants, has raised $16 million in funding. Its SaaS platform aims to bring various business functions, such as payroll, inventory, supply chains, and customer satisfaction in "one place," founder Conor Sheridan told Business Insider. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: —, Conor Sheridan, Jamie Oliver Organizations: Accel, Service, Jamie Oliver Group, Business Locations: Irish, Europe

☆ Amazon, Meta back Scale AI in $1 billion funding deal that values firm at $14 billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Riley De León | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Artificial intelligence startup Scale AI said Tuesday that it has raised $1 billion in a Series F funding round that values the enterprise tech company at $13.8 billion — almost double its last reported valuation. 12 on this year's CNBC Disruptor 50 list, has now raised $1.6 billion to date. Existing investors including Y Combinator, Nat Friedman, Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Coatue, Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, Nvidia, Tiger Global Management, Greenoaks, and Wellington Management also participated in the round. Scale AI is playing a key role in the rise of generative artificial intelligence and large language models, with the data — whether it is text, images, video or voice recordings — needing to be labeled correctly before it can be digested and used effectively by AI technology. Scale AI has evolved from labeling data used to train models that powered autonomous driving to now helping to improve and fine tune the underlying data for nearly any organization looking to implement AI, powering some of the most advanced models in use.

Persons: Elad Gil, Y Combinator, Nat Friedman, Alexandr Wang Organizations: CNBC, Accel, Cisco Investments, Intel Capital, ServiceNow Ventures, AMD Ventures, WCM, Color Genomics, Meta, Ventures, Founders Fund, Spark Capital, Nvidia, Tiger Global Management, Wellington Management Locations: San Francisco, AGI

☆ Early Facebook investor Accel raises $650 million fund to back European and Israeli startups
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

AccelVenture capital firm Accel said Tuesday it's raised $650 million for its eighth fund targeted at investing in European and Israeli early-stage startups, in a sign the venture capital market may be showing signs of a recovery. "The environment has dramatically changed since then," Nelis told CNBC. Climate-focused VC firm World Fund closed a 300 million euro fund in March. "We're lucky that with DeepMind here in London and with Fair [Facebook AI Research] in Paris, there's at least two big centers that have great AI expertise," Nelis told CNBC. "My expectation is Europe is going to generate some really interesting AI application companies," Nelis told CNBC.

Persons: Harry Nelis, Sonali de Rycker, Andrei Brasoveanu, Luca Bocchio, Philippe Botteri, it's, Nelis, UiPath, Russia's, Wise, Magnus Grimeland, Grimeland, there's, Victor Riparbelli, Synthesia, Riparbelli Organizations: Accel, Accel Venture, Spotify, CNBC, Skype, U.S, Nvidia Locations: Europe, Israel, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, New York, U.S, London, Paris, Synthesia

☆ Squarespace to go private in $7 billion private-equity deal
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Squarespace, Inc. (NYSE: SQSP), on May 19, 2021, in celebration of its Direct Listing. Squarespace , the website-building platform, announced on Monday it would go private in a $6.9 billion all-cash deal with private-equity firm Permira, after nearly three turbulent years on the public market. All three have approved the transaction and will continue to be investors after the Permira deal closes. Qualtrics, for example, was spun off from SAP in 2021 and was quickly taken private again in 2023 by Canada's pension plan and Silver Lake in a $12.5 billion deal. Japanese giant Toshiba also went private in 2023 in a $13.6 billion deal, after years of speculation and tumult, including a sustained engagement with activist investor Elliott.

Persons: Squarespace, Permira, Anthony Casalena, Ares Capital, Anthony, David Erlong, Squarespace's, Elliott, Morgan, Skadden, Richards, Layton, Finger, Goldman Sachs, Watkins Organizations: New York Stock Exchange, Inc, Accel, General Atlantic, Ares, Blackstone, SAP, Toshiba, Investors, Latham Locations: J.P

☆ Holistic, a Paris-based AI startup founded by ex-DeepMind staffers, is raising a $200 million funding round, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Callum Burroughs | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AI startup Holistic, founded by ex-DeepMind scientists, is raising $200 million in new funding. The Paris-based startup is raising capital from Accel and BPI France, sources say. The startup aims to develop a multi-agent AGI, per a leaked investor deck obtained by BI. AdvertisementA Paris-based AI startup founded by two ex-DeepMind scientists is set to raise around $200 million in new funding. Ex-DeepMind scientist Laurent Sifre is chief LLM officer.

Persons: AGI, —, Charles Kantor, Karl Tuyls, Laurent Sifre Organizations: Accel, BPI France, BI, Service, Stanford Business School, Business Locations: Paris

☆ Nvidia-backed startup Synthesia unveils AI avatars that can convey human emotions
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

U.K. tech startup Synthesia unveiled a new range of AI-generated avatars that can convey emotions like happiness, sadness, and frustration. Nvidia -backed artificial intelligence firm Synthesia on Thursday unveiled a new wave of AI-generated digital avatars that can convey human emotions using a user's text inputs. The company said its "Expressive Avatars" can blur the lines between the virtual world and real characters. In one demonstration, the company showed three lines of text being inserted into its platform — "I am happy. The company's technology is used by more than 55,000 businesses, including half of the Fortune 100, to make digital avatars for corporate presentations and training videos, according to Synthesia.

Persons: Synthesia, Kleiner Perkins Organizations: Nvidia, Fortune, Accel, GV, FirstMark, MMC Locations: London

☆ BeReal weighs an uncertain Series C or acquisition as growth stalls and funding is set to run out later this year, insiders say
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Kali Hays | Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The company is considering raising a Series C before what's left of its $90 million in funding runs out. BeReal closed a $60 million Series B funding round at an around $600 million valuation in late 2022, following a $30 million Series A earlier the same year. Sooner than later, BeReal leadership will be forced to choose between raising another round and maintaining its independence or selling itself outright, running the risk of disappearing. Company leadership holds an all-hands every quarter after they meet with the company's board, which includes investors. As for the possibility of an acquisition, BeReal leadership has told employees there are "offers" that have been made, without giving any specifics.

Persons: Alexis Barreyat, what's, BeReal, Yuri Milner's, Andreessen Horowitz, Barreyat, Romain Salzman, Kali Hays, Callum Burroughs cburroughs@businessinsider.com Organizations: Business, Gas, Yuri Milner's DST, Accel Locations: Paris, Japan, Asia, Pacific, khays@businessinsider.com

☆ Cybersecurity startup Cyera is set to triple its valuation to as high as $1.55 billion in a new funding round, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Ben Bergman | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Cyera is a cybersecurity startup founded in 2021 by two veterans of The Israel Defence Forces. It is raising funding that values the company at as much as $1.55 billion, three sources told BI. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementCyera, a New York-based data security startup founded in 2021, is raising a new funding round that values the company at as much as $1.55 billion, three sources familiar with the matter told Business Insider. The startup is raising $150 to $200 million in this latest round, according to multiple sources.

Persons: Douglas Leone, — Organizations: Israel Defence Forces, Sequoia Capital, Service, Accel, Business Locations: New York

☆ Nanonets, an AI-powered workflow automation startup, just raised $29 million with this 23-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AI workflow automation startup Nanonets has raised $29 million in new funding. Check out the 24-slide pitch deck Nanonets used the land the funds. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementNanonets, an AI workflow automation startup, has raised $29 million in new funding.

Persons: —, Jain Organizations: Accel India, Capital, Service, Business

☆ Filigran, a French cybersecurity startup used by the FBI, just raised $16.2 million using this 12-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Filigran, a French cybersecurity startup, has raised $16.2 million in new funding. Founded in 2022, Filigran provides a series of products to help private companies and public institutions defend against threats using an open-source program. Based in Paris, Filigran's threat intelligence platform is used by Hermes, Airbus, and the FBI to help better understand security issues, which the rise of AI attacks has exacerbated, Filigran CEO Samuel Hassine told Business Insider. "Our products are all about aggregating and understanding your threat landscape, not just the technical threat but also risk analysis and cybersecurity," Hassine told BI. Check out Filigran's 12-slide Series A pitch deck below:

Persons: Hermes, Samuel Hassine, Hassine, Filigran Organizations: Airbus, FBI, Business, Moonfire Ventures, Motier Ventures Locations: Filigran, Paris, Australia, Europe

Energy startup Axle is in talks to raise a round backed by VC fund Accel, BI understands. The year-old company could raise around $6 million in capital as part of the deal, sources say. The energy tech startup uses electric vehicles and home energy assets to help balance grids. Energy software startup Axle Energy is in talks to raise fresh funding in a round backed by venture capital fund Accel, Business Insider understands. The London-based company, founded in 2023, connects electric vehicles and batteries to energy grids to help solve the intermittency of renewables.

Organizations: Energy, Accel, BI, Business Locations: London, Europe

☆ Vinted cofounder Milda Mitkute shares the shopping app's path from 2 a.m. house party startup to $3.8B success
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-18 | by ( Polly Thompson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewThis as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Milda Mitkute, the cofounder of second-hand shopping app Vinted. But when you have 30,000 people on your site you need more servers and those invoices started going up to 200 euros. AdvertisementBut when we asked girls in Germany, France, and the US why they used Vinted, it was all about selling to earn some extra cash, authenticity, finding unique clothes, and consuming more sustainably. A life divided into projectsWhen you're young you think that the more you work, the more you're going to create. Mitkute stepped back from Vinted in 2017 and is no longer on the board but remains a shareholder.

Persons: —, Milda Mitkute, Vinted, Justas Janauskas, Justus, VIRGINIE LEFOUR, Getty, let's, Jonas Gratzer, Malvina, I've, It's, Mitkute Organizations: Service, Business, Vinted, Accel Partners, Facebook, Spotify Locations: Vilnius, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Germany, Soviet, France, Vinted

☆ Conversational AI startup Vocode entered Y Combinator without a business plan. Now, it's raised $3.25 million without a pitch deck.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Vocode, a conversational AI startup, has raised $3.25 million in seed funding. Founded in 2023, by Ajay Raj and Kian Hooshmand, Vocode raised funding at Y Combinator without a formal pitch deck. Vocode's founders are friends from high school who made it into Y Combinator despite opting against pitching their original business plan. With 10 weeks until demo day, the team began interviewing teams across fintech, healthcare, and climate, searching for ideas before landing on conversational AI. The company began making waves in online hacker communities before its demo day pitch session in front of investors.

Persons: Ajay Raj, Kian, Vocode, PrankGPT, Hooshmand, Y Organizations: Business Locations: San Francisco, fintech

Virginia is not the only state grappling with skill games, but the efforts there reflect points in a larger debate nationwide as they have exploded in popularity. It is also backed by skill games producer Pace-O-Matic, which has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to legislators in recent years. It would tax skill games revenue at 15% and would not explicitly limit the total number of machines that could exist. The skill games debate is a rare issue that doesn't split along partisan lines, and lawmakers have gone around and around on it for years. The General Assembly voted in 2020 to ban skill games, taking on the issue at the same time they were clearing the way for casinos for the first time.

Persons: ”, Sen, Aaron Rouse, Louise Lucas, Pace, Rouse, Chris Cylke, Ahmed Makhani, —, ” Cylke, Mark Peake, “, ” Peake, Democratic Sen, Jeremy McPike, Prince William County, McPike, Matt Hortenstine, Hortenstine, Lucas, Glenn Youngkin's, Christian Martinez, Ralph Northam Organizations: Senate Finance Committee, ABC, American Gaming Association, Republican, Democratic, Virginia Lottery Board, J Ventures, Accel Entertainment, Republican Gov, General, Virginia Supreme Locations: RICHMOND, Va, Virginia, Virginia Beach, Commonwealth, Lynchburg, Georgia, Illinois

☆ 16 VCs that are funding the future of entertainment by backing generative AI and other disruptive tech
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-12 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

AdvertisementAfter a period of "wild west" investing in AI, Blank believes activity will favor AI companies that respect artists' consent and compensation. It recently co-led a $1 million seed round in Conduiit, which centralizes entertainment companies' production finance operations. Endeavor Venture InvestmentsEndeavor Venture Investments is the venture arm of entertainment and sports behemoth Endeavor. SWaN & LegendThe Virginia-based VC firm has a broad consumer portfolio that includes a number of entertainment investments. With Hollywood in contraction, SWaN has largely hit pause on new entertainment investments to get its portfolio companies on a strong footing.

Persons: Michael Blank, Blank, Jon Miller, Miller, Slack, Garnet Heraman, BDMI, Urs Cete, Michael, TMRW, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Elysian Park Ventures Jay Adya, Grant Lamos, Tom Brady, Gotham Chopra, Michael Strahan, Jay Adya, Morgan, Kushaan Ahuja, Drew Glover, Glover, Alex Harris, they've, Noah Doyle, Payback India, Jed Katz, Rich Greenfield, Rich, Ilya Pozin, Jamie Seltzer, LightShed, Steve Cohen's, it's, Sri Chandrasekar, Tripp Shriner, Ishan Sinha, That's, Wondery, Ian Doody, Raine, Gordon Rubenstein, Joe Ravitch, Jeff Sine, ‐, Fred Schaufeld, SWaN, that's, Oscar, Jose, Schaufeld, Sam Wick, Alex J, Investcorp, Paul Yoo, Edgar Bronfman Jr, Daniel Leff, Waverley, Leff Organizations: Service, Creative Artists, Connect Ventures, Business, Hollywood, Veteran, TPG, Integrated Media Co, Advancit, CAA, Bertelsmann, Waverley, Octopus Ventures, Accel, Facebook, Venture, Aperture Venture, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Fremantle, Connect, CAA Connect Ventures, New Enterprises Associates, TMRW Sports, Disney, Universal, Elysian Park Ventures, Elysian, Sports, Endeavor Venture, Endeavor Venture Investments, behemoth Endeavor, Dapper Labs, Fiat Ventures, Fiat Ventures Fiat Ventures, Fiat, Payback, Rent, LightShed, Rich Greenfield Influential, LightShed Ventures, Pluto, Apple, Octopus Ventures Octopus Ventures, Investments, Corp, Etsy, Re, Point72 Ventures New York Mets, Range Media Partners, Point72 Ventures, Sri, Powerhouse, Athletic, The New York Times Co, Evolution Media, Creative Artists Agency, Astro, Rave Digital Media, Accel Entertainment, Jose Andrés Media, Berliner, UTA Talent, UTA, UTA Ventures, Ventures, VR, Amazon, PFL Locations: blockchain, —, Conduiit, fintech, London, Australia, Papercup, Los Angeles, Virginia, UTA.VC

☆ Zepz, a $5 billion fintech unicorn, is laying off more staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Zepz, the money transfer group that owns WorldRemit, made a fresh round of layoffs. "Zepz has entered a redundancy consultation which will could affect less than 2% of its global headcount," a Zepz company spokesperson said in an exclusive statement to CNBC. "Zepz values the contributions these colleagues have made to our company," the spokesperson added. "To fully realise our mission to unlock the prosperity of cross-border communities, we sometimes need to make tough decisions," Zepz told CNBC. The business was last valued at $5 billion, making it one of the largest and most valuable fintech companies in Europe.

Persons: Zepz, Zepz hasn't Organizations: TCV, CNBC, Sendwave Locations: British, Europe

☆ Ex-Meta staffers see booming business targeting online disinformation after two wars break out
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +15 min

Wagner left Facebook parent Meta last year, and her work in trust and safety feels like it was from a prior era. One of her first investments was in a startup called Cove, which was founded by former Meta trust and safety staffers. "One thing I would recommend is transparency at a time where third-party access and understanding to what is going on at scale on social platforms is what is needed." Post is an example of the kinds of companies that trust and safety startups are focused on. Fishman said customers are starting to see trust and safety tools as almost an extension of their cybersecurity budgets.

Persons: Joshua Bratt, Lauren Wagner, Wagner, Mandel Ngan, Roblox, Wagner's, Michael Dworsky, it's, Mason Silber, Donald Trump, Manu Aggarwal, Aggarwal, Abhijnan Dasgupta, Sara Ittelson, Ittelson, Cove's Dworsky, they'd, Alex Goldenberg, Noam Bardin, he's, Bardin, that's, Brian Fishman, Cinder, Fishman Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Hamas, Twitter, Radium Ventures, White, AFP, Getty, CNBC, Innovation Labs, Google, Apple, Republican, Everest Group, Accenture, Genpact, Big Tech, Tech, Venture, Accel, European, Digital Services, Defamation League, Network, Research, Rumble Locations: King's Cross, London, Israel, Washington ,, San Francisco, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Cinder, who's, ActiveFence

☆ Check out the pitch decks AI startups Viso, Weav.ai, Dashtoon, and Frenetic used to raise a collective $31.2 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Four AI startups in the form of Weav.AI, Dashtoon, Frenetic, and Viso recently raised a combined $31.2 million in early-stage funding. All four startups, working in sectors ranging from computer vision to AI-driven illustration, shared their pitch decks with Insider. Viso raises round led by Spotify-backer AccelIn October, Swiss startup Viso secured $9.2 million from venture capital giant Accel. Developing computer vision applications is a timely and complex task, and scaling this technology usually "requires significant infrastructure," the startup said. Its platform allows clients — from construction companies to logistics enterprises and city councils — to manage and deploy these computer vision tools from one workspace.

Persons: Viso, DeepMind's Mehdi Ghissassi, Gaudenz Boesch, Slack, Mehdi Ghissassi, Mihai Faur Organizations: Accel, Sierra Ventures, Business, Spotify Locations: Swiss, —

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