DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ This Yahoo spinout uses AI to help companies store and search data instantly. Check out the 12-slide pitch deck Vespa.ai used to raise $31 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Vespa.ai, a startup that spun out of Yahoo last month, has raised $31 million in Series A funding from Blossom Capital. The Norway-based startup has created an AI-powered platform that gives companies access to its search engine and vector database. A key problem that many companies face is having the infrastructure to store extensive amounts of data, and accessing it efficiently. The startup's cloud service and search platform can tap into this data in real time, giving companies responses or decisions almost immediately after a query has been put in. With the cash injection, the startup will ramp up its engineering functions, as well as its cloud services.

Persons: Jon Bratseth, We've Organizations: Yahoo, Blossom Capital, Fortune, Spotify Locations: Norway, London, Blossom

On Wednesday afternoon a MoonPay spokesperson responded to CNBC Crypto World's request for comment saying, "MoonPay provides both on- and off-ramp services. With respect to Binance.US users, we are providing a service for those users that want to purchase crypto as well as convert their crypto to fiat and deposit into their US bank account. MoonPay performs rigorous KYC checks on all customers. We support many of our existing partners and exchanges with this functionality."

Persons: CNBC Crypto, MoonPay Organizations: CNBC

☆ ‘Bored Apes’ investors sue Sotheby’s, Paris Hilton and others as NFT prices collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Christy Choi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —A group of investors is suing Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. and others over a 2021 auction and promotion of Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible tokens (NFTs) following a collapse in prices for the celebrity-endorsed collectibles. Sotheby’s is among 30 defendants named in the lawsuit, with celebrities like Justin Bieber and Paris Hilton also accused of promoting the NFT collection without disclosing their financial links to it. A spokesperson for Yuga Labs meanwhile said, via email: “We believe that these new allegations, like those in the previous iteration of this opportunistic complaint, are completely without merit or factual basis. “As a media and technology company, Yuga Labs has empowered strong communities of enthusiasts and entrepreneurs to innovate, connect, and build. The Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 NFTs hosted on the Ethereum blockchain, launched in April 2021.

Persons: Yuga, Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, Sotheby’s, NFTs, “, Jack Dorsey’s, LeBron James, “ Beeple, ”, ” —, MoonPay Organizations: CNN, Sotheby’s Holdings Inc, Paris Hilton, Labs, Yuga Labs, Twitter, Adidas, Securities and Exchange Commission Locations: California, freefall

☆ Ramaswamy Investments Seem at Odds With His Position on ‘Woke’ Culture
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Trip Gabriel | More About Trip Gabriel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Ramaswamy has argued that such goals are a distraction from earning a profit, and that social objectives should be left to elected officials. Tricia McLaughlin, a senior adviser to Mr. Ramaswamy, said that he did not manage his own stock portfolio. “Vivek’s stock portfolio is independently managed by a third party. The filing reported that Mr. Ramaswamy owned up to a $25 million investment in Rumble, the video platform that styles itself a refuge for right-wing commentators shunned elsewhere. Mr. Ramaswamy, 37, is a Cincinnati native who holds degrees from Harvard and Yale.

Persons: Ramaswamy, Tricia McLaughlin, Vivek, ” Ms, McLaughlin, “, Mr, Donald J, Trump Organizations: Republican, Harvard, Yale, Roivant Sciences Locations: cryptocurrency, Cincinnati

☆ Snoop Dogg, his ape and a question of celebrity hype
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Elle Reeve | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

The Bored Apes became some of the most famous NFTs after a series of celebrities said they got one. The Bored Ape crazeSnoop Dogg performs with his Bored Ape character, Dr. Bombay, in February 2023. He sold his versions as RR/BAYC with an accompanying website that detailed claims the Bored Apes contained references to racist memes on 4chan, a troll website. In March 2022, Snoop invested in Yuga Labs, and the month after, he invested in MoonPay. In the VMAs video, Eminem turns into a white ape wearing “hip hop clothes,” while Snoop becomes a cheetah-fur ape wearing a “pimp coat,” according to Yuga Labs’ description.

FaZe Clan has laid off 20% of its staff as it found itself with less capital than expected. Esports organization FaZe Clan has laid off roughly 20% of its employees in a restructuring that began in December, a company spokesperson confirmed. In the memo to staffers, FaZe CEO Lee Trink wrote that the company expects to report a year-over-year revenue increase of more than 25% for 2022. As I described, I'm extremely proud that we expect to report the revenue growth for 2022 will show an increase of over 25% from 2021. As we embark on 2023 with a more streamlined, nimbler organization, our key focus is on the core aspects of what makes FaZe FaZe, and what has allowed the brand and the business to grow at an incredible pace over the past five years.

Bored Ape Yacht Club was not the biggest crypto phenomenon, but it was one of the top beneficiaries of celebrity hype. The Bored Apes — a computer-generated collection of 10,000 cartoons — were being presented as a status symbol, membership in an exclusive club. Yuga sued Ripps for trademark infringement, and argues that his maligning of the Yuga apes is nothing more than a profiteering tactic. Hickman, who is Black, thought the Bored Apes looked like stereotypical portrayals of Black people as stupid or lazy. He said he thought this would be obvious to most people the second they saw an image of a Bored Ape.

☆ The company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is being sued for using celebrities to promote their products
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The firm behind Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is being sued for not disclosing celebrities' involvement. The lawsuit alleged that Yuga Labs manufactured celebrity endorsements and misleading promotions. The legal action against blockchain cryptocurrency startup Yuga Labs was filed on Friday in California District Court. The unique selling point of Yuga Labs' NFT collection, called the Bored Ape Yacht Club, is that NFT owners become members of an exclusive "club" that included these celebrities. Yuga Labs didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

☆ Crypto startup MoonPay hires Time president to lead its enterprise business
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Riley De León | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In this article LTH Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTKeith Grossman, Time president TIMEPieces Artist Jeremy CowartTime president Keith Grossman is leaving the legacy publisher to take on a new role as the president of enterprise at crypto startup MoonPay, effective December 31. Before his three-plus years at Time, Grossman had held leadership posts at major publishers including Bloomberg and Condé Nast-owned Wired. "I think it's important to separate a bad actor from an industry," Grossman said of the FTX fallout. Crypto's confidence crisisIn the 12 months since bitcoin topped out at over $68,000, the crypto industry, once valued at roughly $3 trillion, has fallen to around $900 billion. Enterprise adoption has been fueling this belief, with companies including Nike , McDonald's , Adidas and Starbucks launching their own NFT collections.

☆ After FTX's collapse, VCs across industries are finally admitting to crypto's failures — and they're preparing for 'more blows to come'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Investors stuck to crypto startups they considered "safe bets," but FTX's failure challenges that idea. Crypto startups held yacht parties through the summer and into early fall at events such as NFT.NYC and Messari Mainnet. "The whole crypto space is a high-leverage space, and it's susceptible to cascading failures." The events of the past week are unlikely to whet risk-averse LPs' appetite for crypto, investors told Insider. Even so, several investors who have backed crypto startups told Insider that despite the industry's recent travails, they remain believers in the technology.

☆ Disruption in Action: Web3 & Cybersecurity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailDisruption in Action: Web3 & CybersecurityCrypto enthusiasts say their vision for the web would decentralize it, pushing it closer to its roots. But doing so presents novel security threats we've only just begun to confront with the internet in its current form. In this panel, the CEOs of MoonPay and Lacework, both first-time CNBC Disruptor 50 companies, join us to discuss the emerging threats out there and the best ways to protect everyone from token holders to NFT creators and more.

☆ How Y Combinator-backed Web3 startup Courtyard raised $7 million and plans to redefine NFTs and the marketplace for digital collectibles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Y Combinator-backed Web3 startup Courtyard has raised $7 million in seed funding led by NEA. Nicolas le Jeune was working at YouTube when he caught the NFT bug. Le Jeune, Courtyard's CEO, cofounded the startup with Paulin Andurand, who serves as the company's CTO. Le Jeune and Andurand launched a proof of concept by buying up packs of Pokémon cards with money lent from a friend. Fortunately, le Jeune and Andurand had already begun to make inroads with investors.

To see how much jobs in the creator economy pay, Insider analyzed salary data from 142 work-visa applications filed with the US government and decided on between October 2020 and June 2022. The pay data includes salaries ranging from a data scientist position that offers $170,000 per year at Discord to a staff engineer role that earns $250,000 or more at Patreon. At Cameo, a principal software engineer would make $230,000Steven Galanis, CEO of Cameo. Senior Manager, DevOps : $140,000: $140,000 Statistician: $116,979 to $170,000 (Spotter said it internally calls this position "Data Analyst.") At Teachable, a senior software engineer would make $150,000Teachable is a platform where creators can build and sell online courses and coaching programs.

Organizations: & $

☆ The 26 most important VCs in Miami, according to other VCs
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( April Joyner | Emilia David | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Miami's tech-startup scene has heated up in the past two years as VCs have flocked to the city. Early-stage funding to the area has topped $2 billion this year, according to Crunchbase. Insider asked VCs to identify the top investors in the Miami area. Despite the slowdown in venture-capital investments this year, early-stage funding flowing to the Miami area is set to eclipse last year's total, according to Crunchbase, with more than $2 billion already invested. Insider asked venture capitalists and other prominent tech figures which investors Miami-area founders should get to know.

Search resuls for: "MoonPay"

14 mentions found