Technology

Wonderful raises $150M Series B at $2B valuation

Wonderful raises $150M Series B at $2B valuation

đź’Ą Check out this trending post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Enterprise,Fundraising,AI agents,Customer Service,In Brief,Insight Partners,wonderful đź’ˇ **What You’ll Learn**: Israeli AI startup Wonderful has raised $150 million in a Series B funding round valuing it at $2 billion, coming just four months after the company raised a $100 million Series A. The new round was led by Insight Partners and saw participation from existing investors, including Index Ventures, IVP, Bessemer Venture Partners and Vine Ventures. To date, the company has raised $286 million in total. Just 13 months later, Wonderful says it has seen strong demand for its AI…
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Alexa+ is getting a new “adults only” character option that curses but won’t display NSFW content

Alexa+ is getting a new “adults only” character option that curses but won’t display NSFW content

🔥 Read this trending post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Apps,Alexa,Amazon âś… **What You’ll Learn**: Amazon's Alexa+ AI assistant is getting another new personality. The company announced Thursday that it is expanding the lineup of character styles for users to choose from to include an adults-only "Sassy" option. Amazon notes that before choosing to use the Sassy persona, users will be required to perform additional security checks in the Alexa app. Amazon says character mode will also not be available when Amazon Kids is enabled. The new option joins other options such as “Brief,” “Chill,” and “Sweet,” which were launched…
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Tesla has become a utility company in the UK, leading to a showdown with Octopus Energy

Tesla has become a utility company in the UK, leading to a showdown with Octopus Energy

🚀 Check out this trending post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Climate,Transportation,electricity,energy,Tesla,United Kingdom,In Brief đź’ˇ **What You’ll Learn**: Tesla is now an officially licensed company in the United Kingdom, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The automotive and energy company recently obtained a license from the Gas and Electricity Markets Office, allowing it to sell electricity directly to households, commercial and industrial users. The company has long been involved in the electricity markets. Its first pure energy products, Powerwall and Powerpack, were introduced in 2015, but the company didn't begin rapidly scaling the division until a…
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Author sues Grammarly for turning her and other authors into “AI editors” without their consent

Author sues Grammarly for turning her and other authors into “AI editors” without their consent

✨ Read this awesome post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,grammarly,lawsuits,superhuman đź’ˇ **What You’ll Learn**: Grammarly released a controversial feature last week that uses artificial intelligence to simulate editorial comments, making it look like you're taking criticism from novelist Stephen King, late scientist Carl Sagan, or tech journalist Kara Swisher. But Grammarly did not get permission from the hundreds of experts it included in this feature, called “Expert Review,” to use their names. One of the aggrieved writers, journalist Julia Angwin, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Superhuman, the parent company that owns Grammarly, arguing that the company violated the…
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Law enforcement shuts down a botnet of tens of thousands of compromised routers

Law enforcement shuts down a botnet of tens of thousands of compromised routers

đź’Ą Check out this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Security,botnet,CSAM,cybercrime,cybersecurity,ddos,department of justice,Europol,hacking,malware âś… **What You’ll Learn**: A global coalition of law enforcement agencies shut down a botnet of tens of thousands of compromised home and small business routers on Wednesday. The operation targeted SocksEscort, which offers paid proxy services and was built on a botnet of compromised routers used to commit various crimes, such as hacking into victims' bank and cryptocurrency accounts and filing fraudulent unemployment insurance claims, according to an announcement published by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday. The Justice Department said crimes facilitated by…
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Bumble introduces its AI dating assistant, ‘Bee’

Bumble introduces its AI dating assistant, ‘Bee’

đź’Ą Read this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Apps,Social,AI assistant,bumble,dating,online dating âś… **What You’ll Learn**: Dating app maker Bumble is venturing into generative AI. During the company's fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Bumble introduced a new AI assistant dubbed "Bee," designed to become a personal matchmaker that learns "users' values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions" through private chats. It then uses these insights to help find the most relevant matches for the user. Currently, Bee is in beta and being tested internally, Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told investors, but it will launch in…
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Truecaller now lets you hang up on scammers – on behalf of your family

Truecaller now lets you hang up on scammers – on behalf of your family

🔥 Read this must-read post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: AI,Apps,India,Scam detection,Truecaller 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: Caller ID platform Truecaller recently launched a new feature that allows one person to become an admin of a family group, get alerts about scam calls other members are receiving, and even hang up on their behalf if they suspect a family member may be being scammed. The company, which has over 450 million users, first launched the feature in December in a few countries like Sweden, Chile, Malaysia and Kenya. Truecaller said that after seeing promising results, it decided to roll it out…
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Before quantum computing arrives, this startup wants companies to already be working on it

Before quantum computing arrives, this startup wants companies to already be working on it

✨ Check out this awesome post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Startups,AI,finland,quantum computing,postscriptum,qutwo,peter sarlin đź’ˇ **What You’ll Learn**: Eighteen months after selling his startup to chipmaker AMD for $665 million, Finnish entrepreneur Peter Saarlin has left his position as CEO of the unit now known as AMD Silo AI. He's now CEO of two new ventures: NestAI, a physical AI lab, and QuTwo, an AI startup that aims to help companies prepare for the era of quantum computing. Currently, QuTwo is fully funded by Sarlin's family office, PostScriptum, and describes itself as an "AI laboratory for the quantum age." However,…
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Webflow buys AI content creation platform Vidoso to bolster its marketing stack

Webflow buys AI content creation platform Vidoso to bolster its marketing stack

đź’Ą Read this awesome post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Apps,AI-generated content,Marketing,Mergers and Acquisitions,webflow âś… **What You’ll Learn**: Webflow, which offers a software platform for building and hosting websites, is acquiring AI-powered content creation platform Vidoso to enhance its suite of marketing offerings. Founded in 2024, Vidoso uses large language models to help organizations create marketing collateral such as images, presentations, videos, blog posts, and social media content. For example, the platform can turn a keynote talk or panel discussion into short videos or blog posts. Vidoso's team of four joins Webflow full-time. Webflow did not disclose the financial terms…
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The humanoid robot maker on Sunday reached $1.15 billion for building home robots

The humanoid robot maker on Sunday reached $1.15 billion for building home robots

đź’Ą Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch đź“– đź“‚ **Category**: Startups,Venture,robots,humanoid,unicorn,In Brief 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: The robotics company on Sunday announced a new funding round that values ​​the company in unicorn status, meaning more than $1 billion, it announced Thursday. Sunday says it has raised $165 million at a $1.15 billion valuation in a Series B round led by Coatue Management. Other investors in the round include Tiger Global, Benchmark and Bain Capital Ventures. The company came out of stealth late last year and already has 1,000 people on its waiting list, Bloomberg reports. Founded by Tony Zhao and…
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