India’s Zepto zooms to $1.2B in annualized sales in 29 months, Goldman says
Indian quick-commerce startup Zepto has surpassed the annualised sales milestone of $1 billion within just 29 months of its inception, Goldman Sachs wrote in a note Thursday, citing the Zepto management. The startup, which competes with Zomato-owned Blinkit and SoftBank-backed Swiggy Instamart, is also gaining market share, now standing “close to
Read moreRobot delivery firm Kiwibot buys Taipei chipmaker, citing US/China tensions
Bay Area/Colombia-based delivery robotics firm Kiwibot this week announced that it has acquired Auto Mobility Solutions. The Taipei firm produces chips specifically for the world of robotics and autonomous driving. Details of the transaction have not been disclosed. Kiwi founder and CEO Felipe Chávez Cortés does, however, tell TechCrunch that
Read moreWomen in AI: Emilia Gómez at the EU started her AI career with music
To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often
Read moreHow do mixture-of-experts layers affect transformer models?
This new LLM technique has started improving the results of models without additional training.
Read moreDataStax acquires the startup behind low-code AI builder Langflow
DataStax made a name for itself by commercializing the open source Apache Cassandra NoSQL database, but these days, the company’s focus is squarely on using its database chops to build a “one-stop GenAI stack.” One of the first building blocks for this was to bring vector search capabilities to its
Read moreRooms, a 3D design app and ‘cozy game,’ gets a major update as users jump to 250K
Five months ago, Rooms, a 3D design platform made by ex-Google employees, launched its beta version on the App Store. Today, the free iOS app is getting a big update that will bring a wave of new discovery-first features, including an activity feed, an explore page, the ability to browse
Read moreJobs for the Future’s new $50M fund looks to invest in underrepresented founders
Two years ago, Jobs for the Future (JFF), a non-profit dedicated to helping low-wage workers attain upward mobility, established a venture arm, JFFVentures, to back innovative employment tech. In a move implying that the launch went well, JFFVentures today unveiled its second fund, JFFVentures Fund II, with a target of
Read moreRetro, an actually good photo-sharing app for BFFs, launches collaborative journals
As big social apps are optimizing for maximum engagement using algorithmic feeds and personalized content recommendations, Retro wants to go in the opposite direction: The company is launching a new feature called journals. It’s a flexible way to share photos with your favorite people and create visual records of whatever
Read moreSiMa.ai secures $70M funding to introduce a multimodal GenAI chip
SiMa.ai, a Silicon Valley-based startup producing embedded ML system-on-chip (SoC) platforms, today announced that it has raised a $70 million extension funding round as it plans to bring its second-generation chipset, specifically built for multimodal generative AI processing, to market. According to Gartner, the market for AI-supporting chips globally is
Read morePublicSec Cybersecurity Summit: Insights and Collaborations
IT News Africa recently hosted the annual Public Sector Cybersecurity Summit at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, drawing a crowd of industry players and service providers. The event featured a line-up of 10 experts from both the IT industry and government who delivered keynote addresses on various cybersecurity challenges
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