9 startups that stood out on YC Demo Day 2
Here are the startups from YC Demo Day 2 that we thought stood out from the flock. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreIndian game streaming startup Loco sells majority stake to Redwood
UAE-based Redwood has acquired a majority stake in the game streaming platform Loco as the Indian firm looks to expand focus to international markets, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed. Redwood, a newly-formed investment firm, has signed a $65 million deal with Loco, an investment that also gives full exit to
Read moreDeedy Das: from coding at Meta, to search at Google, to investing with Anthropic
We chat with Deedy Das, a Principal at Menlo Ventures, who began his career as a software engineer at Facebook and Google. He then dipped a toe in the startup world, spending time at the company now know as Glean. More recently he started a career as a venture capitalist,
Read moreStarlink hits 4 million subscribers
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network is expected to hit a new customer milestone this week, company President Gwynne Shotwell told Texas legislators on Tuesday. “This week, by the way, we will pass 4 million customers for Starlink, which is quite exciting,” she said while testifying before a state House Appropriations
Read moreRunway earmarks $5M to fund up to 100 films using AI-generated video
AI video generators need to believe that filmmakers will use their models in the production process. Otherwise why exist? To jump-start the new AI film ecosystem, Runway has set aside $5 million in cash and more in service credits to fund up to 100 original films. If you’re an AI-curious
Read moreOpenAI’s VP of global affairs claims o1 is ‘virtually perfect’ at correcting bias, but the data doesn’t quite back that up
Departures might be dominating the week’s OpenAI-related headlines. But comments on AI bias from Anna Makanju, the company’s VP of global affairs, also grabbed our attention. Makanju, speaking on a panel at the UN’s Summit of the Future event on Tuesday, suggested that emerging “reasoning” models such as OpenAI’s o1
Read moreFormer Brex COO who now heads unicorn fintech Figure says GPT is already upending the mortgage industry
Lending startup Figure will be launching an AI tool powered by GPT-4 to help catch errors in lending documents. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreSecurity compliance unicorn Drata lays off 9% of its workforce
Drata, a security compliance automation platform that helps companies adhere to frameworks such as SOC 2 and GDPR, has laid off 9% of its workforce, amounting to 40 people. Founded in 2020, Drata integrates with dozens of clouds, SaaS apps, developer tools, security systems, and more, helping businesses collate the necessary evidence to prove that
Read moreNomi’s companion chatbots will now remember things like the colleague you don’t get along with
As OpenAI boasts about its o1 model’s increased thoughtfulness, small, self-funded startup Nomi AI is building the same kind of technology. Unlike the broad generalist ChatGPT, which slows down to think through anything from math problems or historical research, Nomi niches down on a specific use case: AI companions. Now,
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