New South African Payment Group to Advance Payment Digitization in SA
In South Africa, where a substantial section of the population is still unbanked and millions of businesses rely only on cash transactions, the formation of a groundbreaking alliance promises to transform the financial industry. Introducing ASAPP: A Step Towards a Modern Payment Ecosystem Today, eight of South Africa’s biggest non-bank
Read moreEuropean embedded banking startup Swan adds another $44 million to its Series B
French startup Swan has raised another €42 million (around $44 million at current exchange rates). The company considers this round as the second part of the Series B round that was originally announced in September 2023. Swan helps other companies offer financial products at scale. The company can generate both
Read moreSoftBank in talks to invest as much as $25B in OpenAI, report says
SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader partnership that could see the Japanese conglomerate spend more than $40 billion on AI initiatives with the Microsoft-backed startup, according to Financial Times. The potential investment would make SoftBank OpenAI’s largest single backer,
Read moreMeta says end of fact-checking hasn’t impacted ad spend
Meta says its controversial decision to put an end to its fact-checking program hasn’t impacted advertiser spend. On its Q4 2024 call, Meta CFO Susan Li assured investors that advertiser demand remains strong and the company’s commitment to brand safety remains unchanged, despite the new measures. Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Read moreZuck shrugs off DeepSeek, vows to spend hundreds of billions on AI
Meta is doubling down on AI spending despite markets briefly panicking over concerns DeepSeek will reduce AI demand. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreLinkedIn passes $2B in premium revenues in 12 months, with overall revenues up 9% on the year
LinkedIn, the social platform where people look for and talk about work, may be less visible in Microsoft’s earnings compared to the years when it was an independent company. But around earnings time, LinkedIn often reveals some figures that point to how it continues to grow. On Wednesday, as Microsoft
Read moreElon Musk claims Tesla will launch a self-driving service in Austin in June
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas this coming June, the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to meet about autonomy. Musk was unsurprisingly light on details. He said that there will be
Read moreThreads adds another 20M monthly users since December, reaching 320M
Threads, Meta’s microblogging service, is growing at a fast pace as users gravitate to the app over rivals like X. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now has 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 300 million last month. The app
Read moreHackers are hijacking WordPress sites to push Windows and Mac malware
A cybersecurity company says hackers are pushing Mac and Windows malware through sites that are using outdated versions of WordPress. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreTesla’s profits slide over 70 percent in the fourth quarter
It’s one week into Elon Musk’s new role as chief cost-cutter for the Trump administration, but today, his side hustle as CEO of Tesla takes center stage with the release of the company’s latest earnings report. During the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla said it earned $2.3 billion in net
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