Meta and IBM form an AI Alliance, but to what end?
Meta, on an open source tear, wants to spread its influence further and wider in the ongoing battle for AI mindshare. This morning, the social network announced that it’s teaming up with IBM, whose audience is decidedly more corporate and enterprise, to launch the AI Alliance, a industry body to
Read moreEnCharge raises $22.6M to commercialize its AI-accerating chips
Around a year ago, TechCrunch wrote about a little-known company developing AI-accelerating chips to face off against hardware from titans of industry — e.g. Nvidia, AMD, Microsoft, Meta, AWS and Intel. Its mission at the time sounded a little ambitious — and still does. But to its credit, the startup,
Read moreVancouver’s Fantuan raises $40M to deliver real Chinese food at your doorstep
For those who move abroad from China, one thing they miss dearly is the convenience of food delivery apps. Fantuan, a Vancouver-based company, has been working on replicating the experience of Chinese food delivery platforms in the West for the past nine years. Recently, it raised some fresh capital to
Read moreUsed by only a few nerds, Facebook kills PGP-encrypted emails
In 2015, as part of the wave of encrypting all the things on the internet, encouraged by the Edward Snowden revelations, Facebook announced that it would allow users to receive encrypted emails from the company. Even at the time, this was a feature for the paranoid users. By turning on
Read moreMeta set to discontinue cross-messaging between Instagram and Facebook
Meta has silently updated its support pages to indicate that the company won’t let users on Instagram message their Facebook contacts anymore. The company, as pointed out by 9to5Google, said the feature will shut down mid-December — without specifying a date. The support page indicates that while you won’t be
Read moreOmniful, a supply chain and e-commerce enablement startup, emerges from stealth with $5.85M
Supply chain and e-commerce enablement startup, Omniful, has today emerged from stealth with $5.85 million seed funding led by VentureSouq, with participation from 500 Global, DASH Ventures, Jahez Group, SEEDRA Ventures, Bunat Ventures, Hala Ventures, RZM Investments and several family offices including Al Rasheed, Siraj Holding, Al Bawardi, Al Nafea.
Read moreCarbon Maps, an environmental accounting startup for the food industry, gets new backers
Carbon Maps is a relatively new entrant in the carbon and environmental accounting space as it is less than one year old. But the French company has already secured $7.6 million in funding (€7 million) following the startup’s €3 million seed round extension. I already covered Carbon Maps back in
Read moreSoftBank Corp takes 51% of Cubic Telecom for $513M to drive into the connected car world
As automakers and technology companies continue to build ever-more sophisticated digital platforms into cars and other vehicles, a startup that’s built a system that makes it easy to connect that hardware to wireless networks around the world has picked up a major round of funding. Cubic Telecom, which provides a
Read moreEgypt’s Mtor nabs $2.8M pre-seed for its online auto parts marketplace
Egyptian online auto parts marketplace Mtor has raised $2.8 million in pre-seed investment led by Egypt-focused venture capital firm Algebra Ventures. Other investors that participated in the round include Dutch Founders Fund (DFF), Aditum Ventures, LoftyInc Capital and other local and global angel investors, the startup said in a statement.
Read moreFortnite is expanding its horizons with a Lego building game and a Rock Band successor
The first fruit of the partnership between Fornite-maker Epic Games and Lego is due out this week — along with a pair of other games within a game that expand Fortnite’s horizons considerably. The hybrid Lego/Fortnite experience is billed as a “survival crafting LEGO adventure” and will debut this Thursday,
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