Latest from Paul Sawers
An English school has been reprimanded by U.K. regulators after it used facial recognition technology without getting opt-in consent from students.
Nine months on, and Jigsaw is now formally handing Altitude over to Tech Against Terrorism, which will continue its development and maintenance.
Featured Article
From Yandex’s ashes comes Nebius, a ‘startup’ with plans to be a European AI compute leader
Subject to shareholder approval, Yandex N.V. is adopting the name of one of its few remaining assets, an AI cloud platform called Nebius AI which it birthed last year.
Featured Article
Strava’s next chapter: New CEO talks AI, inclusivity, and why ‘dark mode’ took so long
TechCrunch sat down with Strava’s new CEO in London for a wide-ranging interview, delving into what the company is prioritizing, and what we can expect in the future as the company embarks on its “next chapter.”
Featured Article
Proton launches ‘privacy-first’ AI writing assistant for email that runs on-device
Proton has launched a new AI-enabled writing assistant that helps users compose emails based on simple prompts.
Government & Policy
Microsoft faces UK antitrust probe after hiring Inflection AI founders and employees
U.K. authorities have until early September to decide whether the hiring is tantamount to a merger.
Featured Article
Toddle wants to ‘change how we build software’ with a collaborative visual web app builder
Danish startup Toddle has launched a no-code web app builder that’s designed as a full-featured alternative to Javascript frameworks.
Featured Article
SoftBank acquires UK AI chipmaker Graphcore
While the figure of $500 million has been bandied around in various reports for months, in a press briefing early Thursday morning, Graphcore co-founder and CEO Nigel Toon remained coy on the details.
Featured Article
Intel Capital backs AI construction startup that could boost Intel’s own manufacturing prospects
Intel could be giving its burgeoning foundry ambitions a much-needed shot in the arm, as the chip giant’s venture capital arm today revealed that it’s making a “strategic” investment in an Israel- and U.K.-based AI construction startup. Intel Capital is leading a $15 million investment into Buildots, a company that…
The core issue relates to a 2019 licensing change whereby Microsoft made it more expensive to run Microsoft’s enterprise software on rival cloud services.
Featured Article
SAP, and Oracle, and IBM, oh my! ‘Cloud and AI’ drive legacy software firms to record valuations
There’s something of a trend around legacy software firms and their soaring valuations: Companies founded in dinosaur times are on a tear, evidenced this week with SAP‘s shares topping $200 for the first time. Founded in 1972, SAP’s valuation currently sits at an all-time high of $234 billion. The Germany-based…
You can barely go an hour these days without reading about generative AI. While we are still in the embryonic phase of what some have dubbed the “steam engine” of…
Activity tracking platform and community Strava is shutting down Fatmap, the Europe-based 3D mapping platform it had acquired last January.
Featured Article
What does ‘open source AI’ mean, anyway?
The Open Source Initiative is trying to address the debate stirring around the notion of “open-source AI.”
Website building platform Squarespace is selling Tock, its restaurant reservation service, to American Express in a deal worth $400 million — the exact figure that Squarespace paid for the service…
Amazon is bringing its generative AI listing smarts to more sellers, revealing today that those in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. can now access tools designed to improve…
Wordsmith, a fledgling Scottish legal tech startup, has somehow managed to attract the backing of two well-known venture capital firms. The startup targets in-house legal teams and law firms with…
The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has initiated a formal “phase 1” investigation into Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) planned acquisition of Juniper Networks. The CMA said it’s in the…
Featured Article
Privacy app maker Proton transitions to nonprofit foundation structure
The newly setup Proton Foundation will serve as the main shareholder to the existing corporate entity that is Proton AG, which will continue as a for-profit company under the auspices of the Foundation.
Meta has confirmed that it will pause plans to start training its AI systems using data from its users in the European Union and U.K. The move follows pushback from…
Gorilla, a Belgian company that serves the energy sector with real-time data and analytics for pricing and forecasting, has raised €23 million ($25 million) in a Series B round led…
Featured Article
Let there be Light! Danish startup exits stealth with $13M seed funding to bring AI to general ledgers
It’s not the sexiest of subject matters, but someone needs to talk about it: The CFO tech stack — software used by the chief financial officers of the world — is ripe for disruption. That’s according to Jonathan Sanders, CEO and co-founder of fledgling Danish startup Light, which exits stealth…
LinkedIn has confirmed it will no longer allow advertisers to target users based on data gleaned from their participation in LinkedIn Groups. The move comes more than three months after…
Education software provider PowerSchool is being taken private by investment firm Bain Capital in a $5.6 billion deal.
Stock-trading app Robinhood is diving deeper into the cryptocurrency realm with the acquisition of crypto exchange Bitstamp.
Ashkenazi will start her new role at Google’s parent company on July 31, after 23 years at Eli Lilly.
SAP sees WalkMe’s focus on automating contextual, in-app support as bringing value to its own enterprise customers.
AI
GetWhy, a market research AI platform that extracts insights from video interviews, raises $34.5M
GetWhy helps businesses carry out market studies and extract insights from video-based interviews using AI.
Spotify has announced it’s hiking subscriptions for customers in the U.S., the second such price increase in the space of a year. The music-streaming giant reports that premium pricing will…
Fintech
UK neobank Monzo reports first full (pre-tax) profit, prepares for EU expansion with Dublin hub
Monzo has announced its 2024 financial results, revealing its first full-year pre-tax profit. The company also confirmed that it’s in the early stages of expanding into the broader European market…
