Thursday, February 8, 2024

When does a startup-focused newsletter become an AI roundup?

TechCrunch Newsletter
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By Alex Wilhelm

Thursday, February 08, 2024

Good morning, and welcome to TechCrunch AM for February 8, 2024. Today, we're talking about Google's new AI model, a French unicorn, a startup building software for fusion power tech, the impact of X's drama on its smaller competitors, and Disney buying a big chunk of Epic Games. I have a varied, and honestly fascinating grip of stories for you this morning. Let's get reading!

Alex

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TechCrunch Top 3

  1. Google launches new, powerful AI model: Say hello to Gemini Ultra, everyone. Also say goodbye to Bard, a brand that Google had in the market for about a year. Now it's all Gemini, got it? If you want to snag the Ultra version of Google's most powerful AI model, you'll need the top-tier of its Google One plans, which will run you $20 per month. Google is also bringing its new AI models to its Assistant product. Now it's time for Microsoft et al. to fire back and keep the AI race going.
  2. Pennylane is France's latest unicorn: Flush with €40 million in new capital, Pennylane's accounting software business is now worth at least $1 billion. The startup is another standout from France, where startups have seemed very busy in recent quarters.
  3. Disney + Fortnite: The U.S. entertainment giant is acquiring a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games, which runs Fortnite, develops the Unreal Engine, and the Epic games store (which is tussling with Apple) as part of a partnership deal. The deal makes good sense, since Disney has lots of IP that it wants to lever as widely as possible, and Epic Games has lots of customers in the Mouse Kingdom's target demographic. Shares of Disney are up 8% this morning following the news and the company's quarterly report.
TechCrunch Top 3 image

Image Credits: Google

Don't miss these

CodeSignal wants to teach you coding: CodeSignal started life as a competitive coding platform, and later rebranded to a technical assessment service. Now, the company is building CodeSignal Learn, which features an AI bot called Cosmo that will help teach users topics like introduction to programming, coding languages, data analytics and machine learning. There's a free tier, but CodeSignal Learn will run users $24.99 per month if they want to ask Cosmo as many questions as they want.

AI pricing is the interesting concept here. OpenAI's more powerful ChatGPT service costs $20 per month, while access to Google's new Gemini model costs $20 per month. Microsoft is charging a lot for its AI-infused Office tools, and CodeSignal is targeting a price point above the $20 mark. In short, AI tools are going to cost users, and a price floor is being established by the market. Put another way, AI is going to bolster total software TAM. That's good news for tech companies big and small.

Daedalus wants to bring AI to manufacturing: With a new $21 million Series A under its belt, Daedalus plans to tackle precision part fabrication. Such work doesn't mesh with the high-volume manufacturing lines that we see in the automotive industry, but perhaps the German startup can shake up a large, fragmented piece of the "building stuff" world with its AI-infused processes.

Thea Energy raises $20M for its software to advance fusion power: There are two main ways to approach magnetic confinement for fusion power: You can build a simple, donut-shaped plasma container (tokamak), or a more complicated layout that superheated plasma likes more (stellarator). Thea wants to use software-controlled, high-temperature superconducting magnets inside a tokamak-like container to get stellarator-like ease of plasma control and achieve the best of both worlds. Very cool, very complex, and hopefully very effective.

Rally is building a micro climate fund: Rally Cap VC is known for its investments in fintech, but the venture firm has now reached the 'first close' of a new, climate-focused fund it's calling Rally Cap Climate. The firm said "many of the most exciting calls [it was] having with founders were on the climate side," which meshed with its goals to move beyond just fintech dealmaking.

Attentive is bringing AI to manual labor: Now with $7 million more under its belt, Attentive.ai's business of helping automate landscaping and construction services is bringing the vertical SaaS model outdoors (AI is very useful for estimating, it turns out). Attentive is not the only startup with the idea. TechCrunch covered SingleOps' $6 million round back in 2020, for example.

Big Tech Roundup: Apple has rebuilt its iCloud app for Windows; Meta doesn't want to help finance the EU's oversight of its business; and a collision with a cyclist has Alphabet's Waymo under regulatory scrutiny.

X's drama is social media rocket fuel: Sarah Perez writes that recent product and business changes at the social media service formerly known as Twitter is helping "further growth of numerous social networks that prioritize brief posts." In short, if you like to tweet, you have more options than X.

Indian central bank not sorry it's wrangling with Paytm: The Reserve Bank of India's actions have not only undercut Paytm's banking arm, they've also dramatically curtailed its market cap. In response, the RBI says that its actions only follow a long period of non-compliance and lots of mutual engagement. Don't blame the regulators, RBI is saying, blame the company.

Don't miss these image

Image Credits: CodeSignal

Before you go

I don't fully understand it, but the United States has lately seen a boom in trendy water bottles. Stanley water bottles are today's symbolic item of coolness, though how long they will hold on to that moniker is beyond me. No matter, some businesses want a piece of the action: Brita, known for its water filter tech, is buying smart water bottle-maker Larq.

What's a smart water bottle? Larq vessels use "a UV light built into the cap to reduce the bacteria that accumulates inside."

You can also just drink from the tap, but hey, that's not cool enough.

Before you go image

Image Credits: Larq

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Wednesday, February 7, 2024

The foldable phone battle is on

TechCrunch Newsletter
TechCrunch PM Logo

By Christine Hall

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome back to TechCrunch PM! We've got a jam-packed newsletter for you thanks to all the great news that you eagerly gobbled up, pretty much as it was being posted. Read about Microsoft's new Copilot features, how Bluesky did after making its app open to all, why X is suddenly on top and what's going on with H-1B visas.

Christine

 image

Image Credits: Gabby Jones / Bloomberg / Getty Images

TechCrunch PM Top 3

Microsoft and the Super Bowl: The enterprise software giant is attempting to score some extra yardage with consumers with a Super Bowl LVIII campaign. The commercials will tout the new design upgrades to Copilot, its suite of generative AI tools.

The foldable phone battle is on: Apple just took off its glove and slapped Samsung in the face. Usually we get lots of rumors about new Apple products; however, CEO Tim Cook alluded to the possibility of a foldable iPhone sooner rather than later.

The public looks good on Bluesky: So many people crowded onto Bluesky that it caused some outages. The social media app, a new competitor to X, saw its unique user count nearly double between Monday and Tuesday after opening to the public yesterday.

TechCrunch PM Top 3 image

Image Credits: Microsoft

More top reads

X is No. 1: Former Fox news host Tucker Carlson stunned all of us when he said he was going interview Russian president Vladimir Putin. What's more stunning is that people flocked to the Apple App Store to download X, causing it to rise to the top of the downloads overnight.

Amperesand wants to remake the 140-year-old transformer: As electricity flows through the grid, the transformer has been there for over a hundred years to change the voltage when that happens. Well, it's getting hard for the transformer to do its job, and Amperesand, now with $12.5 million in seed funding, has a solution.

Web3 has friends in high places: SEC commissioner Hester Peirce still plans to push for a token "safe harbor" plan. It's been three years since Peirce released her initial proposal that called for providing initial development teams with a three-year grace period during which they could participate in and create a decentralized network. During that time, they would be exempt from "registration provisions of the federal securities laws so long as certain conditions are met."

Threads pulling at ways to save posts: What do we want? To save posts! When do we want it? Yesterday! The text-based social networking app is experimenting with the ability to save posts, allowing users to bookmark favorite posts to revisit them later.

The 3D version of your life: Polycom closed on an $18 million round of funding to help you capture 3D object scans.

WhatsApp prepares to allow third-party chat support: Of course, there are caveats: Companies that want to be interoperable with Meta's system will have to sign an agreement, and WhatsApp will require end-to-end encryption.

Funding news: Goodshuffle helped their event rental and production company clients take advantage of their tables, chairs and tents being needed by a new audience during the pandemic.

NinjaOne is now valued at $1.9 billion after raising $231.9 million in new funding. NinjaOne's tools are designed to integrate with existing IT and security platforms and run the gamut from remote device monitoring and data backup to software deployment, alerting, scripting and app automation.

Simplify is giving the job search a digital update, and now that it has $3 million in new funding, the startup plans to build a business model around the idea of an AI career agent.

Get this: A venture capital firm coming out of stealth. Varsity, based in Paris, is a new early-stage venture capital fund that has already raised €70 million to invest across several verticals.

Planning to enter someone in the H-1B lottery?: Attorney Sophie Alcorn tells you everything you'll need to keep in mind, from an increase in fees to timing to learning how to submit applications online.

More top reads image

Image Credits: TechCrunch

On the pods

On today's Equity, Alex discussed startups and capital, including those still doing well in vertical SaaS, as well as audience-tuned fintech products and a crypto startup with consumer traction. He also looked at what's up in social media and new venture capital funds. Listen here.

Then over on Chain Reaction, we have a bonus episode with Hester Peirce, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Jacquelyn moderated a fireside chat with Commissioner Peirce at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business alongside Eddie Cullen, a former candidate for New York City mayor in 2021 and co-founder and CEO of Crescite Innovation Corporation. They discussed a number of timely topics, including the SEC's spot bitcoin ETF approval, policy-making to keep crypto innovation alive in the U.S., and the commissioner's Token Safe Harbor Proposal 2.0 and whether she's considering a new one. Listen here.

On the pods image

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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