Jio Platforms now valued at over $100B

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Tuesday, January 09, 2024

Bank of America bestowed a new title on Jio Platforms — an over $100 billion valuation. If you're into names, that makes Mukesh Ambani's India-based telecoms and digital conglomerate a "centicorn." This comes as parent company Reliance Industries plans to eventually take Jio public, Manish writes. Here's more. Next, Natasha has your look at Indian wearable startup Ultrahuman's first foray into the smart home arena. Announced at CES 2024, this new connected hardware device called Ultrahuman Home is designed to monitor the "health" of your home. For example, it will monitor levels of natural and artificial light, air pollution, noise, humidity and smoke in the room where it's installed. Get more specs and pricing. Meanwhile, Romain reports that there isn't much unity at Unity. The maker of a video game engine is laying off another 1,800 employees as it "restructures and refocuses on its core business, and to position itself for long-term and profitable growth." This is the company's fourth round of layoffs in a year, and the public markets didn't much care for the move. Get the scoop. And speaking of CES 2024, the event is going strong today in Las Vegas. We continue to bring you a roundup of everything announced so far in case you don't have time to tune in. Some of the big stories you'll see include: Can a striking design set rabbit's r1 pocket AI apart from a gaggle of virtual assistants? Honda bets its electric future on 'thin, light' 0 series EVs at CES 2024 Amazon's Alexa gets new generative AI-powered experiences Image Credits: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg / Getty Images

More top reads Simpler website design is closer than you think: Developers make everything complicated, right? Well Deco.cx, a Brazilian startup, doesn't like that approach. So it created an open source, front-end development platform for growing e-commerce brands that want to create high-performance digital experiences. Read more. Whoops: Someone over at Threads got a bit too excited and executed some new features related to viewing the latest search results. It's now clawed that back. Sorry, you’ll have to wait a little longer. There's more to the story: Carta's decision yesterday to exit the secondary shares trading market got Alex and Anna wondering if Carta's growth story is now being overshadowed by its stock trading snafu. You be the judge. (TC+) More layoffs: Duolingo is blaming the effect of using AI in its business for the reason it made the decision to cut 10% of its contractor workforce. Get the scoop. Step on it: In other CES 2024 news, VinFast, a Vietnamese electric vehicle startup, unveiled the concept for an electric pickup truck. The newest addition is part of a long list of things VinFast hopes to build in the coming years. Find out more. Spies among us: Hackers around the world are using artificial intelligence to craft their cyberattacks, but that same technology is helping U.S. spies track them down. See how. A small victory for spot bitcoin ETFs?: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is close to approving spot bitcoin ETFs, and Valkyrie's co-founder already has a plan for when that happens. Learn what that is. (TC+) We can't find that location: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission banned X-Mode from selling phone location data and ordered the firm to delete whatever collected data it had. Here's why. Image Credits: Deco.cx

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On the pods On today's episode of Found, Dom and Becca talk to Markus Witte, co-founder of Babbel, a language learning app that has been operating since 2007. Babbel has become one of the most prominent language-learning apps but their first product was essentially just a vocab game, and they quickly discovered that a multimodal way of learning will always be more effective. Markus also talked about why he decided to step down as CEO and take on the role of chairman and how all four co-founders have worked together to stick to the original mission of Babbel even after nearly 20 years. Listen here. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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Pitch your tent now for Apple’s Vision Pro sale

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Monday, January 08, 2024

Those of you waiting patiently for the sale of Apple's Vision Pro have something to celebrate today. Brian reports that the long-awaited headset goes on sale February 2 for $3,500. It will feature over 1 million compatible apps and over 250 games. Also, check out what Darrell has to say about whether the Vision Pro launch will be a Groundhog Day for immersive computing. Next, another African fintech is throwing its hat into the fintech ring. Tage writes that Cleva, currently going through Y Combinator, is creating a banking platform for individuals and businesses to receive international payments by opening U.S. accounts. This one is founded by Stripe and AWS alums and just claimed $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. Read more. Coming back to Apple . . . Ivan reports that the consumer electronics giant is at odds again with email service Hey. This time it is over the rejection of Hey's new calendar app from the App Store. Get the scoop. And CES 2024 kicked off today in Las Vegas. Not only do we help you watch it live, but we also have a roundup of everything announced so far in case you don't have time to tune in. Some of the big stories you'll see include: Volkswagen is bringing ChatGPT into its cars and SUVs CES brings us another wave of overpriced 'smart' cookware Bosch thinks in-car eye-tracking can be used for more than safety Image Credits: Brian Heater

More top reads Funding ahead: Venture debt is not for everyone, and not everyone is a fan. Enter fintech company Arc Technologies, which wants to make the concept popular again with its venture debt marketplace targeting Silicon Valley companies. Read more. More layoffs, and a pivot: German startup Pitch, a company that offers presentation software for businesses, switches to a new CEO and lays off two-thirds of its workforce. Get the scoop. Amazon delivers: We have a pair of Amazon announcements for you. First, Amazon taps into artificial intelligence to help customers find clothing that fits when shopping online. The delivery giant also has a new initiative on the healthcare front called Health Condition Programs. It’s a digital health benefits program to help people manage chronic conditions. To the moon . . . almost: At first, Astrobotic’s lander was on its way to the moon after a successful launch. However, it has since encountered some issues that will likely make a moon landing not possible. Learn more. We see HUE: Health in Her HUE, a digital health app focused on women of color, closes on $3 million in seed funding to reduce health disparities. Meet founder Ashlee Wisdom. Look over here, not over there: Microsoft Copilot has been a big fixture in the news lately. Now we get some news that despite free access to GPT-4, Microsoft's Copilot app hasn't impacted ChatGPT installs or revenue. Here's why. Navigating a fork in the road: As you've most likely read in the past few months, the sales of electric vehicles are doing okay, depending on the company. However, even though there were strong results in the fourth quarter, Tim writes that they could have been stronger. (TC+) Hacked: LoanDepot is trying to return to its normal business operations after a suspected ransomware attack took the company offline. Read more. Weekend warriors you may have missed: Carta, the cap table management outfit, is accused of unethical tactics by a prominent startup Tulsa's tech scene remains resilient amid state's anti-DEI efforts Deal Dive: A Stripe secondary deal worth paying attention to (TC+) Vietnam EV maker VinFast plans $2B investment in India Image Credits: Arc Technologies / Don Muir, co-founder and CEO of Arc Technologies

On the pods On today's Equity, Alex got into stocks and crypto, including Bitcoin ETFs. He also explores how ULA managed to get a rocket into the sky and what’s going on at Carta. Listen here. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Chief Technology Officer / Cofounder at truckmentum.com (Atlanta, GA, USA) IT Technology Analyst II at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States) IT Project Lead at Valley Water (San Jose, CA, USA) Founding Team - Senior Full Stack Developer at Mindworks (San Francisco, CA, USA) Senior Software Engineer at Zulu Airline Systems, Inc. (Atlanta, GA, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

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