Tech Meme

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Meta spins out CRM company Kustomer, which the company acquired for ~$1B in a deal that closed in 2022; Kustomer raises $60M at a reported $250M valuation  —  Meta’s grand experiment in building an enterprise-ready customer service platform has come to a close: the parent of Facebook … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Brandy Betz / CoinDesk: Auradine, a web infrastructure startup focused on decentralized app tech like zero-knowledge proofs, raised a $81M Series A led by Celesta Capital and Mayfield  —  Marathon’s CEO, Fred Thiel, sits on the board of the web infrastructure startup.  —  Auradine, a Silicon Valley-based provider … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Hippocratic AI, which is building an LLM for health care, raised a $50M seed co-led by General Catalyst and a16z at a “triple digit millions” valuation  —  AI, specifically generative AI, has the potential to transform healthcare.  —  At least, that sales pitch from Hippocratic Health … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Joseph Menn / Washington Post: A jailed Saudi dissident’s sister sues Twitter under the RICO Act, arguing its negligence let staff reveal his identity and thousands of others’ to Saudi agents  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The sister of an imprisoned Saudi dissident filed suit against Twitter Tuesday, arguing that it broke the law … Lees verder op Tech Meme

James T. Areddy / Wall Street Journal: Futu and Tiger Brokers, Nasdaq-listed online brokerages that cater to clients in mainland China, plan to exit Chinese app stores and stop signing up new users  —  The online brokerages earlier agreed to stop accepting new customers from mainland China  —  Two Nasdaq-listed online brokerages … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: Sam Altman tells Congress that AI regulation is “essential” but must let companies be flexible and adapt to new tech, recommends safety measures, and more  —  OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman will tell US lawmakers on Tuesday that regulation of artificial intelligence must allow companies … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Baidu beats analyst estimates with Q1 revenue up 10% YoY to ~$4.5B and ~$834M net income, up from a ~$13M net loss in Q1 2022, driven by its ad and cloud units  —  Baidu Inc.’s revenue rose a stronger-than-expected 10% after its advertising and cloud businesses benefited from China’s post-pandemic reopening. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Brandy Betz / CoinDesk: River, which offers Bitcoin brokerage, mining, wallet, and custody services, raised a $35M Series B led by Kingsway Capital, with Peter Thiel among investors  —  The Series B funding for the Bitcoin financial services provider was led by Kingsway Capital.  —  Bitcoin technology … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Apple rolls out new concert discovery features in Apple Maps and Apple Music, including Guides to local venues in select cities and Set Lists for select artists  —  Apple is bringing concert discovery to two of its flagship apps, Apple Music and Apple Maps, the company announced today. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post: A live blog of testimony from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, IBM VP Christina Montgomery, and professor Gary Marcus before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee  —  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will testify to Congress on AI like ChatGPT as regulations and oversight are being considered. Lees verder op Tech Meme