Charles Hudson had just closed his fifth fund several months ago – $66 million for Precursor Ventures – when one of his limited partners asked him to run an exercise. What would have happened, the LP wondered, if Hudson had sold all his portfolio companies at Series A? What about Series B? Or Series C? […]
Snap acquires Saturn, a social calendar app for high school and college students
Snap has acquired Saturn, a calendar app that helps students manage their school schedules and share them with others.
The startups rolling out of Europe’s early-stage micromobility scene
A handful of early stage micromobility startups out of Europe that are filling the gaps in a maturing ecosystem.
Startups Weekly: Fast and furious
Some startups accrued value at lightning speed this week, and we got confirmation that defense tech is red hot.
Character.AI taps Meta’s former VP of business products as CEO
Karandeep Anand comes to Character.AI with experience running advertising products that reached billions of users on Meta’s apps.
X app code points to a physical card coming to X Money
X’s plans for a payments service may extend beyond the digital realm, new data suggests. According to findings from mobile app intelligence firm App Sensa, the X app has been updated over the past few weeks with several references related to a physical debit card, which can be customized with your X username. Dozens of […]
Iran’s government says it shut down internet to protect against cyberattacks
The government cited the recent hacks on Bank Sepah and cryptocurrency exchange Nobite as reasons to shut down internet access to virtually all Iranians.
Nvidia wants in on the nuclear renaissance, invests in Bill-Gates backed TerraPower
TerraPower has been riding a wave of interest from hyperscalers, data center developers, and now chip designers.
Deezer starts labeling AI-generated music to tackle streaming fraud
Deezer announced on Friday that it will start labeling albums that include AI-generated tracks as part of its efforts to combat streaming fraud. The company reports that about 18% of the music uploaded each day — more than 20,000 tracks — is now fully AI-generated. Although most of these tracks don’t go viral, Deezer says […]
After raising $38M, African e-commerce startup Sabi lays off 20%, pivots to traceable exports
African B2B e-commerce startup Sabi has laid off around 20% of its workforce (~50 employees) as it pivots from its original retail-focused platform to double down on a growing business in commodity exports. The layoffs, confirmed by the company on Thursday, are part of a broader restructuring aimed at aligning resources with what it describes […]