Author: Jason

From a struggling family tea estate to an innovative climate venture, Alt Carbon has raised $12 million in a seed round as it plans to scale its carbon dioxide removal work in the South Asian nation. The climate-tech startup, which locks away carbon for thousands of years through enhanced rock weathering on farmlands, attracted investment… Read more

Lidar company Luminar reached a deal with Yorkville Advisors Global and another unnamed investor that could bring another $200 million into its coffers through the sale of convertible preferred stock over an 18-month period. The agreement, which was announced in a regulatory filing Wednesday, follows an abrupt change in leadership and layoffs. Earlier this month,… Read more

Other than AI Siemiatkowski admission, it wasn’t obvious that this was AI. There were only a few subtle signs. Read more

Spotify says its ability to direct its customers to external payment links in its iOS app has already had a positive impact on sales. In a newly filed amicus brief in support of Epic Games in its ongoing legal battle with Apple over external payments on the App Store, Spotify claims its internal data indicates… Read more

LM Arena, a crowdsourced benchmarking project that major AI labs rely on to test and market their AI models, has raised $100 million in a seed funding round that values the organization at $600 million, according to Bloomberg. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and UC Investments, which manages an investment portfolio for the University of California, led the… Read more

Sen. Ron Wyden said in a letter that one U.S. phone carrier turned over Senate data to law enforcement without notifying the target. Read more

Spotify is launching a new hub dedicated to keeping users informed about soon-to-be-released albums, the company announced on Wednesday. The hub, called “Upcoming Releases,” will feature personalized recommendations based on a user’s listening history. Users will be able to access it through the Search tab on mobile in the “Browse all” section. The hub will… Read more

Famed Apple product designer Jony Ive will now lead creative and design work at OpenAI, the result on an unusual deal announced on Wednesday. OpenAI is acquiring io, the device startup that CEO Sam Altman and Ive have quietly been working on for two years, for $6.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Thrilled… Read more

There is a new accounting software in town, coming in with a fresh $17.2 million raise and a desire to shake things up. The company, Filed, hopes to automate the grunt work. “The tax industry is facing a genuine crisis,” Leroy Kerry, Filed’s co-founder CEO, told TechCrunch. Many CPAs are approaching retirement while a dwindling… Read more

Meta is launching a new program to incentivize startups to adopt its Llama AI models. The program, Llama for Startups, provides companies “direct support” from Meta’s Llama team, as well as funding in certain cases. Any U.S.-based firm that is incorporated, has raised less than $10 million in funding, has at least one developer on… Read more