Etsy has been grappling with an influx of generic “junk” and AI-generated products on its platform. The service revised its seller policy on Tuesday, introducing new labels that clarify whether a seller made, designed, sourced or handpicked an item. This marks the first time it has dealt directly with artificial intelligence in its seller policy, […]
Seae Ventures is acquiring Unseen Capital after the death of founder Kayode Owens in 2021. The combined firm will continue to invest in healthcare for minorities and underserved populations. Owens, an investor and entrepreneur, launched Unseen Capital to focus early-stage healthcare companies started by underrepresented founders, in 2020. He raised $30 million but unfortunately died […]
A startup called DreamFlare AI is emerging from stealth on Tuesday with the goal of helping content creators make and monetize short-form AI-generated content. The company, co-founded by former Google employee Josh Liss and documentary filmmaker Rob Bralver, does not make or sell its own AI technology to create video. Rather, it’s envisioned as a […]
Nala, a remittance startup that is now widening its portfolio through a new B2B payments platform, has raised $40 million equity in a rare deal that becomes one of the largest Series A transactions in Africa. The oversubscribed round was led by San Francisco-based VC firm Acrew Capital, with participation from DST Global, Norrsken22, HOF Capital, […]
Solo founder Cat Jones took the plunge on setting up a travel business right around the time the pandemic was hitting Europe in March 2020. Fast forward to summer 2024 and her curated package tour business, Byway, is announcing close of an oversubscribed £5.04 million Series A round (around $6.4M at current exchange rates). Jones’ […]
An adtech business owned by Microsoft is the target of a complaint backed by European privacy advocacy group, noyb — a nonprofit that punches far above its weight when it comes to chalking up strikes against data protection-infringing tech giants. For its latest action, noyb is supporting an unnamed individual in Italy to lodge a […]
Poe, Quora’s subscription-based, cross-platform aggregator for AI-powered chatbots like Anthropic’s Claude and OpenAI’s GPT-4o, has launched a feature called Previews that lets users create interactive apps directly in chats with chatbots. Previews allows Poe users to build data visualizations, games and even drum machines by typing things like “Analyze the information in this report and […]
For over a decade, real-money gaming companies and fantasy sports startups have marketed themselves as video game companies. But as these businesses face increasing regulatory scrutiny, a coalition of more than 70 video game companies in India is urging the government to create a clear distinction between their industries. In a letter to Prime Minister […]
Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are throwing their weight behind a new venture, Thrive AI Health, that aims to build AI-powered assistant tech to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington’s mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, the early-stage venture fund closely associated with OpenAI, Thrive AI […]
The essential labor of data work, like moderation and annotation, is systematically hidden from those who benefit from the fruits of that labor. A new project puts the lived experiences of data workers around the world in the spotlight, showing firsthand the costs and opportunities of tech work abroad. Many tedious, thankless, or psychologically damaging […]