Tech Guest Posts

Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg: Filings: FTX lawyers are exploring tax issues around rebooting FTX, billing $13.5M in February for recovering assets, exploring “long-term options”, and more  —  Whether FTX’s new chief executive officer actually pushes forward with an effort to restart the bankrupt crypto exchange, its lawyers are billing it for the job. from Techmeme […].

Small businesses in Latin America got another boost in lending support with the investment of $4 million in Kala, a Colombia-based company building fintech infrastructure for lending. The company, co-founded by Manuel Alemán, Rodolfo Lazo and Paul Cattólica in 2022, is developing a vertical SaaS product for institutions, like banks and credit unions, that want […].

It’s no secret that OpenAI’s viral AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, can be prompted to say sexist, racist and pretty vile things. But now, researchers have discovered how to consistently get the chatbot to be . . . well, the worst version of itself. A study co-authored by scientists at the Allen Institute for AI, the nonprofit […].

As Gen Z turns into their early-to-mid 20s, a new generation of business owners is coming online. Many of these new entrepreneurs do the vast majority of work on their phones. This is especially true in emerging markets like Latin America, where SMEs comprise 99.5% of firms in the region. In Mexico, for instance, 97.4% […].

Want to make a founder’s day, week, month, and possibly career? Then you’ll want to refer the top early-stage startups in your portfolio/pipeline Rolodex to Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt 2023! TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield 200 is the world’s preeminent competition for early-stage startups. It’s also the absolute best way for an entrepreneur to get the […].

The march toward an open source ChatGPT-like AI continues. Today, Databricks released Dolly 2.0, a text-generating AI model that can power apps like chatbots, text summarizers and basic search engines. It’s the successor to the first-generation Dolly, which was released in late March. And — importantly — it’s licensed to allow independent developers and companies […].

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal: IAC and PwC: 2022 US digital ad revenue rose 10.8% YoY to $209.7B, down from 35% growth in 2021; social media ad revenue rose 3.6% YoY, down from ~39% in 2021  —  Headwinds from the economy and privacy protections were offset by growth in areas such as retail ad […].

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg: PitchBook: global VC funding for crypto startups fell to $2.4B in Q1 2023, down 80% from an all-time high of $12.3B in Q1 2022 and the lowest level since 2020  —  Venture capitalists are continuing to pull back from crypto, an industry that’s been plagued by scandals, a market downturn and […].

As the collapses of Signature Bank and Silvergate sent crypto companies scrambling, a virtual bank from Hong Kong is extending a warm welcome to web3 startups. Hong Kong-based ZA Bank is now allowed to serve as the settlement bank for regulated web3 companies in the city, the company said today at Hong Kong’s web3 festival, an […].

Elon Musk gave a rare interview to an actual reporter late on Tuesday, speaking to BBC reporter James Clayton on Twitter Spaces. During the interview, Clayton pressed Musk on whether his purchase of Twitter was, in the end, something he went through with willingly, or whether it was something he did because the active court […].

Truecaller has been a known name in the app market globally — thanks to its eponymous caller-identification service. Its active user base these days numbers 338 million, but it could be bigger: a lack of a caller ID feature on iOS has arguably held back its growth among iPhone users. Now, an effort to expand […].

New York Times: Sources say concerns over Mark Zuckerberg’s efficiency drive, layoffs, Meta’s absentee leadership, and focus on the metaverse have devastated employee morale  —  Workers at Facebook’s parent have been increasingly alarmed by job cuts and the company’s direction. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/6LEKyD8.

Konrad Putzier / Wall Street Journal: Labor consultants say US companies, responding to labor shortages and rising wages, are outsourcing jobs overseas, expanding on pandemic remote work policies  —  Companies respond to labor shortages and rising wages by moving some positions abroad, labor consultants say from Techmeme https://ift.tt/82Uupnk.

Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times: Emails: UMG asked Spotify, Apple, and other services to block developers training AI services from scraping melodies and lyrics from their copyrighted songs  —  Universal Music Group says new technology relies on unauthorised use of copyrighted material  —  Universal Music Group … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Cpnev9Y.

Michael D McDonald / Bloomberg: Despite bitcoin rallying to over $30K, El Salvador’s total holdings of 2,546 bitcoin, acquired for around $108M, are worth just $77M  —  Bitcoin may be at a nine-month high, but El Salvador’s total holdings are still worth 29% less than what the government paid for the world’s largest digital currency. […].

Ryan Browne / CNBC: Raspberry Pi raised an undisclosed amount from Sony Semiconductor Solutions at a $500M valuation, the same valuation as its $45M raise in 2021, to work on AI  —  – Raspberry Pi has received fresh investment from Sony’s semiconductor unit, in a deal that will let users and developers make visual sensory […].

General Atlantic has poured another $100 million in PhonePe, three months after leading a $350 million investment in the Indian fintech startup that has so far raised $750 million as part of the ongoing financing round. Walmart-backed PhonePe disclosed the investment in a filing with the local regulator on Wednesday. A company spokesperson confirmed the […].

Last month, pan-African venture capital firm Verod-Kepple Africa Partners reached the second close of its first fund (Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures), targeting African startups at $43 million. Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV) achieved its first close last March (at $20 million) and aims to attain its final close by the end of the year at $100 million; […].

For a firm whose bets are largely unpredictable, the early-stage venture firm Future Ventures has become very formulaic in its fundraising. Now entering its fifth year, the firm just closed a $200 million fund – its third in a row. In fact, it would have exactly $600 million under management at this point if not […].

Kate Knibbs / Wired: A profile of Andy Hunter and his ecommerce platform Bookshop.org, which helps indie booksellers set up a digital storefront instead of selling through Amazon  —  Andy Hunter’s ecommerce platform was a pandemic hit.  Now he’s on a mission to prove that small businesses can scale up without selling out. from Techmeme […].