News

Sarah Jacob / Bloomberg: Amsterdam-based payments giant Adyen reports H2 2023 net revenue up 23% YoY to €887M and processed volume up 29% YoY to €544.1B; ADYEN.AS jumps 16%+  —  Adyen staged a comeback after facing a record slowdown in… Read More »Amsterdam-based payments giant Adyen reports H2 2023 net revenue up 23% YoY to €887M and processed volume up 29% YoY to €544.1B; ADYEN.AS jumps 16%+ (Sarah Jacob/Bloomberg)

Kara Swisher / New York Magazine: An excerpt from Kara Swisher’s upcoming book, Burn Book: covering digital media in the ’90s, Facebook and Google becoming information gatekeepers, and more  —  My front-row seat to a slow-moving catastrophe.  —  In the… Read More »An excerpt from Kara Swisher’s upcoming book, Burn Book: covering digital media in the ’90s, Facebook and Google becoming information gatekeepers, and more (Kara Swisher/New York Magazine)

Nicole Carpenter / Polygon: PitchBook: in 2021, 223 male-founded video game startups raised $4.1B, five women-founded startups raised $1.2M, and 62 mixed-gender startups raised $400.9M  —  ‘There is a massive disparity on how funding is allocated in the industry’  — … Read More »PitchBook: in 2021, 223 male-founded video game startups raised $4.1B, five women-founded startups raised $1.2M, and 62 mixed-gender startups raised $400.9M (Nicole Carpenter/Polygon)

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: An except from Battle for the Bird book details how Jack Dorsey’s plan to get Elon Musk to save Twitter failed, as Musk dismantled the company after taking over  —  An excerpt from Battle for the… Read More »An except from Battle for the Bird book details how Jack Dorsey’s plan to get Elon Musk to save Twitter failed, as Musk dismantled the company after taking over (Kurt Wagner/Bloomberg)

Yuvraj Malik / Reuters: Microsoft partners with Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, which is building LLMs that support Indian languages, for developing voice-based generative AI tools  —  Microsoft (MSFT.O) will support the development of voice-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications through a… Read More »Microsoft partners with Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI, which is building LLMs that support Indian languages, for developing voice-based generative AI tools (Yuvraj Malik/Reuters)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Google debuts a pilot program in Singapore to prevent users from sideloading certain apps that abuse Android app permissions to read one-time passwords  —  To reduce financial scams, Google has started a new program to prevent… Read More »Google debuts a pilot program in Singapore to prevent users from sideloading certain apps that abuse Android app permissions to read one-time passwords (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Bloomberg: SoftBank reports Q3 net profit of $6.4B, after four quarters of losses, lifted by T-Mobile US shares windfall; the Vision Fund unit reported a ~$2.85B gain  —  – Tech investor got $8 billion worth T-Mobile shares at no cost … Read More »SoftBank reports Q3 net profit of $6.4B, after four quarters of losses, lifted by T-Mobile US shares windfall; the Vision Fund unit reported a ~$2.85B gain (Bloomberg)

Reuters: A look at the use of AI in Indonesia ahead of Feb. 14 elections, as vendors and campaigns push the limits of guidelines issued by OpenAI, Midjourney, and others  —  Fika Juliana Putri, a 19-year-old shopkeeper in East Jakarta,… Read More »A look at the use of AI in Indonesia ahead of Feb. 14 elections, as vendors and campaigns push the limits of guidelines issued by OpenAI, Midjourney, and others (Reuters)

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch: Paris-based Pennylane, a maker of cloud-based accounting software that can import data from Stripe, Dropbox, and other services, raised €40M at a €1B+ valuation  —  Just like clockwork, Pennylane is raising another €40 million ($43 million… Read More »Paris-based Pennylane, a maker of cloud-based accounting software that can import data from Stripe, Dropbox, and other services, raised €40M at a €1B+ valuation (Romain Dillet/TechCrunch)

Molly White / Citation Needed: In his new book, a16z GP Chris Dixon fails to identify a single blockchain project that has successfully provided a non-speculative service at any kind of scale  —  Prominent crypto venture capitalist Chris Dixon provides… Read More »In his new book, a16z GP Chris Dixon fails to identify a single blockchain project that has successfully provided a non-speculative service at any kind of scale (Molly White/Citation Needed)