Journals

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Munich-based car subscription startup Finn, which manages 25K subscriptions in Germany and the US, raised a €100M Series C at a €600M post-money valuation  —  Finn, a startup based out of Munich that operates a platform… Read More »Munich-based car subscription startup Finn, which manages 25K subscriptions in Germany and the US, raised a €100M Series C at a €600M post-money valuation (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Martin Coulter / Reuters: London-based Hyperexponential, which offers math modeling tools to insurance companies to help price policies, raised $73M led by Battery Ventures  —  U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has backed London-based insurance startup Hyperexponential in a $73… Read More »London-based Hyperexponential, which offers math modeling tools to insurance companies to help price policies, raised $73M led by Battery Ventures (Martin Coulter/Reuters)

Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch: PitchBook: female-founded US companies raised $44.4B out of $170.59B in VC funding in 2023; companies with all-female founding teams raised ~$3.1B, down 39% YoY  —  Female-founded companies in the U.S. raised $44.4 billion out of the… Read More »PitchBook: female-founded US companies raised $44.4B out of $170.59B in VC funding in 2023; companies with all-female founding teams raised ~$3.1B, down 39% YoY (Dominic-Madori Davis/TechCrunch)

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg: PitchBook: VC investment in the crypto industry totaled $9.5B in 2023, less than a third of 2022; CryptoSlam says NFT sales fell 63% to $8.7B in 2023  —  A disastrous 2023 for crypto startups hasn’t dissuaded… Read More »PitchBook: VC investment in the crypto industry totaled $9.5B in 2023, less than a third of 2022; CryptoSlam says NFT sales fell 63% to $8.7B in 2023 (Hannah Miller/Bloomberg)

Chris Velazco / Washington Post: A look at some of the most interesting tech from CES 2024: Roxi’s interactive music video channels for linear TV, Samsung’s Ballie AI robot projector, and more  —  Seeing everything the show has to offer… Read More »A look at some of the most interesting tech from CES 2024: Roxi’s interactive music video channels for linear TV, Samsung’s Ballie AI robot projector, and more (Chris Velazco/Washington Post)

Alex Barinka / Bloomberg: SVP of LVMH brand Benefit Cosmetics says the luxury conglomerate is in discussions with TikTok on a plan for limiting counterfeit products sold on the app  —  – Agreements can help improve quality of TikTok’s Shop… Read More »SVP of LVMH brand Benefit Cosmetics says the luxury conglomerate is in discussions with TikTok on a plan for limiting counterfeit products sold on the app (Alex Barinka/Bloomberg)

John Timmer / Ars Technica: Harvard spinout QuEra, a quantum computing startup, plans to release an error-corrected quantum computer with 10,000 physical and 100 logical qubits by 2026  —  Company builds on recent demonstration of error-tracking in similar hardware.  — … Read More »Harvard spinout QuEra, a quantum computing startup, plans to release an error-corrected quantum computer with 10,000 physical and 100 logical qubits by 2026 (John Timmer/Ars Technica)

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times: Sources: OpenAI, Inflection, and Cohere held back-channel talks on AI safety with Chinese state-backed groups in Geneva in July 2023 and October 2023  —  OpenAI, Inflection and Cohere held back-channel talks with Chinese state-backed groups… Read More »Sources: OpenAI, Inflection, and Cohere held back-channel talks on AI safety with Chinese state-backed groups in Geneva in July 2023 and October 2023 (Madhumita Murgia/Financial Times)

Nico Grant / New York Times: Sources: several hundred employees from Google’s core engineering division received notices that their roles were eliminated and lost corporate access  —  The company, which has been working to trim expenses, laid off employees who… Read More »Sources: several hundred employees from Google’s core engineering division received notices that their roles were eliminated and lost corporate access (Nico Grant/New York Times)

Louise Matsakis / Semafor: Google lays off hundreds of people working on Assistant and says the restructuring would help improve Assistant as it explores integrating newer AI technology  —  Google is laying off hundreds of people working on its voice-activated… Read More »Google lays off hundreds of people working on Assistant and says the restructuring would help improve Assistant as it explores integrating newer AI technology (Louise Matsakis/Semafor)