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August 2024

Placer.ai Raises $75 Million

Location data, for better or worse, continues to be a part of the bedrock of how apps are built. Now a startup developing AI market research based on that location data, Placer.ai, has quietly raised $75 million at an expanded valuation of nearly $1.5 billion. The...

AI Studio Rolls Out in U.S.

Meta has said that it is rolling out its AI studio to all creators in the U.S. to let them make personalized AI-powered chatbots. The company first announced the AI Studio last year and started testing it with select creators in June this year. Meta is making the...

Flo Health Raises $200 Million

Women’s health tech, which leverages innovations in AI, smartphones and connected wearables to give women more insights into reproductive and menstrual health, continues to gain momentum with users, and investors are following. London-based Flo Health, a fertility-focused period-tracking app, said it has raised a $200 million Series...

Forbes: Going Viral For Negative Reasons

When negative stories go viral on social media, brands that fail to thoughtfully react risk losing trust, reputation and sales. With the pressure of the spotlight on them, some make a bad situation worse with poorly timed, insensitive responses. Members of Forbes Agency Council discuss common mistakes...

Lookout for Sekai!

Just like in your favorite anime, this is the story of a young group of twentysomethings who started with nothing, traveled the world and ended up with a global license to develop official Naruto consumer apps. Founded in early 2022, French startup Sekai describes itself as a studio that...

YouTube Announces New Features For Shorts

As competition with TikTok and Reels heats up, YouTube announced a slate of new features designed to make its short-form video product, YouTube Shorts, more compelling. In a video update for creators, YouTube Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich introduced six new tools that will help creators craft...

Personality Testing at the Workplace?

The use of personality tests during the hiring and onboarding process has grown in recent years, but it hasn't come without controversy. Proponents of these assessments believe the results can uncover deeper insights into a candidate's cultural fit, while naysayers argue that using them as...

Google Chrome Mobile App Updates

Facing new competition from startups like Arc, Google announced that it’s bringing five new features to the Chrome browser on mobile devices, each designed to enhance the search experience. These include new shortcuts for local search results, a refreshed address bar for easier navigation, trending search suggestions, live...

Nubank Acquires Hyperplane

Hyperplane, a San Francisco-based data intelligence startup that is building foundation models for banks, announced that it has been acquired by Brazil’s Nubank. Hyperplane was founded in 2022 by Daniel Silva, Felipe Lamounier, Rohan Ramanath and Felipe Meneses. Hyperplane focused on allowing banks to train their own models...

Speak App Closes Series B

AI-powered language learning app Speak is on a tear. Since launching in its inaugural market of South Korea in 2019, Speak has grown to over 10 million users. Its user base has doubled every year for the last five years, and Speak now has customers in more than 40...