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Accel closes $650 million for new India fund

Accel has raised $650 million for its eighth India fund as the U.S. venture firm expands its investment strategy in the South Asian market. The new fund follows the firm’s seventh India fund secured in March 2022. Accel — which has backed companies including e-commerce group Flipkart, food delivery platform Swiggy and software group Freshworks […]

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Judge allows California’s ban on addictive feeds for minors to go into effect

Late Tuesday evening, a federal judge blocked tech lobbying group NetChoice’s challenge to California’s recently enacted law, SB 976, which prohibits companies from serving “addictive feeds” to minors. The effect of this decision is that beginning Wednesday, companies will be prohibited from serving an addictive feed to a California-based user they know to be a […]

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Will Smith eating spaghetti and other weird AI benchmarks that took off in 2024

When a company releases a new AI video generator, it’s not long before someone uses it to make a video of actor Will Smith eating spaghetti. It’s become something of a meme as well as a benchmark: Seeing whether a new video generator can realistically render Smith slurping down a bowl of noodles. Smith himself […]

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A look back on my favorite episodes of TechCrunch’s Found podcast

TechCrunch’s Found podcast, which has brought listeners the stories behind the startups since April 2022, released its final episode today. I’ve been one of the hosts of Found since November 2022 and in that time have spoken to more than 75 founders about the startups they are building. These founders hail from many different backgrounds […]

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Elon Musk’s promises for Tesla in 2024, from robotaxis to Optimus bots

Elon Musk had an eventful 2024, what with his hard push into right-wing politics and leveraging his X social media platform and considerable influence to help Donald Trump win the presidential election. Putting politics aside for a moment, it’s worth focusing on another Musk pastime: making promises for Tesla. The Tesla CEO’s promises — and […]

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A Waymo robotaxi and a Serve delivery robot collided in Los Angeles

On December 27, a Waymo robotaxi and a Serve Robotics sidewalk delivery robot collided at a Los Angeles intersection, according to a video that’s circulating on social media. The footage shows a Serve bot crossing a street in West Hollywood at night and trying to get onto the sidewalk. It reached the curb, backed up […]

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Tech services firm WWT acquires Canadian IT provider Softchoice in all-cash deal

One last mega-deal closed out an eventful 2024. On Tuesday, World Wide Technology (WWT), a tech services company based in St. Louis, announced it has agreed to acquire Canadian IT provider Softchoice in a deal that values the latter at $1.8 billion CAD (~$1.25 billion). The deal, which is all-cash, was unanimously approved by Softchoice’s […]

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The online moments that defined 2024

Ah, 2024: the year we debated how to pronounce “hawk tuah,” pondered the health benefits of eating rocks, and held space for a Broadway showstopper. It was a year when the discourse could feel shockingly pure and joyful — at least for a few minutes, before we all came tumbling back down to reality. Online […]

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After ups and downs, food delivery startup Epicery closes shop

French food delivery startup Epicery will cease operations Tuesday, after one last holiday season hurrah for its clients and the local food businesses that were using the platform during its nine years in business in exchange for a 25% commission. In a message announcing the decision to customers earlier this month, Epicery’s team said that […]

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India again delays rules to break PhonePe-Google Pay duopoly

India has once again pushed back a contentious plan to limit major technology companies’ control of the nation’s digital payments system, extending a regulatory uncertainty that has weighed on the sector for years. The National Payments Corporation of India said on Tuesday it would extend the deadline for implementing a 30% cap on any individual […]

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India lifts WhatsApp payment curbs

India has removed restrictions on WhatsApp’s payments service in a significant victory for Meta in its largest market by users as the social media giant seeks to compete with entrenched fintech rivals. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the payments body overseeing the popular instant payments rail called UPI, said Tuesday that WhatsApp can […]

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Gupshup investor cuts value of its stake again, implying new valuation of $486M

Asset management firm Fidelity slashed the estimated worth of its stake in business messaging platform Gupshup by another 7.7% last month, lowering the value of its holding in the SaaS startup by a total of more than 65% since its investment in mid-2021. One of the funds operated by the U.S. asset manager valued its […]

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Samsung pays $181M to become largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics

Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has become the largest shareholder of South Korea-based robotics maker Rainbow Robotics, increasing its stake from 14.7% to 35% for KRW 267 billion (about $181 billion). The electronics giant, which paid KRW 86.8 billion (about $59 billion) for the 14.7% stake in 2023, said it is acquiring the […]

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ByteDance appears to be skirting US restrictions to buy Nvidia chips: Report

TikTok parent company ByteDance has big plans to buy Nvidia chips in 2025 — despite U.S. restrictions. ByteDance plans to spend $7 billion on the chips in 2025, according to reporting from The Information, citing inside sources. If ByteDance follows through, it will become one of the world’s top owners of Nvidia chips, despite U.S. efforts […]

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This MagSafe iPhone wallet doubles as a stand and offers Find My functionality

For a number of years now, Moft has offered some of the most innovative gadget accessories. They’re always interesting, if not necessarily useful. This new combination Find My wallet and stand manages to tick both boxes. The accessory was announced a couple of weeks out from CES, where it will be shown off for the […]

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