Enterprise News | TechCrunch

CloudPay, a payroll services provider, lands $120M in new funding

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 22:20:26 +0000

In 1996, two companies, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions, formed a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients. CloudPay grew quietly over the next several decades, adding workflow automation features to maintain pace with upstart rivals. It’s still growing, CFO Andy Thomson assures TechCrunch. Thomson claims that CloudPay is handling […]

Box adds crucial piece to its AI platform with Alphamoon acquisition

Ron Miller — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 19:15:35 +0000

On Thursday, Box filled in a missing piece on its AI platform when it bought automated metadata extracting startup, Alphamoon.

Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst thinks everyone needs to be more realistic about what AI can and cannot do

Rebecca Szkutak — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 18:15:05 +0000

AI companies are gobbling up investor money and securing sky-high valuations early in their life cycle. This dynamic has many calling the AI industry a bubble. Nick Frosst, a co-founder of Cohere, which builds custom AI models for enterprise customers, recently said on TechCrunch’s Found podcast that he doesn’t think the AI industry is in […]

SoundHound acquires Amelia AI for $80M after it raised $189M+

Ingrid Lunden — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 12:59:29 +0000

SoundHound, an AI company that makes voice interface tech used by car companies, restaurants and tech firms, is doubling down on enterprise services by playing consolidator in a crowded market. The company said on Thursday that it is acquiring Amelia AI, which makes an AI agent that businesses can customize for internal or customer use. […]

AI business agent startup Bardeen pulls in strategic investment from Dropbox and HubSpot

Mike Butcher — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 11:05:47 +0000

Bardeen has raised $3M to build its platform that uses a natural language interface to automate repetitive knowledge work.

Mechanical Orchard, led by ex-Pivotal CEO, scores $50M round led by Alphabet’s GV

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 16:43:55 +0000

Digital transformation — the process of transforming outdated apps and processes with cloud technologies and digital workflows — can be a risky undertaking. In 2023, Harvard Business Review reported that while 89% of large companies have a digital and AI transformation underway, they’ve only captured 31% of the expected revenue uplift and 25% of anticipated […]

After EU approval, UK clears HPE’s $14B Juniper Networks acquisition

Paul Sawers — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 13:39:49 +0000

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) planned $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks is one step closer to completion — the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has confirmed that the deal won't face any further scrutiny.

Database startup Neon nabs a Microsoft investment

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In a sign that big tech companies are ready and willing to shell out cash for database tech, Neon, a startup building an open source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres, on Wednesday announced that Microsoft’s venture arm M12 led a $25 million strategic investment in its business. The capital will go toward R&D, Neon co-founder […]

EQT takes a majority stake in cybersecurity firm Acronis at $3.5B+ valuation

Ingrid Lunden — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 07:26:48 +0000

Cybersecurity remains a white-hot space for investors. In the latest example of that demand, EQT has bought a majority stake in Acronis, a security company that specializes in data protection, cloud and integrated security solutions for managed service providers (which resell services to consumers) and corporate IT teams. The size and value of the stake, […]

Amazon upgrades its AI image generator

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 19:43:54 +0000

Amazon has released an upgraded version of its in-house image-generating model, Titan Image Generator, for AWS customers using its Bedrock generative AI platform. Simply called Titan Image Generator v2, the new model brings with it several new capabilities, AWS principal developer advocate Channy Yun explains in a blog post. Users can “guide” the images they […]

Hyperspace is using ‘domain-specific computing’ to accelerate database searches

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Hyperspace, a Tel Aviv-based startup, says its custom cloud instances for database searches can dramatically speed up queries.

UK’s Riverlane scores $75M to correct quantum errors

Ingrid Lunden — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 06:21:07 +0000

Quantum computing may still largely be in the theoretical domain, but the money that it’s attracting is very real.

AWS unveils Mithra to identify and mitigate malicious domains across its massive system

Ron Miller — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 13:00:00 +0000

When a company is the size of Amazon, a lot of bad actors will come after it and its customers, which makes defending the network a monster job. Over the years Amazon has developed a number of strategies, from machine learning and monitoring tools to good old-fashioned phone calling to identify and reduce risks to […]

When a big company comes after a hot startup, it’s not a slam dunk decision to sell

Ron Miller — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 19:00:00 +0000

We spoke to Harness CEO and founder Jyoti Bansal about his previous company, which Cisco bought for $3.7 billion in 2017.

Meet the founder who built and sold a $600M enterprise software startup from Sri Lanka

Paul Sawers — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Sanjiva Weerawarana co-founded WSO2 in 2005, recently selling it for more than $600M. He sometimes drives for Uber, too.

Cloud infrastructure revenue approached $80 billion this quarter

Ron Miller — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 16:21:49 +0000

The cloud infrastructure market has put the doldrums of 2023 firmly behind it with another big quarter. Revenue continues to grow at a brisk pace, fueled by interest in AI. Synergy Research reports revenue totaled $79 billion for the quarter, up $14.1 billion or 22% from last year. This marked the third consecutive quarter that […]

Intel to lay off 15,000 employees

Maxwell Zeff — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 23:05:02 +0000

Intel announced it would lay off more than 15% of its staff, or 15,000 employees, in a memo to employees on Thursday. The massive headcount is part of a large plan to reduce spending by $10 billion in 2025, following a dismal second-quarter earnings report and outlook. “Our revenues have not grown as expected — […]

Microsoft now lists OpenAI as a competitor in AI and search

Maxwell Zeff — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 17:55:17 +0000

Microsoft has a long and tangled history with OpenAI, having invested a reported $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker as part of a long-term partnership. As part of the deal, Microsoft runs OpenAI’s models across its enterprise and consumer products and is OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider. However, the tech giant called the startup a “competitor” […]

Google Cloud expands its database portfolio with new AI capabilities

Frederic Lardinois — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Google's new features include Gemini in BigQuery and Looker to help users with data engineering and analysis.

EU greenlights HPE’s $14B Juniper Networks acquisition

Paul Sawers — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:19:27 +0000

The European Commission (EC) has given the go-ahead to HPE's planned megabucks acquisition of Juniper Networks.