Paul Sawers, Author at TechCrunch

Squarespace sells restaurant reservation system Tock to American Express for $400M

Paul Sawers — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:03:20 +0000

Website building platform Squarespace is selling Tock, its restaurant reservation service, to American Express in a deal worth $400 million — the exact figure that Squarespace paid for the service three years ago. Separately, AmEx will be buying Rooam, a mobile payments and ordering platform that integrates with point-of-sale systems. Terms of the Rooam deal […]

Amazon extends generative AI-powered product listings to Europe

Paul Sawers — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:31:01 +0000

Amazon is bringing its generative AI listing smarts to more sellers, revealing today that those in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. can now access tools designed to improve product listings by generating product descriptions, titles and associated details. Additionally, sellers can “enrich” existing product listings by automatically adding missing information. The launch comes […]

‘Lawyer-in-the-loop’ startup Wordsmith wants to bring AI paralegals to all employees

Paul Sawers — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Wordsmith, a fledgling Scottish legal tech startup, has somehow managed to attract the backing of two well-known venture capital firms. The startup targets in-house legal teams and law firms with an AI platform that they can configure to help other workers in the company. This way, anyone in the company can solicit help with legal […]

UK probes HPE’s planned $14B Juniper Networks acquisition

Paul Sawers — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:53:16 +0000

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has initiated a formal “phase 1” investigation into Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) planned acquisition of Juniper Networks. The CMA said it’s in the early stages of assessing whether the deal is likely to “result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United […]

Privacy app maker Proton transitions to nonprofit foundation structure

Paul Sawers — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 11:34:06 +0000

The newly setup Proton Foundation will serve as the main shareholder to the existing corporate entity that is Proton AG, which will continue as a for-profit company under the auspices of the Foundation.

Meta pauses plans to train AI using European users’ data, bowing to regulatory pressure

Paul Sawers — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:33:47 +0000

Meta has confirmed that it will pause plans to start training its AI systems using data from its users in the European Union and U.K. The move follows pushback from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), Meta’s lead regulator in the EU, which is acting on behalf of several data protection authorities across the bloc. […]

Gorilla, a Belgian startup that helps energy providers crunch big data, raises $25M

Paul Sawers — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 09:51:21 +0000

Gorilla, a Belgian company that serves the energy sector with real-time data and analytics for pricing and forecasting, has raised €23 million ($25 million) in a Series B round led by U.S. venture capital firm Headline. Founded in 2018, Antwerp-based Gorilla works with energy providers across Europe, the U.S. and Australia, including British Gas’ parent […]

Let there be Light! Danish startup exits stealth with $13M seed funding to bring AI to general ledgers

Paul Sawers — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 07:00:00 +0000

It’s not the sexiest of subject matters, but someone needs to talk about it: The CFO tech stack — software used by the chief financial officers of the world — is ripe for disruption. That’s according to Jonathan Sanders, CEO and co-founder of fledgling Danish startup Light, which exits stealth Wednesday with $13 million in […]

LinkedIn to limit targeted ads in EU after complaint over sensitive data use

Paul Sawers — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 16:45:08 +0000

LinkedIn has confirmed it will no longer allow advertisers to target users based on data gleaned from their participation in LinkedIn Groups. The move comes more than three months after a collective of civil society groups filed a complaint with the European Commission (EC) over a potential violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA). The […]

Bain to take K-12 education software provider PowerSchool private in $5.6B deal

Paul Sawers — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 12:09:55 +0000

Education software provider PowerSchool is being taken private by investment firm Bain Capital in a $5.6 billion deal.

Robinhood acquires global crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200M

Paul Sawers — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 12:46:24 +0000

Stock-trading app Robinhood is diving deeper into the cryptocurrency realm with the acquisition of crypto exchange Bitstamp.

Alphabet brings on Eli Lilly’s Anat Ashkenazi as CFO

Paul Sawers — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 12:17:56 +0000

Ashkenazi will start her new role at Google's parent company on July 31, after 23 years at Eli Lilly.

SAP to acquire digital adoption platform WalkMe for $1.5B

Paul Sawers — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 09:18:22 +0000

SAP sees WalkMe's focus on automating contextual, in-app support as bringing value to its own enterprise customers.

GetWhy, a market research AI platform that extracts insights from video interviews, raises $34.5M

Paul Sawers — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 12:07:03 +0000

GetWhy helps businesses carry out market studies and extract insights from video-based interviews using AI.

Spotify to increase premium pricing in the US to $11.99 per month

Paul Sawers — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:47:31 +0000

Spotify has announced it’s hiking subscriptions for customers in the U.S., the second such price increase in the space of a year. The music-streaming giant reports that premium pricing will increase in July from $10.99 to $11.99, representing a rise of nearly 10%. The Duo and Family plans will go up to $16.99 and $19.99, […]

UK neobank Monzo reports first full (pre-tax) profit, prepares for EU expansion with Dublin hub

Paul Sawers — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:34:21 +0000

Monzo has announced its 2024 financial results, revealing its first full-year pre-tax profit. The company also confirmed that it’s in the early stages of expanding into the broader European market via a new base in Ireland. The news comes shortly after the U.K.-based neobank raised a couple of hefty tranches of funding, starting with $430 […]

Chinese e-commerce marketplace Temu faces stricter EU rules as a ‘very large online platform’

Paul Sawers — Fri, 31 May 2024 11:27:13 +0000

Temu is to face Europe's strictest rules after being designated as a "very large online platform" under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

AI manufacturing startup funding is on a tear as Switzerland’s EthonAI raises $16.5M

Paul Sawers — Thu, 30 May 2024 16:04:57 +0000

In its three-year history, EthonAI has amassed some fairly high-profile customers including Siemens and chocolate-maker Lindt.

Spotify hikes subscription price in France by 1.2% to match new music-streaming tax

Paul Sawers — Wed, 29 May 2024 12:17:38 +0000

Spotify has hiked its premium subscription in France by an eye-watering €0.13, in response to a new music-streaming tax.

More neobanks are becoming mobile networks — and Nubank wants a piece of the action

Paul Sawers — Tue, 28 May 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Nubank is taking its first tentative steps into the mobile network realm, as the NYSE-traded Brazilian neobank rolls out an eSIM (embedded SIM) service for travelers. The service will give customers access to 10GB of free roaming internet in more than 40 countries without having to switch out their own existing physical SIM card or […]