Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
Procurement startup Zip secures $100M funding round
Zip, a startup with a cloud-based procurement platform of the same name, today announced that it has secured $100 million in new funding. The Series C round included contributions from Y Combinator, CRV and Tiger Global. It values Zip at $1.5 billion. That’s up from the $1.2 billion valuation the startup received last May following ...
Smart raises $95M for its pension management platform
Startup Smart Pension Ltd. has raised $95 million in a later-stage funding round to grow the adoption of its pension management platform, which is used by more than 1 million people worldwide. Private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners led the Series E investment, which Smart announced today. Chrysalis Investments, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, DWS, Barclays and ...
EU approves Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition as Azure reportedly faces scrutiny
The European Commission, the European Union’s executive branch, has approved Microsoft Corp.’s plan to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc. for $68.7 billion. The decision was made public this morning. The development coincided with a report from Bloomberg that revealed the EU is conducting an informal probe into Azure, Microsoft’s public cloud platform. It’s believed the probe ...
AWS launches Amazon Aurora I/O-Optimized to lower users’ database costs
Amazon Web Services Inc. has introduced a new version of its Amazon Aurora managed database service that promises to reduce cloud costs for customers. The offering, called Amazon Aurora I/O-Optimized, made its debut on Thursday. It’s expected to provide cost savings of up to 40% for some workloads. “With Aurora I/O-Optimized, we’re giving customers great ...
Cable raises $11M to help banks combat financial crime
Startup Cable Tech Inc. has secured $11 million in funding for its namesake cloud platform, which helps banks more effectively detect financial crime. U.K.-based Cable announced the Series A round on Thursday. Stage 2 Capital, Jump Capital and returning backer CRV provided the funding. Their investment brings Cable’s total outside financing to $16.3 million. Banks ...
Cybersecurity provider Absolute Software to be acquired for $657M
Absolute Software Corp., a publicly traded cybersecurity provider, today announced that it has agreed to be taken private by Crosspoint Capital Partners in a $657 million deal. Crosspoint is also absorbing the company’s $223 million debt. The acquisition values Absolute Software at $11.50 per share, a 34% premium to its Wednesday closing price. The deal ...
Meta details generative AI ad tools and large-scale Lattice model architecture
Meta Platforms Inc. today previewed new artificial intelligence tools that will enable marketers to generate creative assets for ad campaigns automatically. In conjunction, the company shared an update about the back-end AI models that power its advertising system. Meta detailed that it’s upgrading the system to a new “holistic model architecture” called Lattice. The architecture ...
Writer introduces new content features for its AI writing platform
Writer Inc., a startup with an artificial intelligence platform for creating content, today debuted a set of new features designed to ease marketing teams’ work. San Francisco-based Writer is backed by $26 million in venture funding. Its platform uses generative AI to help companies quickly create product listings, knowledge base articles and other content. The ...
At I/O, Google debuts its first foldable Pixel device alongside new tablet and smartphone
Google LLC is expanding its consumer hardware portfolio with three new Android devices, including its first-ever foldable handset. All three devices, which debuted at the company’s annual Google I/O event today, run on the Tensor G2 chip it introduced last year. The chip includes eight central processing unit cores based on three different Arm Ltd. ...
Report: EU expected to approve Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition
The European Union could greenlight Microsoft Corp.’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. as early as next week, according to a new report. Reuters today cited sources as saying that the EU will likely approve the $68.7 billion deal on Monday. The deadline for the decision is May 22. Activision Blizzard is one of the world’s ...