Universal Music Group (UMG), the label representing artists including Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande, says that it’ll pull its music from TikTok tomorrow at midnight after failing to reach a deal with the platform’s parent company, ByteDance, over royalties. UMG won’t seek to renew its current arrangement with TikTok, set to expire on […]
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Giant Ventures, a U.K.-based VC that has made a habit of investing on both sides of the Atlantic, is launching two new funds, totaling $250 million. Its previous fund totaled $100 million. The firm invests across climate, health and what it calls “purpose-driven” startups and some used to call “impact” or “mission-driven.” Whatever the case, […]
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You know you’ve screwed up when you’ve simultaneously angered the White House, the TIME Person of the Year and pop culture’s most rabid fanbase. That’s what happened last week to X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly called Twitter, when AI-generated, pornographic deepfake images of Taylor Swift went viral. One of the most widespread posts of […]
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Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups.
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The Iconfactory, the maker of a popular third-party Twitter client, Twitterrific, that was among those killed off by Twitter under Elon Musk’s management, is hoping to recover from its losses with a new app that combines your social media, news feeds and alerts into one experience. The app, dubbed “Project Tapestry” as it launches on […]
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One of the most popular streamers on Twitch, Pokimane announced today that she is leaving the platform. It’s not yet clear if she’s retiring from content creation altogether, or if she’s moving from Twitch to another platform. “twitch has been my home for a decade,” Pokimane wrote on X. “but it’s time to say thank […]
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Block, the fintech company whose subsidiaries include Square, Cash App and Afterpay, is laying off staff at a tumultuous time for tech industry workers. That’s according to an internal memo from CEO Jack Dorsey, obtained first by Business Insider, which states that “the growth of [Block] has far outpaced the growth of … business and […]
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CEOs from some of the biggest social platforms will appear before Congress on Wednesday to defend their companies against mounting criticism that they have done too little to protect kids and teens online. The hearing, set to begin at 10 a.m. ET, is the latest in a long string of congressional tech hearings stretching back […]
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OpenAI is pushing adoption of GPTs, third-party apps powered by its AI models, by enabling ChatGPT users to invoke them in any chat. Starting today, paid users of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI chatbot front end, can bring GPTs into a conversation by typing “@” and selecting a GPT from the list. The chosen GPT will have […]
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Spend management startup Ramp has acquired AI-powered startup Venue as it expands its procurement offering. Venue was founded in 2022 by TK Kong, Young Kim, and Kevin Chan, and its aim was to “simplify how businesses review, approve, and manage the cost of vendors in use across their company.” The startup raised $1.2 million in […]
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