Nuance, the company behind Siri’s backend, has been acquired by Microsoft in a massive deal that the company claims would usher in a “new age of outcomes-based AI.” “Completion of this significant and strategic acquisition brings together Nuance’s best-in-class conversational AI and ambient intelligence with Microsoft’s secure and trusted industry cloud offerings,” said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of the Cloud + AI Group at Microsoft. “This powerful combination will help providers offer more affordable, effective, and accessible healthcare, and help organisations in every industry create more personalised and meaningful…
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Esports gaming platform Gamerji raises $1.1M in a pre-Series A round
Gamerji, an esports gaming platform based in Ahmedabad, said today that it has secured $1.1 million (about Rs 8.5 crore) in a pre-Series A round headed by Unicorn India Ventures, with participation from Stadia Ventures, the Urmin Group family office, and current investors. GamerJi’s online esports platform, which was founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneur Soham Thacker, allows players to participate in tournaments of their favourite games, host matches, chat, exchange content, and earn rewards. Gamerji plans to use the funds generated to improve tournament management technology, add social features…
Read MoreWhatsApp will soon make it difficult for users to forward messages to more than one group chat
WhatsApp has been spotted testing a new feature that could revolutionise how we forward messages. Whatsapp will soon make it impossible to forward messages to multiple groups. The feature was found being tested by the chat app. If the feature is included in the final version, it will be problematic for many people who forward messages without reading them the majority of the time. This approach would also help to limit the spread of fake news and misinformation. Previously, WhatsApp released an update that allowed users to forward messages to…
Read MoreUK food delivery co Deliveroo to open engineering office in India
Deliveroo, a global food delivery company, will open an India Engineering Centre in Hyderabad, joining overseas players such as Indonesia’s Gojek, Singapore’s Grab, and Japan’s Rakutan in establishing engineering offices in the country without operating here. The centre will be staffed by a new group and will be an integral part of Deliveroo’s central technology organisation. By the end of the year, the company expects to have over 150 engineers working in the areas of analytics, platforms, automation, and machine learning. “This is going to be the largest technology hub…
Read MoreJiffy.ai raises $53 million in funding led by Eight Road Ventures
Eight Roads Ventures led a $53 million fundraising round for Jiffy.ai, a business-to-business (B2B) automation platform. The funds will be used to expand the company’s sales and marketing operations, as well as advance its HyperApp platform. Iron Pillar, R-Squared, and current investors Nexus Venture Partners, Reaction Capital, and Rebright Partners all participated in the round, according to the company. Jiffy.ai raised $18 million from investors led by Nexus Venture Partners in June 2020. Paanini Foundation, a non-profit organisation, is the company’s largest stock shareholder. “This funding will help build autonomous…
Read MoreAmazon’s Clubhouse competitor Amp will let users host live radio shows
Amp, an Amazon app with Clubhouse-like features, has just been released. The software is similar to an audio player, but it will include additional capabilities such as the ability to host live radio shows. Show hosts can select tracks from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and a slew of independent music labels, including Beggars Group, Believe, CD Baby, and others. Talking about the new app, John Ciancutti, vice president of Amp, said, “Radio has always been about music and culture. But imagine if you were inventing…
Read MoreEruditus raises $350 million debt from CPPIB
Eruditus, an online education company, has received $350 million in debt from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, a worldwide asset management firm, mostly to fund mergers and acquisitions. According to persons familiar with the situation, Eruditus, which partners with prestigious universities like as Columbia, INSEAD, and others to provide executive education and MBAs, aims to make purchases worth a billion dollars in the next year or two. According to reports, the company has gross bookings of $500 million for FY22, which is up 2.5 times year over year. CPP Investment…
Read MoreTiger Global backs lending platform Money View in $75 million Series D funding
Money View, a Bengaluru-based lending fintech, has secured $75 million in a Series D round, bringing its valuation to $625 million, as fintech businesses continue to draw investor interest in the face of rising digitisation of financial services. The round included Tiger Global, Winter Capital, Evolvence India, Accel, and other investors such as South Park Commons, Trusted Insight, and Dream Incubator, according to the company. Founded in 2014 by Puneet Agarwal and Sanjay Aggarwal, IIT Delhi alumni, the company provides personalised credit products such as instant personal loans, cards, BNPL,…
Read MoreOneBanc partners with Peoplestrong for automation of payroll banking
OneBanc, a neo-banking start-up powered by artificial intelligence, has teamed up with PeopleStrong, an HR Technology SaaS platform for businesses, to automate payroll banking at a time when attrition is on the rise. The automated process, which is powered by OneBanc’s proprietary AI-powered backend engine, can increase the in-hand salary of India’s 119 million white-collar professionals by up to 7% and corporate bottom lines by up to 10%. Payroll banking is a $6 trillion industry for white-collar professionals that is expected to grow to $8 trillion by 2025. The industry…
Read MoreResearchers develop hybrid human-machine framework for building smarter AI
Artificial intelligence underpins many areas of daily life, from chatbots that answer tax questions to algorithms that operate autonomous vehicles and provide medical diagnostics. According to experts at the University of California, Irvine, creating smarter, more accurate systems necessitates a mixed human-machine approach. They describe a new mathematical model that can increase performance by integrating human and computational predictions and confidence scores in a paper published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Humans and machine algorithms have complementary strengths and weaknesses. Each uses different sources of…
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