General Catalyst Co-Leads AI Funding Deal Valuing Parloa at $1 Billion
Parloa GmbH, a startup building an artificial intelligence platform for customer service, has raised $120 million from investors in a deal that values the company at $1 billion.
Founded in Berlin in 2018, the startup now has offices in Germany and New York. The latest financing, which follows a $66 million round a year ago, was co-led by Durable Capital Partners, Altimeter Capital and General Catalyst.
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Forbes
18 minutes ago
- Forbes
From Sports Bars To Big Deals, Women Athletes Are Winning—Yet Pay Gaps Persist
The WNBA's New York Liberty was recently estimated to be valued at $450 million. Summer 2025 is signaling a remarkable wave of milestones in women's sports. After a strong-performing 2024 that saw equal representation between women and men at the Olympics for the first time in history as well as standout college stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese making their much-anticipated WNBA debuts, women athletes have only continued to build on their momentum. In fact, this year, the growth potential for women athletes is expected to be even more impressive. According to reporting from Axios, there are now eleven women's sports bars across the U.S., a significant feat considering there was only one just three years ago. More locations may be on the horizon, as The Sports Bra, the world's first sports bar dedicated exclusively to women's sports, plans to expand into four more U.S. cities. In addition to being a popular place to watch women's games, many women's sports bars have developed into robust community hubs that welcome sports fans from all backgrounds. ROSEMONT, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 28: Haylie McCleney #28 of Team Piancastelli hits a home run in the ... More sixth inning against Team Ocasio during the final weekend of the Athletes Unlimited softball league at Parkway Bank Sports Complex on September 28, 2020 in Rosemont, Illinois. (Photo by) MLB also recently announced in a press release plans to invest in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL). MLB commissioner Robert D. Manfred called the investment 'an opportunity to support softball's long-term growth and expand our engagement with these outstanding athletes and their fans.' This marks MLB's first-ever partnership with a women's professional sports league and is expected to accelerate the AUSL's growth by helping cover operational costs and broadcasting AUSL games on MLB Network. And just last month, sources told The Athletic that the WNBA's New York Liberty was estimated to be valued at $450 million, a record-valuation in women's sports and well over double its estimated valuation just a year ago. Only a few days prior, Chelsea FC Women announced that Alex Ohanian, Reddit co-founder and husband of Serena Williams, bought a minority stake in the club at a price that would value the team at $326 million. In an interview with the BBC, Ohanian stated that the treble-winning club will one day be a 'billion-dollar franchise' (Chelsea FC Women is fresh off an undefeated season in the Women's Super League, won the Women's League Cup earlier this year, and recently lifted the FA Cup trophy after a 3-0 victory against Manchester United). Women are also excelling on the international sports stage. In March, Kirsty Coventry was elected as the first woman president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and FIFA just confirmed the expansion of the Women's World Cup from 32 to 48 teams for 2031. These achievements only scratch the surface of the many ways women's sports are poised to thrive in summer 2025. It's no surprise, then, that Deloitte has projected the global value of women's sports to exceed $2 billion this year. However, unlocking this industry's full potential will require addressing significant gaps in pay equity. Despite countless strides forward, women athletes remain severely underpaid, often requiring them to take on outside jobs that limit their time to train and focus on their sport. In its report titled, 'Beyond the Game: Exposing the Economic Realities of Professional Women Athletes,' sports marketing and sponsorship platform Parity found that over half of women athletes earn no net income after accounting for sports-related costs, and 74% hold other jobs in addition to having intense training schedules. Gender pay disparities even exist among the highest-paid athletes. Forbes reports that Coco Gauff, the highest-paid woman athlete, falls nearly $20 million short of making its list of the 50 highest-paid athletes for 2025 (a list currently composed entirely of men). From local women's sports bars to growth on the global stage, the appetite for women's sports is clear. Unfortunately, much like when this author covered the business wins of women's sports in 2024, to meet that demand and achieve true pay equity requires increased investment, brand partnerships, and media engagement. 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With rising investment, growing fan enthusiasm, and heightened global visibility, the foundation is being laid for a future where women are fully supported both on and off the field. Still, empowering women athletes to reach their full potential depends on closing persistent gaps in pay, media coverage and funding. If this summer is any indication, the world is ready not just to celebrate women's sports, but to take the next step to ensure women athletes receive the level of recognition, resources, and compensation they have earned.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Learning loss: AI cheating upends education
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. It's an open secret in academia that schools are losing to AI, said James D. Walsh in New York magazine. Most students in the country today are "relying on AI to ease their way through every facet of their education." ChatGPT takes their notes in class, summarizes textbooks, and writes their essays. Students have all but forgotten how to think on their own; one philosophy professor said she caught students "using AI to respond to the prompt 'Briefly introduce yourself and say what you are hoping to get out of this class.'" Many professors say they can usually tell when students use AI on their assignments, but the scale of cheating has put teachers "in a state of despair," questioning their educational purpose. Some professors are covinced "the humanities, and writing in particular, are quickly becoming an anachronistic art elective, like basket weaving." The cheating is so rampant that honest students have to go to great lengths to prove their innocence, said Callie Holtermann in The New York Times. "The specter of AI misuse" looms to the point where students "described persistent anxiety about being accused of using AI on work" they had completed honestly. Some students have begun recording their screens to retain video evidence of their sincerity or using word processors that track their keystrokes. Their wariness seems warranted: Numerous studies have found that AI detection software used by schools routinely misidentifies work as AI-generated. There's a simple answer to AI cheating, said John J. Goyette in The Wall Street Journal: Ban technology in schools. Eliminate online classes. Retire take-home exams and "administer in-class evaluations such as blue book essays, oral exams, and chalkboard demonstrations." Enforce a clear policy "that prohibits AI use" for writing papers "and imposes serious consequences." Reduce class sizes and restore Socratic conversation "to its position of prominence in the classroom." Get real, said D. Graham Burnett in The New Yorker. The solution to cheating is not to pretend "that the most significant revolution in the world of thought in the past century isn't happening." At Princeton, where I teach, nearly every syllabus warns that the use of ChatGPT or other AI tools will be punishable by a visit to the academic deans. Students are scared to even visit an AI site for fear of the consequences. "This is, simply, madness. And it won't hold for long." My colleagues rightfully fret about the ability to detect if a student is cheating. But instead of fretting, we should consider this a gift. Since we "can no longer make students do the reading or the writing," we need to "give them work they want to do" and help them do it. AI might actually teach the teachers how to educate again.
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
NYC Just Banned Broker Fees on Tenants. Landlords Are Already Jacking Up Rents.
New York City apartment hunters are waking up to some of the steepest overnight rent surges in the city's recent history. Lots of renters are celebrating.
