Latest news with #Automattic
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Startups Weekly: No sign of pause
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. You'd think WWDC would cause a lull in startup news. But not in June, when everyone is eager to announce their latest deals — or even to go public. This week brought us many reminders that no startup journey is linear — but the next billion-dollar idea may only be one click away. Gong chime: Neobank Chime went public this week in one of this year's most anticipated IPOs. But the company nearly died in 2016 — until a providential check. Oh no, baby, no: Genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics raised criticism for its new product, Nucleus Embryo, which could let future parents pick or discard embryos based on controversial factors. Personal CRM: owner Automattic acquired Clay, a startup that had raised over $9 million in venture capital for its relationship management app, which will continue to be supported. (Trivia alert: TechCrunch has been writing about Automattic for 20 years now.) ICYMI: Brad Menezes, CEO of enterprise vibe-coding startup Superblocks, has a tip for prospective founders hoping to find a billion-dollar idea: Look at the system prompts used by existing AI unicorns. Behind this week's top deals, including some particularly large ones, you will find oversubscribed rounds and VC inbound, but also hard-earned funding and bold life decisions. Slim and fat: Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup reducing the size of LLMs, raised an unusually large Series B of €189 million (about $215 million). The company claims its 'slim' models can lower AI costs and run on all sorts of devices. Upward: Enterprise AI company Glean raised a $150 million Series F led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation, up from $4.6 billion in September 2024. Boiling hot: Fervo Energy landed $206 million in a mix of debt and equity from backers, including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, to continue work on a new geothermal power plant in Utah. Nuclear fuel: German startup Proxima Fusion secured a €130 million Series A (approximately $148 million) led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures. Last mile: Coco Robotics, a delivery robot startup backed by Sam Altman, disclosed having raised $80 million across a mix of funding events from 2021 to 2024. In March, it announced a partnership with OpenAI. Singing: Hotel guest management platform Canary locked in an $80 million Series D led by Brighton Park Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Insight Partners, Fidelity, and others. Fresh capital: Tebi, the new fintech startup by former Adyen CTO Arnout Schuijff, raised a €30 million round ($34 million) led by Alphabet's CapitalG for its all-in-one platform for hospitality businesses. Streamlining contracts: British AI legal tech startup Definely raised a $30 million Series B from European and North American investors to make it easier for lawyers to review contracts. Based: AI sales startup Landbase closed a $30 million Series A co-led by existing investor Picus Capital and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, which was one of 130 VC firms that reached out after its Series A and product launch. Shining bright: Co-founded by Jewel Burks Solomon, the former head of Google for Startups in the U.S., Collab Capital closed a $75 million Fund II focused on seed and Series A investments into healthcare, infrastructure, and the future of work. The U.S. Navy says 'welcome aboard' to new startup partnerships. This week on StrictlyVC Download, acting chief technology officer Justin Fanelli shared insights on the Navy's innovation adoption kit, as well as advice for any startups looking to work with the Navy. Sign in to access your portfolio
TechCrunch
13-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Startups Weekly: No sign of pause
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. You'd think WWDC would cause a lull in startup news. But not in June, when everyone is eager to announce their latest deals — or even to go public. Most interesting startup stories from the week Image Credits:Nasdaq This week brought us many reminders that no startup journey is linear — but the next billion-dollar idea may only be one click away. Gong chime: Neobank Chime went public this week in one of this year's most anticipated IPOs. But the company nearly died in 2016 — until a providential check. Oh no, baby, no: Genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics raised criticism for its new product, Nucleus Embryo, which could let future parents pick or discard embryos based on controversial factors. Personal CRM: owner Automattic acquired Clay, a startup that had raised over $9 million in venture capital for its relationship management app, which will continue to be supported. (Trivia alert: TechCrunch has been writing about Automattic for 20 years now.) ICYMI: Brad Menezes, CEO of enterprise vibe-coding startup Superblocks, has a tip for prospective founders hoping to find a billion-dollar idea: Look at the system prompts used by existing AI unicorns. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW Most interesting VC and funding news this week Image Credits:Fervo Energy Behind this week's top deals, including some particularly large ones, you will find oversubscribed rounds and VC inbound, but also hard-earned funding and bold life decisions. Slim and fat: Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup reducing the size of LLMs, raised an unusually large Series B of €189 million (about $215 million). The company claims its 'slim' models can lower AI costs and run on all sorts of devices. Upward: Enterprise AI company Glean raised a $150 million Series F led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation, up from $4.6 billion in September 2024. Boiling hot: Fervo Energy landed $206 million in a mix of debt and equity from backers, including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, to continue work on a new geothermal power plant in Utah. Nuclear fuel: German startup Proxima Fusion secured a €130 million Series A (approximately $148 million) led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures. Last mile: Coco Robotics, a delivery robot startup backed by Sam Altman, disclosed having raised $80 million across a mix of funding events from 2021 to 2024. In March, it announced a partnership with OpenAI. Singing: Hotel guest management platform Canary locked in an $80 million Series D led by Brighton Park Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Insight Partners, Fidelity, and others. Fresh capital: Tebi, the new fintech startup by former Adyen CTO Arnout Schuijff, raised a €30 million round ($34 million) led by Alphabet's CapitalG for its all-in-one platform for hospitality businesses. Streamlining contracts: British AI legal tech startup Definely raised a $30 million Series B from European and North American investors to make it easier for lawyers to review contracts. Based: AI sales startup Landbase closed a $30 million Series A co-led by existing investor Picus Capital and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, which was one of 130 VC firms that reached out after its Series A and product launch. Shining bright: Co-founded by Jewel Burks Solomon, the former head of Google for Startups in the U.S., Collab Capital closed a $75 million Fund II focused on seed and Series A investments into healthcare, infrastructure, and the future of work. Last but not least Image Credits:Getty Images The U.S. Navy says 'welcome aboard' to new startup partnerships. This week on StrictlyVC Download, acting chief technology officer Justin Fanelli shared insights on the Navy's innovation adoption kit, as well as advice for any startups looking to work with the Navy.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Automattic acquires relationship manager Clay to add an identity layer to online tools
After acquiring universal messaging apps Beeper and owner Automattic has added another communication-focused startup to its lineup: relationship-management app Clay. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Clay had so far raised over $9 million in venture capital from investors like General Catalyst and Forerunner Ventures. The tool will continue to be supported and will later be integrated with other Automattic products, like Beeper. Clay's software, launched in 2021, is something of a smarter address book or personal CRM, letting users organize the people they know and keep up with their latest updates by pulling in data from services like LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp, and X, as well as address books and calendars. You can use the app to keep up with things you want to know about people, like job changes, relocations, updated bios, recent social posts, and more. Clay also lets you add notes to address book entries, so you can note how and when you met, or the names of their kids, for instance. A timeline for each entry shows when notes were added, the last time you reached out, and other times you engaged. The app later built in AI, adding an AI helper called Nexus that lets you ask questions about your network, like who you know at a particular company, or who you should connect with when visiting New York. Beyond that, the AI bot is meant to integrate with your daily workflow. As part of the acquisition, which closed last week, Clay's small team, including its co-founders Zachary Hamed and Matthew Achariam, is joining Automattic's Other Bets Division. This group also includes Beeper and Gravatar. 'Our mission […] is to help with relationships and increase conscientiousness,' Achariam said. 'That's always been our North Star, and all the features […] reinforce that by bringing these different aspects of relationship management into one platform and one tool.' Automattic said it made sense to buy Clay because of its ability to be integrated into the company's broader ecosystem, which today includes the universal chat app Beeper (a merger of the and Beeper acquisitions). Clay's founders, meanwhile, have a sense of a shared mission with Automattic, and appreciate that they'll get to continue to develop their app. (Often, smart address book startups are eaten up by their acquirer and then sadly wound down.) 'We are very excited about the longevity aspect of this,' said Hamed. 'We believe that this should be something that exists beyond, like, any one company,' he added. For Clay, the long-term plan at Automattic includes integrating with Beeper, and ultimately becoming an identity layer for a variety of different tools. Those plans are not finalized, however, nor could Automattic commit to a time frame for that progress. It also wouldn't share if Clay's pricing is due to change in the future. Currently, the service is a freemium offering, with its paid plans starting at $10 per month, or $40 per seat, per month for teams. Clay's founders said they believe their values are similar to Automattic's, which is why the deal made sense. 'One of their main ethos is this idea of open source, and the idea that that's one of the most powerful forces of our lifetimes. And we tend to agree,' said Achariam. Clay's team is also interested in integrating with other open technologies going forward, like ActivityPub, used by Mastodon, and AT Protocol, used by Bluesky. Clay didn't share any numbers about its user base, but it did say that its app manages over 150 million relationships. The app is available on macOS, Windows, iOS, and web. Sign in to access your portfolio
TechCrunch
12-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Automattic acquires relationship manager Clay to add an identity layer to online tools
After acquiring universal messaging apps Beeper and owner Automattic has added another communication-focused startup to its lineup: relationship-management app Clay. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Clay had so far raised over $9 million in venture capital from investors like General Catalyst and Forerunner Ventures. The tool will continue to be supported and will later be integrated with other Automattic products, like Beeper. Clay's software, launched in 2021, is something of a smarter address book or personal CRM, letting users organize the people they know and keep up with their latest updates by pulling in data from services like LinkedIn, Facebook, WhatsApp and X, as well as address books and calendars. Image Credits:Clay You can use the app to keep up with things you want to know about people, like job changes, relocations, updated bios, recent social posts, and more. Clay also lets you add notes to address book entries, so you can note how and when you met, or the names of their kids, for instance. A timeline for each entry shows when notes were added, the last time you reached out, and other times you engaged. The app later built in AI, adding an AI helper called Nexus that lets you ask questions about your network, like who you know at a particular company, or who you should connect with when visiting New York. Beyond that, the AI bot is meant to integrate with your daily workflow. As part of the acquisition, which closed last week, Clay's small team, including its co-founders Zachary Hamed and Matthew Achariam, is joining Automattic. 'Our mission […] is to help with relationships and increase conscientiousness,' Achariam said. 'That's always been our North Star, and all the features […] reinforce that by bringing these different aspects of relationship management into one platform and one tool.' Image Credits:Clay Automattic said it made sense to buy Clay because of its ability to be integrated into the company's broader ecosystem, which today includes the universal chat app Beeper (a merger of the and Beeper acquisitions). Clay's founders, meanwhile, have a sense of a shared mission with Automattic, and appreciate that they'll get to continue to develop their app. (Often, smart address book startups are eaten up by their acquirer and then sadly wound down.) 'We are very excited about the longevity aspect of this,' said Hamed. 'We believe that this should be something that exists beyond, like, any one company,' he added. For Clay, the long-term plan at Automattic includes integrating with Beeper, and ultimately becoming an identity layer for a variety of different tools. Those plans are not finalized, however, nor could Automattic commit to a time frame for that progress. It also wouldn't share if Clay's pricing is due to change in the future. Currently, the service is a freemium offering, with its paid plans starting at $10 per month, or $40 per seat, per month for teams. Clay's founders said they believe their values are similar to Automattic's, which is why the deal made sense. 'One of their main ethos is this idea of open source, and the idea that that's one of the most powerful forces of our lifetimes. And we tend to agree,' said Achariam. Clay's team is also interested in integrating with other open technologies going forward, like ActivityPub, used by Mastodon, and AT Protocol, used by Bluesky. Clay didn't share any numbers about its userbase, but it did say that its app manages over 150 million relationships. The app is available on macOS, Windows, iOS, and web.
Techday NZ
10-06-2025
- Techday NZ
Apple unveils design overhaul & new AI tools for developers
Apple has announced a series of updates to its developer tools and software platforms intended to support the creation of new app experiences across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. The company has introduced a new software design called Liquid Glass, which aims to bring an increased focus to content across Apple devices while retaining a sense of familiarity. This design extends from minor interface elements such as buttons and sliders to larger navigation features. Native frameworks like SwiftUI are designed to help developers adopt this new design. A new Icon Composer app has also been unveiled, intended to assist developers and designers in creating consistent and modern app icons with advanced features, such as blurring, translucency adjustment, and previewing icons in multiple tints. The Foundation Models framework is new to Apple's developer ecosystem and allows developers to build on-device experiences leveraging Apple Intelligence. The aim is to offer intelligent features that are available offline and prioritise user privacy. The framework supports Swift and is structured to simplify access to Apple's on-device AI models with minimal code. "Developers play a vital role in shaping the experiences customers love across Apple platforms," said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "With access to the on-device Apple Intelligence foundation model and new intelligence features in Xcode 26, we're empowering developers to build richer, more intuitive apps for users everywhere." Automattic has already taken advantage of the Foundation Models framework for its Day One journaling app. "The Foundation Model framework has helped us rethink what's possible with journaling," said Paul Mayne, head of Day One at Automattic. "Now we can bring intelligence and privacy together in ways that deeply respect our users." Xcode 26 Apple has also updated its integrated development environment with the release of Xcode 26, adding intelligence features to assist developers in tasks such as code writing, test generation, documentation, error fixing, and more. Xcode now supports integration with large language models, including built-in support for ChatGPT, and allows for the use of third-party API keys or running models locally on Macs equipped with Apple silicon. Coding Tools in Xcode 26 offer developers suggested actions and support a range of tasks directly within the editor. Additional features include a redesigned navigation interface, improvements to localisation, and expanded voice control capabilities for coding and interface navigation. App Intents and visual intelligence This update includes enhancements to App Intents, with new support for visual intelligence. Developers can now provide visual search results that link users directly into their apps. For example, Etsy is incorporating visual intelligence to improve product discovery in its app. "At Etsy, our job is to seamlessly connect shoppers with creative entrepreneurs around the world who offer extraordinary items — many of which are hard to describe. The ability to meet shoppers right on their iPhone with visual intelligence is a meaningful unlock, and makes it easier than ever for buyers to quickly discover exactly what they're looking for while directly supporting small businesses," said Etsy CTO Rafe Colburn. Swift 6.2 and new framework support Swift 6.2 is set to bring improved performance, concurrency, and interoperability, now with expanded support for WebAssembly in conjunction with the open-source community. The new version also offers enhancements for writing single-threaded code. The Containerisation framework now enables developers to run Linux container images directly on a Mac, with an emphasis on isolation and security, and is optimised for Apple silicon. Gaming tools and APIs Updates for game developers include Game Porting Toolkit 3, new Metal 4 APIs designed for Apple silicon, and expanded support for running inference networks in shaders. Other features include MetalFX Frame Interpolation and Denoising, a new Apple Games app, Game Center enhancements, and support for managing in-game digital assets. Child safety and accessibility Developers can now use the new Declared Age Range API to deliver age-appropriate content, allowing parents to control what information is shared for their children. App Store Accessibility Nutrition Labels have also been introduced, providing users with more detailed accessibility information before downloading apps. The App Store Connect app also gains new capabilities, including viewing TestFlight feedback and crash reports, push notifications for tester feedback, enhanced support for webhooks, and expanded asset management features. The Apple Intelligence features require supported devices, including the latest iPhones, select iPads, and Macs with M1 and later processors, as well as compatible regional settings and languages. More languages are expected to be supported by the end of the year, with availability varying by region and device.
