News about Silicon Valley business almost everyday.
SAN FRANCISCO – Zelda Ventures, a new investment firm founded and led by General Partner Suzanne Fletcher, has closed its first fundraise with an oversubscribed $33 million debut fund. The pre-seed fund invests in the next companies of founders whom Suzanne has already invested in. “Zelda Ventures is the culmination of decades spent nurturing entrepreneurial talent […]
SAN FRANCISCO – California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced a $700 million multi-state settlement with Google resolving allegations that the company violated state and federal laws by monopolizing the Android smartphone application market. The settlement in State of Utah et al. v. Google LLC provides significant monetary returns to California consumers and includes injunctive terms to open up the markets […]
It’s been the year of AI, so why not use it to clamp down on unwanted parties this New Year’s Eve? Airbnb says it is implementing restrictions on certain bookings over New Year’s Eve that aim to reduce the risk of unauthorized and disruptive parties in local neighborhoods, and will be deploying AI-powered technology to […]
CHICAGO and SUNNYVALE — McDonald’s Corporation, one of the world’s leading fast-food chains, has announced plans for a new multi-year, global partnership to connect Google Cloud technology across thousands of its restaurants worldwide. McDonald’s plans to leverage a wide range of Google Cloud’s hardware, data, and AI technologies to implement innovation faster and create even better experiences […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Backer, a fintech company focused on tax-advantaged 529 Savings Plans, has raised $9.5 million in a Series A round of financing. It has also acquired Saving For College, a 529-related media property and education savings resource that millions of American families rely on each year. “From day one, our mission has been […]
Google released its Threat Analysis Bulletin for the month of October. This bulletin includes coordinated influence operation campaigns that were removed from Google’s platforms — primarily YouTube — in the fourth quarter of 2023. The campaigns are mainly from nation states looking to spread propaganda to promote their own governments or against other nations. This […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Distributional has raised $11 million to build an enterprise platform for artificial intelligence (AI) testing and evaluation, with the goal of making all forms of AI safe, secure and reliable. The Seed round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Operator Stack, Point72 Ventures, SV Angel, Two Sigma, Willowtree Investments and […]
SAN FRANCISCO — Opal Security, a security and access management company, has reeled in $22 million Series B funding, led by Battery Ventures, with participation from existing investors Greylock and Box Group. The round brings Opal Security’s total funding to date to $32 million. Since Opal Security’s 2022 Series A financing, the company says it has […]
Loredana Crisan, Head of Messenger for Meta, wrote the following notice on the company’s website: I’m delighted to announce that we are rolling out default end-to-end encryption for personal messages and calls on Messenger and Facebook, as well as a suite of new features that let you further control your messaging experience. We take our […]
Apple says it’s expanding Self Service Repair for customers, and launching a new diagnostic tool that gives users more transparency and autonomy to troubleshoot issues. Self Service Repair is now available for the iPhone 15 lineup and Mac models powered by the M2 lineup, including the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, the 15-inch MacBook Air, […]
ATLANTA – Barbara Furlow-Smiles, a former global diversity executive at Facebook, has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $4 million from the company utilizing an elaborate scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fictitious charges, and cash kickbacks. “This defendant abused a position of a trust as a global diversity executive for Facebook to defraud the company of […]
Two suspects committed a strong-arm robbery in Palo Alto of a United States Postal Service mail carrier last week, stealing her postal keys and cell phone. The victim sustained moderate injuries and the suspects are at large. On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, at about 1:59 p.m., the Palo Alto Police 24-hour dispatch center received a […]