Tracy Chou launched the Twitter app Block Party in 2021 to help users escape targeted harassment campaigns that she—as an Asian American woman—knew from personal experience could ostracize vulnerable voices from the public conversation. But on Wednesday Block Party closed its doors, becoming the latest victim of soaring new bills imposed by a struggling Twitter under new owner Elon Musk. TIME
News
Brightflow AI Acquires CircleUp to Bolster Financial Insights Tool
Brightflow AI has acquired CircleUp to bolster its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered financial insights tool. PYMNTS
Create a Private Social Space, Far From the Maddening Crowd
Apps like Honeycomb are intended for the easy sharing of baby pictures and videos with a private family group. The New York Times
Irish co-founded infant formula firm Bobbie hits revenues of $100 million
The company has developed a European-style formula recipe it says is modelled on breast milk. Business Post
Superhuman for Windows is finally here
At $30 per month, you can access Superhuman ” the fastest email experience ever made.” The email tool will help you navigate through your inbox twice as fast, and help you save up to three hours or more every single week. OnMSFT
‘Dynamic Music’ Promises to Soundtrack Life on Demand — and in Real Time
In the case of preexisting tracks, companies like Minibeats partner with Audioshake, a firm that uses AI to break down songs into individual, standardized stems, so that they can easily manipulate a song’s instrumental mix — guitar, drums, vocals, etc. — in real time. Audioshake’s proprietary technology is especially helpful in the case of older recordings in which the copyright owner no longer has the stems. Billboard
AI Startup Rewind Gets 170 Offers—and $350 Million Valuation in Unusual Fundraising
Hungry venture capitalists inundated Rewind AI co-founder and CEO Dan Siroker the moment they caught wind of his artificial intelligence startup’s Series A plans, he wrote on Twitter last month. So he skipped the traditional fundraising process and tried something unorthodox. The Information
AudioShake Raises $2.7M in Seed Funding
AudioShake, a San Francisco, CA-based AI music startup, raised $2.7M in Seed funding. FinSMEs
Finix becomes a payments processor, heating up its competition with Stripe
Payments infrastructure startup Finix has slowly been taking swipes at Stripe, first becoming a facilitator, and now becoming a processor. TechCrunch
Sam Altman’s Backing Helps Community College Startup Raise $29 Million
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Discord founder Jason Citron were the lead investors in a $29 million Series A round for Campus, the news of which was shared exclusively with Forbes. Other investors in the round include Figma founder Dylan Field; former head of Stripe Lachy Groom; Bloomberg Beta; Founders Fund; Rethink Education; Reach Capital and Precursor Ventures. Oyerinde, 29, declined to disclose his stake in Campus or its valuation. Forbes
PicnicHealth, Roche partner to accelerate neurological disease research
Roche will leverage PicnicHealth’s real-world datasets for Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease-related dementia and myasthenia gravis. MobiHealthNews
Tenstreet Announces Acquisition of TruckMap, Launch of New Rewards & True Fuel Programs
Tenstreet, the leading provider of driver recruiting software and workflow solutions for the transportation industry, announced at its 2023 User Conference in Las Vegas that it has acquired transportation routing company TruckMap. Tenstreet
20 women who have founded creator-economy startups and broken through in an industry where funding often goes to men
Natalie Barbu’s Rella is an essential project-management tool to keep creators organized. Business Insider
Creator CRM company Pico rebrands to Hype, raises $10 million
Creator CRM company Pico is now rebranding as Hype and launching Hype Kits, which are pre-designed web templates for different kinds of creators looking to build a landing page. The company is also raising $10 million in Series A funding led by King River Capital with other investors including Bullpen Capital, Precursor Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, Tapestry VC and Sterling Road. This brings the platform’s total fundraising to $20 million. TechCrunch
Meet four women using apps and games to drive culture and create change
The teams at Rebel Girls, Dinosaur Polo Club, and Wisdom share how their experiences shaped the vision for their apps and games on the App Store. Apple
Creating Massive Impact: Iman Abuzeid of Incredible Health
How She Grew Incredible Health Into A $1.65B Industry-Changing Company. Just Go Grind by Justin Gordon
Brightflow AI and CircleUp Help Brands Apply for Business Loans
Brightflow AI and CircleUp are now working together to help brands apply for business loans. PYMNTS
Rebel Girls announces $8 million Series A, metaverse expansion
The certified B Corporation aims to reach an audience of 50 million girls by 2025 as it continues to publish new books and expand into new media and storytelling formats. Fast Company
Sweet smell of success: How Curie founder built her business
Sarah Moret, founder of Curie, recounts her journey from leaving a career in finance to starting her own personal care brand from scratch and pitching her products on “Shark Tank.” The Today Show
Black-Owned Start-Ups are Flipping the Fintech Script
Kelly Ifill was raised in an entrepreneurial Caribbean household in Brooklyn. Her grandmother ran a cleaning business, her uncle and cousins had a contracting company, and her aunt operated a landscaping enterprise. “You look at the tapestry of small businesses in America, and it almost mirrors the systems that my family has started. That’s the stock that I come from,” Ifill says. Like her family members, Ifill was determined to build something that she was passionate about, and that fulfilled the needs of fellow business owners. Atlantic Re:think