News

Husband and wife duo Tye and Courtney Caldwell run their own hair care business but noticed a problem: empty chairs. So using some creativity, they came up with an app that’s been a game changer in the industry. TODAY Show

Bobbie, an organic infant formula company, has acquired Nature’s One, a 26-year-old pediatric nutrition company, in a move that gives Bobbie end-to-end control over formula manufacturing through a new facility and triples the size of Bobbie’s operations. TechCrunch

A machine developed by Co-Star, a technology company with a buzzy astrology app, answers specific questions like “Should I start a cult?” using A.I. technology and a person’s birth date, time and place. New York Times

No garment, no matter how durable, how locally sourced, how biodegradable, how many times it can be recycled, can ever be as sustainable as the garment that was never made. With that eye toward sustainability, as well as cutting waste from the expense line, Rachel Liaw launched Fuse Inventory in 2016, a hyper-advanced version of the Excel spreadsheet still being used by many companies. WWD

In a press release published earlier this week, stock photography company Getty Images announced the introduction of the #AutisticOutLoud campaign in partnership with Hiki, a neurodiversity-centric friendship and dating app targeted towards members of the autistic community. The campaign’s goal is to “increase authentic representation of autistic people through the lens of the community.” Forbes

Praxis Labs, a San Francisco, CA-based software-as-a-service virtual reality (VR) company with an end-to-end immersive learning platform, received an investment from Accenture Ventures. FinSMEs

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

Brightflow AI has acquired CircleUp to bolster its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered financial insights tool. PYMNTS

Apps like Honeycomb are intended for the easy sharing of baby pictures and videos with a private family group. The New York Times

The company has developed a European-style formula recipe it says is modelled on breast milk. Business Post

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

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

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, a San Francisco, CA-based AI music startup, raised $2.7M in Seed funding. FinSMEs

Payments infrastructure startup Finix has slowly been taking swipes at Stripe, first becoming a facilitator, and now becoming a processor. TechCrunch

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

Roche will leverage PicnicHealth’s real-world datasets for Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease-related dementia and myasthenia gravis. MobiHealthNews

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

Natalie Barbu’s Rella is an essential project-management tool to keep creators organized. Business Insider

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