Take, for example, the company’s latest foray into mobile artificial intelligence, the AI Eraser.
Nope, OnePlus went ahead and built its own version in a bid to show the world that it has AI ambitions of its own.
From the sound of its press material, the company went and built this thing ground-up, starting with its own first-party large language models.
“AI Eraser is the result of a substantial R&D investment from OnePlus,” the company notes in its press material.
AI is rolling out to OnePlus devices this month, starting with OnePlus 12, OnePlus 12R, OnePlus 11, OnePlus Open and OnePlus Nord CE 4.
To make all of this easier, Zip today announced Zip Premier, a set of new enterprise capabilities, as well as a new low-code integration platform that allows its users to build their own integrations to tap into services that Zip itself doesn’t support with its existing connectors.
And to make it easier to onboard new customers, Zip is also launching a set of 100 pre-built workflow templates today.
Zip is going up against several other procurement platforms from the likes of Coupa, SAP, Workday and more.
“Traditional procurement solutions don’t meet the complex needs of modern enterprises who face an intricate web of fractured procurement processes across many business teams and systems,” he said.
“Developed alongside our largest enterprise customers, our new capabilities streamline the entire spending process, delivering enterprise grade performance with consumer-grade flexibility so our customers can drive compliance and scale with speed.”
Smart ring manufacturer Oura is introducing a new section in its app called Oura Labs to test out new features and get user feedback.
Oura said that Symptom Radar will monitor biometric signals such as body temperature range, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability.
“Oura Labs is our approach to recreate internal engagement for new features with users in a structured and formal way.
Users will get to see a lot of early-stage ideas in Oura Labs,” Patel said.
Users can provide direct feedback about these experimental features along with general feedback for the product through Oura Labs.
The round also includes existing investors, Notable Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Cowboy Ventures and PLUS Capital.
“To have over 2 million workers on Homebase, which is over 2% of the workforce, is impressive for a private company,” Richards said.
In 2021, sources told TechCrunch’s Ingrid Lunden that the company’s valuation was between $500 million and $600 million.
“We are using technology to give workers superpowers and in fact, make the work more human, not less,” Waldmann said.
Small businesses have always provided that, and this, to me, is why our mission is so important to make these jobs even better.”
Home From College, a career platform for young professionals and college students looking for their first job or internship, announced Wednesday that it raised $5.4 million in a seed round led by GV (formerly Google Ventures).
Home From College aims to disrupt the traditional job search for Gen Z, who are gravitating toward more flexible opportunities outside of the 9-5.
Some call Gen Z the “freelance generation,” with 67% of Gen Zers embracing freelance work and 71% prioritizing jobs with flexible working hours, per Fiverr.
Gen Z is also exploring more creative roles, with many looking to build their careers in social media, entertainment, marketing, beauty, and fashion.
Another way that Home From College caters to Gen Z and stands apart from other career sites is its interview feature where students answer questions from real companies, which they can post to their profiles.
Founder Daudi Barnes started the company in 2019 to augment the work of his previous company, Advanced Mobile Propulsion Test.
The Colorado-based startup already operates one test stand, called Sunshine, which AMPT stood up in 2010.
“The market is just really, really expanding really fast right now,” Animas project manager Graham Dudley explained.
So they’ve had four plus years of design and development that they have to reboot on, and that’s really, really expensive and hard for your schedule prediction.
Its a competitive edge in the space propulsion market, which has become increasingly crowded as the cost to launch spacecraft to orbit has dropped.
Alsym wants to ‘light up homes for a billion people’ with its new batteryLithium-ion batteries have transformed the global economy, making possible everything from smartphones and laptops to electric vehicles, e-bikes, and more.
With the advent of cheap solar, making electricity has never been cheaper or easier.
The electrolyte is water-based, a departure from the flammable organic solvents used in lithium-ion batteries.
Alsym also says its batteries will be cheaper than lithium-ion, thanks to the less exotic materials and simpler packs.
Ultimately, it will partner with existing battery manufacturers, since Alsym’s batteries can be produced using existing equipment.
Web browser company Opera announced today it will now allow users to download and use Large Language Models (LLMs) locally on their computer.
This feature is first rolling out to Opera One users who get developer stream updates and will allow users to select from over 150 models from more than 50 families.
The feature will be available to users as part of Opera’s AI Feature Drops Program to let users have early access to some of the AI features.
Notably, Opera is not doing any work to save storage while downloading a model.
“Opera has now for the first time ever provided access to a large selection of 3rd party local LLMs directly in the browser.
Full Glass Wine, a brand acquisition management startup that specializes in acquiring wine marketplaces, has raised $14 million in a Series A round to continue acquiring DTC (direct-to-consumer) wine marketplaces, aiming to lead the DTC wine market.
The deal is Full Glass Wine’s third acquisition in a year and will enable the startup to expand its subscription-based model.
DTC wine brands sell wine directly to wine lovers, bypassing traditional distribution channels“By uniting Winc, Wine Insiders, and Bright Cellars, we offer a one-stop shop for all things wine, catering to a wider range of wine drinkers than most traditional retailers, grocers, or single-brand DTC companies,” Neha Kumar, co-founder and COO of Full Glass Wine, told TechCrunch.
“However, there are also some misconceptions consumers might have about DTC wine.
“We’re looking at a total of at least a few dozen employees now at Full Glass Wine,” Kumar said.
The carpooling and bus ticketing company has been around for so long that it’s hard to consider it a startup anymore.
Today, the company is announcing that it’s secured a €100 million revolving credit facility ($108M at today’s exchange rate).
And the good news is that there are BlaBlaCar users all around the world — not just France.
When the war in Ukraine started, BlaBlaCar had millions of users in Russia.
Even if you don’t book your next train ride on BlaBlaCar, the company is also experimenting with last-mile carpooling.