The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching preliminary enquiries into whether the close-knit tie-ups and hiring practices involving Microsoft, Amazon and a trio of AI startups falls within the scope of its merger rules — and whether the arrangements could impact competition in the U.K. market. The announcement comes amid growing...

Automation continues to be a major theme in the enterprise — underscored not least by the rise of AI as a tool to help fix some of the more routine, resource-intensive and fragmented aspects of how security and other IT functions operate. To capitalize on that trend, one of the bigger startups in the space, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved....

When Trace’s future co-founders Greg Tran, Martin Smith and Sean Couture joined Magic Leap in Spring/Summer 2015, it was about as hot as startups come. After years of secrecy, the augmented reality company captured Silicon Valley’s imagination with in-device footage, before capping the year with an $827 million raise. The story of the intervening years...

Hinge is adding a “Hidden Words” feature to its app, which will filter out likes with comments containing those phrases or words. It pretty much works like a mute filter on social media apps. On Hinge, users can send a message when they like a profile — that message can contain any text. Rivals, such […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For...

India’s central bank on Wednesday ordered Kotak Mahindra Bank to immediately cease onboarding new customers via its online and mobile banking channels, and to stop issuing fresh credit cards, citing serious deficiencies in the bank’s IT systems and risk management practices. Kotak Mahindra Bank is India’s fourth most valuable bank. It’s also one of...

Conversational AI platform Parloa has nabbed $66 million in a Series B round, a year after it raised $21 million from a swathe of European investors to propel its international growth. The German company is focusing on the U.S. in particular, and last year opened an office in New York, too. It says this hub […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved....