December 2023

Encrypted email service Proton Mail gets its own desktop app

December 14, 2023

Proton Mail finally has a native desktop app, rolling out now in beta for some users on Windows and MacOS. The encrypted email service has, of course, been available to desktop users since its inception nearly a decade ago — first through the web, and latterly via a “bridge” that opened access to Proton Mail accounts […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

This new system can teach a robot a simple household task within 20 minutes

December 14, 2023
A new system that teaches robots a domestic task in around 20 minutes could help the field of robotics overcome one of its biggest challenges: a lack of training data.  The open-source system, called Dobb-E, was trained using data collected from real homes. It can help to teach a robot how to open an air…

The two words that pushed international climate talks into overtime

December 14, 2023
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The annual UN climate negotiations at COP28 in Dubai have officially come to a close. Delegates scrambled to get a deal together in the early morning hours, and the meetings ended a…

Instagram introduces gen-AI powered background editing tool

December 14, 2023

Instagram introduced its generative AI-powered background editing tool to U.S.-based users Wednesday. Meta’s lead for generative AI Ahmad Al-Dahle posted on Threads saying that the tool will let users change the background to their images through prompts for Stories. When users will tap on the background editor icon on an image they will get ready […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Qogita — a wholesale marketplace for retailers — raises $86M Series B to compete with Ankorstore in Europe

December 14, 2023

Qogita – a two-sided ecommerce wholesale marketplace aimed at retailers largely in the health and beauty sectors – has raised €80 million ($86 million) in a Series B round led by London’s Dawn Capital and Accel. The company plans to use the cash to expand into more categories. Also participating were previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

India’s Udaan scores $340 million in new funding

December 14, 2023

The investment arm of the UK retail bank M&G has led a funding of $340 million into Udaan, a business-to-business e-commerce startup, in one of the largest financing rounds secured by an Indian startup in 2023. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which helps merchants in smaller Indian cities and towns secure inventories from major brands as well […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Jumia discontinues food delivery across seven markets, shifts focus to expanding physical goods business

December 14, 2023

Pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia has disclosed its intention to discontinue its food delivery service, Jumia Food. The company said its food delivery business is not aligned with the current operational landscape and prevailing macroeconomic conditions in the seven markets, including Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Ivory Coast. As a result, Jumia will cease […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Social commerce platform Maka raises $2.65M to simplify buying fashion and beauty products in Africa

December 14, 2023

Maka, an African fashion and beauty e-commerce platform, has raised a $2.65 million pre-seed round led by Pan-African venture capital firms 4DX Ventures and Janngo Capital. Other investors include Palm Drive Capital, angel investor Jonathan Shipman, founder of EVP and Twitch founding member, and executives from delivery platform Wolt. In 2021, co-founder and CEO Diana […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Privacy complaint takes aim at Musk’s X over EU ads targeted on sensitive data

December 14, 2023

Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is facing a new privacy complaint in Europe related to its ad targeting tools. The complaint, which is being lodged with the Dutch data protection authority by privacy rights not-for-profit noyb, accuses X of failing to enforce its own its advertising guidelines. While X’s T&Cs […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.