crunch

Interview Kickstart, a profitable startup helping tech professionals acquire career-advancing skills, has raised $10 million in its maiden funding from Blume Ventures, the companies said on Monday. The San Francisco-based startup, founded in 2014, assists engineers learn from employees of top tech companies or their alumni. Though always profitable, 2023 was pivotal for Interview Kickstart after the startup found immediate wide-adoption in its newly launched AI vertical aimed at engineers looking to switch to…

Byju’s, the world’s most valuable edtech startup, launched a rights issue on Monday, seeking to raise $200 million as the Indian firm works to address its working capital issues. The startup is resetting its valuation to “next to nothing” in the rights issue, where all existing investors have an opportunity to participate, according to a source familiar with the matter. In a letter to shareholders Monday, Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran said the founders of the edtech group have invested $1.1…

Even as a funding crunch hit Indian startups in 2023 with primary capital becoming hard to come by, there was a significant increase in secondary share sales across late-stage ventures.Risk investors ET spoke with said the trend is likely to continue in 2024, as the focus would be on the limited number of good assets where existing investors are looking to part-sell their stake.Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill CoursesOffering CollegeCourseWebsiteIIM KozhikodeIIMK Advanced Data Science For…

The lawmakers’ letter also claims that NIST is being rushed to define standards even though research into testing AI systems is at an early stage. As a result there is “significant disagreement” among AI experts over how to work on or even measure and define safety issues with the technology, it states. “The current state of the AI safety research field creates challenges for NIST as it navigates its leadership role on the issue,” the letter claims.NIST spokesperson Jennifer Huergo confirmed that the agency had received…

Christmas is in full swing in New York City; lines snake through Midtown as tourists oggle department store windows and the Rockefeller Center tree, and the Union Square Holiday Market is bustling with vendors and shoppers. All the while, hotel prices are up and vacancies down compared to the 2022 holiday season—and there are almost no short-term rentals, like Airbnbs, for people to book.It’s too soon to say there’s no room at the inn this holiday season—searches on Airbnb for places to stay during Christmas and New…

I’ve collected video game delay notices like Christmas candy, and today I have one more to shove in the stocking. The Alone in the Dark remake has been delayed once more until early next year — but the reason should leave most feeling jolly. The Alone in the Dark remake is moving from its (already delayed) January 2024 launch to later on March 20, 2024. Publisher THQ Nordic and developer Pieces Interactive sent out a notice for the delay. It wrote that the companies are pushing the game a bit longer in order to…

THQ Nordic has once again delayed . The revival of the totemic survival horror series was originally supposed to debut in October before the publisher pushed back the release date . THQ Nordic now says that Alone in the Dark will arrive on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on March 20, 2024.The main reason for the latest delay is to prevent the folks at developer Pieces Interactive from having to work long hours over the holidays to ensure the game would ship next month. "With our initially planned release date in January 2024,…

In late October, a monster storm named Lola hit the Southern Hemisphere, a week before the official start of the cyclone season, producing the earliest recorded Category 5 cyclone. Violent winds battered the island nation of Vanuatu, reaching 295 kilometers per hour (183 miles per hour). Lola created a trail of destruction that left more than 40,000 children in need of humanitarian assistance and caused widespread damage to homes, schools, infrastructure and crops. When it struck, Vanuatu had barely picked up the pieces…

For years, animation studio MAPPA has been noteworthy for the quality of the anime it puts out, which includes widely beloved shonen like Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga, and Jujutsu Kaisen. At the same time, it’s been noted that the 12-year-old studio has a habit of taking on a lot of projects at once, with allegations of staff crunch surfacing in recent years. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 Has Infectious Good EnergyThat dam finally burst earlier in the week when several Kaisen staff used social media to vent about their workload.…

Despite a disappointing start for General Motors’ electric vehicle sales, the automaker is vowing to build more this year. GM says it’s overcoming battery supply chain issues and expects “a lot more EVs being built in the second half of this year.” Ultium battery production hurdles After EV sales reached over 20K for the first time in a three-month period in Q1 2023, GM’s momentum slipped in the second quarter. GM sold 15,652 EVs in the second quarter, down over 20% from Q1. To make…