Inspired Capital closes $450M fourth fund as New York pushes back on Silicon Valley’s gravitational pull
The raise comes as venture dollars pile up on the West Coast.
Tech
Antigravity just halved the price of its drone — by swapping its headset for wristwatch control
Last year’s Antigravity A1 is the best beginner drone I’ve ever tried. I put a friend who’d never flown into its virtual cockpit and didn’t worry one bit. The A1’s also nice for people who’d prefer to think about flying rather than filming, because you can reframe its 360-degree footage after. But until today, that […]
Spotify’s new podcast memberships let you pay for extra perks
Spotify is enabling podcast creators to earn more money through the platform by providing their fans with a way to pay to access exclusive content. First announced in May, the new Memberships subscription feature is starting to roll out in 34 regions today, allowing podcasters to offer perks including additional content, early access, bonus episodes, […]
Oura adds new fitness metrics to show how workouts impact your body
While Oura has largely dominated the smart ring market for years, rivals like RingConn and Ultrahuman are emerging to dethrone it, putting pressure on the company to keep innovating. By launching more advanced workout metrics, Oura is looking to differentiate itself from competitors as the smart ring market gets more crowded.
Spotify launches paid podcast memberships with perks beyond bonus content
Spotify’s new paid memberships let podcasters offer fans exclusive perks, including ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content, while keeping 90% of the revenue.
Otter.ai raises $320 million from General Catalyst’s growth fund for its meeting tool
Meeting note-taking tool Otter.ai announced on Tuesday that it has raised $320 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF), which provides capital to startups without diluting equity and gets returns on the results of marketing spend. Otter.ai said that it will use these funds for enterprise growth, go-to-market strategy, international expansion, and product innovation. […]
Some Google Home Speakers caught downloading hundreds of gigs of data
Some Google Home Speaker owners are currently experiencing an issue in which hundreds of gigabytes of data are being continuously downloaded to their device in the background. The bug, reported by 9to5Google and several Reddit users over the last week, may be caused by the speakers failing to correctly download and install a firmware update, […]
Blackwall quadruples valuation to $2.2B as websites wrangle an increasingly crowded internet
Blackwall has raised $100M at a $2.2B valuation to continue building security and filtering tools that help websites grapple with growing bot and AI traffic.