Whenever there’s a mention of a company using AI, the default perception is that it’s a copilot or an assistant that generates, summarizes, or surfaces insights from a company’s data backend. The idea isn’t misplaced, but the actual role of AI inside enterprises is evolving fast. A new wave of startups has productionized AI to […]
“We’re getting accustomed to the risk, the friction, the discomfort, because the value is so high to the downstream customer,” Renata Caine said. Fintech-forward bank Green Dot (NYSE: GDOT) runs the gamut: powering everything from Apple Cash and Samsung Pay to a range of cash-to-formal-banking onramps for low-to-moderate income consumers. The co powers 80 million […]
Money20/20 has it all. From Matt Gaetz roaming the halls of the Venetian, to a conference attendee who looks uncannily like Formula1 driver Max Verstappen, to really nice Owala bottles from dLocal. There’s also substance amidst the buzz and doppelgängers and merch: Congressman Mike Flood told Financial Technology Association’s Penny Lee that he’d vote to […]
When small business owners talk about funding challenges, the story is often the same: too much paperwork, not enough time, and limited access to the kind of capital that helps them grow. A quiet revolution is reshaping that narrative. Artificial intelligence (AI), once the preserve of big tech, is now powering the next generation of […]
From fintech to foundational models, ex-Square and Nearside founder Thomson Nguyen wants to shape AI’s “innocent Wild West” with operator-first VC. I’d never heard someone frame their personality as as “orthogonal” to others’, let alone frame orthogonality as the unique selling point that makes a quarter-billion-dollar venture firm’s leadership structure work in lockstep, but, lo, […]
As expected, the cold plunge sent my body into shock. Venturing into one of LA Tech Week’s most-talked-about events, Rejuvenation Mansion in glossy Bel Air, I had no intention of subjecting myself to a first-time ice plunge in the midst of a networking-heavy day. But, after 15 minutes in the pop-up sauna, chatting with a […]
Dialogue AI’s oversubscribed, $6 million seed round is proof that investors, researchers, and any industry that would benefit from structured feedback (generated rapidly and at scale) are excited about the possibilities of a live, AI-based conversational interviewer. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, joined by Michael Eisner-founded Tornante Company, Seven Stars, Uncommon Projects, […]
“[IPOs] generate liquidity for the investors and the employees, who can then use that cash to invest in new companies or start new ones. It has this virtuous flywheel multiplier effect.” Kamran Ansari, who previously invested in companies with Greycroft and Headline VC, made the move this month to Infinity Ventures as venture partner, where […]
As real-world data dries up or becomes too messy to use, synthetic data steps in for fields ranging from agentic AI to chemistry labs When Google unveiled its latest world model, Genie 3, it felt like the dawn of a new way to train physical AI. Instead of putting together messy, hard-to-label real-world footage, the […]
On the heels of the passing of the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025), the next era of stablecoin usage is being driven by a growing cohort of fintechs and neobanks –integrating stablecoins into their product and service offerings, going where traditional systems have found it economically or operationally […]