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Swedish startup Pit may have gained notice for some rage-bait social media posts, but it has also become another Stockholm AI startup to watch. Pit is led by the co-founders of European scooter giant Voi, including Voi CEO Fredrik Hjelm. He is joined by former iZettle and Klarna engineers. And it is now backed by a16z, which is leading the startup’s $16 million seed round. Stockholm, also home to Lovable, is one of the places where a16z has been actively looking for the next European unicorn. Pit is going after enterprise AI with products intended to learn from the clients…
OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft, its longtime investor and cloud partner, has grown increasingly complicated over the years as the ChatGPT-maker has grown into a behemoth competitor.But Microsoft executives had reservations about sending additional funding to OpenAI as far back as 2018 when it was just a small nonprofit research lab, according to emails between more than a dozen Microsoft executives, including CEO Satya Nadella, shown in a federal court on Thursday during the Musk v. Altman trial.The emails show how Microsoft, at the time, wavered over what has since been held up as one of the most successful corporate partnerships…
Heading into the ABC and ESPN broadcast of Super Bowl 61 on Feb. 14, 2027, it’s a slightly different buying market for potential Super Bowl advertisers, with Disney having its first Super Bowl in two decades. Because of that, there’s potentially more opportunity for advertisers to get in the game.Typically, Super Bowl broadcasters have a large portion of ads accounted for early in the year due to incumbent advertisers claiming their slots in the game, with as much as 40% of ads already earmarked from companies like NBC or Fox by the time the upfront market gets into high gear…
Disney senior executives could potentially combine Disney+ with other apps like Disneyland Resort and Disney Cruise Line Navigator to make one unified app, according to a report from Bloomberg. Sources said these discussions were at an early stage, but that they are referring to this as a “super app” internally. Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, who took over for Bob Iger earlier this year, has emphasized his intent to streamline the Disney experience, making the relationship between Disney+ and the Disney parks more cohesive. “Disney+ becomes the primary relationship between Disney and its fans, the place where everything comes together,” D’Amaro…
No one likes the feeling of insect repellent. I have vivid memories of being sprayed down with the stuff as a kid before venturing into the woods in northern Minnesota on family vacations and feeling like chemical warfare was being waged on all of my senses. I was willing to endure it because being covered in mosquito bites is even worse. Wearing repellent can save your life, protecting you against West Nile virus and Lyme disease, just to name a few of the pathogens mosquitoes and ticks can pass on.“Insect repellents are designed to affect insects’ senses and prevent them…
But tucked inside one of the unlikeliest corners of the industry, a small editorial operation is quietly building a model that could offer a blueprint for other brands looking to reimagine their marketing strategy.The food media brand Taste and its podcast, This is Taste, are on pace to break seven figures in revenue by 2027, a milestone reached by an effective team of one operating inside Crown Publishing, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Investors could not get enough of Ramp throughout 2025 and it looks like 2026 could be another banner year of fundraising for the corporate spend management startup. The company is in talks to raise another $750 million at a pre-money valuation of more than $40 billion, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. The deal is not yet final though, so terms could change. Ramp declined to comment. In November, Ramp announced it had raised $300 million at a $32 billion post-money valuation led by Lightspeed, which also included an employee tender offer. The company announced in July a $500 million…
More than a decade since its debut and five years after Google acquired it, the Fitbit app is officially rebranding as Google Health. As part of the transition, Google also announced plans to sunset the 12-year-old Google Fit app later this year, though details about migrating user data to Google Health will be released in the coming months.Google introduced a dramatic redesign of the Fitbit app last year in public beta, centered around a new AI-powered Health Coach chatbot that can provide guidance on anything and everything from your health to fitness, even parse your medical records. Now, the Health…
She’ll lead a national expansion of the California-founded company, which uses wearable data to help patients and doctors continuously track wellness.Dias was most recently global CMO at Cadillac, where she spent seven years. Before leaving in June 2025, she spearheaded the luxury automaker’s EV transformation and revived the brand for a new generation of drivers. She also brings senior marketing and digital leadership experience at MetLife, Motorola, and Jaguar Land Rover. Personalized, preventative healthcareDias announced her new role at ADWEEK’s Marketing Vanguard Summit, telling ADWEEK that she’s drawn to companies in the midst of transformation. “That’s something that I love,…
OpenAI said Thursday that its API will now include a number of new voice intelligence features designed to help developers create apps that can talk, transcribe, and translate conversations with users. The company’s new GPT‑Realtime‑2 is another voice model, built to create a realistic vocal simulation that can converse with users. However, unlike its predecessor (GPT-Realtime-1.5) this one is built with GPT‑5‑class reasoning that OpenAI says was created to deal with more complicated requests from users. The company is also launching GPT‑Realtime‑Translate which, just as it sounds, is designed to provide real-time translation services that “keep pace” with the user,…
If you use Google’s Chrome browser for desktop, there’s probably a Gemini Nano AI model running on your computer right now and taking up about 4 GB of space. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you didn’t know about it and don’t want it, there’s a way to turn it off.The file started auto-downloading for Chrome users in 2024 after Google built Gemini Nano into the browser. But a report by That Privacy Guy this week and the ensuing reception it received highlighted how unaware many users were—perhaps a result of a flood of AI services and features…
The numbers$689 million: Revenue, up 12% year-over-year from $616 million, and beating Wall Street estimates.$206 million: Adjusted EBITDA, representing a 30% margin.The watercooler talkDespite the fact that revenue beat analyst projections, the 12% year-over-year increase represents The Trade Desk’s slowest revenue growth since the Covid-19-era ad downturn in 2020. Revenue rose due to growth in connected TV and “audio video.” News products also helped. Last month, the Trade Desk introduced AI-powered agents for media planning and buying—a program being piloted by Stagwell. “Our partnership is to leverage agentic AI to create, edit, and modify campaigns,” CEO Jeff Green said on the…
Kodiak AI’s stock tumbled 37% in after-hours trading Thursday after the self-driving truck startup disclosed it had raised $100 million by selling shares at a steep discount — a sign that investors were willing to back the company but not at its current market price. The company sold shares at $6.50 each, well below its closing price of $9.10, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The raise also included warrants — instruments that give investors the right to buy additional shares later at a set price, in this case as low as $6. The financing…
Brian Barrett: This is the first time I’ve thought about contact tracing in many years, and I was so happy not thinking about it for so long, because it is such a complicated process and something that is really hard work to do. Emily, given all of that, what is the level of concern here, given what the World Health Organization has said and other organizations? It sounds like cautious about it, but maybe not freak out time yet, but I defer to you because maybe that’s just me trying to make myself feel better.Emily Mullin: No, I think you’re…
In this solo episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, Viral Nation’s Richelle Batuigas challenges one of marketing’s biggest assumptions: that likes, views, and impressions reflect real success. Drawing on her work as EVP of business intelligence and data strategy at the social marketing agency, she introduces the Cultural Relevance Score, a practical framework designed to measure what actually drives business outcomes.Richelle breaks down how marketers can move beyond vanity metrics by tracking awareness, affinity, and velocity in a competitive context. She explains why legacy measures like earned media value fall short and how cultural alignment directly influences revenue and conversion.The episode also…
While AI disruption looms over many legacy SaaS companies, several HR tech startups seem to be thriving. One of these companies is small-business payroll provider Gusto. The 14-year-old company, last valued at over $9 billion, just announced that it surpassed $1 billion in revenue earlier this year. Unlike many startups that report annualized recurring revenue (ARR) — an estimate of the value of their contracts in the upcoming 12 months — Gusto’s figure represents actual revenue earned over the previous 12 months. Gusto was last valued at at $9.3 billion, Fortune reported, when it launched a $200 million tender offer…