House introduces bipartisan bill on AI in banking and housing
The bill would require a report on how these industries use AI to valuate homes and underwrite loans
Read more...Apparently a LOT of people are into social shopping, and ThisNext wants to corner the market.
The company announced this morning that it acquired Stylehive (a rival social shopping network), raised a $1.2 million Series C (confirming the round revealed in SEC filings last week), and is launching an umbrella brand called Curatemedia with the intention of spawning and buying yet more social shopping networks in other verticals.
CEO of the new Curatemedia brand, Scott Morrow said he is looking to build and acquire community sites centered around various types of consumer goods. “Curatemedia properties will focus on lifestyle categories and products and rely on crowdsourcing as the primary form of content and product discovery,” Morrow said in an email exchange. “We will focus on lifestyle verticals where there is the combination of (1) strong consumer interest and passion for products and (2) brand/marketer/retailer appeal (in the audience segment). A few examples of such vertical include the following: Sports/Outdoors, Tech/Gadgets, Eco/Green, Parenting/kids.” In other words, if your community likes to talk about the stuff they buy, Morrow wants to talk to you.
Curatemedia’s model combines a media-style revenue model based on display advertising sales, and a transaction model passed on lead generation. Morro says about 1/3 of Curatemedia’s revenues come from advertising, and 2/3 come from lead generation.
Investors and media companies are bullish on social shopping, given the high purchasing intent of viewers, but there's a lot of competition. This year, one of the biggest tech acquisitions was Amazon’s deal to buy Zappos for $958 million. Hungry for more, Amazon is reportedly in talks to buy Vente Privee for upwards of $1 billion. Other social shopping sites bought in the last year include Stylefeeder, Shop-it and Shopflick. Many more shopping sites received big funding rounds in 2010, including:
· Gilt - $40MM
· Ideeli - $20MM
· Sugar Publishing - $18MM
· Richrelevance - $12.5MM
· MyShape - $10.5MM
· Haute Look - $10MM
· Polyvore - $5.6MM
ThisNext launched in 2006 and combines shopping with user recommendations, tagging, comments and comment ratings and a wish list.
Today’s announcement brings the total raised to $9 million. Lightspeed Venture Partners joined existing investors Clearstone Venture Partners and Anthem Venture Partners in the round.
The bill would require a report on how these industries use AI to valuate homes and underwrite loans
Read more...The artists wrote an open letter accusing OpenAI of misleading and using them
Read more...The role will not be filled by Elon Musk, though he will be involved in who is chosen
Read more...Service provider
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Lightspeed Venture Partners is a technology-focused venture capital firm that manages $1.3 billion of capital commitments. We closed Lightspeed VII, a $480 million fund, at the end of 2005. Over the past two decades, our partners have invested in more than 120 companies, many of which have gone on to become leaders in their respective industries. Our team invests in the U.S. and internationally from offices in Menlo Park, China, India, and Israel.
We are proud to have partnered with many exceptional management teams. Our investment professionals have contributed domain expertise and operational experience to help build high-growth, market-leading companies such as Blue Nile (NILE), Brocade (BRCD), Ciena (CIEN), DoubleClick (DCLK), Informatica (INFA), Kiva Software (acquired by AOL), Openwave (OPWV), Quantum Effect Devices (acquired by PMCS), Sirocco (acquired by SCMR), and Waveset (acquired by SUNW). Some of our recent exits include the top-performing tech IPO of 2006, Riverbed Technology (RVBD), and the top enterprise software acquisition of 2006, Virsa Systems (acquired by SAP).
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Shopflick (www.shopflick.com) is an online video-shopping marketplace that enables sellers to tell the story behind their products in their own words. Touted as the youtube for designers, Shopflick helps bring emerging talents into the spotlight by creating a direct-to-consumer experience like never before. Shopflick features unique merchandise from independent and eco designers and boutiques, many of which have a celebrity following. Shopflick in-house Studios works with filmmakers from around the country to create video about our sellers and their products, as well producing original, trend-driven editorial shows, product reviews, designer profiles and interviews. Shopflick is a fast-growing, venture-backed company (Venrock, Panorama Capital) led by top executives from News Corp, eBay and Fox Interactive.Startup/Business
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