TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Drift raises $32 million

By TechTaffy Desk

Drift, a conversation-driven marketing and sales platform, has raised $32 million in a Series B round of financing. The investment was led by General Catalyst, with participation from existing investors CRV and HubSpot. Sequoia Capital also joined the round.

Drift connects businesses with the website visitors in real-time using bots and artificial intelligence. Since going to market in April 2016, over 50,000 businesses have used Drift, says the company.

To date, Drift has raised $47 million in total financing.

[Image courtesy: Drift]

Just in

Industry

Square expands offline payments globally

Payment processing company Square has announced the expansion of its offline payments feature to all hardware devices and countries.
Around the web

U.S. bans noncompete agreements for nearly all jobs — NPR

The Federal Trade Commission narrowly voted Tuesday to ban nearly all noncompetes, employment agreements that typically prevent workers from joining competing businesses or launching ones of their own, writes Andrea Hsu. 
AI

The Coca-Cola Company commits $1.1B to Microsoft Cloud and AI partnership

The Coca-Cola Company and Microsoft announced a five-year partnership on Tuesday. As part of the collaboration, Coca-Cola has committed $1.1 billion to Microsoft Cloud and generative AI capabilities. 
Industry

Silicon Labs appoints Radhika Chennakeshavula as CIO

Silicon Labs has appointed Radhika Chennakeshavula as chief information officer.
Around the web

Apple deletes WhatsApp, Threads from China app store on orders from Beijing — CNN

Apple has removed WhatsApp and Threads from its app store in China, following an order from the country’s internet watchdog, writes Juliana Liu.