TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Wattpad Raises $17.3M

By TechTaffy Desk

[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Wattpad, a community built around e-books has raised $17.3 million in funding led by Khosla Ventures. The round also included Union Square Ventures, Golden Venture Partners, and Jerry Yang.

Allen Lau (CEO and Co-founder, Wattpad): Not many people know that we’re seeing engagement numbers which rival Pinterest, as we give users a new way to create and be entertained.

Based in Toronto, Wattpad is funded by Union Square Ventures, W Media Ventures and Golden Venture Partners. There are some 5 million stories in 25 languages posted in Wattpad, and over 500,000 new stories are added each month, says the company. There are around 8 million unique monthly visitors and a comment posted every second.

[Image Courtesy: Wattpad]

Just in

AI

DHS establishes AI safety and security board

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established an Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board (the board). The inaugural members include CEOs and executives from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Delta Air Lines, IBM, Nvidia, Microsoft, Adobe, Amazon Web Services, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Cisco.
IT

Cloudflare acquires Baselime

Cloudflare has acquired Baselime, a cloud-native observability platform provider. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fundings

Blaize raises $106M

El Dorado Hills, CA-based AI computing company Blaize has raised $106 million.
Fundings

Rivos raises $250M

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Rivos, a RISC-V accelerated platform company focusing on data analytics and Generative AI, has raised $250 million in its Series A-3 funding round
Industry

IBM, Canada, and Quebec invest $137M to strengthen semiconductor industry

IBM, the Government of Canada, and the Government of Quebec announced agreements to develop the assembly, testing and packaging capabilities for semiconductor modules at IBM Canada's plant in Bromont, Quebec.