Spotify has announced a new partnership with ElevenLabs to make AI-generated audiobooks more accessible on its platform. Through this collaboration, authors will be able to use ElevenLabs’ AI-powered voice technology to create audiobooks and distribute them via Spotify’s Findaway Voices platform. As AI-generated voice content continues to grow, ElevenLabs’ advanced voice synthesis technology, which supports 29 languages, offers authors a wide range of narration options. The free version allows up to 10 minutes of text-to-speech conversion per month, while the Pro subscription, priced at $99 per month, provides up to 500 minutes of voice generation for longer content. Spotify will...
Together AI secures $305 million in series B, reaching a $3.3 billion valuation
San Francisco-based Together AI has raised $305 million in a Series B funding round led by General Catalyst, bringing its valuation to $3.3 billion. The round saw participation from Prosperity7, Salesforce Ventures, Nvidia, Kleiner Perkins, SE Ventures, Greycroft, March Capital, Cadenza Ventures, and Coatue. Founded in 2022, Together AI provides a cloud platform that enables developers and researchers to train and deploy generative AI models. The platform supports over 200 open-source models, including Meta’s Llama and China’s DeepSeek. Last year, the startup secured funding in a round led by Salesforce Ventures, at a $1.25 billion valuation. One of the key...
Mercor secures $100 million investment at a $2 billion valuation
San Francisco-based AI-powered recruitment platform Mercor has secured a $100 million investment in its latest funding round, bringing its valuation to $2 billion. Founded in 2023, Mercor has quickly gained traction in the industry. Last year, the company raised funds at a $250 million valuation, with backing from prominent angel investors like Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, and Larry Summers. This latest round was led by Felicis, with participation from General Catalyst, DST Global, Benchmark, and Menlo Ventures. One of the key reasons behind Mercor’s rapid rise in valuation is its strong profitability. Speaking to Bloomberg, company founder Brendan Foody (21)...
DeepSeek to open source five code repositories
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek plans to make five code repositories available to all developers and researchers as open source. As part of its commitment to full transparency, the company aims to release these repositories to the public next week. In a post on X, DeepSeek announced that its small team working on artificial general intelligence (AGI) will take this step, sharing their progress with complete transparency. Code repositories are digital storage spaces where developers can examine and contribute to the software processes used to train AI models. DeepSeek has recently gained significant traction by open-sourcing its V3 and R1 models,...
French AI startup Mistral AI breaks records with Le Chat
French artificial intelligence company Mistral AI has achieved a major milestone with its chatbot assistant, Le Chat, surpassing 1 million downloads just two weeks after its mobile app launch. Gaining significant traction, particularly in France, Le Chat has risen to the top of the free app category on the App Store across Europe. A key factor in Le Chat’s rapid rise was the endorsement from French President Emmanuel Macron. Ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris, Macron suggested in a televised interview that French citizens should use Mistral AI’s homegrown Le Chat instead of “foreign” applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT....
