We’re more than just ranting. We analyze and disseminate evolving cases in the Bangladeshi business space and the wider region
GitHub, the popular developer platform, has laid off virtually its entire engineering team in India as the Microsoft-owned firm cuts its expenses amid weakening global market conditions.
The developer firm has eliminated over 100 jobs in the South Asian market, a person familiar with the matter said. GitHub informed the employees about the job cut on Tuesday. Gergely Orosz, a former software engineer who runs the newsletter Pragmatic Engineer, first reported the job cuts.
Anthropic launches Claude, a chatbot to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Called Claude, Anthropic’s AI — a chatbot — can be instructed to perform a range of tasks, including searching across documents, summarizing, writing and coding, and answering questions about particular topics. In these ways, it’s similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But Anthropic makes the case that Claude is “much less likely to produce harmful outputs,” “easier to converse with” and “more steerable.”
Organizations can request access. Pricing has yet to be detailed.
“We think that Claude is the right tool for a wide variety of customers and use cases,” an Anthropic spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. “We’ve been investing in our infrastructure for serving models for several months and are confident we can meet customer demand.”
Following a closed beta late last year, Anthropic has been quietly testing Claude with launch partners, including Robin AI, AssemblyAI, Notion, Quora and DuckDuckGo. Two versions are available as of this morning via an API, Claude and a faster, less costly derivative called Claude Instant.
Audi's E-Tron was the first electric vehicle to be registered under the Electric Vehicle (EV) category in Bangladesh, and following that, on March 4, Audi Bangladesh introduced the first electric charging station in the country.
The inauguration of the electric charging station was held during an event at the Audi service centre, which is also where the charging station is located. Jan Janowski, Deputy Head of Mission from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, attended the inauguration. Followed by a short speech given by the guests, the inauguration took place.
Read full: https://www.thedailystar.net/tech-startup/news/audi-launches-electric-vehicle-charging-station-tejgaon-3266861
Microsoft Germany CTO, Andreas Braun, confirmed that GPT-4 is coming within a week of March 9, 2023 and that it will be multimodal. Multimodal AI means that it will be able to operate within multiple kinds of input, like video, images and sound.
GPT-4 which is 500X more powerful than the current will be Released next week by OpenAI
Read full: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/gpt-4-is-multimodal/481993/
The financial services startup bKash Limited , established by Kamal Quadir, was recently valued at $2 billion, making it Bangladesh's first and only unicorn, as reported in the respected global tech media platform "Rest of World"
"Founded in 2011, bKash is now nearly ubiquitous in Bangladesh, often used as a verb: “bKash me,” you’d say, if you wanted someone to send you money digitally. In its decade-long journey, bKash has evolved from offering utility payments and remittance services to lending. A subsidiary of the BRAC Bank, bKash is the first Bangladeshi firm to be backed by Ant Group, SoftBank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company has raised a total of nearly $400 million in venture capital till date."
More: https://restofworld.org/2023/3-minutes-with-kamal-quadir/
" ShopUp has been awarded "Best Startup Innovation" at the 4th edition of Bangladesh Innovation Award. The prestigious award was presented by a2i - Aspire to Innovate, in association with The Daily Star, and is designed to recognize innovation in different sectors and industries of the economy."
Original Post: https://www.facebook.com/ShopUpNow/photos/a.286916924983674/1914133518928665
"OpenAI has reportedly been luring away some of Google's AI employees.
In recent months, the startup behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT and image generator DALL-E has hired more than a dozen former Google workers, The Information reported, citing sources.
At least five former Google researchers were instrumental in getting the company's viral chatbot ChatGPT ready to launch in November, a person with knowledge of the matter told the publication."
More in the comment section.
In a major milestone in Bangladesh's startup ecosystem, the country's largest B2B commerce platform ShopUp announced that it secured $30 million in debt financing.
The $30-million financing round was comprised of $20 million from Lendable, the global provider of debt to fintech companies in emerging markets, marking their first investment in South Asia, reports Asia Tech daily.
Additionally, ShopUp secured Bangladeshi taka equivalent of $10 million in debt financing from The City Bank - a first for a local startup.
Full article in comment section.
Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to retrench after years of abundant growth and hiring.
The cuts will affect jobs globally and across the entire company, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told employees in an email on Friday, writing that he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”
Read More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-20/google-cutting-12-000-jobs-in-6-slash-to-global-workforce?leadSource=uverify%20wal
Today we are in conversation with Faysal "newron" Khan from Corsair Bangladesh about Stadia and Cloud Gaming
Greetings people! We will go live tonight with Faysal "newron" Khan who is a streamer and Marketing Coordinator for CORSAIR BANGLADESH Hope to see you all!
A new round of investment has been secured by the expanding travel booking business GoZayaan. With such significant financing behind them, they have a bright future ahead of them.
We are in Conversation with Tawseef aka. dTaws who is a web3 analyst and crypto enthusiast. We talk about the trends now and into the future. BizRant by MCM Studio
This Tuesday we in Conversation with Tawseef aka. dTaws who is a web3 analyst and crypto enthusiast. We talk about the trends now and into the future. Tune in 10pm, Tuesday! - BizRant by MCM Studio
This week we talk about ShareTrip and GoZayaan. Two emerging startups and their battle over the market share of online travel bookings.
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Happy Durga Puja from Team BizRant!
This week we talk about ShareTrip and GoZayaan. Two emerging startups and their battle over the market share of online travel bookings. Tune in This Wednesday at 9PM.
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With the image generator Stable Diffusion, you can conjure within seconds a potrait of Beyoncé as if painted by Vincent van Gogh, a cyberpunk cityscape in the style of 18th century Japanese artist Hokusai and a complex alien world straight out of science fiction. Released to the public just two weeks ago, it’s become one of several popular AI-powered text-to-image generators, including DALL-E 2, that have taken the internet by storm.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2022/09/07/stability-ai-funding-round-1-billion-valuation-stable-diffusion-text-to-image/
We are back after a long hiatus. We talk about all that has happened in the past few weeks in the world of business and beyond.
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We are back after a long hiatus. A lot has happened and we will definitely be discussing it all. Tune in this Friday at 10 PM.
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Wishing you all, Eid Mubarak!
Bangladesh business-to-business (B2B) commerce startup ShopUp has raised $62.89 million in Series B4 funding from Valar Ventures and Flourish Ventures, according to official data seen by DealStreetAsia.
The shares are being issued at about $56 apiece, same as the company's Series B3 round, data of Singapore's Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) show.
ACRA filings only reflect equity funding received so far in a round, and the overall round could be bigger or have other components such as debt.
The startup won a $34 million Series B extension round in January 2022, following its Series B round in September 2021, reports Nikkei Asia.
Sequoia Capital India and Flourish Ventures co-led ShopUp's $22.5m Series A round.
Read More: https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/tech-startup-shopup-bags-63m-series-b4-funding-447910
Padma Bridge authority collected Tk2,09,40,300 toll from vehicles that crossed the bridge on the first day (26 June), after the authorities opened it to traffic at 6:00am.
A total of 51,316 vehicles from both sides crossed the mighty Padma in the first 20 hours using the 6.15km bridge, Bangladesh Bridge Authority Executive Engineer Md Abul Hossain confirmed.
Mawa toll plaza collected Tk10,895,900 from a total of 26,589 vehicles, while on the Jajira side the first-day toll collection amounted to Tk10,044,400 from 24,727 vehicles.
Read:https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/padma-bridge-first-day-sees-over-tk2cr-toll-collection-447858
YouTube on Wednesday said that more than 1.5 billion people monthly tune into its Shorts video service, which competes with global sensation TikTok.
Alphabet-owned YouTube and Facebook-parent Meta both added short-form video sharing formats to their services after TikTok -- which late last year said it topped a billion users -- became the rage.
YouTube Shorts went live less than two years ago, adding videos of no longer than 60 seconds to the mix of offerings on the platform.
"Shorts has really taken off and are now being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month," said YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan.
"We know the product will continue to be an integral part of the YouTube experience moving forward."
Read More: https://www.tbsnews.net/tech/youtube-shorts-touts-15-bn-users-taking-tiktok-440610
"Introducing Meta Pay and a digital wallet for the metaverse. Today we're taking the first step by changing Facebook Pay to become Meta Pay. It'll stay the same easy way to shop, send money, and donate to causes you care about on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and anywhere else you could use Facebook Pay. But beyond the current features, we're working on something new: a wallet for the metaverse that lets you securely manage your identity, what you own, and how you pay.
In the future there will be all sorts of digital items you might want to create or buy -- digital clothing, art, videos, music, experiences, virtual events, and more. Proof of ownership will be important, especially if you want to take some of these items with you across different services.
Ideally, you should be able to sign into any metaverse experience and everything you've bought should be right there. There's a long way to get there, but this kind of interoperability will deliver much better experiences for people and larger opportunities for creators. That is, the more places you can easily use your digital goods, the more you'll value them, which creates a bigger market for creators. The more easily you can transact, the bigger the opportunity for creators should get as well. We're looking forward to building this out."
Source: Mark Zuckerberg's page
Pran-RFL Group launched its new food delivery service "FOODANO" at the group's head office in Badda, Dhaka yesterday.
Kamruzzaman Kamal, director for marketing at Pran-RFL Group, and Choudhury Atiur Rasul, director for accounts, inaugurated the new venture of the group, a press release said.
"We have taken the initiative considering the demand of customers so that they can collect their favorite food items within the shortest possible time," Kamal said.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/business/organisation-news/news/haval-service-campaign-begins-3051536
Coinbase shares are down more than 14% on Monday morning. Shares were down more than 21% before markets opened.
Coinbase makes a commission when people buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Monday’s move appears to be tied to the tumbling crypto market.
Bitcoin is now trading at the lowest levels since December 2020, below $24,000, according to CoinDesk data. More than $200 billion has been wiped out of the cryptocurrency market since the start of the weekend.
Crypto lender Celsius may be partly to blame for the price decline in digital currency. The company said Monday it’s pausing all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts due to “extreme market conditions.” Binance also temporarily paused bitcoin withdrawals on Monday but said the choice was because of a “stuck transaction causing a backlog”
Coinbase’s stock is down 76% year-to-date, after first-quarter earnings in May showed revenue fell 27% year-over-year as usage declined. “We believe these market conditions are not permanent and we remain focused on the long-term,” the company said at the time.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/coinbase-plunges-more-than-18percent-as-bitcoin-falls-below-24000.html
More credits: Edition, Indepent.uk.
Tonight BizRant is back with a brilliant guest. Ronald Samson Dutta has been working in the filmmaking space for the past 4 years; he has worked for High Voltage and Clapboard Entertainment. Now, he is a Senior Executive at Quiet on Set Productions. He has worked with esteemed & highly creative directors, producers and actors over years. Tonight we talk to him about his journey and how he views the business side of filmmaking.
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In a major milestone in Bangladesh's startup ecosystem, the country's largest B2B commerce platform ShopUp announced that it secured $30 million in debt financing. The $30-million financing round was comprised of $20 million from Lendable, the global provider of debt to fintech companies in emerging markets, marking their first investment in South Asia, reports Asia Tech daily. Additionally, ShopUp secured Bangladeshi taka equivalent of $10 million in debt financing from The City Bank - a first for a local startup. Full article in comment section.
We are back again for our 3 loyal listeners! Again. #BizRant 🫡
During the event, Google displayed the functionality, showcasing its ability to specifically identify pharmaceuticals in a handwritten prescription. There is currently no information available on the launch date for the new text-decoding capability or the specific products that it could be included in.
The biggest online retailer in the world has made additional ground-breaking discoveries, but not in a positive manner. Following the most recent decline in the value of its stock, Amazon's market worth dropped to roughly $879 billion on Wednesday, from a record closing of $1.88 trillion in July 2021. It is now the first publicly traded firm in history to see its market value decline by $1 trillion. Read: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/amazon-hits-unwelcome-milestone-with-1-trillion-in-value-lost?
Today we are in conversation with Faysal "newron" Khan from Corsair Bangladesh about Stadia and Cloud Gaming
Greetings people! We will go live tonight with Faysal "newron" Khan who is a streamer and Marketing Coordinator for CORSAIR BANGLADESH Hope to see you all!
A new round of investment has been secured by the expanding travel booking business GoZayaan. With such significant financing behind them, they have a bright future ahead of them.
We are in Conversation with Tawseef aka. dTaws who is a web3 analyst and crypto enthusiast. We talk about the trends now and into the future. BizRant by MCM Studio
This Tuesday we in Conversation with Tawseef aka. dTaws who is a web3 analyst and crypto enthusiast. We talk about the trends now and into the future. Tune in 10pm, Tuesday! - BizRant by MCM Studio
This week we talk about ShareTrip and GoZayaan. Two emerging startups and their battle over the market share of online travel bookings. Powered by MCM Studio
This week we talk about ShareTrip and GoZayaan. Two emerging startups and their battle over the market share of online travel bookings. Tune in This Wednesday at 9PM. Powered by MCM Studio
We are back after a long hiatus. We talk about all that has happened in the past few weeks in the world of business and beyond. Bizrant is powered by MCM Studio https://www.facebook.com/mcmstudiopro
We are back after a long hiatus. A lot has happened and we will definitely be discussing it all. Tune in this Friday at 10 PM. Bizrant powered by MCM Studio
Coinbase shares are down more than 14% on Monday morning. Shares were down more than 21% before markets opened. Coinbase makes a commission when people buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Monday’s move appears to be tied to the tumbling crypto market. Bitcoin is now trading at the lowest levels since December 2020, below $24,000, according to CoinDesk data. More than $200 billion has been wiped out of the cryptocurrency market since the start of the weekend. Crypto lender Celsius may be partly to blame for the price decline in digital currency. The company said Monday it’s pausing all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts due to “extreme market conditions.” Binance also temporarily paused bitcoin withdrawals on Monday but said the choice was because of a “stuck transaction causing a backlog” Coinbase’s stock is down 76% year-to-date, after first-quarter earnings in May showed revenue fell 27% year-over-year as usage declined. “We believe these market conditions are not permanent and we remain focused on the long-term,” the company said at the time. Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/coinbase-plunges-more-than-18percent-as-bitcoin-falls-below-24000.html More credits: Edition, Indepent.uk.
Tonight BizRant is back with a brilliant guest. Ronald Samson Dutta has been working in the filmmaking space for the past 4 years; he has worked for High Voltage and Clapboard Entertainment. Now, he is a Senior Executive at Quiet on Set Productions. He has worked with esteemed & highly creative directors, producers and actors over years. Tonight we talk to him about his journey and how he views the business side of filmmaking.
Tonight BizRant is back with a brilliant guest. Ronald Samson Datta has been working in the filmmaking space for the past 4 years; he has worked for High Voltage and Clapboard Entertainment. Now, he is a Senior Executive at Quiet on Set Productions. He has worked with esteemed & highly creative directors, producers and actors over years. Tonight we talk to him about his journey and how he views the business side of filmmaking. " Macroman Solutions presents BizRant " #tonightonBizRant #quietonsetproductions #filmmaking
From 2016, GP Accelerator started working their magic with startups. They just launched their 7th batch of startups. Tonight we talk about these fresh lot of startups and their potential.
This week; we talk about "The Paypal Mafia". The group of legendary entrepreneurs who are worth billions. Their ideas and companies are changing the paradigm continuously. #presentedbyMacromanSolutions
This week; we talk about "The Paypal Mafia". The group of legendary entrepreneurs who are worth billions. Their ideas and companies are changing the paradigm continuously. Keep an eye out this Saturday, 10 PM. Bizrant is back! #presentedbyMacromanSolutions
In this episode, we are in conversation with photography extraordinaire Fredman Kenneth Chowdhury. He is the founder of Krew35 and works with নৃ - Nree as well. He is also an Ambassador of Digital Content Creators Originals. We talk about the state of photography specifically gears and studio.
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