SoundHound acquires Amelia AI for $80M, Zillow’s Rich Barton steps down as CEO

Top News

• Microsoft and Palantir are combining their powers to bring AI and data analytics to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies (cleaning up the cobwebs). This dynamic duo aims to enhance security and efficiency by integrating Microsoft's cloud capabilities with Palantir's data wizardry, featuring the latest from OpenAI's GPT-4.

• SoundHound just pulled a power play by acquiring Amelia AI for $80 million, right after Amelia secured a hefty $189 million in funding. This tech power play is set to turbocharge SoundHound's voice and conversational AI offerings.

• Zillow just shook up the real estate world by promoting Jeremy Wacksman to CEO. Jeremy steps into the big shoes of Zillow co-founder Rich Barton, who is now co-executive chair with Lloyd Frink. Wacksman, a Zillow veteran since his Microsoft days, brings fresh energy as Zillow dazzles with a 13% revenue boost to $572 million and beats profit expectations at 39 cents per share. Investors are thrilled — of course — with stocks soaring 11.5%.

Alex is off this week so you are hearing from Bianca and Lukas from the LAUNCH team! Questions? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected].

TWiST Throwback

Speaking of Rich Barton, now the co-executive chairman of Zillow, he appeared on TWiST last August. Jason and Rich covered the creation of Zillow’s Zestimate, the company’s branding, and how tech management evolved. Watch this throwback here.

In the latest TWiST episode, we're thrilled to feature two powerhouse speakers from LIQUIDITY Summit 2024: Antonio Gracias and Gavin Baker. Antonio recently appeared on the pod with Liran Zvibel from WEKA (full episode here). Gavin was also on the pod last year (for the summit, too!) to discuss the shift to AI, including upside vs. downside and extinction risk (full episode here).

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This Week in Startups

E1990: This episode throws it back to our LIQUIDITY Summit! Featuring Antonio Gracias of Valor and Gavin Baker of Atreides Management.

E1989: Our first round of TWiST500 companies! Alex interviews Kyle Hanslovan of Huntress, Olivia Joslin and Toshit Panigrahi of TollBit, and Tamar Bar-Ilan of Cyera.

E1988: Josh Reeves and Alex discuss Gusto's growth, marketing strategies, and product development. A key theme is that serving small businesses presents both challenges and successes. Josh also touches on the competitive landscape, potential fintech ventures, and future expansion plans for Gusto.

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