News - CDP Institute - Page 194

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Copyright issues are scaring off potential users of generative AI as it becomes clear how much training data was taken without permission. Microsoft has now promised to defend its customers from copyright claims related to its AI “copilots” and to pay any fines if they lose. Adobe made a similar but more limited promise in June. Other gen AI developers will probably follow suit.

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In addition to using data it shouldn’t, gen AI has problems with making up data that doesn’t exist. Gleen AI just launched with a promise to reduce that problem by checking AI outputs against an enterprise’s own data, which is presumably accurate. They have $4.9 million in funding.

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Retail media networks and digital out of home advertising (DOOH) are definitely related although they’re often discussed separately. Vistar Media, a programmatic DOOH vendor, has merged the two with a solution that reaches 25,000 retailer screens using its DOOH-tech. Buyers can select a variety of retail inventory packages linked to different locations.

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Customer engagement platform Braze has introduced an expanded set of data integration features, enabling easier data ingestion, identity management, and live connections with cloud databases including Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, Databricks and Snowflake. We haven’t formally assessed whether Braze qualifies as a CDP but it’s beginning to look they tick most or all of the boxes.

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There’s no reason to think that HubSpot is a CDP, but they are certainly a major CRM vendor. So we should probably mention that they’ve added a bushel of AI tools to generate content, support (or replace) customer service agents, and offer predictive insights. They also have a public beta of their very own generative AI chatbot, currently with 80,000 total users.

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Software subscriptions have accelerated martech growth because they make it easier to buy software than conventional licenses. But CIOs are less enthusiastic about the subscription model. This survey from Rimini Street found 99% of CIOs and CTO had concerns about subscription licenses, with the top ones being no return on investment and vendor lock-in.

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Based in Minas Gerais (Brazil), the foodtech startup Nuu has successfully raised $4 million in a funding round to scale the distribution of their carbon-neutral food products made from cassava, a staple root vegetable in Brazil and South America. In addition to their flagship cassava-based cheese bread, Nuu produces various products, including tapioca sticks, cassava-based pizza dough, naturally colored cheese bread.

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Maintaining privacy and increasing understanding of blockchain technology are primary issues to solve before Brazil’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) is ready for widespread use. Named DREX, the digital real is set for a first phase launch aimed at financial institutions in May 2024. They are using distributed ledger technology that’s based on Ethereum Virtual Machine. The bank hopes to open testing for new protocols after May next year, and launch tests with the broader population by end-2024.

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Talent City, now known as Itana, has raised a US$2 million pre-seed, money it intends to use to establish a digital free zone. Itana, founded by CEO Luqman Edu, COO Coco Liu and ex-Andela and Flutterwave co-founder, Iyin Aboyeji, a founding investor, is primed to be Africa’s first digital free zone. The founders say the funding will support the startup’s efforts to improve Nigeria’s ease-of-doing-business index, drive foreign direct investment (FDI), and catalyze employment in Nigeria.

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Nairobi-based Kotani Pay is a crypto payments startup with a vision to make cross-border remittances easier for the large underbanked populations in Africa. The two-year-old startup is targeting a use case that concerns the livelihood of hundreds of millions of people including in Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and South Africa. The startup, which has closed a $2 million pre-seed funding round led by P1 Ventures, with participation from a number of investors including DCG/Luno and Flori Ventures, plans to further expand to Rwanda, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Nigeria.

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Anchor, a Nigerian banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider, has raised $2.4 million in seed investment. Justin Kan’s Goat Capital led the financing round, which also welcomed participation from FoundersX, Rebel Fund and some existing investors, including Y Combinator and Byld Ventures.

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Salesforce announced the launch of Salesforce Starter for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) businesses in India. Starter is an easy-to-use CRM that includes sales, service, and email outreach tools in one suite, helping companies get started – so they have the tools to improve customer experiences, reduce costs, and drive revenue.

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