TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Influenster Raises $8M

By TechTaffy Desk

Product discovery platform and reviews site Influenster, has closed an $8 million round of funding from Ebates,a subsidiary of Rakuten. Ken Hirschman, Ebates’ vice president of Strategic Alliances, will join Influenster’s board of directors.

According to a statement released by Influenster, the company has been profitable since its founding, and currently has a community of over 1.7 million members,  who have written 6 million+ product reviews. Influenster says it currently acquires 500,000+ new user-generated reviews every month.

[Image courtesy: Influencester]

Just in

Seed

Oso Semiconductor raises $5.2M

Oso Semiconductor has raised $5.2 million in seed funding. The round was led by Engine Ventures.
People

Battelle appoints Tim Ryan to board of directors

Battelle has elected Tim Ryan, Citi’s Head of Technology and Business Enablement, to its board of directors.
Around the web

OpenAI launches ChatGPT Gov for U.S. government agencies — CNBC

It’s called ChatGPT Gov and was built specifically for U.S. government use; writes Hayden Field. 
Around the web

DeepSeek’s popular AI app is explicitly sending US data to China — Wired

Users have already reported several examples of DeepSeek censoring content that is critical of China or its policies, writes Matt Burgess and Lily Hay Newman. 
Around the web

DeepSeek hit with large-scale cyberattack, says it’s limiting registrations — CNBC

DeepSeek on Monday said it would temporarily limit user registrations “due to large-scale malicious attacks” on its services; writes Hayden Field.