PlayerZero, founded by Animesh Koratana, has raised a $15 million Series A led by Foundation Capital to combat AI-generated bugs in software. The startup's AI agents are trained to identify and fix problems before code reaches production, functioning as an immune system for large codebases. Koratana developed PlayerZero at Stanford DAWN, with early backing from Matei Zaharia (Databricks) and support from investors like Drew Houston (Dropbox) and Guillermo Rauch (Vercel). PlayerZero is gaining traction, including with customers like Zuora, for its focus on safeguarding complex code, especially in billing systems.

Meta has launched Edits, a new video editing app aimed at competing with ByteDance’s CapCut. Edits, initially previewed in January, provides creators with tools for short-form video editing, offering features such as green screen, timeline adjustments, captions, audio library access, and AI-powered animation.

The app is available on both iOS and Android, requiring users to log in with their Instagram account. Edits includes tabs for Ideas, Inspiration, Projects, Record, and Insights, helping creators manage their video creation process. Key features include timeline frame rate selection, alignment guides, beat markers, filters, transitions, teleprompter, restyle, keyframes, cut silences, audio import from files and clip preview.

While both Edits and CapCut are useful for editing short videos, CapCut currently offers more advanced editing options and a more extensive music library. Edits is currently free but may include paid features in the future, as indicated by Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Unlike CapCut, Edits is currently mobile-only.

Ramp, the expense management startup, has secured $500 million in a new funding round, elevating its post-money valuation to $22.5 billion.

The round was led by Iconiq Growth, with participation from Founders Fund and D1 Capital Partners, and arrives only 45 days after a previous $200 million raise that valued the company at $16 billion.

Ramp's CEO, Eric Glyman, envisions an AI-driven future for finance, with Ramp launching its first AI agent and planning more to come.

The company has now raised a total of $1.9 billion and reports being cash-flow positive since earlier this year, with 40,000 customers.

Generative AI applications experienced significant growth in the first half of 2025, according to a Sensor Tower report. Downloads reached 1.7 billion, a notable increase from the 1 billion in the latter half of 2024. In-app revenue doubled, totaling $1.87 billion, compared to $932 million in the previous period.

Users spent over 15.6 billion hours on these apps across 426 billion sessions. Asia emerged as the fastest-growing market, capturing 42.6% of downloads, driven by India and Mainland China. While Latin America showed the highest growth in in-app purchases, North America maintains the lead in market share with 40%.

ChatGPT remains the top app for in-app revenue in most countries, excluding China, where DeepSeek leads in downloads. Users are dedicating more time to AI assistants, with ChatGPT averaging over 12 days of usage per month. The usage patterns of ChatGPT are increasingly resembling those of primary search tools like Google, extending beyond work-related tasks.

The term "AI" is now prevalent in app descriptions, appearing over 100,000 times in both the App Store and Play Store. Apps incorporating AI-related terms have seen a boost in downloads, reflecting the growing interest in AI-powered applications.

Generative AI apps experienced significant growth in the first half of 2025, with downloads reaching 1.7 billion, a substantial increase from 1 billion in H2 2024. In-app revenue doubled to $1.87 billion, compared to $932 million in the previous period.

Users spent over 15.6 billion hours on these apps across 426 billion sessions. Asia emerged as the fastest-growing market, leading in downloads with 42.6% market share, driven by India and Mainland China. Latin America saw the highest growth in in-app purchases, while North America maintained the lead in market share with 40%.

ChatGPT remains a dominant app, showing impressive user engagement, comparable to platforms like X and Reddit. Its usage patterns are increasingly resembling those of primary search tools. The term 'AI' is now prevalent in app descriptions, boosting downloads for apps that include it in their names or descriptions.

AIR, an Israel-based eVTOL startup, raised $23 million in Series A funding to scale production and expand to the U.S. The company develops both crewed (AIR ONE) and uncrewed eVTOLs for personal/commercial taxi and cargo/defense applications, respectively. With over 2,500 pre-orders for AIR ONE and plans to ship 15 cargo eVTOLs this year, the funding will support facility expansion and hiring. AIR's dual-purpose design allows for cross-platform upgrades, simplifying development and scalability. The eVTOLs feature a folding-wing mechanism, enabling operation from flat surfaces and parking in garages.

TikTok has introduced several new features aimed at improving user experience and safety:

• Enhanced Parental Controls: Parents can now block specific accounts from interacting with their teen's account and receive notifications when their teen posts public content. They also have increased visibility into their teen's privacy settings.
• Creator Care Mode: Automatically filters offensive, inappropriate, or profane comments using AI to learn the creator's preferences.
• Comment Management: Creators can block specific words from comments and mute users who use those words.
• Creator Inbox: A new professional inbox experience with "Unread" and "Starred" folders, custom responses, and quick replies.
• Creator Chat Room: Similar to Instagram's broadcast channels, allows creators with at least 5,000 followers to share updates and get feedback with up to 300 participants.
• Content Check: A feature to check if content is eligible for the For You feed and adheres to Community Guidelines before posting.
• Well-being Missions: Interactive quizzes and flashcards to promote balanced digital habits, along with a new in-app digital wellbeing experience featuring breathing exercises and screen time insights.

Luma and Runway, AI video-generating startups, are exploring new revenue streams beyond movie studios. They are in discussions with robotics and self-driving car companies to apply their AI models. Luma aims to build 3D AI world models for robots to interact with their environment. Runway is also considering video games as a potential market.