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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.
YouTube is updating its profanity rules, allowing creators to monetize videos with swearing within the first seven seconds. This change follows previous adjustments in November 2022 and March 2023, which initially restricted or limited ad revenue for videos with early or frequent profanity. YouTube's head of monetization, Conor Kavanagh, explained that the changes align with evolving advertiser expectations, as they now have more control over ad targeting based on profanity levels. However, videos with profanity in the title or thumbnail may still face limited monetization.
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.
TikTok has introduced several new features aimed at improving user experience and safety:
Anthropic, an AI company, is reportedly close to securing a $5 billion funding round, potentially valuing the company at $170 billion. This suggests strong investor confidence and significant growth potential for Anthropic in the AI market.
Google's NotebookLM now features Video Overviews, transforming dense multimedia into visual presentations, complementing the existing Audio Overviews. This new feature allows users to create custom visuals using images, diagrams, and quotes from uploaded documents to explain complex content.
Users can customize Video Overviews by specifying topics, learning goals, and target audiences. The Studio panel is also updated, enabling users to create and store multiple studio outputs and multitask, such as listening to Audio Overviews while exploring Mind Maps.
Video Overviews are currently available in English, with more languages to be supported soon.