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Conversion, an AI-powered marketing automation startup founded by UC Berkeley dropouts, has raised a $28 million Series A led by Abstract. The company was conceived when the founders sought to enhance HubSpot with automation features.
The startup's AI-driven approach allows for automating personalized follow-up emails and lead organization, which has attracted midsize businesses looking to replace legacy marketing tools.
With the new funding, Conversion aims to target businesses using older marketing tools, leveraging the growing interest in AI to reach nearly $10 million in ARR over the past two years. The company competes with legacy and AI-native marketing platforms in a crowded market.
Palo Alto Networks has announced its plans to acquire CyberArk, an identity management and security company, for $25 billion in a deal consisting of cash and stock.
This acquisition marks Palo Alto's entry into the identity security sector and is its largest acquisition to date under CEO Nikesh Arora, who has overseen over $7 billion in acquisitions since 2018.
Recent acquisitions by Palo Alto Networks include Dig Security, Talon Cyber Security and Bridgecrew.
This cybersecurity deal is among the largest in 2025, following Google's acquisition of Wiz for $32 billion.
Hackers breached Allianz Life and stole customer Social Security numbers along with other personal data.
The breach occurred on July 16 and compromised the customer relationship database through a social engineering attack.
Affected data includes names, dates of birth, postal addresses, and Social Security numbers of a majority of 1.4 million customers.
Allianz Life is notifying affected individuals starting August 1 with specific details about the compromised data.
This breach is part of a recent increase in cyberattacks targeting insurance companies using social engineering tactics.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlines a vision for 'personal superintelligence,' hinting at a shift in AI model releases.
While emphasizing shared benefits, Zuckerberg acknowledges novel safety concerns and suggests careful consideration regarding open-sourcing advanced AI.
This signals a potential departure from Meta's historical focus on open-source models like Llama, raising questions about future AI monetization strategies.
Meta plans to deliver 'personal superintelligence' through devices like AR glasses and VR headsets, indicating a move towards closed models for advanced AI.
Despite this shift, Meta maintains its commitment to open-source AI, planning to release leading open-source models alongside training closed-source ones.
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.