Vertice has made a name for itself over the years in the crowded world of expenditure management by focusing on applying AI to optimize an area where businesses are sinking hundreds of billions of dollars annually: software and cloud spend.

The London-based startup’s business has grown 13x in the three years since its inception (similar how fast software spend has increased), and it has now raised $50 million in new funding to expand its vision.

“[Vertice] is designed to standardize companies’ processes around how they buy anything, not just software and cloud,” its CEO and co-founder Roy Tuvey (pictured above, left) told TechCrunch. “A lot of companies today have disparate solutions, different silos that they look at, and procurement teams are generally under a lot of pressure to deliver savings and efficiencies. They don’t have amazing technology today. So we’ve brought it all together in a unified and simplified platform.”

Lakestar, a new investor in the company, is leading this Series C round. Perpetual Growth and CF Private Equity, as well as previous backers Bessemer Venture Partners and 83North (which co-led Vertice’s Series B almost exactly a year ago) are also participating. 

The startup has now raised around $100 million in total, and while it’s not disclosing valuation, Tuvey confirmed that this Series C was an up-round, valuing the company higher than the “several hundred millions” it was pegged at 12 months ago.

The size of Vertice’s customers has grown, too: Its clientele now number in the hundreds across Europe, the U.S. and Asia Pacific, including the likes of chip giant ASML, Euronext, Grant Thornton, and banking behemoth Santander.

For some more context, Vertice’s founders have a strong history of entrepreneurship: Roy and his brother Eldar previously founded two security startups, ScanSafe, which they sold to Cisco in 2009 for $200 million; and Wandera, which was acquired by Jamf for $400 million in 2021.

Gartner predicts that spending on data centers in 2025 (thanks to cloud and AI), software, related IT and communication services will increase by more than 9% to just under $5 trillion, so it isn’t surprising to see Vertice working in a crowded part of the enterprise market. 

Its competitors include a plethora of platforms that offer varying levels of services like product recommendations, pricing, side-by-side feature comparisons, and more. These include Spendbase, Spendesk, Gartner and G2. 

Vertice’s point of differentiation, Tuvey said, is how it integrates with a business’s data to better understand what to suggest. Tapping into the same approaches that a cybersecurity firm might use to better understand activity in a network, Tuvey said Vertice uses AI and other tools to build a picture of what a company does, how much it spends typically, and what it might need or want to buy next.

In effect, the startup has built, along the lines of a large language model, a “large software procurement model,” where the parameters are not facts and insights, but software usage. The company claims it has ingested data on some $3.4 billion worth of SaaS and cloud expenditure, as well as benchmarking data on more than 16,000 software vendors (none of these have any financial relationship with Vertice, Tuvey confirmed).

Customers essentially use Vertice to speed up the process of buying and also to save money. The startup says that purchasing cycles can typically be cut in half, yielding savings between 20% and 30%. 

“We ingest all the contract information through AI,” Tuvey said, adding that it uses the tech to build co-pilots to help with purchasing, automating work that finance teams might have to do manually before. “We surface benchmark pricing insights and analytics that they need at the point of purchase. AI is really interesting when it comes to procurement orchestration, because you can learn where the company has bottlenecks in their processes.” 

That, in turn, helps Vertice understand how the wider business is working, he added. 

“For example, if a company is always spending a long time with certain steps, for example to check pricing but also security compliance, we can see how to run them in parallel and save time,” he said. “And you can just imagine — the more and more apps you have, the AI can learn and make recommendations.”

It’s the Tuveys’ background, how they are applying it to procurement, and the resulting growth that has had investors knocking on the door, said Georgia Watson, the Lakestar partner leading this round. At the moment, expenditure is top of mind for companies looking to bring down operational costs — especially at startups given the constrictions they are facing around funding at the moment. 

“Some of our portfolio companies are using Vertice,” Watson said, citing the pressure to bring down software expenditure. “That’s been a conversation we’ve been having… and feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” she noted, adding that Lakestar had been trying to invest previously, and finally pulled it off this time around. 

Indian fintech Jar has turned cash flow positive, an executive at the Tiger Global-backed startup confirmed on Wednesday, as it gears up to deepen its offerings.

The three-year-old startup, which offers its users the ability to start their savings and investment journey, achieved the milestone while still growing by more than 10 times last year, according to an investor note TechCrunch has reviewed.

The profitability push comes as many fast-growing Indian startups are improving their financials and paring down expenses to become IPO-ready.

Jar has expanded its offerings in the past year and a half, adding lending and online jewelry sales to its business. Its jewelry business, called Nek, is doing an annualized sales of about $13 million annually, according to the investor note.

The new offerings come at a time when the Bengaluru-headquartered startup is in talks to raise as much as $50 million in a new round of funding, according to Indian newspaper Economic Times. Jar declined to comment on the fundraising talks.

Meta is luring TikTok creators over to its platforms with the promise of cash bonuses, content deals, and support to grow their communities. The company announced on Tuesday that eligible TikTok creators will be able to earn “up to” $5,000 in bonuses over three months for posting Reels on Facebook and Instagram.

These creators will also get access to the Facebook Content Monetization program, which allows creators to earn money for their videos, photos, and text posts on Facebook. Additionally, Meta will offer some TikTok creators content deals to help grow their audiences on Instagram and Facebook.

Some TikTok creators will also get a one-year trial of Meta Verified, which includes a verified badge, account support, and impersonation protection. (The company did not share the criteria for whose will receive access).

While TikTok is back online in the U.S. after going dark for 12 hours over the weekend, the ByteDance-owned social network is still missing from app stores. Although President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to delay the TikTok ban deadline by 75 days and told the Department of Justice not to enforce the ban’s penalties, it’s unknown when (or if) the app will return to Apple and Google’s app stores.

Meta is clearly taking advantage of TikTok’s current troubles by poaching and attracting some of the service’s creators.

The company also said it’s rolling out changes to Reels to make the short-form video format more appealing to TikTok creators. For instance, U.S.-based Instagram creators can now publish Reels up to three minutes long, a notable increase from the previous 90-second limit. On TikTok, however, creators can record videos up to 10 minutes long, and in some cases, upload content up to an hour in length.

In addition, Meta is going to make Reels more prominent, as the company plans to recommend Reels in more places across Instagram in Facebook. For instance, people may start to see recommended Reels higher up in their home feed. Plus, they may see more reels in their search results.

To further court TikTok creators, Meta notes that it has optimized its ranking systems to allow newer creators to break through to new audiences.

Meta will also allow creators to show their Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube handles and follower counts in their Facebook profiles to boost their credibility on its platform.

Meta already made other changes to take advantage of TikTok’s current uncertainty in the U.S.

On Sunday, Meta revealed that it’s going to launch a CapCut-like app called Edits next month. On Friday, it introduced updates to make it easier for Instagram users to find Reels that their friends and followers are liking on the platform. The app will also encourage users to start conversations about Reels through a new “reply bar.”

• A new rumor suggests the RTX 5090 will use 600W of power
• Comments in a Chinese forum point toward the new GPU being much louder
• PSU requirements are 1000W according to Corsair

Nvidia‘s RTX 5090 promises to provide a step up from the previous generation’s RTX 4090, but that could come at a significant cost according to new rumors – and you might want to invest in a beefy power supply.

As reported by Tomasz Gawronski on X, discussions within Chiphell (a Chinese forum page about the latest PC hardware) suggest that Nvidia’s RTX 5090 Founders Edition GPU will use 600W of power while being much louder compared to the 4090. This is based on what appears to be an upcoming review with the embargo set for January 24, with a post translated from Chinese that says “The editor cursed while testing… After all, the power consumption increased, the current increased, and the screaming also increased~”.

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was issuing an executive order that could kill the nascent offshore wind industry in the United States.

Trump’s order, signed Monday, halted federal leases for offshore wind development on the outer continental shelf — a location far enough from shore that wind speeds are consistently higher, but near enough that it’s readily accessible. 

“This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation,” the order states.

The order does not halt work on projects that have signed leases, though it does direct the Secretary of the Interior to review existing contracts for ways to terminate or amend them.

Offshore wind has had a rough go of it in the United States. There are just a handful of operating offshore wind farms in American waters, amounting to just 174 megawatts of capacity at the end of May, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. That’s a fraction of a percent of the worldwide total of 68 gigawatts, most of which are in Europe and China.

The sector’s prospects were starting to improve, though, with 4.1 gigawatts under construction, another 3.4 gigawatts approved, and another 19.8 gigawatts moving through the permitting process. Altogether, that would have helped reach the Biden administration’s goal of boosting offshore wind capacity to 30 gigawatts by the end of the decade.

While offshore wind is still expensive compared with other sources of power, its relative consistency and proximity to major population centers — and data centers — has made it attractive. In Europe, data centers operators have been keen to sign deals. Last year, Google agreed to buy 478 megawatts of offshore wind power to supply two data centers in the Netherlands.

In the U.S., offshore wind has been hampered by public resistance and a lack of infrastructure required to build and install the turbines. The availability of cheap, windy land in the interior of the country has also tilted the scales in favor of onshore turbines.

Since the majority of offshore wind development occurs in other countries, Trump’s executive order won’t kill offshore wind entirely. Instead, the sector is likely to mature in other countries where companies can gain expertise while waiting for the U.S. market to reopen.

Dyson has just revealed two new special edition colorways for its popular hair styling tools, and I think I’m in love. They’re called ‘Jasper Plum’ and ‘Red Velvet & Gold’ and they’ll be available across the full haircare range, including the Airwrap i.d. multi-styler, the Supersonic dryer, and the Airstrait wet-to-straight styler.

While I don’t dislike the current purple-and-orange or turquoise options, they have more of a ‘Children’s TV presenter’ energy than I’d ideally want in a haircare tool that costs upwards of $400 / £350. These new options have a much more luxe feel that fits the premium price tag, and are perfect for a grown-up dressing table. I’ve been eyeing up an Airwrap for some time, and this might be the thing that makes me take the plunge.

The Jasper Plum colorway will be available to buy direct from Dyson UK from today (22 January), with the Red Velvet & Gold options joining in late February. There are no specifics on other territories yet, although a Dyson spokesperson told us the new-look tools “will become available at a later date” in the US and Australia.

Dyson says the new color options are “thoughtfully designed to celebrate love, individuality, and the small yet powerful moments of self-care”. The Jasper Plum option, which combines violet and plum with blush pink detailing, symbolizes “strength and self-discovery”. The Red Velvet & Gold model “embodies sophistication and modern beauty”.

I didn’t immediately get all that, but the new colors certainly do look very nice. And the Red Velvet version taps into the current obsession with burgundy that’s sweeping the fashion world.

We consistently rate Dyson’s styling gadgets among the best hair dryers and best hair styling tools you can buy. Having made its name in vacuum cleaners and fans, the brand gained prominence in the beauty market with its Supersonic hair dryer, which reimagined the traditional dryer shape to make it more streamlined and put the weight in the handle to make it easier to control. The current version – Dyson Supersonic Nural – adds some clever features to streamline the styling process.

An ongoing “service interruption” at government contractor giant Conduent sparked outages across several U.S. states, leaving residents without access to some benefits and support payments.

A person familiar with the incident told TechCrunch the outage was caused by a cyberattack. Conduent spokesperson Sean Collins acknowledged the company’s outage was ongoing but declined to answer questions or rule out a cyber incident. 

“We are currently experiencing a service interruption affecting some applications while we have restored service over the past few days. The Conduent technology team is working hard to resolve any remaining issues,” Collins said.

Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families told residents in a social media post on January 17 that it was unable to process child support payments across the state for much of the week. The department said four states, including Wisconsin, were affected by the outage at Conduent. Department spokesperson Gina Paige said its service was restored January 19 but deferred comment on the cause of the outage to Conduent. 

Oklahoma Human Services, which manages the state’s food assistance program, told residents in a social media post on January 9 that Conduent’s customer service line was hit by the “technical outage.” Spokesperson Casey White told TechCrunch that the state’s systems are “working as expected” and that it experienced “no outages related to security at Conduent.”

In June 2020, Conduent confirmed a ransomware attack several days after reporting a service interruption. The Maze ransomware gang took credit for the breach and subsequently published various documents stolen from the company’s systems.

Contact Zack Whittaker on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849. You can also share documents securely with TechCrunch via SecureDrop.

• Netflix has released the first five minutes of The Night Agent season 2
• They show Peter Sutherland running for his life when a mission goes wrong
• The hugely popular spy thriller returns on our screens on January 23

The Night Agent season 2 is almost here – and, to celebrate its forthcoming launch, Netflix has released its first five minutes early.

Two years after the spy thriller series became the latest TV Original to enjoy smash hit status on Netflix, its second season is due to make its debut on the streaming giant this Thursday (January 23). Understandably, excitement is growing ahead of The Night Agent‘s return, and in a bid to tap into that growing fan fervor, Netflix has dropped an extended look at the season 2 premiere’s opening sequence.

In the video, the trigger is pressed down a tad before a final push releases it from the console. As the Joy-Con moves away, you can also see a small cylinder receding back into the top part of the inside of the controller; to me, that indicates that when you push the trigger, you’re actually pushing out that cylinder to help bump the Joy-Con out.

Here’s a GIF of the relevant part of the video:

The mechanism to remove the Joy-Con controllers looks similar to what was included in a 3D-printed mockup that accessories-maker Genki brought to CES.

Popular caller ID app Truecaller has long left iPhone users at a disadvantage by not offering the caller information in real-time — a feature its Android users have enjoyed for some time. Today, that changes as the company is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers.

The company was able to implement the feature because Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely make a call to their server to get information about the caller. Notably, this is also the first major release from the Swedish company after the co-founders Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam stepped down from the day-to-day operations in November 2024.

Today, Truecaller has more than 2.6 million paying subscribers, of which only around 750,000 of them are on iOS. However, 40% of Truecaller’s revenue is from iOS subscriptions. The company also gets a 5X conversation rate to its premium tier on iOS compared to Android as well as 80% higher revenue from an iPhone subscriber.

Considering the importance of the iPhone to Truecaller’s bottom line, the company continues to develop its iOS app.

In 2022, Truecaller relaunched the iOS app to focus on better spam detection, thanks to Apple allowing the app to store a larger set of numbers locally.

“It did improve the overall call identification. But that wasn’t enough because in countries like India, there is a huge calling activity, and not all this would be available in the offline database,” Truecaller Product Director Nakul Kabra told TechCrunch in an interview.

India presents other challenges for the company, as well, including the arrival of a service, Calling Name Presentation (commonly called CNAP, designed to curb spam. The service, currently being rolled out by local telcos, could eventually emerge as a competitor to Truecaller.

Truecaller also updated its iOS app in 2023 with a live caller ID experience, but that involved a step requiring interaction with Siri and also wasn’t real-time.

Until iOS 18’s release, Truecaller had to rely on a locally saved dictionary of limited phone numbers on iOS.

To enable the new feature, Truecaller built a new server architecture and created a separate, encrypted database for iOS, alongside its existing larger database for Android users. Apple’s Phone app makes encrypted requests to this database and gets encrypted responses that are only decrypted on the client (iPhone) to show the caller ID in real time. This process is called “homomorphic encryption,” as the computations use encrypted data instead of decrypting them first, while decryption happens on the client to display caller information if it matches with the data stored on the server.

Kabra told TechCrunch that Truecaller had built a way to sync two databases to keep the data synced between them.

“At the moment, there might be a bit of a delay because these requests get queued up, and the encryption that we do is very time-consuming — and very expensive… But it should not be more than a few hours,” he said.

TechCrunch tested live caller ID under Truecaller’s beta program last week and noticed that the feature does provide caller information in real-time in most cases, though it sometimes misses.

Truecaller’s premium tier on iOS starts at $9.99 a month, per individual, or $74.99/year. The company also offers its family plan on iOS starting at $14.99/month or $99.99/year and the top-end Gold subscription at $249 a year.

Users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature through iPhone Settings > Apps > Phone > Call Blocking & Identification.

On iOS 18, Truecaller also updated its interface with the caller’s name appearing in bold over their number. Now, Truecaller is working on support for images to show up in the caller ID for its iOS users.