San Francisco-based technology startup Illumix just closed a $18 million Series A round of funding, and in a rare move for the Shark Tank star, Mark Cuban contributed.
The company develops platforms for augmented reality (AR) experiences and sees itself as a crucial player in the emerging Web3 and metaverse ecosystems.
"We really think about ourselves as the backbone behind your immersive experiences," said Kirin Sinha, CEO and founder of Illumix.
Historically, those experiences were limited to the gaming and entertainment worlds. Now Illumix has its sights on what it calls "location-based entertainment." Sinha explained that the company wants to bring AR to in-person experiences such as sports games, concerts, and theme parks.
On why Cuban decided to invest, despite his aversion to investing in tech firms, Sinha said he thinks "it really comes down to the scope of this opportunity."
"The idea of the digital and physical worlds coming together has been talked about for some time, but we're really seeing that market timing starting to hit," he added.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
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