Ariel Alternatives has acquired Groome Industrial Service Group, a provider of industrial cleaning and maintenance solutions. JPMorgan Chase & Co. joined the deal with a minority stake through its asset management division. Founded by business leader Mellody Hobson, Ariel Alternatives is the private equity arm of Ariel Investments, one of the largest Black-owned money managers in the US. The acquisition will help Groome, which employs more than 900 people across more than 20 US sites, expand its market share by tapping into the firm’s ties in the energy and utilities
Bleyt is helping immigrants transfer their credit history across countries. The company has a built-in money app that uses AI to obtain pull financial data from local credit providers and bureaus. It also features a multi-currency account and card, allowing immigrants to minimize delays when accessing financial services in new countries. Immigrants struggling to access financial services When Bleyt’s founder, Wale Akanbi, moved to from Nigeria to the UK in 2021, his credit history did not transfer with him, making it difficult for him to access financial services. “I had
Former basketball star and serial entrepreneur Shaquille O’Neal is partnering with used car retailer Carvana to launch an AI-powered assistant called the Shaqbot. “I’ve been buying and selling cars for years, and when I found Carvana, I really loved the ease and innovation of the brand. That’s what makes my partnership with Carvana so exciting,” O’Neal said in a press release. “And now for other Carvana fans, they can have a little fun with Shaqbot, an assistant as smart, smooth, and good-looking as me.” Shaq O’Neal launching AI assistant Built on
An Indigenous group in the Brazilian state of Ceará is taking TikTok to court over its planned data center, according to Rest of World. The Anacé has claimed the area where TikTok and Casa dos Ventos, a wind energy company that will power the data center, are to be built. Leaders of the community say their right to consultation was violated, and their concerns about water consumption related to this project were ignored. Indigenous communities must be consulted before construction on their land as part of the permit process. However,
AI is helping Latinos get on the property ladder. Latinos often face several barriers when trying to buy a home, such as meeting loan officers who don’t speak Spanish and not being able to fully understand what is being explained to them by loan officers. Federal housing agencies have started to switch to English-only services as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to make English the official language of the United States, according to The Seattle Times. The use of bilingual AI may help Latinos and other underrepresented communities during
Garage, an online marketplace selling specialized equipment commonly used in local government, raised $13.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Infinity Venture. Other investors included Benchstrength, Wayfinder Ventures, and FJ Labs, according to TechCrunch. Being a firefighter since age 15 meant that co-founder Martin Hunt knew the struggles of small communities with tight budgets buying fire equipment. In 2023, he asked a colleague about better options for fighters. “When I couldn’t find anything, it became clear that there was a need for a streamlined, nationwide marketplace for
ICE has recently spent approximately $4 million on facial recognition technology to investigate individuals it believes have harmed law enforcement officers, according to procurement records obtained by 404 Media. The records suggest that ICE is purchasing the technology to identify people who might assault the agency’s officers as they continue the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Continuous claims from authorities state that members of the public have assaulted or attacked ICE or immigration enforcement officers. But charges related to these claims have been dropped or lowered when it was highlighted
Introducing BUILT DIFFERENT: a panel and mixer for product and cybersecurity professionals happening in London on October 2, 2025. Hosted by us at POCIT in partnership with GitLab, this event brings together industry leaders to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time: building at speed without sacrificing trust. A panel and mixer For today’s product and cybersecurity leaders, the stakes couldn’t be higher. On one hand, teams are under pressure to ship faster, experiment more, and stay ahead of competitors. On the other hand, threats to data
ICE will have access to Israeli-made spyware that can hack into any phone and view encrypted messages. The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon Solutions in 2024. But the Biden Administration put the $2 million deal on pause as it faced compliance reviews related to privacy and security concerns. The Guardian reports that the pause has now been lifted, allowing ICE to have access to the tool. Paragon’s Graphite software will enable agencies to infiltrate smartphones, access encrypted applications such as WhatsApp, extract data, and
SRE.ai, an AI-powered automation platform, announced that it raised $7.2 million in a seed round led by Salesforce Ventures and Crane Venture Partners. The company will provide users with natural language AI agents that can perform complex enterprise DevOps workflows, such as continuous integration and testing, according to TechCrunch. “Instead of stitching together different low-code tools for enterprise applications like Salesforce, compared to products built on AWS, GCP, or Azure, teams can now move faster with context-driven, chat-like experiences that work across all of them,” CEO Raj Kadiyala said. How does
