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Socket secures $40m to enhance its security capabilities

Mohammed Fahad
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Socket secures $40m to enhance its security capabilities
  • Traditional SCA tools which have historically safeguarded software supply chains are increasingly overwhelmed by the surge in supply chain attacks.
  • Company is committed to expanding its team and enhancing its technological capabilities across engineering, product development, and design.

In an era where over 90 per cent of modern applications are developed using open-source components, the urgency for robust security measures has never been more pronounced.

Traditional Software Composition Analysis (SCA) tools, which have historically safeguarded software supply chains, are increasingly overwhelmed by the surge in supply chain attacks.

Addressing this pressing need, Socket, a leading platform dedicated to protecting software from these threats, has announced a significant $40 million funding round to enhance its security capabilities against malicious open-source activities, such as backdoors, typo-squatting, and obfuscated code.

Lead investors

Socket’s Series B funding round, spearheaded by Abstract Ventures, attracted participation from Elad Gil, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and a stellar group of angel investors including Bret Taylor (OpenAI), Phil Venables (Google), Scott Johnston (Docker), Christina Cacioppo (Vanta), Ann Mather (Pixar, Alphabet, Netflix, Airbnb), and Tobias Lütke (Shopify), among others.

This influx of capital elevates Socket’s total funding to $65 million, reinforcing its mission to modernise security for open-source software.

The company is committed to expanding its team and enhancing its technological capabilities across engineering, product development, and design.

Innovative security solutions

Feross Aboukhadijeh, Socket’s founder and CEO, said the momentum the company has gained over the past year, highlighting its successful transition from conventional SCA solutions to a more proactive security model.

By focusing on real-time detection and blocking of malicious threats, Socket distinguishes itself from legacy systems, thereby catering to the evolving demands of enterprises across various sectors, including AI, B2B services, and finance.

The imperative for innovative security solutions is further underscored by the evolving nature of supply chain attacks.

Jason Clinton, Chief Information Security Officer at Anthropic, articulated the limitations of traditional tools, noting that Socket’s real-time threat detection significantly fortifies security measures against even the most sophisticated threats.

The increasing pace of software development driven by generative AI exacerbates the risk of vulnerabilities being unintentionally integrated into applications.

Growing market presence

Amjad Masad, CEO of Replit, lauded Socket’s preventative capabilities, asserting that the platform enables developers to innovate without compromising security.

Socket’s commitment to rapid innovation is evident in its recent advancements, including AI-powered threat detection across six programming languages. This has empowered the platform to effectively detect and thwart over 100 supply chain attacks weekly.

Currently, Socket protects more than 7,500 organisations and manages upwards of 300,000 GitHub repositories, a testament to its effectiveness and growing market presence.

As Ramtin Naimi, a founding partner at Abstract Ventures, noted, Socket is redefining how companies approach software security amidst escalating supply chain threats.

“The platform’s ability to offer a developer-friendly and preventative approach positions it as a crucial player in the industry.”

Elad Gil further emphasised the uniqueness of Socket’s strategy, highlighting the team’s ability to deliver impactful solutions at an unprecedented pace.

 “We’re building a world-class team to tackle one of the most urgent challenges in software today,” Feross said.

Paytm’s Q2 results marked by persistent challenges

Mohammed Fahad
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Paytm’s Q2 results marked by persistent challenges
  • Reports staggering 25% year-on-year decline in monthly transacting users, now at merely 71m.
  • Paytm’s payments business plummet by 37% while its overall revenue contracts by 34%.

India’s Paytm, a prominent player in the digital payments landscape, has disclosed its financial results for the second quarter, revealing a landscape marked by persistent challenges and unmet expectations.

Despite an initial forecast in May predicting a “meaningful improvement” in revenue and profitability, the company’s performance fell short, prompting a significant decline in its stock price by as much as 7.7 per cent.

The downturn underscores the substantial hurdles the fintech firm continues to face, particularly in light of regulatory interventions and shifts in its operational landscape.

One crucial factor contributing to Paytm’s difficulties is the impact of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) decision to shutter its banking unit in January due to ongoing compliance issues.

Competitive market

The move not only raised concerns about the viability of its digital payments operations but also instigated a considerable drop in user engagement.

Paytm reported a staggering 25 per cent year-on-year decline in monthly transacting users, now at merely 71 million, contrary to the growth needed for robust performance in a competitive market.

Additionally, revenue from Paytm’s payments business plummeted by 37 per cent, mirroring the decline observed in the previous quarter, while its overall revenue contracted by 34 per cent.

Interestingly, while Paytm declared its first-ever net profit since going public in late 2021, this achievement was predominantly attributable to a one-time gain from the sale of its event-ticketing business to Zomato.

Ongoing financial instability

Excluding this gain, Paytm still faced significant operational losses, reporting a deficit of Rs4.07 billion, slightly improved from the previous quarter but nonetheless indicative of ongoing financial instability.

Despite the regulatory approval allowing Paytm to continue serving as a third-party app for existing digital payment customers, the inability to acquire new users further exacerbates its revenue decline and undermines its market position.

The incremental improvement in contribution margin, rising to 54 per cent from 50 per cent, is slight in contrast to the broader challenges surrounding user retention and revenue generation.

ASML poised for growth in 2026 despite a cautious outlook

Mohammed Fahad
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ASML poised for growth in 2026 despite a cautious outlook
  • One of the critical factors shaping ASML’s outlook is the ongoing geopolitical tension between the United States and China.
  • US will continue to apply stringent restrictions against China, motivated by a broader narrative of national security amid intense economic competition.

Christophe Fouquet, the CEO of ASML, a leading manufacturer of computer chip equipment, has recently outlined his expectations for the company’s trajectory over the coming years.

In remarks made during a Bloomberg technology conference in London, he indicated that 2026 is anticipated to be a growth year for ASML, despite current challenges, particularly concerning export restrictions to China.

Fouquet’s statements come on the heels of an announcement that growth in 2025 would be tempered due to weaknesses in electronics markets, except for those segments related to artificial intelligence.

The financial caution has been particularly noteworthy given ASML’s reliance on its largest customer, Taiwan’s TSMC, a significant player in the production of chips for companies like Nvidia. While ASML maintains optimism for 2025 growth, it acknowledges that this will occur at a slower pace.

Geopolitical tension

One of the critical factors shaping ASML’s outlook is the ongoing geopolitical tension between the United States and China. Fouquet articulated a belief that regardless of the outcome of the upcoming US presidential election, pressure on exports to China is likely to persist.

He pointed out that the US will continue to apply stringent restrictions, motivated by a broader narrative of national security amid intense economic competition.

Currently, ASML expects that sales in China will constitute only 20 per cent of its total revenue, a significant decline from the 50 per cent observed in recent quarters for older equipment which is not subject to these restrictions.

The shift underscores the challenges faced by the company as it navigates an increasingly complex international landscape. Discussions within Europe about the appropriateness and efficacy of imposing further restrictions reflect a broader uncertainty regarding the impact of such measures on both national security and economic vitality.

Qualcomm’s GenAI chip to make way into smartphones soon

Ana Mary Joseph
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Qualcomm’s GenAI chip to make way into smartphones soon
  • One of the chip’s most compelling features is its ability to perform robust AI functions directly on the device, circumventing the need for internet access.
  • Users will be able to erase unwanted objects in videos, an enhancement that extends beyond previous capabilities limited to still photography.

Qualcomm has announced that its latest flagship GenAI processor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, will soon be integrated into smartphones from leading manufacturers including Samsung, Xiaomi, ASUS, OnePlus, Honor, and Oppo.

The initiative is part of Qualcomm’s strategy to rejuvenate smartphone sales, which have seen stagnation in recent years, by enhancing the capabilities of mobile devices primarily through the integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is positioned as a game-changing processor, equipped with advanced features that promise to enhance user experience and operational efficiency.

Notably, Qualcomm has introduced what it refers to as Prime Cores, designed for high-performance applications, alongside Performance Cores intended for lighter tasks.

Energy efficient

These developments are expected to yield significant improvements in energy efficiency, with promises of up to a 44 per cent reduction in energy consumption for the central processing unit (CPU) and a 40 per cent reduction for the graphics processing unit (GPU) compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen. 3.

One of the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s most compelling features is its ability to perform robust AI functions directly on the device, circumventing the need for internet access. For instance, users will be able to erase unwanted objects in videos, an enhancement that extends beyond previous capabilities limited to still photography.

Additionally, the inclusion of a neural processing unit (NPU) enables users to engage with their environment more interactively, allowing for real-time queries about objects captured by the smartphone’s camera.

These innovations not only enhance the utility of mobile devices but also highlight Qualcomm’s commitment to making AI more accessible and practical for everyday use.

Challenges remain

However, despite these technological strides, the challenge remains for Qualcomm and other stakeholders in the mobile industry to stimulate consumer interest and drive sales.

While the integration of AI features is indeed impressive, there is a prevailing scepticism regarding the emergence of a “killer app” that would entice the masses to upgrade their devices. \

Many potential consumers remain hesitant, showing interest primarily in innovative marketing rather than in the actual necessity of AI functionalities.

“All of us are going to have an AI smartphones in the next five years. The problem will be waiting for use cases to emerge, something that also happened with the transition to smartphones,” Amon said.

The true test for Qualcomm will be whether it can facilitate the development of applications that fundamentally change the way users interact with their devices, thereby motivating them to invest in new technology.

IBM unveils high performing AI models for enterprises

Ana Mary Joseph
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IBM unveils high performing AI models for enterprises
  • Entire suite of Granite 3.0 models and the updated time series models are available for download on HuggingFace under the permissive Apache 2.0 license.

IBM unveiled its latest artificial intelligence models—Granite 3.0— to harness the growing interest in generative AI technologies among businesses.

The decision to release these models as open-source reflects IBM’s commitment to accessibility and innovation, contrasting sharply with industry competitors like Microsoft, which opt to monetise access to their AI solutions.

The Granite 3.0 models are designed for commercial use within IBM’s Watsonx platform, along with a paid tool that facilitates the deployment and customisation of these models within enterprise data centres. Additionally, these models are compatible with Nvidia’s software stack, enhancing their applicability for business integration.

Novel alignment technique

The collaboration emphasises the technological prowess of Nvidia’s H100 graphics processing units, which have been instrumental in the training of these advanced models.

A hallmark of the Granite 3.0 initiative is its adherence to open-source principles under the permissive Apache 2.0 license. This enables enterprises and the broader AI community to leverage the models’ superior performance, flexibility, and autonomy.

Unlike many existing large language models, which predominantly rely on publicly available datasets, Granite enables businesses to harness their own untapped data.

By employing the novel alignment technique, InstructLab, introduced with RedHat, IBM posits that businesses can achieve task-specific performance comparable to more extensive models, but at significantly lower costs—estimated to be between three to twenty-three times less than those for large frontier models.

Training process

Moreover, the release of Granite 3.0 reinforces IBM’s dedication to transparency and safety within AI development. Accompanying the models are comprehensive technical reports detailing the training datasets, the filtering and cleansing processes undertaken, and the performance results in relation to academic and enterprise benchmarks.

Notably, the Granite 3.0 8B Instruct model demonstrates superior performance across various metrics, notably eclipsing similar-sized open-source models from Meta and Mistral on Hugging Face’s OpenLLM Leaderboard and IBM’s own AttaQ safety benchmark.

The training foundation for the Granite 3.0 models is remarkable, encompassing over 12 trillion tokens across 12 natural languages and 116 programming languages.

The large-scale, two-stage training process is the result of extensive experimentation aimed at optimising data quality and selection.

Furthermore, anticipated enhancements by the year’s end include support for extended 128K context windows and advanced multi-modal document understanding capabilities.

Trained on more data

In addition to the Granite 3.0 models, IBM has announced advanced versions of its Granite Time Series models, which are now trained on three times more data and outperform significantly larger models from leading tech firms in key benchmarks.

The upgrade not only enhances modeling flexibility but also incorporates external variables and rolling forecasts, adding valuable capabilities for enterprise applications.

The entire suite of Granite 3.0 models and the updated time series models are available for download on HuggingFace under the permissive Apache 2.0 license.

The instruct variants of the new Granite 3.0 8B and 2B language models and the Granite Guardian 3.0 8B and 2Bmodels are available today for commercial use on IBM’s watsonx platform.

A selection of the Granite 3.0 models will also be available as NVIDIA NIM microservices and through Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Model Garden integrations with HuggingFace.

To help provide developer choice and ease of use and support local, edge deployments, a curated set of the Granite 3.0 models are also available on Ollama and Replicate.

Microsoft clients can build AI agents from next month

Mohammed Fahad
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Microsoft clients can build AI agents from next month
  • Innovative platform to empower customers to create AI agents requiring minimal human intervention, a substantial advancement over traditional chatbots.
  • Microsoft plans to unveil ten pre-configured agents capable of assisting with a variety of routine tasks, including supply chain management and client communication.
  • While promising substantial efficiencies and enhanced user experiences, the ultimate success of this initiative will hinge on its adoption and the tangible returns it generates amid growing investor expectations.

Microsoft has announced a significant initiative aimed at harnessing the potential of autonomous AI agents.

Set to launch next month, this innovative platform will empower customers to create AI agents requiring minimal human intervention, a substantial advancement over traditional chatbots.

Positioned as “apps for an AI-driven world,” these autonomous agents are designed to streamline business operations by effectively handling client inquiries, identifying sales leads, and managing inventory.

Microsoft’s endeavour aligns with broader industry trends, as other technology giants like Salesforce also recognise the transformative potential of autonomous agents.

Optimising operational efficiency

Analysts suggest that these tools may serve as a conduit for businesses to monetise their considerable investments in AI technologies, thereby optimising operational efficiency.

The introduction of Copilot Studio will allow users without extensive coding knowledge to develop their own AI agents, fostering greater accessibility to these advanced tools.

Utilising AI models created both in-house and by OpenAI, Microsoft plans to unveil ten pre-configured agents capable of assisting with a variety of routine tasks, including supply chain management and client communication.

Noteworthy is the early demonstration by McKinsey & Co, which highlighted the practical capabilities of these agents in managing client inquiries and scheduling follow-up meetings.

As noted by Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of business and industry Copilot, the aim is to position Copilot as the primary interface for AI interactions.

The vision entails that every employee will have a personalized AI agent, facilitating seamless interactions within a network of autonomous agents.

However, the push towards AI-driven solutions comes amid increasing scrutiny regarding the return on investment for significant AI expenditures.

Moreover, concerns persist regarding the pace of Copilot adoption, as highlighted by Gartner’s research indicating that most organisations are still in the preliminary pilot stages of implementation.

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