A number of well-known British media outlets have joined ProRata, an AI firm that claims to compensate publishers for the usage of their work, in its expanding network of partnerships.

The Los Angeles-based firm announced on Wednesday that it has signed licensing deals with publishers such as Sky News, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail’s publisher, DMG Media.

In a recent Series A funding round, ProRata raised $25 million from investors such as the Mayfield Fund, Prime Movers Lab, and Revolution Ventures.

“ProRata’s founder and CEO Bill Gross said his firm’s AI technology is the only one that pledges to credit and compensate creators, while providing users with accurate search results.

“We have had hundreds of content owners and media companies reach out to us from around the world who are interested in piloting our technology. Stealing and scraping content is not a sustainable path forward,” he continued.

Similar alliances have previously been formed by ProRata with the German publisher Axel Springer, the Atlantic, Fortune, Time, and Universal Music Group (UMG).

Media firms are offered reasonable compensation by ProRata for the use of their content. The startup’s in-house technology may determine the proper amount of pay by evaluating the worth of the information used to create responses from an AI platform. This would make it possible to pay copyright holders for their work on a per-use basis.

Gross had previously said that AI platforms have been using “shoplifted, plagiarized content,” which fosters an atmosphere in which “disinformation thrives and creators get nothing.”

Gross is recognized for having created the pay-per-click model of internet search monetization with his business, GoTo.com, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo! in 2003.

In a recent blog post, Tige Savage, a cofounder of Revolution, stated that Bill Gross is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in monetization techniques.

“He’s attracted a world-class tech team led by AI luminary Tarek Najm to implement the vision and an accomplished business team, including Annelies Jansen and Jonas Lee to drive content and AI partnerships,” Savage continued.

The unpaid use of copyrighted materials by OpenAI and other tech companies to train their AI systems has led to litigation from media companies and other content creators.

Perplexity, an artificial intelligence search firm, opened a shopping hub on Monday to draw people to its platform in an effort to challenge Alphabet-owned Google’s hegemony in the search engine market.

Supported by Amazon (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos and top AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O), the company launches a new tab and will provide users with product cards that display pertinent goods in answer to shopping-related queries.

According to the company, each card offers product facts in an eye-catching manner.

Shopify (SHOP.TO), one of the platform integrations that powers the new functionality, provides access to up-to-date and pertinent information on products from companies on the Canadian e-commerce platform worldwide that ship to the United States.

The goal of e-commerce platforms has been to attract more merchants by utilizing more AI-powered solutions.

‘Snap to Shop’ is a visual search engine featured in Perplexity’s online shopping rollout that displays products based on users’ pictures of an item.

The features will initially be introduced in the US before moving on to other regions; however, no timeframe has been given.

Additionally, Perplexity is launching a “Merchant Program” to enable shops to communicate with the company about its products.

Earlier in November, Reuters reported that the business was raising $3 billion in new funding.

Since the generative AI pioneer added a number of new search features to ChatGPT, OpenAI has become a direct rival of Perplexity, which has been seeking to broaden its product line.

A fresh all-secondary investment of $153 million has raised the valuation of Indian nutrition startup HealthKart to almost $500 million, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

Private equity companies ChrysCapital and Motilal Oswal co-led the investment, which was one of the biggest for an Indian consumer business this year. Avendus Capital provided financial advice. The round also included participation from asset manager Neo Group and A91 Partners. At one point, the startup was worth $350 million.

According to the sources, some of the original investors in the firm sold their shares to the new backers. Peak XV, formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia, has sold the shares it purchased for around $15 million for nearly $120 million, effectively exiting the firm. Temasek, Sofina, and financial management IIFL are also supporters of HealthKart.

HealthKart, a company based in Gurugram, announced $118.5 million in revenue for the fiscal year that concluded in March 2024, solidifying its standing as the biggest consumer nutrition platform in India. The firm offers health accessories and protein supplements for sale.

The 13-year-old company, which split off from online drugstore startup 1MG, announced on Thursday that it is repurchasing $6.5 million worth of employee shares. In the fiscal year that concluded in March, the startup was EBITDA profitable.

“The Indian sports nutrition market, currently underpenetrated, is expected to expand due to a rise in fitness awareness and the increasing importance of nutrition and protein,” said Arpit Vinayak, VP at ChrysCapital, in a statement.