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OneText raises $4.5M from Y Combinator, Khosla to reinvent shopping by text
OneText raises $4.5M from Y Combinator, Khosla to reinvent shopping by text

Yahoo

time08-07-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

OneText raises $4.5M from Y Combinator, Khosla to reinvent shopping by text

The typical online checkout experience has become bloated with friction. And while more companies are building solutions around online checkout, few are rethinking it from scratch. One such company is OneText, which is building what it calls a 'text-to-buy network,' that lets shoppers complete purchases via text message. The company, founded by former PayPal employees, just closed a $4.5 million seed round backed by Khosla Ventures, Coatue, Citi Ventures, Y Combinator, Good Friends (the fund created by the founders of Warby Parker, Allbirds, and Harry's), and Matt Bellamy, the frontman of Muse. Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Fudem came up with the idea while working on the checkout team at PayPal. There, he saw many upstarts with slick UX stumble over the same go-to-market hurdle: convincing merchants to swap out their existing payment flows. 'That's a hard pitch,' Fudem said, adding that many merchants don't even have the freedom to choose their checkout provider; it's often decided by their e-commerce platform. By using SMS, OneText doesn't require a merchant to replace their website's existing checkout. While large platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp also have ecommerce features, Fudem believes brands still need direct, ownable relationships with their customers. OneText views itself as a competitor to the SMS marketing companies known for mass, impersonal messaging and spammy links. Instead, it uses a combination of tools — including AI-powered two-way conversations and humans in the loop — to improve conversions by 20–30%. Features like cart recovery, post-purchase upsells, and shopper-specific recommendations contribute meaningfully to that performance. Under the hood, OneText runs its own wallet which integrates with a brand's existing processor to complete transactions. OneText securely vaults a customer's payment information after their first purchase. From then on, they can reorder with a single reply. This 'card-on-file' setup is what OneText believes makes its text commerce similar to charging items to a room during a hotel stay. To make that work, OneText uses what Fudem calls 'consentful' automation. If a brand wants to charge a customer for a reorder, OneText sends a text saying the payment will go through in 24 hours unless the customer cancels. It's opt-out by default. Over time, it plans to expand the network so shoppers can use their vaulted profiles across multiple brands, with pre-filled checkout data and smarter recommendations. In that sense, the company is building toward something much larger: a cross-brand, SMS-native payment network. 'Building a consumer-facing wallet that's 10x better is really hard,' Fudem said. 'But we can create a business-to-consumer texting platform that brings the 'charge it to your room' experience, only now, it's your phone number. That's how we'll build the network.' OneText went through Y Combinator in 2023 and quietly built out its platform after Demo Day. Today, the platform has mid-sized e-commerce brands, doing $10M–$100M in annual revenue, as customers, Fudem says, though it also supports smaller startups and large enterprises. 'We've been scaling 3x year over year and doing millions in revenue,' said Fudem, who launched the company with CTO Daniel Brain.

Kate Hudson packs on the PDA with her fiancé Danny Fujikawa as she slips into a pink bikini in snaps from her Greek family holiday
Kate Hudson packs on the PDA with her fiancé Danny Fujikawa as she slips into a pink bikini in snaps from her Greek family holiday

Daily Mail​

time03-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Daily Mail​

Kate Hudson packs on the PDA with her fiancé Danny Fujikawa as she slips into a pink bikini in snaps from her Greek family holiday

Kate Hudson and her fiancé Danny Fujikawa packed on the PDA as the star took to Instagram on Thursday to share snaps from their family Greek holiday last month. The actress, 46, and Danny shared a passionate smooch in one snap as Kate slipped into a skimpy pink bikini which she wore underneath a crochet beach cover up. Embracing her natural looks, the How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days star appeared make up free as she posed with her friend in another snap. The couple were joined by their daughter Rani Rose, six, as well as Kate's son Bingham, 13, from her previous relationship with Muse frontman Matt Bellamy. Kate's brothers Oliver and Wyatt and their families also appeared to be present on the trip. She captioned the post:' Family summer We love you Greece '. And it has been a sun-soaked summer for Kate so far after she was seen earlier this week holidaying in Ibiza with pal Dakota Johnson. Dakota made sure to show ex Chris Martin exactly what he's missing as she flaunted her flawless physique aboard a luxury yacht in the celeb-packed hotspot. The duo, who first got together in 2017, and got engaged years later, finally pulled the plug in June. Dakota slipped into a skimpy white two-piece while Oscar nominee Kate turned heads in a bright yellow bikini. The jaw-dropping bikini parade came after Dakota and Kate enjoyed an al fresco dinner at Rome's iconic Pierluigi restaurant—where they got a sweet surprise. Ricky Martin, 53, happened to be dining nearby and casually walked over to say hello to the Johnson-Hudson crew. The Livin' La Vida Loca singer pulled up a chair and joined the group, chatting and laughing with Dakota, Kate, and their friends. The trio shared hugs and animated conversation, soaking up the gorgeous weather and the enchanting Roman atmosphere. Kate also shares son Ryder, 21, with her ex-husband Chris Robinson, who she was married to from 2000 until 2006, before their divorce was finalised in 2007. Kate and Danny have been engaged for three years after he proposed to her just ahead of their five-year dating anniversary. The pair had been close friends for many years before meeting through Fujikawa's stepsisters. Kate previously revealed she finds the 'feeling of failure' the hardest part about walking away from a relationship as she opened up about her past romances. Appearing on Elizabeth Day's podcast How To Fail, the American actress spoke candidly about how hard she has found it in the past to let go of a relationship as she admitted her therapist told her she had to stop dating men. The star admitted: 'The hardest part about walking away from relationships is the feeling of failure. One hundred percent. 'So for me, that was the hardest thing, it's letting go of the fact that it feels like a failure, or I couldn't make something work, or I couldn't fix something. 'I think sometimes it's like you're trying to fit a square peg in the round hole and it's just never going to happen.' Explaining how she has grown to realise that sometimes people are just not meant to be she added: 'Then you realise as it heals, "Oh, this isn't the failure, this was exactly what needed to happen." 'Because if you look back and you're like, "uh oh, what did I do? Why couldn't I do that? Why couldn't I give that person what they needed?" Then you have to do some real reflecting and really go figure out what that is.' Revealing her therapist advised her to stop dating men for a year prior to meeting Danny, she admitted by the end she 'couldn't care less about who was texting me.' Kate went a year without men as she explained: 'I took boys out of the equation and had to just go through this process of feeling very uncomfortable with not having any connection to anything that could ignite my dopamine, my flirtatious.' Using the time she was single to work on herself, she admitted: 'Then it was like I hit something, I hit this core of an issue for myself. I had [an] almost like childhood cry and it was like a weight had been lifted off of me and honestly, from that point on, I couldn't care less about who was texting me. 'My life became so happy alone. I felt very connected to what I wanted to do, my daily routine with my kids, my cozy time. 'I didn't care about putting anything on and so when then I went back into the dating world, my relationship to dating completely changed.'

Muse Reaches The Top 10 For The First Time In A Decade
Muse Reaches The Top 10 For The First Time In A Decade

Forbes

time02-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Forbes

Muse Reaches The Top 10 For The First Time In A Decade

Muse's "Unraveling" debuts at No. 9 on the Official Singles Downloads chart, marking the band's ... More first top 10 hit on the ranking in 15 years and signaling a new era. UNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 01: Photo of Chris WOLSTENHOLME and MUSE and Dominic HOWARD and Matt BELLAMY; L-R: Dominic Howard, Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme - posed, group shot (Photo by Mick Hutson/Redferns) After several years of relative quiet, it looks like Muse is preparing the world for a brand new album. The English rock band, which has ranked as one of the biggest in the country for well over a decade, dropped a new single titled "Unraveling" in mid-June, and unsurprisingly, it has become a quick hit on a number of charts in the United Kingdom. The tune even helps the group score its first new top 10 smash on one sales ranking in 15 years as it arrives. "Unraveling" Debuts Inside the Top 10 "Unraveling" opens at No. 9 on the Official Singles Downloads chart, which ranks the top-performing individual tracks on platforms like iTunes and other digital download storefronts. Muse has only scored a trio of appearances within that loftiest space throughout the years, and it has been quite a long time since the band pushed a track into the region. Muse's First New Top 10 in More Than 15 Years "Unraveling" marks Muse's first new top 10 on the Official Singles Downloads chart since 2009. In September of that year, "Uprising" debuted at No. 9, in the same position where "Unraveling" begins. The group earned its first placement on the downloads tally and its debut top 10 with "Apocalypse Please," which only spent a single frame on that list at No. 10. "Unraveling" Earns a Lofty Debut Muse also sees "Unraveling" kick off its time on the Official Rock & Metal Singles chart at No. 9. On that list, the superstar musicians have seen 23 of the 40 songs that have reached that genre-specific ranking enter the top 10 for at least one week. The group even doubles up on the tally, as "Supermassive Black Hole," one of its most famous releases, sits at No. 24, 676 frames into its tenure on the list. "Unraveling" Misses the Top 10 on the Main Sales Chart "Unraveling" just misses out on the top 10 on the Official Singles Sales chart, as it enters at No. 12. It also reaches the main ranking, the most closely watched list of the most consumed songs throughout the U.K., the Official Singles chart, but it does not approach the top 10. Instead, Muse has to settle for No. 85 as a fairly low starting point for the first single from what may be an upcoming new album.

Hear Muse Blend EDM and Metal on Melodramatic ‘Unravelling'
Hear Muse Blend EDM and Metal on Melodramatic ‘Unravelling'

Yahoo

time20-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Hear Muse Blend EDM and Metal on Melodramatic ‘Unravelling'

Muse love doing everything all at once, and on 'Unravelling,' their first new music since 2022's Will of the People album, they combine EDM synths, melodramatic rock opera vocals, and shit-kicking prog-metal riffs. And somehow it all works in a way that sounds conspicuously like Muse. The most transcendent moment comes near the end when frontman Matt Bellamy sings, 'Feeling the glow die inside of our bones/This is a hymn for our love with no God and no throne,' in an exultant way right before his guitar digs into a nasty metal breakdown that sounds more like Slipknot than Muse. The group has not yet revealed if the song, produced by Dan Lancaster (Bring Me the Horizon, Blink-182), is foreshadowing a larger project. More from Rolling Stone Zedd Wants to Reintroduce Himself, And He Brought Along Some Pretty Surprising Guests to Help The Killers, Muse, the Lumineers Lead Atlanta's 2023 Shaky Knees Fest Muse's Matt Bellamy Recalls Attending One of Lady Gaga's Early Career Shows: 'I Have Always Been a Little Monster' Muse, which have dates in Europe through July, test-drove the song live at a tour warmup gig at Helsinki's House of Culture last week. They gave it a bigger premiere on June 14, though, when they performed it at Finland's Rockfest for an audience of more than 50,000 people. The song's producer, Lancaster, plays keys and additional live guitar at Muse's live performances. A few years ago, when they were still promoting Will of the People, Muse showed fans just how deeply they could blend genres when they flipped Paul McCartney's 'Live and Let Die' into the ultra-metallic original song, 'Kill or Be Killed.' ''Kill or Be Killed' is Muse at their heaviest,' Bellamy said then. 'We wanted to update our hard rock sound on this album, and with 'Kill or Be Killed' we found a modern metal sound featuring double-bass drum action and even a death growl. Lyrically the song takes influence from my favorite Paul McCartney song 'Live and Let Die,' a dark take on how life's adversity can sometimes bring out the worst human instincts to survival at any costs.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked

Muse appear to tease return with new song Unravelling
Muse appear to tease return with new song Unravelling

Wales Online

time12-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Wales Online

Muse appear to tease return with new song Unravelling

Muse appear to tease return with new song Unravelling Matt Bellamy and co have been dropping teasers about their return for a few weeks now, and it looks like new music is imminent Muse performing on the Pyramid stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset (Image: PA Archive/PA Images ) Muse appear to be teasing a new song called Unravelling. Matt Bellamy and co have been dropping teasers about their return for a few weeks now, and it looks like new music is imminent. ‌ The British rock band posted a snippet of a video of an unreleased song and captioned the Instagram post: "Back at it." ‌ The word Unravelling then flashes up on the screen at the end. A previous animated clip teased: "Something's coming..." Muse also posted a picture of their silhouette and wrote: "An insect trapped in amber." Article continues below In February, bassist Chris Wolstenholme revealed they were planning to work on a new album "fairly soon". The Hysteria rockers' last full-length record was 2022's Will of the People, and he said they were keen to get started on a follow-up and ink a new record deal. Speaking on an episode of The Leona Graham Podcast, he spilled: "We will [sign to a label], obviously. I think we're gonna start work on the next record fairly soon. ‌ "I think for the last few albums we've been with Warner and we've extended after each album. We may do the same again; we may go with a new label, who knows." The trio - which is completed by drummer Dominic Howard - needed the time to "reset" and Chris admits that there will be "bigger" gaps between records. He said: "When you finish touring an album, and [when] the band has been around a bit longer, the gaps between albums get a little bit bigger. I don't think we can be banging out new albums every two years like we used to. ‌ "But it gives you that opportunity to reset a little bit and think about what's gonna happen going forward." He had suggested that fans would have to wait until 2026 for their 10th studio album. He continued: "I think we'll start very, very soon, like in the next couple of months. Article continues below "We've got a few gigs in June. Only a handful – that's the only gigs we're doing this year. "I don't think the idea is to do anything really serious until next year, so I would imagine that 2026 will be a new album, barring any disasters." During Muse's downtime, Chris has been busy with a side project called Chromes, who released their first two tracks, Imaginary World and The Good Life, in October, with the musician on lead vocals. Chromes' latest track was The One, released on June 6.

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