Belgian cybersecurity startup Aikido Security has closed a $60 million Series B funding round at a $1 billion valuation, marking a rare unicorn milestone for a European security company and highlighting the accelerating interest in developer-centric security platforms. The round was led by DST Global, a tech-oriented investment firm with a track record of backing major technology companies, and included participation from PSG Equity, Notion Capital, and Singular. Founded in 2022, Aikido has reached a billion-dollar valuation in just three years, a pace few cybersecurity firms attain, and according to company sources, the fastest in Europe. The new capital will…

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The Next Web today announces the launch of TNW Council, a private membership community created for founders and executives leading technology companies. The Council is limited to 1,000 members globally. Each member is selected through an application and review process. The Council is designed to bring together experienced leaders who want peer conversations, meaningful connections, and visibility through editorial and event participation. Members gain editorial participation opportunities across the platform, access to curated expert panels, and verified executive profiles. They receive priority access to conferences, invitations to private gatherings and closed sessions, and entry to a curated network of founders…

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For years, online shopping followed a fixed path. Search bar, product grid, filters, checkout. The interface barely changed, even as everything else on the internet did. That path is now breaking. Monday 12 January, 2026, JD Sports Fashion plc (JD Group) became one of the first large retailers to let US customers search and buy sneakers directly inside AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google Gemini. No website visit. No app. Just a conversation that ends with a payment. Basically, a customer can chat with an AI bot, say “add these shoes to my cart,” and complete a purchase in…

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For the past few years, artificial intelligence has been discussed almost exclusively in terms of models. Bigger models, faster models, smarter models. More recently, the focus shifted to agents, systems capable of planning, reasoning, and acting autonomously. Yet the real leap in usefulness does not happen at the model level, nor at the agent level. It happens one layer above, at the level of Skills. If models represent intelligence and agents represent coordination, Skills are where AI becomes operational and valuable in the real world. A Skill is not a prompt. It is not a chatbot. And not an agent.…

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The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) is well known, often evoking futuristic movies like Robocop, Terminator and The Matrix. Yet what many don’t realize is that AI has been part of our lives for decades. When you finish watching a movie on a streaming platform and instantly see recommendations for similar content, that’s AI. When you’re shopping online and an entire page of suggested products appears, that’s AI. Even the digital ads you see are powered by machine-learning algorithms designed to optimize engagement, clicks, and conversions. Companies have relied on AI rule-based automation, routines, and machine-learning algorithms for years to power their systems and business processes. So…

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