Spotify’s AI DJ feature, an AI guide that introduces personalized song selections, is now available in its first language outside of English. On Tuesday, Spotify announced the launch of an AI DJ that speaks Spanish, confirming TechCrunch’s earlier reports of the feature under development. Like the original AI DJ “X,” whose voice was based on an existing Spotify employee (Xavier “X” Jernigan), the Spanish-language voice is also based on a real person — in this case, Olivia “Livi” Quiroz Roa, a senior music editor at Spotify who resides in Mexico City.
Spotify’s AI DJ, which was first launched last year, is meant to serve as a smart audio guide that introduces music using a convincingly realistic voice. For Spotify, the feature isn’t just a way for it to dabble around with new AI technology, it’s also a way to increase the consumption of music on its app. According to its internal data, DJ users listen to a lot of music, and the use of the feature has continued to grow with an increase of more than 200% over the last year.
The AI DJ itself is built using technologies from both OpenAI and Sonantic, an AI voice platform Spotify acquired in 2022. DJ X was initially picked to model his voice for the AI, which uses the same slang terms and expressions as Jernigan does, in addition to duping the sound of his voice.
Meanwhile, Roa was chosen to be the newest voice for the AI DJ feature after an extensive casting call, Spotify said, during which the company found that her voice resonated the most with listeners. Listeners said the voice sounded relatable and as if they were listening to music recommendations from a friend, the company noted. X will not be going away with “Livi’s” launch, but rather customers will be able to pick which AI DJ they prefer, according to Spotify.
Image Credits: Spotify DJ "Livi"
“We have millions of Spanish-speaking listeners on Spotify, many of whom have been taking to social media to ask about DJ,” according to Spotify’s announcement. “In fact, over the last few months, we’ve seen an over 215% increase in social conversation around DJ in Spanish,” the company said.
In May, TechCrunch reported on the Spanish-speaking AI DJ feature, when new text referencing DJ “Livi” was added to the app’s code, alongside indications that the feature would become available in Mexico. However, Spotify’s announcement indicates “Livi” will become available to Premium listeners in markets where DJ X is already offered and other markets across Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
“Livi” is considered a “beta” test, for the time being.
To use “Livi,” Spotify Premium subscribers can access the feature from the Search tab on the app. From there, they must search for the term “DJ” and press play to begin using the DJ. To switch languages from an existing DJ, users must tap the three-dot menu within the DJ card, then pick between English and Spanish.
The type of overseas trip where you need multiple hotels, flights, activities, transfers, transport methods, and guides has traditionally been undertaken by travel agents. Since there’s no real-time pricing for such complex offerings, travelers have few other options. Spanish startup Exoticca set out to crack that nut and has now raised a €60 million Series D round led by Quadrille Capital.
The market for multiday tour packages is very large, but it’s one of the last areas of the travel industry to be digitized. Exoticca’s platform connects flights, hotels, meals, transfers, transportation and local companies. This makes it simpler to book these more complex packages and reduces costs by as much as 30%, the company claims.
Exoticca also claims to have more than doubled its sales year-over-year since 2015 and now operates in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico and Colombia through a network of travel and non-travel online and offline partners.
“The package tour was invented by Thomas Cook two centuries ago and has really not evolved in that time,” said Exoticca CEO Pere Vallès. “We’re bringing a model that is more digital, that allows us to sell these types of products online, that is more flexible, but has also some big advantages when it comes to cost and price.”
Exoticca competes to some extent with Tourlane, a planning and booking platform that helps travelers research and buy multiday tours online. Tourlane has raised $101 million to date.
However, Vallès said that Exoticca doesn’t “see them as competitors. They have a different model, which is more based on a marketplace. They don’t offer real-time pricing.”
His company is focused on “value for money,” Vallès said. “And this leads us to a customer that is middle class and upper middle class.” He added that 75% of Exoticca’s business is in the U.S. and Canada, “so it’s Americans and Canadians traveling to the 70 destinations that we offer,” from the company’s headquarters in Barcelona.
He said the objective is to expand into Latin America, the Middle East, India and China.
In a statement, Alejandra Duran Gil, partner at Quadrille Capital, said: “Exoticca’s strong financial foundation and the team’s exceptional execution are at the heart of our investment thesis.”
Also participating in this round were new investors, including All Iron and ICF and existing investors 14W, Mangrove, Bonsai, Sabadell and Aldea.
Historic vehicles, flowing champagne and fashion have dominated the events at Monterey Car Week for decades now. But a change is afoot: EVs, tech-centric vehicles, startups and a heavy dose of Silicon Valley’s software developers and founders added to the scenery this year.
Even the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance seemed more youthful and modern — from the crowd to the cars — a departure for the Sunday car show that closes out the week of automotive festivities. The Concours d’ Elegance, the spot to revel in pre-war and interwar vehicles, took the unusual step of highlighting Wedge-style cars from the 1950s through 2023. One of them — a 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero Bertone Coupe owned by Phillip Sarofim, the founder and CEO of Trousdale Ventures and chairman of Meyers Manx — even made it to the top three finishers for best in show. The top honors ended up going to a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports.
A 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero Bertone Coupe at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on August 18, 2024 in Monterey, California.Image Credits: Matt Jelonek / Getty Images
Amid the crowds of collectors, wannabe social media influencers, young car fans and a small handful of celebrities, a combination of heritage brands and tiny startups made waves with the wealthy who descended to see some of the rarest and most expensive vehicles in the world.
Most notably, the crowd at this year’s events was both larger and younger. At events like Hagerty’s Motorlux on Wednesday night, and Friday’s The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, tech founders made their rounds, drinking champagne, enjoying walls of bacon and limitless amounts of caviar on crackers, and even dancing the night away — a rarity at the events that are more likely to be punctuated by classical music than dance music.
Rob Howard, founder of Bay Area-based Kindred Motorworks, said the younger crowds were apparent, lively and clearly wanted to experience — not just look at — the cars. Another founder in his mid 40s, who asked not to be named, complained he was the oldest person at the McLaren party.
And parties — there were plenty.
More than 4,100 people attended the Motorlux event at the Monterey Jet Center, according to Hagerty public relations, where attendees spent an hour or more in traffic just to find parking. The Quail boasted more than 5,000 attendees on Friday. There were fewer unauthorized road rallies, thanks to a very robust, and very visible, police presence in and around Monterey, Carmel and Pebble Beach, and far more excitement around electrification than there has been in the past.
Howard also noted that while EVs have been a part of Monterey Car Week before, this year they seemed to seep in a bit deeper. His startup, which unveiled a vintage (and now electric) Bronco at Hagerty’s Motorlux event, was part of that trend.
Here’s a quick roundup of the best things we saw at the annual auto-enthusiasts’ bacchanal.
Acura Performance EV Concept
Acura Performance EV ConceptImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
Acura, the luxury arm of the Japanese brand Honda, showed off its Performance EV Concept at The Quail on Friday. While most concepts never see the light of day, the Performance EV Concept represents an upcoming model that will go into production next year and be built at Honda’s new EV hub in Ohio. The fully electric underpinnings of this coupe-uv (as in utility vehicle) will be built by Honda, unlike the current Acura ZDX (and the Honda Prologue), which sits on GM’s Ultium platform.
BMW M5 Touring
BMW M5 wagonImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
BMW debuted an M5 wagon at Pebble Beach this year and made automotive enthusiasts very happy, since it marks the first time that BMW has decided to sell an M longroof stateside.
The most interesting part is the powertrain that underpins the 717-horsepower sleeper: Both the new M5 sedan and the wagon get a plug-in hybrid powertrain loosely based on the one in the M8 hybrid race car. Both the M5 sedan and M5 Touring (the wagon) get a 14.8 kW lithium-ion battery which powers a 194-hp motor integrated into the eight-speed transmission, and all married to a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine. It remains to be seen how frequently an M5 buyer will actually plug in to recharge.
Everatti
Everatti Land Rover IIAImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
Everatti takes shells of old cars, like a 1960s-era Mercedes-Benz 280 SL (known as the Pagoda), scans them, restores them and drops an EV-powertrain into them, while keeping the same ride quality, power and more.
The U.K.-based startup showed off (and let us drive) an electric right-hand-drive Land Rover IIA on the roads around the Lodge at Pebble Beach, and it was a joy. The company managed to capture the character of the old Land Rover while making it completely electric. Everatti has created a Porsche 911 (969) RSR as well as the Pagoda, working with individual buyers to turn classics into EV-powered masterpieces.
These don’t come cheap though. Prices start around $225,000, and you’ll either have to find a donor car, or the company can help you do so. And if you’re a combustion engine purist, worried about matching serial numbers, never fear, Everatti hangs onto all the components should you ever want to convert the vehicle back to its original fuel-burning version.
Hispano Suiza Carmen Sagrera
Hispano Suiza Carmen SagreraImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
Hispano Suiza isn’t necessarily a household name, but the 120-year-old Spanish coachworks builder showed off its track-focused all-electric Carmen Sagrera, which makes a whopping 1,114 horsepower and 848 lb-ft of torque, powered by a 103 kW battery pack at The Quail. The company has been owned by the same Suqué Mateu family since 1904. Only 24 Sagreras will be made.
Karma Kaveya
Interior of the Karma KaveyaImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
Karma Automotive — not to be confused with the vehicle from the defunct automaker, Fisker — showed off its Kaveya, an EV with 1,000 horsepower, at The Quail on Friday.
The Karma Kaveya super coupe is the first vehicle developed by the California automaker following a deal the company has with Intel Automotive. While the exterior of the “software-defined vehicle architecture’’ (SDVA) is still in flux, the interior is “production ready,” with both companies stating that they plan to “benchmark, demonstrate and validate critical concepts for the advancement of open standards for SDVA that can be shared openly and commercially to support the transformation of the broader automotive industry.”
There’s a whiff of vaporware around the company, but we’ll have to wait and see how things shake out.
Kindred Motorworks EV Bronco
Kindred Motorworks EV BroncoImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
Kindred Motorworks brought its first all-electric Bronco to the events in and around Pebble Beach, and according to Howard, it brought considerable attention to the four-year-old restomod company. Kindred showed off an EV restomod, a restored 1960s-era Bronco, powered by two motors and an 80kWh battery pack at Motorlux, and shuttled attendees to the events at The Quail Lodge on Friday. The Bronco EV is the first fully electric Kindred vehicle that will be delivered to customers.
No Pebble event is complete until you’ve had more than one conversation (rudely) interrupted by a roaring Lamborghini. The company screamed onto the scene at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering with their successor to the Huracán; a plug-in hybrid Lambo sports car called the Temerario.
Rather than that raucous V10 that we’ve all come to, uh, recognize, the Temerario gets a V8 married to a very tiny 3.8 kW battery mounted down the center of the car to keep weight balance more even. That battery powers three motors mounted front and rear. Two mounted on the front axle give the Temerario the equivalent of an electric all-wheel drive system. The third is mounted between the engine and the eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission and helps manage torque between shifts.
The Temerario makes a peak combined horsepower of 907 hp, and Lamborghini has yet to certify how much electric range the new vehicle will get, but it should be on par with the Revuelto. Like most high-end automakers, Lamborghini continues to cling to its internal combustion engine history despite industry pressures to electrify.
RBW Roadster and GT
RBW RoadsterImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
While these two vehicles look like old MGs, underneath they’re all EV. They get an estimated 150 miles of range from a small 35kw battery nestled into the frame and come complete with all the modern amenities you could wish for, including Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay, crash sensors and air conditioning.
RBW is a U.K.-based startup and they’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to get these adorable, tiny, British-looking cars to be road legal both stateside and overseas. The company only plans to make just shy of 100 of these a year, but they have plans for a U.S.-based production location coming soon, which will help them scale. Colors and interiors are fully customizable and the Roadster is $139,0000 while the GT is $151,000.
Rimac Nevera R
Rimac Nevera RImage Credits: Abigail Bassett
The Croatian startup that merged with Bugatti wowed the crowd at The Quail this year with their juiced-up Nevera R — a hyper car with even more power than the Nevera. The R version makes 2,107 horsepower and does zero to 60 in less than 2 seconds.
Rimac promised more to come at future Quail events, teasing a “track-focused car that’s faster than any other track car.” The CEO told the gathered crowd that the company has “some work to do on the racetracks around the world before we show it here at Quail.” The Nevera R will be priced at around $2.5 million, and only 40 will be made.
For a particular price, Porsche will work with you to create the car of your dreams, thanks to their Sonderwunsch (Special Request) division — and build vehicles like this “Otto” yellow speedster (a color named after the owner, Luca Trazzi’s beloved dog) with the underpinnings of a 993 Carrera RS, enmeshed with a 1994 Porsche 911 Cabriolet, and a 993 Turbo.
Trazzi is a designer with a penchant for Speedsters and a robust collection of Porsches. According to reporting at Road & Track, he worked so closely with the Sonderwunsch group on the one-off project that he even got his own Porsche ID badge.
Spotify’s AI DJ feature, an AI guide that introduces personalized song selections, is now available in its first language outside of English. On Tuesday, Spotify announced the launch of an AI DJ that speaks Spanish, confirming TechCrunch’s earlier reports of the feature under development. Like the original AI DJ “X,” whose voice was based on an existing Spotify employee (Xavier “X” Jernigan), the Spanish-language voice is also based on a real person — in this case, Olivia “Livi” Quiroz Roa, a senior music editor at Spotify who resides in Mexico City.
Spotify’s AI DJ, which was first launched last year, is meant to serve as a smart audio guide that introduces music using a convincingly realistic voice. For Spotify, the feature isn’t just a way for it to dabble around with new AI technology, it’s also a way to increase the consumption of music on its app. According to its internal data, DJ users listen to a lot of music, and the use of the feature has continued to grow with an increase of more than 200% over the last year.
The AI DJ itself is built using technologies from both OpenAI and Sonantic, an AI voice platform Spotify acquired in 2022. DJ X was initially picked to model his voice for the AI, which uses the same slang terms and expressions as Jernigan does, in addition to duping the sound of his voice.
Meanwhile, Roa was chosen to be the newest voice for the AI DJ feature after an extensive casting call, Spotify said, during which the company found that her voice resonated the most with listeners. Listeners said the voice sounded relatable and as if they were listening to music recommendations from a friend, the company noted. X will not be going away with “Livi’s” launch, but rather customers will be able to pick which AI DJ they prefer, according to Spotify.
Image Credits: Spotify DJ "Livi"
“We have millions of Spanish-speaking listeners on Spotify, many of whom have been taking to social media to ask about DJ,” according to Spotify’s announcement. “In fact, over the last few months, we’ve seen an over 215% increase in social conversation around DJ in Spanish,” the company said.
In May, TechCrunch reported on the Spanish-speaking AI DJ feature, when new text referencing DJ “Livi” was added to the app’s code, alongside indications that the feature would become available in Mexico. However, Spotify’s announcement indicates “Livi” will become available to Premium listeners in markets where DJ X is already offered and other markets across Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
“Livi” is considered a “beta” test, for the time being.
To use “Livi,” Spotify Premium subscribers can access the feature from the Search tab on the app. From there, they must search for the term “DJ” and press play to begin using the DJ. To switch languages from an existing DJ, users must tap the three-dot menu within the DJ card, then pick between English and Spanish.
The type of overseas trip where you need multiple hotels, flights, activities, transfers, transport methods, and guides has traditionally been undertaken by travel agents. Since there’s no real-time pricing for such complex offerings, travelers have few other options. Spanish startup Exoticca set out to crack that nut and has now raised a €60 million Series D round led by Quadrille Capital.
The market for multiday tour packages is very large, but it’s one of the last areas of the travel industry to be digitized. Exoticca’s platform connects flights, hotels, meals, transfers, transportation and local companies. This makes it simpler to book these more complex packages and reduces costs by as much as 30%, the company claims.
Exoticca also claims to have more than doubled its sales year-over-year since 2015 and now operates in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico and Colombia through a network of travel and non-travel online and offline partners.
“The package tour was invented by Thomas Cook two centuries ago and has really not evolved in that time,” said Exoticca CEO Pere Vallès. “We’re bringing a model that is more digital, that allows us to sell these types of products online, that is more flexible, but has also some big advantages when it comes to cost and price.”
Exoticca competes to some extent with Tourlane, a planning and booking platform that helps travelers research and buy multiday tours online. Tourlane has raised $101 million to date.
However, Vallès said that Exoticca doesn’t “see them as competitors. They have a different model, which is more based on a marketplace. They don’t offer real-time pricing.”
His company is focused on “value for money,” Vallès said. “And this leads us to a customer that is middle class and upper middle class.” He added that 75% of Exoticca’s business is in the U.S. and Canada, “so it’s Americans and Canadians traveling to the 70 destinations that we offer,” from the company’s headquarters in Barcelona.
He said the objective is to expand into Latin America, the Middle East, India and China.
In a statement, Alejandra Duran Gil, partner at Quadrille Capital, said: “Exoticca’s strong financial foundation and the team’s exceptional execution are at the heart of our investment thesis.”
Also participating in this round were new investors, including All Iron and ICF and existing investors 14W, Mangrove, Bonsai, Sabadell and Aldea.
The type of overseas trip where you need multiple hotels, flights, activities, transfers, transport methods, and guides has traditionally been undertaken by travel agents. Since there’s no real-time pricing for such complex offerings, travelers have few other options. Spanish startup Exoticca set out to crack that nut and has now raised a €60 million Series D round led by Quadrille Capital.
The market for multi-day tour packages is very large, but it’s one of the last areas of the travel industry to be digitized. Exoticca’s platform connects flights, hotels, meals, transfers, transportation and local companies. This makes it simpler to book these more complex packages, as well as reduces costs by as much as 30%, the company claims.
Exoticca also claims to have more than doubled its sales year-over-year since 2015, and now operates in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico and Colombia through a network of travel and non-travel online and offline partners.
“The package tour was invented by Thomas Cook two centuries ago and has really not evolved in that time,” said Exoticca CEO Pere Vallès. “We’re bringing a model that is more digital, that allows us to sell these types of products online, that is more flexible, but has also some big advantages when it comes to cost and price.”
Exotticca competes to some extent with Tourlane, a planning and booking platform that helps travelers research and buy multi-day tours online. Tourlane has raised $101 million to date.
However, Vallès said that Exottica doesn’t “see them as competitors. They have a different model, which is more based on a marketplace. They don’t offer real-time pricing.”
His company is focused on “value for money,” Vallès said. “And this leads us to a customer that is middle class and upper middle class.” He added that 75% of Exottica’s business is in the U.S. and Canada, “so it’s Americans and Canadians traveling to the 70 destinations that we offer,” from the company’s headquarters in Barcelona.
He said the objective is to expand into Latin America, the Middle East, India and China.
In a statement, Alejandra Duran Gil, Partner at Quadrille Capital, said: “Exoticca’s strong financial foundation and the team’s exceptional execution are at the heart of our investment thesis.”
Also participating in this round were new investors including All Iron and ICF and existing investors 14W, Mangrove, Bonsai, Sabadell and Aldea.
If 11 figures is your attention threshold, you may be interested in learning that the combined enterprise value (EV) of Spanish startups surpassed €100 billion in 2023, according to Dealroom’s latest report on the Spanish tech ecosystem. As we’ll see, venture investment into Spanish startups also held up quite well, with €2.2BN raised across some 850 funding rounds.
Spain’s venture capital tally was lower last year than in 2021 and 2022; that’s no surprise as these years were outliers. Unlike other places, though, the country hasn’t fallen below pre-pandemic levels of activity. In 2019, for reference, Spanish startups had collectively raised €1.9BN in venture capital.
But first, there are several ways to look at Spain’s 11-figure startup EV. On the one hand, it puts Spain ahead of Norway, Italy or Portugal. On the other hand, with a combined value of $191BN, Cambridge’s tech ecosystem alone is almost worth double Spain’s. (With $1 worth €0.92 today, please forgive us for skipping conversions.)
A lot could be said on whether Spain is doing enough to support entrepreneurship — but for today, let’s stick to facts and numbers.
Adding time as a factor, France reached €100BN in combined startup EV six years ago, and Germany nine years ago. But the value of Spanish tech is also one of the fastest growing in Europe, Dealroom noted in a slide. Give them more time, and maybe some Spanish startups will become decacorns and more, too.
Here’s the funnel according to the report:
Image Credits: Dealroom
With a total of €2.2BN in venture investment, 2023 results moved the needle in the right direction, but mostly for the top of the funnel. Investment volume for “Early-stage” — pre-seed, seed and Series A — was at an all-time high last year, and the Series B and Series C stages remained strong. However, late stage activity was “quiet,” per Dealroom, with only two mega-rounds (into veteran data management platform Denodo, which has long since relocated to the US; and the data-driven events startup Fever.)
The slowdown in late stage activity isn’t unique to Spain but, like elsewhere, it could be a concern. Startup activity isn’t only a funnel: It is also supposed to be a circle.
For instance, high-profile scaleups often turn into founder factories; in Spain, it’s been the case with Fever, but also Cabify, job&talent, Glovo and wallbox. But without liquidity events, it becomes more difficult for former employees to become angels or start new companies.
That’s also a necessity on the VC side, with exits providing liquidity that can be reinjected into early stage deals. Without large M&As and IPOs, there’s always a risk funds will be deprived of capital to invest anew.
Spanish VCs don’t seem worried, though; time will do its thing, they suggest. Jaime Novoa, a partner at Kfund, commented in the report that he and his colleagues are “very confident that several companies being funded now will become scaleups in the next five to ten years.” He cited as a positive signal how early stage activity “remains very healthy.”
Not only is the early stage quite active, but the teams getting funded are also in line with what Europe may want to see more of. Most of 2023’s VC funding into Spanish startups went to climate tech, followed by biotech and clean energy. It is too early to tell how many of these could become centaurs, but it will definitely be worth tracking.
