iWorld
TO THE NEW Digital organises Tech-a-Thon
MUMBAI: TO THE NEW Digital recently organised a Tech-a-Thon, a programming event for the programmers and hackers community. The two-day event was co-sponsored by Aarvee Idealabs (LoudShout) and ShopClues.
Tech-a-Thon witnessed participation of 10 teams working 48 hours at a stretch to develop applications from scratch on different technology platforms including Grails, Node.js, MongoDB and Android. The winning team was from TO THE NEW Digital, which created an interactive chat application called Ping that offered features like messaging, video chat and video conferencing.
The winners were picked by a panel of industry experts like ShopClues.com CEO and co-founder Sanjay Sethi, TO THE NEW Digital CEO Deepak Mittal and e-commerce architect Amitabh Misra.
“We are really proud to co-sponsor Tech-a-Thon. This is a great initiative to enlighten this exciting ecosystem and bring together the tech community in order to explore new opportunities. This not only brings out news ideas but also some promote entrepreneurship,” said Mittal.
The event also had different workshops and sessions on niche technologies given by industry experts like Adobe director of engineering Ankush Sharma, Microsoft developer solutions architect Vivek Goyal, and B2B Startup founder and CTO Vangapelli Santhosh Kumar.
e-commerce
American Express to acquire AI startup Hyper to boost automation
Deal targets expense management as AI reshapes corporate spending tools.
MUMBAI: From receipts to robots, the expense sheet is getting a brain upgrade as American Express moves to bring artificial intelligence into the heart of corporate spending. The company has announced plans to acquire Hyper, a relatively young but fast-rising startup founded in 2022 that builds AI-powered agents capable of organising expenses, generating reports, verifying compliance with budgets and policies, and nudging users with timely reminders. The deal, expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, underscores a growing shift among financial institutions to automate traditionally manual, time-heavy workflows.
Hyper counts Sam Altman among its backers, adding a layer of Silicon Valley credibility to the acquisition. While financial details remain undisclosed, the strategic intent is clear: deepen automation capabilities and sharpen American Express’s position in the competitive corporate spending ecosystem.
The two companies are not strangers. They previously collaborated in 2024 on a co-branded credit card product, suggesting that the acquisition is less a cold buy and more an extension of an existing relationship. With this move, American Express is effectively bringing that capability in-house, aiming to embed AI directly into its commercial services stack.
Chief executive Stephen Squeri had already signalled the direction of travel in a recent shareholder letter, describing AI as a “structural shift” in how businesses operate. The Hyper acquisition appears to be a direct response to that shift, particularly in expense management, where processes such as approvals, compliance checks and reporting remain ripe for automation.
Alongside the acquisition, the company is also expanding its product suite. A recently launched business credit card offers cashback and benefits at an annual fee of $295, with another card expected later this year moves that complement its broader push into commercial services.
Taken together, the strategy points to a future where managing expenses may require fewer spreadsheets and more algorithms. For American Express, the bet is simple, if businesses are rethinking how work gets done, the tools that power that work need to evolve just as quickly.
