Nova Launcher has been acquired by Instabridge, which says it will keep the app maintained but is evaluating ad-supported options for the free version. Android Authority reports: Today, Nova Launcher announced that the Swedish company Instabridge has acquired it from Branch Metrics. Instabridge claims it wants to be a responsible owner of Nova and does not want to reinvent the launcher overnight. However, the launcher still needs a sustainable business model to support ongoing development and maintenance. To this end, Instabridge is exploring different options, including paid tiers and ad-supported options for the free version. The new owners claim that if ads are introduced, Nova Prime will remain ad-free. However, this is misleading, as ads are already here for some users. Last year, the founder and original programmer of Nova Launcher left the company, signaling its "death" as he had been the sole developer working on the launcher for the past year.

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On Friday, OpenAI announced it will begin testing advertisements inside the ChatGPT app for some US users in a bid to expand its customer base and diversify revenue. The move represents a reversal for CEO Sam Altman, who in 2024 described advertising in ChatGPT as a "last resort" and expressed concerns that ads could erode user trust, although he did not completely rule out the possibility at the time.

The banner ads will appear in the coming weeks for logged-in users of the free version of ChatGPT as well as the new $8 per month ChatGPT Go plan, which OpenAI also announced Friday is now available worldwide. OpenAI first launched ChatGPT Go in India in August 2025 and has since rolled it out to over 170 countries.

Users paying for the more expensive Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers will not see advertisements.

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OpenAI says that users impacted by the ads will have some control over what they see.

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Scowtt, a Seattle-based startup that wants to reshape how advertisers optimize paid campaigns, raised $12 million in Series A funding round led by New York venture firm Inspired Capital.

Founded in 2024, Scowtt helps companies analyze their first-party CRM data to predict who is most likely to convert and how valuable they’ll be. Then it sends those predictions to ad platforms as enhanced signals to help boost return on ad spend and conversions without requiring marketers to change their existing tools, the company said.

Founder and CEO Eduardo Indacochea told GeekWire that the 10-person startup has $3.2 million in annual recurring revenue.

Scowtt also uses AI to interact with prospects and schedule calls. The company’s longer-term ambition is to grow beyond ad optimization into a broader, AI-driven “operating system for growth” that connects marketing and sales using the intelligence already embedded in a customer’s CRM.

Scowtt is targeting enterprise advertisers that rely on lead generation and other performance-driven models across search and social.

The company’s timing reflects two trends: the industry’s accelerating push toward first-party data as privacy rules tighten, and the rise of AI as the new performance lever in paid media. U.S. internet ad revenue grew nearly 15% in 2024 to $258.6 billion, and more growth is expected in 2025.

Indacochea spent more than 13 years at Microsoft before leadership stints at Google and most recently Meta, where he was a vice president in advertising.

Abhishek Priya, Scowtt’s head of engineering, was director of engineering at Everlaw and is a former engineering manager at Meta. Eric Schwartz, chief revenue officer, was an exec at Scibids Technology and MiQ.

Scowtt was previously featured in GeekWire’s Startup Radar spotlight.

LiveRamp Ventures, Angeles Investors, and Angeles Ventures also invested in the Series A round. Total funding to date is $13 million, including a $1 million pre-seed round last year.