Celonis vs Microsoft

Ahron Raises €2.2M for AI-Driven HR Automation

Munich-based HR tech startup Ahron has raised €2.2 million in a funding round led by Cusp Capital, with participation from angel investors including Sabine Kohleisen, former HR board member at Mercedes-Benz Group. Founded in late 2025 by Carl Hoffmann and Rado Pavlov, Ahron is developing an AI agent-based platform that automates HR processes across existing enterprise systems, addressing the fragmentation of HR software. The platform leverages Celonis's Process Intelligence to create digital twins of HR processes and includes a central control layer for defining policies and guardrails. Since the start of the year, Ahron has generated over €1 million in annual recurring revenue and secured customers in the US and Europe. The new funding will support product development, particularly the central control layer, and international expansion.

• Ahron raised €2.2 million in a funding round led by Cusp Capital.
• The funding round included participation from superangels and HR-sector business angels, including Sabine Kohleisen.
• Ahron was founded in late 2025 by Carl Hoffmann and Rado Pavlov.

Join us at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, Oct. 7, for the latest on Windows and Microsoft Surface

Microsoft announces an upcoming event on October 7, 2026, to share the latest on Windows and Microsoft Surface.

Remakes, Remasters, Sequels: Safe Bet But Threat to Innovation

The article discusses the rising trend of video game remakes, remasters, and sequels, which are seen as safe bets for the industry but are also criticized for stifling innovation. It cites data showing that industry layoffs have been heavy since the pandemic, and that most top-selling games in Germany are sequels or remasters. The author argues that nostalgia is a powerful marketing tool used by major publishers like Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft, but warns that an overreliance on nostalgia could harm the industry's long-term creativity. The article suggests that indie games can offer fresh experiences while still evoking nostalgia, and calls for gamers to be more open to new ideas beyond photorealism.

• Between 5,000 and 15,000 game workers lose their jobs annually since the Corona pandemic.
• Microsoft cut over 3,000 jobs in its Xbox division and shut down several studios.
• According to the German industry association Game, nine of the top 10 best-selling games in Germany in 2025 were sequels or new titles from old franchises.

Nadella's AI Pivot: Can He Reinvent Microsoft Again?

This article examines CEO Satya Nadella's efforts to transform Microsoft for the AI era. Despite a near $4 trillion market cap and early investment in OpenAI, Microsoft trails rivals like Nvidia, Anthropic, and Meta in key AI segments. The company is shifting from subscription-based pricing to consumption-based billing (UBB) for its AI products, starting with Copilot Cowork. GitHub Copilot has seen growth to 50 million users, but Microsoft lost its exclusive cloud relationship with OpenAI. Nadella promotes building a 'frontier ecosystem' rather than a single frontier model, integrating various AI models into Copilot. Challenges include sluggish Copilot adoption, competition from AI-native startups, and uncertainty among enterprise customers about usage-based costs.

• Microsoft's stock is up only 7% in 2026, trailing major peers and Nasdaq.
• GitHub Copilot reached 50 million users, up from 26 million in October 2025.
• Microsoft is shifting to usage-based billing (UBB) for AI products, starting with Copilot Cowork.