Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Outschool laid off a quarter of staff, or 43 people, earlier this week, according to an e-mail obtained by TechCrunch. The edtech company, last valued
Hello again! Greg here again with Week in Review. WiR is the newsletter where we take the most read TechCrunch stories from the last seven days and wrap them up in as few words as possible — no fluff, no nonsense,* just a quick blast of everything you probably want to know about in tech
Bloomberg’s Ed Ludlow dives into why Meta may remove news from Facebook and Instagram if Congress passes a bill that would empower smaller news outlets to negotiate compensation from tech companies. Plus, the EU rules Meta shouldn’t require users to agree to personalized ads based on their online activity.
Hello and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. We are nearly at the end of the year, so your friendly, local podcast crew is trying to make sense of just what happened in 2022. We started the year on a venture
This column would like to apologize for somehow missing the buildup to Getaround‘s SPAC combination, which was voted on yesterday and began trading this morning. I don’t know how we managed to get so far behind on this particular news item, but we will rectify our tardiness today. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money.
One of the biggest hurdles to decarbonizing the grid is getting electricity from point A to point B. But that’s often easier said than done. Today, nearly a terawatt of zero-carbon generating capacity is waiting to be hooked up to the grid. That’s enough to decarbonize 80% of U.S. electricity by the end of the
The team at DocSend discovered that more and more successful slide decks have something in common: a very good summary slide. In this article, we will look at a bunch of great examples culled from my TechCrunch Pitch Deck Teardown series and detail what needs to go on the slide. Why you need a summary
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. We’ve made it to Friday, folks. If you’re anything like me, that means finishing the workday with a well-deserved nap and reruns of “The Office.” Tweet, toot or Post at me about
Vanguard announced earlier this week that it was leaving the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, a nascent attempt by the industry to self-regulate its carbon emissions. Its departure reinforces the need for government oversight of climate risks in investments. Absent legal, financial or professional repercussions, industry self-regulation is often little more than window dressing so
Primer, a U.K. startup founded by alums of Braintree and PayPal that provides a drag-and-drop framework for merchants to build online payment stacks, last year raised $50 million at a $425 million valuation from investors like ICONIQ, Accel, Balderton Capital and Seedcamp — a round the came amid a bullish period for e-commerce, with record-levels
Fire TV is now available on the Echo Show 15. In September, Amazon announced it was soon bringing its Fire TV experience to its larger, 15.6-inch wall-mounted Echo, offering consumers a way to access a combination smart speaker, smart home hub and TV-like device at a relatively affordable price point — it’s currently selling for
Brodmann17, an Israeli computer vision technology startup that developed a novel approach to take on a marketplace dominated by Mobileye, shut down this week. Brodmann17’s co-founder and CEO Adi Pinhas posted a message on LinkedIn announcing the move, stating that while the company would not be able to bring its products to the mass market
Microsoft today announced that it acquired Lumenisity, a U.K.-based startup developing “hollow core fiber (HCF)” technologies primarily for data centers and ISPs. Microsoft says that the purchase, the terms of which weren’t disclosed, will “expand [its] ability to further optimize its global cloud infrastructure” and “serve Microsoft’s cloud platform and services customers with strict latency
I have nothing against the investor class, but sitting in a room with several VCs while I try to sell them on my billion-dollar idea sounds very stressful. When an investor inevitably asks founders about their valuation expectations, it is a trick question of the highest order. If the response is too high, it’s a
Elon Musk’s desire to stir conspiratorial shit up by giving select outsiders aligned with his conservative agenda access to Twitter systems and data could land the world’s richest man in some serious doodoo with regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. In recent days, this access granted by Musk to a few external reporters has
Keeping fit doesn’t need a lot of technology. A decent pair of running shoes and an exercise mat might just do it. But of course sometimes a little extra tech can give an inspiring boost — so long as whatever it is is useful, accessible and can move with you. The smart spot for fitness
On Thursday, Disney+ launched its first-ever ad-supported plan, “Disney+ Basic,” in the U.S. at $7.99 per month, which is the same price as the previous ad-free plan before Disney raised the price to $10.99/month. However, Roku users wanting to switch to the new plan are out of luck — at least for now. According to Disney
Ubie, a Tokyo-based startup providing an AI-powered symptom checker app and hospital SaaS products, has closed a $19 million extension to its previous Series C round. This brings the health tech startup’s total funding to $45.2 million in Series C. The extension round consists of 90% equity and 10% debt financing, according to the co-founder
Rule one: Don’t throw out a number Evan Fisher 10 hours Evan Fisher Contributor Founder of Unicorn Capital and Minimal Capital, Evan Fisher‘s pitching and investor strategy has helped startups raise more than $2.5 billion. More posts by this contributor The pre-pitch: 7 ways to build relationships with VCs Don’t send VC a cold deck
David Rusenko Contributor David Rusenko is a full-time climate tech investor. He was previously the founder and CEO of Weebly, which sold to Square in 2018. Leeor Mushin Contributor Leeor Mushin is a principal at Floodgate Fund, where he focuses on application SaaS, climate and healthcare. He also is the co-founder of the GSB 20|20
After weeks of rumors, Getir has announced that it is acquiring Gorillas. This is a major consolidation deal for the instant grocery delivery space. The Financial Times first reported that Getir has closed the acquisition of its competitor. TechCrunch has confirmed the news with Getir. “Markets go up and down, but consumers love our service
Komi, a personalized website page builder tool for influencers and celebrities to create and customize a landing page to promote their projects, today closed a $5 million seed round led by Contour Venture Partners. Launched in October 2021, Komi is designed to provide content creators, musicians, athletes, celebrities and other creative talent and personalities alike
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello, Happy Thursday. There is a lot of news today, much of it posting as I write this — for example, the Federal Trade Commission is now suing to block Microsoft from
Artificial intelligence is taking over almost every industry. The investment and finance industry is no exception. In Deloitte’s 2019 report, the firm reveals that AI is transforming the financial ecosystem to reduce costs and make operations more efficient by providing automated insights and alternative data, analysis and risk management. Technology such as AI has digitized
How do you know when you have a hit on your hands? When your competitors complain about it. Over the weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act constituted a “new assertive industrial policy” and that Europe needed a “structural answer.” Von der Leyen’s measured words contrast with
Virgin Orbit is retargeting a launch that was supposed to take place as soon as next week from Cornwall, England — and that was to be the first spaceflight to depart from British soil — due to additional technical to-dos and remaining regulatory hurdles. In a statement, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said the company
Cameo today launched Cameo Kids, its new video messaging service that features personalized videos from popular animated characters like Thomas the Tank Engine, JJ, Cody, Cece and Nina from “CoComelon,” Blippi from “Blippi Wonders,” True from Netflix’s “True and the Rainbow Kingdom,” as well as an animated Santa Claus. Today’s launch is notable as it
If you told me that a company that’s charging $70 per month for multivitamins would be able to raise a $10 million round, I’d demand to see the receipts, and I’d be very curious indeed to see its pitch deck. It looks like today is my lucky day! Rootine is the company, and the founders
As part of Airtable’s decision to cut 20% of staff, or 254 employees, three executives are “parting ways” with the company as well, a spokesperson confirmed over email. The chief revenue officer, chief people officer and chief product officer are no longer with the company. Airtable’s chief revenue officer, Seth Shaw, joined in November 2020