Blank-check companies may be little more than a quick way to de-horn unicorns Alex Wilhelm Anna Heim 12 hours Yesterday, we asked how low SPAC-led public debuts could go, and the answer was very close to zero. Some now-public companies that rode blank-check companies to the public markets have seen 90% or more of their
It’s an exciting day for Studio Ghibli fans — fans in the United States and Canada, that is. The majority of Studio Ghibli’s film catalog has just been released to major digital rental platforms, such as Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft and Vudu, a report by Variety confirms. For the first time, Studio Ghibli’s films can
The first major subsidy contract under the U.K. Government’s £5 billion ($5.9 billion) Project Gigabit scheme has officially been awarded, with Wessex Internet securing £6 million ($7 million) to connect remote properties in South West England to high-speed broadband. In a world that has rapidly embraced remote work over the past couple of years, the
Ben Boissevain Contributor Ben Boissevain is the founder of Ascento Capital, a boutique investment bank that provides advisory services for M&A, capital raises and valuations to technology companies in the U.S. and internationally. More posts by this contributor Mark-to-market to arrive at a realistic valuation and improve your fundraising odds How to prepare for M&A,
Keyboard tech licensing startup Fleksy has expanded its SDK offering with an eye on winning over indie devs and app makers with an accessible, SaaS-like platform entry-point to its software licensing business. CEO Olivier Plante says Fleksy now has a dozen enterprise customers for its keyboard SDK — which offers a suite of features like
Oxwash, a UK startup that’s spent the last few years applying high tech processes to shrink the environment cost of dry cleaning and commercial laundry, has trousered £10 million (~$12M) in Series A funding to expand its nationwide footprint. Currently its service is available in five UK cities: London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester but
Twitter is launching its Circle feature — which lets you post a tweet to a select set of people — globally. The company started testing this Instagram “Close Friends”-like feature in limited beta in May, and now it’s making it available to all users. Users can add up to 150 people to their Circle, and
More than three years in the making, the UK government today announced a new, sweeping set of rules it will be imposing on broadband and mobile carriers to tighten up their network security against cyber attacks — aimed at being “among the strongest in the world” when they are rolled out, said the Department for
Digital avatar startup Genies, known its for high-profile partnerships with celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Migos and Cardi B, has just released its long-anticipated NFT storefront, “The Warehouse.” Genies last earned a $1 billion valuation from heavy-hitting tech investors including Silver Lake and Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital during its most recent raise, a $150 million
Headquartered in Singapore, proptech startup Propseller is on a mission to make real estate transactions more efficient and data-driven for sellers and buyers alike. Its platform is able to tell users the likelihood of a conversion each step of the way. Today Propseller announced it has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by
Glints, one of Southeast Asia’s largest talent development and recruitment platforms, announced today it has raised $50 million in an oversubscribed Series D. The round was co-led by DCM Ventures, Lavender Hill Capital and returning investor PERSOL Holdings. This brings Glints’ total raised so far to $80 million. As part of the investment, Lavender Hill
A Pakistani startup, which has taken inspiration from China’s JD.com and India’s Flipkart to build a managed marketplace of electronics products, said on Tuesday it has raised seed funding from scores of investors including PayPal founder Peter Thiel. Launched in March 2020 — just two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world — the
Pakistani fintech PostEx has acquired logistics service provider Call Courier, creating what it describes as the largest e-commerce service provider in the country. PostEx will now serve 1.3 million users with over 8,000 merchants across 500 cities in Pakistan, and is on track to having a loan book of more than $12 million. The acquisition
Don’t you hate it when, after going just five or 10 meters underwater, you lose signal completely? Now this vexing limitation of modern technology is being addressed by researchers at the University of Washington, who have made an underwater communication app that uses sonic signals to pass messages to your other submerged friends. It may
Today, NBC launched a new channel subscription on Apple Podcasts called “Dateline Premium,” an ad-free plan that includes a seven-day free trial and costs $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year. Subscribers get ad-free episodes, early access to new content and exclusive bonus material. NBC’s “Dateline” podcasts go more in-depth into true crime stories. Titles
For a brief moment earlier in the ongoing pandemic, it appeared that there was a solution for the backlog of richly priced startups that needed to provide their backers with liquidity: SPACs. SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are paper companies taken public with capital attached that then combine with a private entity, effectively bootstrapping
Fresh regulations are often met with skepticism from startup founders, but digital lenders in Kenya largely seem to be upbeat about the new Digital Credit Providers law, saying it will bring order to the sector. The chairman of the Digital Lenders Association of Kenya, Kevin Mutiso, sounded optimistic about the impending new regulatory environment, saying
Initialized Capital was venture capitalist Garry Tan’s answer to a need first highlighted by Y Combinator. As a partner at the accelerator from 2010 to 2015, Tan spent time working with companies to better understand what they needed from investors after they graduated. “I literally built the seed fund that I wanted to exist for
Amid economic uncertainty, founders should know what makes VCs skittish Rebecca Bellan 13 hours The past few months have hit the startup community where it hurts — the balance sheet. With inflation rates at record highs, a recession on the horizon and threats of a long winter by venture capital giants like SoftBank, VC money is
Meta announced today that it will now let users post their NFTs across both Instagram and Facebook. Users can connect their wallets like Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet to post digital collectibles minted on Ethereum, Polygon and Flow. “As we continue rolling out digital collectibles on Facebook and Instagram, we’ve started
Millions around the world suffer strokes every year, and millions more are in recovery from one they’ve suffered. Regaining the use of affected limbs and capabilities is a long road, but one that can be shortened by intensive rehabilitation efforts — which Neurofenix has shown can take place in the home rather than during frequent
Al Yankovic, the 62-year-old parody artist known as Weird Al, is getting his own equally weird biopic this fall. The trailer for “WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story” gives a first look at the movie, exploring the wacky world of Weird Al, his hilarious cover songs and his Polka obsession. “WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story” premieres
African genomics startup 54gene has laid off 95 employees, or about 30% of its LinkedIn-sourced 290+ employees. A company’s spokesperson confirmed the news after several sources informed TechCrunch of the layoffs last week. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, the three-year-old startup seeks to address the gap in the global genomics market where less
StarTree, a company building what it describes as an “analytics-as-a-service” platform, today announced that it raised $47 million in a Series B round led by GGV Capital with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and CRV. In an email interview, co-founder and CEO Kishore Gopalakrishna said that the proceeds will be put toward doubling
Tahem Verma Contributor Tahem Verma is the co-founder and CEO of Mesha, a smart management tool for web3 startups and DAOs. The crypto bear market shows no signs of letting up, and it has already taken its pound of flesh from more than a few emerging web3 and crypto projects, not counting the ones it
Mermade Seafoods is out to disrupt the $8 billion global scallops market with its circular cellular agriculture technology approach for producing cultivated scallops. The Israeli company was founded in July 2021 by CEO Daniel Einhorn, CTO Dr. Rotem Kadir and COO Dr. Tomer Halevy. Einhorn, who has Navy — which explains his love of the
Snapchat is bringing its “Dual Camera” feature front and center on the app’s main camera toolbar. Starting today, the feature will be available for iOS users on iPhone XS/XR or above, with Android compatibility rolling out in the coming months. As its name suggests, dual camera lets Snapchat users take photos and videos using their
Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous
Aston Martin is using its upcoming Valhalla high-performance plug-in hybrid to develop a playbook for its future EVs. Executives said that the 937-horsepower Valhalla supercar exhibited at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday showcases lessons in driver engagement, visual effects and sound that could surface in its first EV in 2025. “If we get
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this month, puts the U.S. on the path toward realizing its carbon reduction goals, in part by spurring its EV market. It has also plunged that same market into short-term chaos by requiring entire supply chains to be restructured in just a few