You know what that means, it’s Week in Review (WiR) time. For starters, WiR is where TechCrunch summarizes all the tech news for the week. It’s like the morning paper, but in a digital format and without any non-technical extraneous stuff. So… it doesn’t look like much of a paper, but it’s very much worth reading (in this reporter’s humble opinion).
Click here to receive WiR every Saturday. And scroll down for a roundup of this edition. Don’t forget to check out TechCrunch’s upcoming event line-up, including the mega-conference Disrupt at
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Crash and Burn: Virgin Orbit is furloughing about 85% of its workforce to further cut costs after the troubled space company said it was unable to secure additional funding to continue operations. The news, which Virgin Orbit filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, comes just two weeks after the company laid off all employees and went into a “suspension of operations” to find more cash. That’s what I mean.
Date during tax filing: There’s a new anime dating sim to take care of your taxes – and it really works. Amanda is a game produced by MSCHF, a venture-funded creative studio with projects like Push Party and Lil Nas X’s Blood Shoes , I played Tax Heaven 3000. the verdict? If you don’t mind risking sharing your personal information with an anime girl obsessed with tax procedures, it’s not the most comfortable way to file your return.
Alternative TikTok: As US lawmakers push ahead with plans to ban or force sell TikTok, the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is pushing another social platform to the top charts of the US App Store. ByteDance-owned app Lemon8, which describes itself as a “lifestyle community,” dove into one of the most downloaded slots in the US App Store on Monday, becoming the 10th overall app for both apps and games. .
Groupon has a new CEO. Groupon, which rose to prominence for its online group-buying format, has appointed Dusan Senkypl as interim CEO.As Ingrid Groupon has 14 million active users, but the company’s financials have been slowly declining almost consistently over the past decade. Core business models have stagnated, diversification efforts have been largely unsuccessful, revenues are declining, and losses continue.
Get your own Lyft: Lyft may ditch its carpool service again, but that’s a few things the company’s newly appointed CEO, David Risher, can do to focus on Lyft’s core ride-hailing business and make a profit. Just one of the changes. Risher said Rebecca Wider interviews have said other features may also be eliminated, such as a Wait & Save option that allows passengers in certain regions to pay cheaper fares if they wait for the best-located driver. .
Twitter’s API will be paid. After weeks of stalling, Twitter finally announced its new API pricing structure on Wednesday. The three tiers include a minimal free tier, primarily for content posting bots, a basic tier of $100/month, and an expensive enterprise tier. Subscribe at any level to access Twitter’s advertising API at no additional charge.
Hard time, big cut in valuation: mannish Some of India’s biggest startups have reportedly seen their valuations fall, at least in the eyes of investors, as some proponents adjusted their estimates amid a weakening global economy. increase. BlackRock has cut the valuation of Byju’s, his $22 billion start-up, India’s most valuable, almost in half to his $11.5 billion. Invesco.
Ledger wins big: French startup Ledger has added nearly €100 million ($108 million) to its Series C funding round. romance I am writing. The company’s flagship product is a hardware crypto wallet that looks like a USB key and offers a high level of security with a small screen for confirming transactions on the device.
Supply chain attack: Multiple security firms have sounded the alarm about active supply chain attacks targeting downstream customers using trojanized versions of 3CX’s popular voice and video calling client. curly I am writing. This malware is a particularly dangerous breed that can collect system information and steal data and saved credentials from user profiles in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave and Firefox.
Canoo settles with SEC: Electric vehicle startup Canoo has agreed to a $1.5 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to regulatory filings. The SEC will begin investigating his Canoo in May 2021, looking at the startup’s operations, business model, earnings, revenue strategy, customer engagements, earnings, and certain company executives, including co-founder and CEO Ulrich Kranz. focused on retirement.
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TechCrunch’s podcasting performance continued to be strong this week. The equity crew talked about AI, crypto and equity crowdfunding. completion Left fielder — Former startup founder looking to bribe China. Meanwhile, Found interviewed Angela Hoover, her CEO and co-founder of her Andi, an ambitious generative AI search chatbox company. At TechCrunch Live, AtoB co-founder Harshita Arora and Contrary Capital founder and partner Eric Tarczynski shared the red flags investors are watching: the VC and startup worlds are “girl geniuses.” We talked about how we react to “boy geniuses.” problems in the transportation industry.
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TC+ subscribers have access to detailed commentary, analysis, and research. You will know this if you are already a subscriber. If not, please consider signing up. Here are this week’s highlights:
Crypto on the rise: “Crypto-focused venture capital investors are doing their job well.” Jacqueline I am writing. Many remain confident in their investment strategies despite a weak Q1 crypto startup funding market, but others are noticing a sharp decline in the pace of investment. There is also
AI is the new oil. Being an AI company has become an everyday soup for startups. Companies are rushing to embed AI into their existing business models or change their marketing to bring to the fore and center what they were already quietly doing with AI. And Y Combinator’s latest class is no exception. Rebecca report.
The substack turns into its writer: Alex wrote about Substack’s efforts to crowdfund a venture-scale expansion round. The platform, popular with writers and known for its email service, has attracted more than $5 million in donations from the community and the internet at large towards its Series B expansion.
Take a look at the Swedish startup scene. After Techstars’ decision to discontinue its Swedish accelerator program, Alex and Anna We decided to delve into the country’s startup scene to understand how one small venture market is adapting to the changed investment landscape.
