Fintechs go shopping
Welcome back to The Interchange, where we take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. If you want to receive The Interchange directly in your inbox every Sunday, head here to sign up!…
The most important metrics for SaaS funding in 2024
Today we're focusing on metrics and business environments that apply to most SaaS companies — not the unicorn outliers.
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Tesla releases the Cybertruck, Sam Altman officially returns to OpenAI, and Evernote cripples its free plan
Hi, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter that highlights some of the more noteworthy moments in tech over the past few days.…
Shein a light
We won't be getting our hands on a Shein filing just yet, but we can’t wait to.
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Deal Dive: Betting on beauty fads is big business
RepeatMD recently raised a $50 million Series A round to serve the exploding med spa industry that is built on consumer beauty trends.…
I’m watching ‘AI upscaled’ Star Trek and it isn’t terrible
For years, dedicated Star Trek fans have been using AI in an attempt to make a version of the acclaimed series Deep Space 9 that looks decent on modern TVs.…
Robotics Q&A with Meta’s Dhruv Batra
For the next few weeks, TechCrunch’s robotics newsletter Actuator will be running Q&As with some of the top minds in robotics.…
It’s time for a heat check on the subscription economy and its proposed value to customers
Companies employing subscription licensing have grown between three and four times faster than the S&P 500 over the past 12 years.…
23andMe says hackers accessed ‘significant number’ of files about users’ ancestry
Genetic testing company 23andMe announced on Friday that hackers accessed around 14,000 customer accounts in the company’s recent data breach. In a new filing with the U.S.…
Ev startup Fisker cut its 2023 production target for the fourth time
Fisker, the California-based EV startup, cut its annual production guidance in an effort to free up $300 million in working capital, the company said in a business update Friday.…
OpenAI’s GPT Store delayed to 2024 following leadership chaos
OpenAI’s app store for AI, the GPT Store, will not launch this year as previously announced, but rather on an unspecified date in early 2024, the company said.…
When Uncle Sam puts his thumb on your brake pedal
Welcome to Startups Weekly. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Hello, you scrumptious specimen of a human being.…
Amazon signs 3-launch deal with SpaceX for Project Kuiper satellite internet constellation
Amazon has purchased three Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX to support deployment of its Project Kuiper mega-constellation, the company said Friday.…
Good old-fashioned AI remains viable in spite of the rise of LLMs
Remember a year ago, all the way back to last November before we knew about ChatGPT, when machine learning was all about building models to solve for a single task like loan approvals or fraud protection?…
TC+ Roundup: Forestry tech is at an inflection point
Gathering data to monitor forests that are conserved or restored is tedious, leaving the door wide open for startups in the space.…
Bluesky rolls out automated moderation tools, plus user and moderation lists
Bluesky, the startup aiming to build a decentralized social network to take on Twitter/X, says it has begun deploying new safety tooling to help moderate content on the network through automation.…
Pitch Deck Teardown: Scalestack’s $1M AI sales tech seed deck
We're going to put the deck Scalestack used to raise its $1M seed round under the microscope to see what it got right, and where it could have done better.…
X says it will chase SMB ad dollars after Musk’s ‘go f*** yourself’ comments to fleeing advertisers
A new report by the Financial Times says X will now turn to small and medium-sized advertisers to shore up revenue after the company’s owner Elon Musk alienated big brands fleeing X over antisemitic content by telling them they could go fuck themselves during an interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit earlier this […]
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Why Rover’s $2.3B sale price makes good sense
The Rover deal is expensive, but it has some notable caveats that tell us quite a lot about the state of the market for tech, and tech-enabled, companies.…
Revenue-based financing heats-up in the Middle East as Flow48 attracts $25M in funding
We’ve seen how non-dilutive, revenue-based financing has risen up the priority ranks for companies as the era of ZIRP — as the Zero Interest Rate Period is now lovingly and somewhat longingly known — recedes into the distance, and securing venture capital funds becomes harder.…
Microsoft is in talks with partners about launching an Xbox mobile store
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says Microsoft is talking to partners about launching an Xbox mobile store, as first reported by Bloomberg.…
Amazon finds itself in the unusual position of playing catch-up in AI
"This might be the first time where people looked and said that Amazon isn't in the pole position to capitalize on this massive opportunity."…
Capsule’s new app combines AI and human editors to curate the news
A Paris-based startup called Capsule wants to transform the way users seek out their daily news. Instead of offering a standard news aggregator experience, Capsule’s mission is to become the “Spotify for news” by combining AI technology and human editorial curation to provide a news reading experience that transforms news articles, newsletter snippets, and even […]
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8 authors and their 8 gift book picks for this holiday season
Book blurbs have become a central part of the publishing industry: Who better to endorse a book than other authors and thought leaders?…
The end of Elon
Standing on the rear bed of his greatest boondoggle, his face obscured in shadow, the billionaire who built a rabid fanbase through seemingly inhuman feats of engineering and willpower cut a greatly reduced figure: Elon Musk was presiding over the first customer deliveries of a Tesla truck that, like most things Musk touched, was drastically […]
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The search and discovery marketplace
The benefits of a well-run marketplace are numerous: a far more valuable user experience for your customers, a differentiated product and new revenue streams.…
Montana’s ban on TikTok is now on hold
A ban on TikTok’s app in the state of Montana, enacted earlier this year, is now on hold. On Thursday, a U.S.…
Big wins for Latin America, climate tech momentum, and Rover’s $2.3B sale
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.…
Meta faces more questions in Europe about child safety risks on Instagram
Meta has received another formal request for information (RFI) from European Union regulators seeking more details of its response to child safety concerns on Instagram — including what it’s doing to tackle risks related to the sharing of self-generated child sexual abuse material (SG-CSAM) on the social network.…
Former SpaceX engineers build ‘vegetarian rocket engine’ to save the climate
Arbor is betting that an approach to carbon removal known as BiCRS will not only help balance the climate, but also benefit rural communities.…