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Hello, crunchy crunchies! If you’ve slacked off and haven’t bought yourself a Disrupt ticket yet, that’s cool, we still love you. But here’s a good tip: this is your last chance to get super early bird tickets, so maybe get there as early as possible! — Christina And haje
TechCrunch’s top 3
- All roads lead to acquisition: pot holder writes that after Japanese Geniee acquired AdPushup operator Zelto for $70 million. He called the deal a “remarkable turnaround” for Zelto, a company that has had a few near-death experiences, including cash flow and product market adjustment issues, in its 10-year history.
- Sweet (South) Carolina, bup, bup, bup: VW-backed Scout Motors plans to build a $2 billion factory in South Carolina to produce its all-electric vehicles. Tim Stevens see you.
- Fine: pot holder also writes about India’s central bank fining Amazon’s payment unit more than $370,000, claiming the company failed to meet certain know-your-customer guidelines.
Startups and VCs
While most established automotive players make the decisions from sprawling corporate palaces, Scout bases much of its operations — at least for now — out of a WeWork near Washington, DC, Tim Stevens reports. Scout Motors’ base of operations will eventually “anchor” near the $2 billion plant in South Carolina that was announced on Friday, and the company plans to bring rugged, retro credibility to the era of electric vehicles.
And we have five more for you:
To fix the climate, these 10 investors are betting the house on the ocean
Picture credits: Liang Wendong/VCG (Opens in a new window) /Getty Pictures
Harnessing the ocean for energy has led to disasters like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which released nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Today, wind energy and wave action are just two technologies that are causing investors to take a closer look. to ocean conservation technology, reports Tim De Chant. To learn more about the opportunities they are looking for and to find out how climate change is shaping their investment thesis, he asked:
- Daniela V. Fernandez, Founder and CEO of Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Managing Partner at Seabird Ventures
- Tim Agnew, General Partner, Bold Ocean Ventures
- Peter Bryant, Program Manager (Oceans), Builders Initiative
- Kate Danaher, Managing Director (Oceans and Seafood), S2G Ventures
- Francis O’Sullivan, Managing Director (Oceans and Seafood), S2G Ventures
- Stephan Feilhauer, Managing Director (Clean Energy), S2G Ventures
- Sanjeev Krishnan, Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer, S2G Ventures
- Rita Sousa, Partner, Faber Ventures
- Christian Lim, Managing Director, SWEN Blue Ocean Partners
- Reece Pacheco, Partner, Propeller
Three others from the TC+ team:
Tech Crunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get a head start. You can register here. Use code “DC” to get 15% off an annual subscription!
Big Tech inc.
It was only a matter of time before another company tried to emulate what Instacart has to offer. Today it’s Uber. Rebecca writes that Uber is coming to Instacart with some updates to its year-old Shop and Pay feature, which lets delivery people choose to receive trips for groceries or other retail purchases for customers before dropping off orders at the customer’s door. “Basically, it’s Uber’s attempt to follow the Instacart model, which works well for the incumbent grocery delivery company,” she reports.
Self-driving trucking company Embark Trucks, which went public in 2021, is currently laying off about 230 workers as it plans to liquidate its self-driving truck assets, Kirsten reports.
And now, here are six more for your Friday:
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