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Hello and welcome to the start of another week. As mentioned last Friday, haje is out of scuba diving, leaving the rest of us to pick up the Twitter and FTX bits. No worries, we’re here for you. Mary-Ann We begin with a report on SoftBank writing a nearly $100 million investment in FTX. And with that, let’s dig! — Christina
TechCrunch’s top 3
- This FTX company has a wide reach: Tags reports on what happens to a young company that had assets in FTX and can no longer access it because of, well, you know. In this case, African web3 startup Nestcoin said it had to lay off employees for not having this access.
- A real comparison: Now Europeans can experience the joy and wonder of the Klarna price comparison tool, which Paul perhaps just writes a “credible alternative to Google and Amazon”.
- Oops: Bird, a micromobility company, told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it included unpaid customer rides in its revenue, having overstated that particular number for two years. Jaclyn see you.
Startups and VCs
At this point, we all expect our data to change fairly quickly, but there’s so much of it that it’s still a headache. This is where Quix comes in, Mike writing. The real-time data startup scooped up $12.9 million in Series A funding, not doing so with ksqlDB, Java-based solutions, or any of those fancy SQL-based analytics solutions. Oh no, Quix develops event apps with Python.
And we have five more for you:
- The show must continue: Just because FTX is in trouble doesn’t mean other companies are hesitant to partner up. Jacqueline reports market Joepegs NFT, which raised $5 million in a round co-led by FTX and Avalanche.
- “Friendships between adults are capricious beasts”: Indeed they are, but fear not, 222 will help you find that perfect friend who doesn’t care if you earn more than them or who “tends to be lazy”, if that’s what you love, Kyle writing.
- Singapore, prepare your exotic taste buds: Vow, an Australian cultured meat company, has gobbled up $49.2m in Series A funding to bring its first cell-based meat product to restaurants in Singapore, Christina writing.
- Take Action: Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future has signed a $350 million funding deal to hopefully break out of its previous monetary challenges and launch its first vehicle, Jaclyn reports.
- “The sun is a ball of ass”: Butter, now with $9 million in funding, led by Gradient Ventures, helps small food distribution companies comply with food safety regulations, Katherine writing.
Preparing for the second decade of fintech: 4 steps your business needs to take now
Picture credits: Emilie Manevska (Opens in a new window) /Getty Pictures
According to consultant Grant Easterbrook, fintech startups hoping to succeed in the next few years need to be prepared for:
- Big banks and financial service providers with loyalty programs and “super apps”.
- Emerging DeFi protocols “that can offer financial products involving real-world assets.”
- Banking services, invoicing, loans, payments, accounting presented in the form of “integrated financial products”.
- Several countries issuing their own central bank digital currency (CBDC).
“Your business will need a very strong value proposition to compete against all four types of competitors,” writes Easterbrook, who shares his ideas for navigating the next decade of fintech in a TC+ guest post.
Two others from the TC+ team:
- Do you see, mom? Layoffs can teach us something: Big tech layoffs haven’t been great, but Natasha M writes that while we could see more, entrepreneur Nolan Church, who helped lead Carta’s 2020 layoffs as chief human resources officer, has some perspective on Twitter’s recent layoffs.
- If VCs aren’t investing in you, who are they investing in?: That’s what Beca discusses in his latest article which examines all the dry powder in the VC world and why it is not yet deployed.
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.
And just like that, India’s VLC download ban has been lifted, pot holder reports. Nine months ago, the country’s Ministry of Electronics and Computers instituted a ban on the popular media player software, something VLC attempted to reverse, saying the ban had been “put up without notice” and did not allow VLC a chance of rebuttal.
Natasha L has more on our favorite social media channel, this time writing that “Twitter no longer fulfills the main obligations required to claim Ireland as its ‘so-called primary place of business’ under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. European Union”. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
And we have five more for you:
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