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| Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for December 15, 2021! Big news from TechCrunch this week, namely that our events are returning to your neighborhood next year! For a rundown of what we have currently planned, head here. But Disrupt, many Sessions and more are going IRL in 2022. I will see you there! âAlex Read More |
| | Image Credits: Nicole Henderson for TechCrunch |
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The TechCrunch Top 3 Katie Haun is leaving a16z: News is out today that Katie Haun is leaving a16z. Sheâs best known, TechCrunch notes, for co-leading the investing groupâs $2.2 billion crypto fund. Whatâs she off to do? Starting a new crypto fund, of course, and sheâs taking along some of her colleagues in the process. As far as crypto investing goes, this is seismic. Are rich tech valuations set to fall? As interest rates rise and are set to further scale next year, valuation pressure evident in the back half of 2021 could grow next year. That could mean lower top-tier revenue multiples for techâs highest fliers and perhaps compressed valuations for slower-growing public tech companies. For startups, the impact could be constrained comps and lower private-market pricing. The final tech IPO of the year:Â Capping off a busy IPO year, Samsaraâs IoT-themed public debut went well. The company priced at the top end of its range and traded up around 5% toward the end of its first day as a public company. Samsara is now worth comfortably more than $10 billion after raising hundreds of millions in its public offering. |
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Startups/VC TechCrunch covered far more startup news in the last 24 hours than I can include for you in our normal format. So, Iâve written blurbs for some of the most interesting items of the day, and then included links to others, in case you are diving deep this afternoon. This may be the largest party round weâve seen: Crypto custody concern Anchorage has raised a $350 million round that values it at more than $3 billion. Everyone and their dog took part in the round, including KKR, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, Apollo (hey, itâs the parents!), Blockchain Capital, BlackRock, PayPal Ventures, Lux Capital and others. Why? âBecause Anchorage received a federal banking charter, turning it into a digital asset bank,â TechCrunch reports. Norwest raises its biggest fund yet:Â Speaking of the $3 billion number, thatâs also the amount of money that investing group Norwest has raised for its 16th fund. Itâs also the largest capital pool that the tenured firm has raised to date. Perhaps we should just call the current venture capital cycle the Super Size Me era. Hong Kong accelerator raises $30M:Â While China figures out how to quash democratic voices and sentiment in Hong Kong, the cityâs startup scene is not entirely moribund. Evidence of that fact can be found in Brincâs recent Series B, worth some $30 million. The group is an accelerator that weâre most familiar with for its consumer hardware work, though it has expanded in scope in recent years. SQream buys Panoply:Â SQream is what TechCrunch described as a âwell-funded Israel-based data analytics platform.â And it has purchased âno-code data platform Panoply in an effort to expand its cloud services.â Panoply raised $24 million before selling to its new parent company. I would also like 10 points for not using the headline âYou SQream, I SQream, we all SQream for startup-to-startup no-code acquisitions.â Drone maker DJI makes the U.S. block list:Â Rising economic tensions between the United States and China are hitting more companies this week, with DJI and a half dozen other companies finding themselves on the U.S. naughty list. Why is DJI in trouble? Per TechCrunch, âalleged involvement in surveillance of Uyghur Muslims.â Seems like a pretty solid reason, frankly. Pool sharing makes a splash:Â Yep, you read that correctly. A startup focused on pool rentals from the consumer supply, well, pool, just raised a bunch of money. The startup is called Swimply. Presumably the name is a hybrid of âswimâ and âsimply,â even if it sounds like a neat acne nickname. Money, money, money: AI-powered VFX startup Wonder Dynamics raises $10M A round Brazilâs Olist gets its horn with new $186M funding round Proov raises $9.7M Series A for at-home ovulation testing platform For Course Hero, venture capital was once an unobvious solution Noname Security hits $1B valuation after $135M Series C raise Brazilian consumer credit startup Open Co raises $115M in SoftBank-led round And thereâs even more on TechCrunch.com! |
| | Image Credits: Anchorage Trading |
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| Launching a startup is inherently risky, but scaling up a company to succeed where others have failed spectacularly is a very bold move. San Francisco-based Ample is partnering with companies that manage EV fleets to swap its modular battery packs in and out of their vehicles. “Fourteen years ago, Better Place raised nearly a billion dollars to do what Ampleâs doing, and it ended up declaring bankruptcy,” reports Rebecca Bellan. In an extended interview with co-founder John de Souza, she asked about the company’s go-to-market strategy, its culture and why he’s certain Ample will succeed where others did not. “The economics and operations work very well because you donât need a large number at a single station to break even. With a small fleet, youâd have it at max 20 cars and it will break even. Thatâs what makes it so attractive. You donât need to deploy the stations until you have a customer.” (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Read More |
| | Image Credits: Bryce Durbin |
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Big Tech Inc. Amazon lowers Alexa cut:Â Developers building âskillsâ for the Alexa AI and smart-speaker line will see Amazon take a smaller cut of their revenues in the future, with the figure dropping from 30% to 20% âfor Alexa skill developers who earn less than $1 million in revenueâ for their work. A small change, but a welcome one. Aurora, Uber team up for autonomous freight: Recall that self-driving startup Aurora once bought Uberâs self-driving assets. The pair is still teaming up, this time with “Auroraâs self-driving trucks [hauling] goods for Uber Freight customers in Texas.â Apple backtracks on its CSAM scanning plan:Â After running into a wall of concern and complaint, Appleâs controversial plan to scan phones for child-abuse imagery has been removed from its website. |
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| | Image Credits: SEAN GLADWELL / Getty Images |
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