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Hello to the daily crunchers.
I arrived in the U.S. on an IR1 visa after having been married to an American for more than two years. I became a naturalized citizen a short time ago. There is a lot of luck and privilege with my path to citizenship in the U.S.
I am so thankful for the team at TechCrunch and our friendly immigration lawyer, Sophie Alcorn. Walter is going to do a Q&A with her tomorrow, and she runs a great column on TechCrunch. Tomorrow at 12 p.m., you can set yourself a reminder. The time is 3 pm. You can hear it on Techcrunch.
Haje has a lot of international love.
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Taking a look at India’s streets: Google Street View made its debut more than a decade ago. Six years ago, India banned the service over security concerns. Jagmeet and Manish report that the tech company today relaunched Street View in India. It expects to roll out the service to 50 Indian cities by the end of the year.
- $52 billion for U.S. onshoring chip production: One surefire way to make something happen is financial incentives, and Brian reports how the U.S. Senate just threw $52 billion at the semiconductor industry for companies to manufacture computer chips on U.S. soil again, by way of the CHIPS Act.
- The little three-wheeled prototype that could: I took the Nimbus three-wheeled urban transportation pod for a spin last week, and found myself getting excited and confused in equal measure. I want it to exist, but at the same time, I’m struggling to imagine the vehicle finding a market, when its $10,000 price tag buys a lot of other cool transportation options.
Startups and VC
There is a gap in the market for advertising solutions that can work well without relying on cookieFunctionality. Seedtag, an ad tech startup based in Spain, is doing that. It raised a quarter of a billion dollars to double down on the opportunity.
Annie reports that internet use is low in most of Africa. Half of the top 10 most expensive countries to buy mobile data in the world are in Sub-Saharan Africa, which may be making it harder for investors to get involved in the region.
There's more startup magic.
- Finding your (medical) flow state: Pregnancy tests did it first; then we were all sticking cotton buds up our nose to see if we were pregnant with COVID-19. The era of at-home health diagnostics is here, and Senzo wants to bring a bunch of new at-home rapid tests to market.
- Paragon gets SaaSier: Paragon, a startup building a platform that integrates and aggregates various software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps, wants to be the Plaid of enterprise SaaS. It raised $13 million to get there, Kyle reports.
- Get off my urban lawn: Scooters on sidewalks is bad news for pedestrians. Drover AI raised a $5.4 million round to use computer vision to keep scooter riders off sidewalks, reports Rebecca.
- Coffee is for closers: Shypyard is a startup developing business planning products and services for brands and direct-to-consumer merchants. It aims to “raise the sales” for DTC merchants, and closed $3 million in seed funding, Christine writes.
- The sun even shines on a car’s roof some days: This week, Sono Motors unveiled the final production design of the Sion EV, a solar electric vehicle that’s been in the making since the Munich-based startup launched in 2016, Rebecca reports.
8 fintech investors discuss the shifting investing landscape and how to pitch them in Q3 2022
The image was created by James Osmond.
What are investors willing to invest in?
Mary Ann asked eight of them about the advice they are offering portfolio companies, how they expect the next few quarters to unfold and their pitch preferences.
- Paul Stamas, managing partner and co-head of financial services, General Atlantic
- Alda Leu Dennis, general partner, Initialized Capital
- Michael Gilroy, general partner and co-head of fintech, Coatue
- Justin Overdorff, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
- Addie Lerner, founder and managing partner, Avid Ventures
- David Jegen, managing partner, F-Prime Capital
- Nik Milanovic, general partner, the Fintech Fund
- Jay Ganatra, co-founder and managing partner, Infinity Ventures
8 fintech VCs discuss the shifting investing landscape and how to pitch them in Q3 2022
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Big Tech Inc.
Ivan brought the top Big Tech story for the day to us. In order to become the first place people go for discovery and planning pastimes, the company is increasing its efforts. Today the company announced three new features for its star navigation app, including aerial and more realistic views of 100 landmarks, more detailed cycling routes, and improved location sharing with notifications for the arrival and departure of your friends.
An open source project effectively sabotages their own software as a form of protest, and that's what Ax Sharma is going to discuss today as a contributor. Is it possible that it made an impact? One of the developers said they wouldn't know. It was worth the chance to spread information and hopefully catch the attention of software people in Russia who might not have seen what was happening otherwise.
There are a few more that you can keep an eye on.
- Blink and you’ll miss it: Netflix released its July slate of mobile games yesterday, adding a range of new titles. “Before Your Eyes” uses eye-tracking technology that progresses the story every time the camera detects that you’re blinking, Lauren reports.
- Who watches the watchers: TikTok will provide select researchers with more transparency about its platform and moderation system. The company says researchers currently don’t have an easy way to assess content or conduct tests on its platform, and it plans to make the API access available to select researchers later this year, Aisha reports.
- Running up those charts: Spotify said that streams of Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” jumped 9,000% after the song was featured prominently in a new episode of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and went crazy viral on TikTok, Amanda reports.
- Car no-thing: We barely knew ya, Car Thing: Spotify gives up on Car Thing hardware play, reports Ingrid.
- Intro: Roberto Baldwin takes a deeper look at the Zoox robotaxi design, complete with its cool carbon fiber hull, sensor suite and battery tech. “Zoox wouldn’t share projected range numbers but did say that the goal is to keep the vehicle in service for at least 16 hours.”
