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The rest of the team was hard at work, so here are some of the highlights from the last week.
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Talking to yourself just went digital: Instead of having that internal monologue stay in your head, now you can play out all of your thoughts to yourself in WhatsApp, Jagmeet writes. The messaging platform began rolling out an easier way to talk to yourself today after completing beta testing.
- “Great Wall of porn”: That’s how Rita and Catherine describe the bot surge in China that is making it difficult to get any legitimate Twitter search results when trying to find out something about Chinese cities. Why, you ask? Rita writes that “the surge in such bot content coincides with an unprecedented wave of (COVID) protests that have swept across major Chinese cities and universities over the weekend.”
- Your calendar, only more productive: Get ready for your calendar to be more than just a place to record things you have to do that day. Romain writes about Amie, a startup that grabbed $7 million to link your unscheduled to-do list with your calendar. The app also enables users to be social with coworkers.
Startups and VC
The second round of layoffs at SWVL affected 50% of the company's remaining staff. Six months after SWVL laid off 32% of its workforce, the news is coming.
There are more funds in town. Mike wrote about BackingMinds raising a new 50 million fund to fund normally overlooked entrepreneurs.
We have more for you.
Lessons for raising $10M without giving up a board seat
The intelligent calendar platform Reclaim.ai raised $10 million over the last two years.
Reclaim employees own over two-thirds of the company's equity, rejecting conventional wisdom that founders should raise as much as they can as quickly as possible.
The process they used to identify follow-on investors, the email template used to pitch the SAFE, and why a larger cap table means more founder control are some of the topics covered in a post by the author.
Lessons for raising $10M without giving up a board seat
There are three more people from the team.
The membership program helps startup teams get ahead of the game. This is where you can sign up. You can get a 15% discount on an annual subscription.
Big Tech Inc.
Amazon's recent cost cutting measures seem to be affecting more than just its delivery business. The company is closing down its wholesale distribution business in India. This unit was started by Amazon to help stores. The company didn't say why it was closing the business, but it was the third such unit to be shut down in India.
Meta is in trouble again with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The agency said that the parent company of Facebook would be hit with $275 million in penalties for the data protection violations.
Enjoy at least six more.
- UnBlocked: After weeks of reports claiming this would happen, BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it might be FTX’s fault. Jacquelyn writes that FTX was going to buy BlockFi, and then, well, you know what happened to them. Based on the bankruptcy filing, BlockFi owes some significant cash to creditors and is unfortunately now another high-valued, heavily backed crypto company that was unable to make it work in this environment.
- Into the sea, you and me: Haje managed to talk Apple into giving him early access to the Oceanic+ app and took the Apple Watch Ultra into the deep blue sea for our world-exclusive review. He also got all excited about the pricing model the app uses.
- I spy: The U.S. government is banning telecommunications and video surveillance equipment from several Chinese brands, like Huawei and ZTE, citing protection of the nation’s communications network. Carly has more.
- Yahoola takes this company in holy partnership?: Yahoo invests a 25% stake in Taboola, an advertising network, in a deal that will marry the two companies for the next 30 years, Romain writes.
- Safety concerns: The U.K. government expands its Online Safety Bill to criminalize those who take to the internet to encourage self-harm, Natasha L reports.
- An Apple a day: For his newest trick, Musk is picking a fight with Apple, reports Taylor.
