Daily Crunch: Discord and Spotify resuming service after widespread outage

Alex Wilhelm@alex / 6:08 PM EST•March 8, 2022

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On Tuesday, March 8, 2022. Today was an Apple event day, which means that the larger tech industry ground to a halt to see what Apple had to offer. If you are behind, we have full notes for you. Let's get to work, there is a lot of startup news to boot.

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Everything that Apple announced today: We have more discrete linking down below, but this post will get you up and running when it comes to Apple’s new gear. New computers, updates to consumer portables, and the return of the iPhone SE. Oh, and baseball? It’s a lot, but, hey, we got you covered.
• IPOs are not dead: It’s conventional wisdom that the IPO window is closed. What this means is that the veritable horde of late-stage startups that need to find an exit have a key avenue closed to them. However, if your name is Intel, different rules apply. The U.S. chip giant is taking its Mobileye division public about a half-decade after it bought the Israeli company. We are divining the tea leaves on this one, hoping to learn more about the market landscape for startup exits.
• Google to buy Mandiant: In its last quarterly report, Microsoft disclosed that it generated $15 billion in security revenues in the last 12 months, up from $10 billion the year before. So it shouldn’t shock that another mega-cloud provider is getting busy with security incomes. Enter Google plonking down $5.4 billion for Mandiant, what TechCrunch calls a “security intelligence company.” Cloud is good. Cloud + security is better, it appears.

Startups and VC

The last 24 hours have been busy for the team at the tech site. There are a few spotlights.

Mary Ann Azevedo has been crushing the Better.com beat as the previous public-company candidate collapses. The consumer mortgage service laid off more staff in the latest chapter of its larger layoff saga. Some of them learned of the fact when they were paid their last dime. It's not good. Mary Ann reports that the company's former CFO just raised capital for Glean AI, which is taking on the accounts payable market.

Tage Kene-Okafor reported on Dash raising $32 million in a seed round. Kene-Okafor highlighted a Sudanese startup that is part of Y Combinator's current batches. The company in question is the first startup from Sudan to take part in the U.S. accelerator.

There are some notes on the site that I think we should group on. A new venture firm is being put together by Lolita Taub. The Spanish word for to win is ganar, so you can imagine where the fund is going to invest. Angelist's latest huge funding round was covered by Mascarenhas. The company that helps other people raise money to invest just raised money to invest itself, so it's best known for helping birth the rolling-fund boom. It was neat.

There is a huge digest of the rest of the day's critical startup news.

• Mozilla drops new iOS, Android features: Mozilla is a browser company that has made other products in its history, and is today something of an alternative offering for the ubiquitous Chrome. Regardless, the company is adding “an HTTPS-only mode to Firefox Focus” for its Android users, and iOS users are getting a “new adjustable search bar,” we write.
• One-click payments are big business: Selfbook does what it says on the tin, namely helping hotel guests self-book. And it does that with some modern checkout work. The company’s model is finding traction, we can infer, as investors just put $15 million into the company at a $300 million valuation.
• Forma helps companies compile a benefits stack: Everyone loves a stack, or collection of integrated tools or services that help accomplish a particular task. Forma wants to help HR departments collect an array of employee benefit options into something akin to a stack. And it just raised $40 million in a round led by Ribbit.
• Nvidia hearts cute robots: Something that I have really enjoyed of late are cute delivery robots. You know, the little ‘bots that race around campuses and the like, ferrying vodka nips and aspirin to the youths. Well, it’s an investable market, it turns out, as Nvidia is putting $10 million into “Uber spinout Serve Robotics,” TechCrunch reports. Yes, Serve’s robots are adorable. Now bring them to my city, please.
• Betting on the IRL economy: As Amazon works to shutter its physical book and “four star” stores, not everyone is throwing in the towel on shopping IRL. Indeed, Swiftly is hammering away on the concept, working to help grocery stores digitize. We have an update on the company past what we learned last year. Also Swiftly just raised $100 million, so, you know, that’s worth mentioning.
• Calico raises $2.1M for fashion supply chain software: Coming from an itch that founder Kathleen Chan found when she was building fashion companies, Calico just picked up capital from Serena Williams, who recently launched a fund.

It’s pivot season for early-stage startups

It is tempting to relax if you are a founder who has already received funding and has another to look forward to.

Having a long runway is not the best protection when the winds are blowing in the private markets. Some entrepreneurs are looking to pivot because of that.

She writes that some may re-prioritize objectives to reduce risk, while others may pursue new, more near-term business models to finally get some revenue in the door.

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It’s pivot season for early-stage startups

Big Tech Inc.

As I am low on word count, let's squeeze in a few things quickly: Meta built a task-management service, and TikTok is still getting sued.

Indian food delivery giant Swiggy has hired bankers as it gears up for an initial public offering next year, a source familiar with the matter said. The startup, which was valued at $10.7 billion i...Growth is good, but like the James Brown song, Klarna is paying the cost to be the boss. It is TechCrunch tradition to look at Apple’s stock price during, and after its major events. Why? Because we enjoy it, and we’re always curious what impact the company’s news has...Twitter is introducing a new tool for creators called the “Creator Dashboard,” the company announced on Tuesday. The social media giant says the new tool is designed to help creators an...Autonomous vehicle startup Pony.ai will issue a recall for three vehicles following an October crash in California, according to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA). The ...Instagram announced Tuesday that it would implement steps to dampen Russian government propaganda and protect the privacy of users across Ukraine and Russia. The company will begin downranking post...Meta’s internal R&D group known as NPE Team just launched a new social app, Move, designed for both personal and group to-do lists. The app allows people, including individuals or groups ...Apple today launched a $1,599 display that packs a processor, high-quality speakers, a microphone array, a high-quality camera, three USB-C ports and 96 watts of power delivery over Thunderbolt. Oh...It’s Apple event day! The day when the company takes the (once again remote/virtual) stage to reveal everything it’s been working on behind the scenes lately. Didn’t have time to ...Following reports that Apple was on an “aggressive hunt” for new sports deals for its Apple TV+ streaming service, Apple today announced it was bringing a number of Major League Basebal...Spotify and Discord both appear to be down. TechCrunchers and the Twittersphere alike are experiencing difficulty logging in to Spotify. Folks are reporting on Twitter that opening the Spotify app ...Apple announced a handful of new products in a pre-recorded online event. And the company announced a brand new desktop computer called the Mac Studio. It’s a small tower computer that looks a bit ...Apple today announced the launch of its new M1 chip at its “Peek Performance” event: the M1 Ultra. This chip, Apple said, is the last one in the M1 family, which previously included the...At Apple’s event today, the company released a shiny new iPad Air. It packs the M1 Apple Silicon chip into the iPad Air form factor we know and love. Apple’s choice of using the M1 proc...While the TechCrunch team is hunkered down watching Apple’s event today, we’re taking a short break from our more serious coverage to share our real-time reactions to the return of the ...Two years after reviving the line, Apple’s bringing the SE back for another go. The iPhone’s little sibling won support when it was unveiled in 2018 as a low-cost alternative to the flagship smartp...After seven years since its last financing round, AngelList Venture has raised new capital, according to sources familiar with the matter. The company announced in a blog post today that it has rai...Apple is set to announce new hardware today. The company is holding a (virtual) event at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. in New York, 6 p.m. in London, 7 p.m. in Paris). And you’ll be able to watch the event ri...CES is done. MWC has come and gone. That means it’s time for another Apple event. The company sent out invites for its Peek [sic] Performance event last week. These things sure have a way of ...