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Hold on to your Apple Watch, everyone! At WWDC 2024, Apple has finally decided to give Siri a brain implant that they are calling “Apple Intelligence” (AI, get it?). Apparently, it's so smart that it knows more about your life than you do. Tim Cook promises that it will be all about privacy and personal context. So intimate that even your diary might feel neglected. And with the Siri makeover, we get Genmoji (yes, really), because I know you all have been waiting for an AI that creates emojis. We also get to type queries to Siri as if it were back in 2010, and “Private Cloud Computing” is also in the menu, which sounds like techie-speak for “we're still spying on you, but in a gentler way.” Keep an eye out for this new wave of iMagic that will be rolling out soon! Here's everything that was announced at WWDC:
But not everyone is excited about the announcement. In this week's latest episode of “Tech Titans Throw Tantrums,” Elon Musk threatens to ban Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI's iPhones because of Apple's new ChatGPT integration. In Elon's world, “cutting edge innovation” must be synonymous with banning the world's most popular smartphone for an AI assistant feature that asks permission before doing anything. Is Tim Cook scared or just dumbfounded? Please postcard your answer.
Trending this week: On the brink of catastrophe
Today on “The Mighty: How They Have Fallen,” we bring you the tragic tale of Byju's, once a $22 billion EdTech darling, now a zero in the eyes of BlackRock. Missing financial targets, dealing with resignations faster than you could utter the words “governance issues,” and publicly panned by investors, Byju's serves as a cautionary tale for startups everywhere.
Hold on to your cap table, everyone. Once a Silicon Valley darling with dreams of becoming the ultimate stock trading kingpin, Carta has plummeted from a $8.5 billion valuation to just $2 billion. That is, if they're lucky. After being caught red-handed misusing customer data and exiting the secondary trading business in less than a PR disaster, it's clear that not all that glitters is gold in the startup world. With lawsuits, allegations of a toxic company culture, and customers fleeing to bigger banks, Carta's glory days appear to be over for good. Investors like Andreessen Horowitz must be ecstatic…
More bad news:
Leaky Snowflake: Fasten your seatbelts, everyone! Here's Snowflake's latest PR nightmare. Despite claims of invincibility, they've had a string of data breaches involving big names like Ticketmaster and LendingTree. The culprit? A laughable ex-security employee's demo account. Mandiant revealed that hackers made off with tons of data from Snowflake customers. Tough times for Apple's third-party developers: Apple's WWDC 2024 is where innovation meets imitation! Third-party app developers, brace yourself, because Apple has “Sherlocked” your favorite tool yet again. Apple is basically saying to these developers, “Thanks for the idea, we'll take over from here.” HR-rrrgh: HR startup Rippling seems to have a “no soup for you” policy when it comes to ex-employees working for competitors like Deel and Workday. Despite investor demand exceeding $2 billion (that's when the bags of cash come in), Ripple is acting as a gatekeeper in the massive tender offer, ensuring only former employees, not competitors, can cash out on their shares.
Image credit: Joan Cros / NurPhoto / Getty Images
Most interesting fundraising this week
Welcome to the startup funding circus of 2024, where Y Combinator companies are performing a bold new act: raising small seed rounds at sky-high valuations and without a lead investor. Angel investors are swooping down like hungry pigeons, and institutional investors are scratching their heads and clutching their wallets. Will this tightrope walk pay off, or will startups be left hanging in limbo without a safety net? Grab your popcorn; this version of the show is just getting started.
Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI has just raised a whopping $640 million in Series B funding. Led by General Catalyst, this up-and-coming challenger in the AI space is now valued at $6 billion. Co-founded by former geniuses from Meta and DeepMind, Mistral is looking to take on big names like OpenAI with its own shiny models and open-source prowess. But don't get too complacent: their top-tier models are locked down more tightly than Banque de France unless you get an API pass.
Well, it's awesome: Italy's startup scene is getting a caffeine boost as the new Italian Founders Fund (IFF) pumps in €50 million. Aiming to fill the gap in startup funding in Italy, IFF plans to sprinkle money across 25 companies, raining funds on early-stage founders like tourists in Rome without Google Maps. Shame on the naysayers: Urvashi Baruah was told she had a better chance of finding Bigfoot than getting into venture capital. Rejected by every MBA program and mocked for her ambition, she decided the haters were just free motivational speakers. Now a partner at Redpoint Ventures, she's in charge of its ninth fund of $650 million. Cashchin: Meet Fizz, the debit card that emerged to save Gen Z from their credit-averse habits. It turns out traditional banking just isn't good enough for the TikTok generation. The two Harvard and Cornell dropouts decided building a financial empire was more appealing than graduating college. With $14.4 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins, you don't need a degree.
Urvashi Barooah is Redpoint's newest partner and will be focusing on early stage. Image credit: Redpoint
More TechCrunch articles you shouldn't miss…
Welcome to a world where cats finally get the VIP treatment. Meowtel has managed to turn a profit despite being thumbed down by dog-obsessed venture capitalists. Inspired by her own cat-related guilt, founder Sonya Petcavich launched an elite cat-sitting service with $100,000 and a dream. With 2,200 sitters and over 95,000 sits (or should we say collars?), Meowtel proves that cats aren't just second-class pets.
more and more!
Rivian paves the way to a brighter future: Rivian's rollercoaster journey through the EV industry is no longer nauseating. Having juggled electric pickups, SUVs, Amazon delivery vans, and even an ambitious IPO, Rivian has finally streamlined its chaotic existence. But get your popcorn ready. The EV story is far from over. Raspberry Pi goes to LSE: Who would have thought that the humble Raspberry Pi, beloved by tinkerers and enthusiasts for building cheap, tiny computers, would end up ringing a bell on the London Stock Exchange? The company is currently valued at a modest £542 million ($690 million in dollar terms), but its shares instantly rose 32%. Apparently, everyone loves an underdog story. BeDollars: BeReal, the app that convinced 40 million people to share their daily lives without filters, has landed a €500 million bailout from Voodoo. Apparently showing your true self wasn't enough to earn you a living. Smartphone meets dumbphone: Tired of your iPhone's ever-increasing IQ making you feel like the village idiot? The Light Phone III is a smartphone that strips your digital life down to its minimalist core. With a shiny new OLED screen and no social media apps, this phone is perfect for anyone who likes to live in denial of technology. To infinity… and back!: Hold on to your space helmets: SpaceX has pulled off the rocket equivalent of a triple axel with its latest Starship launch. Not only did they launch the massive contraption into the sky, they also managed to bring both the booster and the upper stage back. Musk's team also threw in a heat shield prank just in case, proving once again that rocket science isn't rocket science…
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