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This week I investigated what happened to a Norwegian hardware startup. Its cap table is so volatile that three different investors have concluded that it is essentially uninvestable as it is. Luckily they had some advice on how to change that.
He also turned to another startup, a Turkish company that raised $4 million. This company really wouldn't exist if the country hadn't introduced fairly strong import taxes. He was exploring the strange world of economic incentives in the construction industry. Behind the tariff wall.
In the meantime, after waiting for months for a good deal to come along, a ton of deals come at once. In the field of photography alone, I picked him up on two. Nikon acquired movie camera company RED, and in the photo, video and lens rental space, Lensrentals acquired its biggest rival, BorrowLenses.
wait a minute! We have others, too!
This week's most interesting startup stories
Image credit: udemy
Welcome to the latest episode of our occasional miniseries “Micromobility Melodrama''! Parisian CityScoot, pioneers of shared electric mopeds, has officially passed the baton to Cooltra in a court-approved acquisition. Ta. Once hailed as the future of urban transportation, CityScoot is in trouble as its once benevolent 0% interest rate turns brutal, leaving the company and its iconic white and blue mopeds stranded. Or rather, I found myself in court-ordered receivership. Cooltra seized the day (and he claimed Cityscoot's user base) and the modest swooped in for €400,000, promising a smooth transition where the only visible change for users might be new stickers on their vehicles. did.
Meanwhile, the latest “Survivor: E-commerce Aggregator Edition” sees Razor Group and Perch decide to form a partnership, seemingly unfazed by the recent passing of fellow contestant Thrasio. Armed with a $100 million war chest and debts that are more like a long-term relationship than an affair, they're ready to take on the Amazon jungle. Razor, currently strutting around with a $1.7 billion valuation cap, and Perch, already a damsel in distress, believe that the combination of their technology and Shayne's envy will keep them alive until the end. I'm betting on that.
Another handful:
Merger success in customer success: In the B2B space, Totango and Catalyst decided to join forces through a merger of stock rather than a one-time cash deal.
We were surprised to learn this. Accenture acquired Udacity, a learning platform that has been around since 2011, in hopes of infusing digital knowledge into the workforce along with AI talent.
Information from past 10 years: Anthropic's new chatbot was a little more reserved, claiming it couldn't answer because its knowledge only goes back to 2021.
This week's most interesting fundraisers
Image credit: Getty Images
Among the HR tech gladiators towering like Goliaths with the Deals and Riplings loaded with venture capital cannons, here comes RemoFast, not a pachinko but a brave David with a $25 million Series A war chest. do. This HR technology underdog offers to hire employees and contractors in 180 countries without the hassle of setting up a local company. He personally has a hard time understanding how it differs from Deal and Rippling other than being cheaper. Congratulations on $25 million! In the same industry, Deel acquired PaySpace this week.
Monzo, a darling of London's fintech world, has been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride in recent years. The company just raised a whopping $430 million and reached a whopping $5 billion valuation, making the financial world do a double take. More ups and downs than melodrama, including a U.S. adventure that ended in less than a minute in New York (the company withdrew its U.S. banking application) and a volatile valuation that worried even the most experienced investors. Despite its prolific past, Monzo's has managed to pull through. Pull the Phoenix Act. With 9 million Brits currently using his Monzo card and a product range aiming to be the Swiss Army Knife of finance, Monzo's message is clear. Reports of Monzo's demise were greatly exaggerated.
A few more:
Keep Watching and Raising Money: Axonius, the digital equivalent of a nosy neighbor monitoring every digital asset in the corporate world, has raised an additional $200 million to keep things locked down more efficiently. I put it in. When asked about the valuation, CEO and founder Dean Sisman said, “We didn't feel the need to increase the valuation from the previous round.''
One step closer to becoming a digital worker. Ema comes out of stealth mode with her $25 million bankroll and flaunts her ambitions to become a versatile AI employee freed from drudgery.
I'm going to pack my bags and leave. Amid the post-COVID-19 tourism renaissance, Mews, the hotel industry's technology concierge, is riding the wave with $110 million in new cash in his coffers. Muse has garnered the most attention due to his sky-high valuation of $1.2 billion, even though he has not yet made a profit.
This week's big trends: Lawsuits and masks
The latest installment of 'As the Musk Turns' puts tech drama kingpin Elon Musk back in the legal spotlight, but this time, the former Twitter royalty has been given a $128 million severance package. It depends on what you're looking for. After Musk's hostile takeover of the Birds app (which he now wears an “X” on his chest), he quickly showed CEO Parag Agrawal and a group of merry executives the door and made a move to Silicon Valley. It stirred up what can only be described as a gust of wind, “The Bird App.” hunger game. Ever the gentleman, Musk is said to have vowed to pursue these fugitive executives to the ends of the earth, or at least until their bank accounts are depleted. The suit portrays Mr. Musk as a cross between his scorned lover and a Bond villain, and accuses him of financial ghosting on a corporate scale.
Meanwhile, Mr. Musk has filed legal documents accusing OpenAI, the prodigal AI offspring he helped create, of turning into a profit-hungry beast under the influence of Microsoft's billions of dollars. It ensures that the torrent flows in both directions. Musk paints a picture of his AI utopia, where algorithms frolic freely for the benefit of humanity, and OpenAI's founders seduced him with stories of nonprofit aristocrats, resulting in more than just “AGI.” They claim that they quickly turned to a commercial model. In the lawsuit, Musk portrays himself as a benefactor whose heart trembles as he watches his altruistic AI dreams befriend Microsoft's commercial ambitions. Considering everything we know about masks, a little rich if you really ask, but that's about it.
Shall I pop some popcorn?
Other must-see TechCrunch articles…
Every week there are several articles that I would like to share with you, but for some reason they do not fit into the above categories. It would be a shame if you missed it, so I'd like to introduce you to a bag containing random goods.
No Seinfeld marathon for you!: This week, Roku users across the country turned on their TVs and discovered an unpleasant surprise. The company required users to agree to new dispute resolution terms to access their devices. The device cannot be used until the user consents.
Ah, it became a hot topic among the Internates. In a cyberthriller-like plot twist, his YX International, an SMS hub that sends millions of text messages around the world, recently left its digital doors wide open and inadvertently played the role of the villain. I did. Oops.
But how do you share your vote with the world?: Meta's three social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and rising star Threads, decided to take an unscheduled break, and users Some people may say that it is very strange that the two have moved away from each other. As America heads to the polls in the Super Tuesday primaries, we stare at error messages and yearn to digitize our news feeds.
Insert a clever Fortnite reference here: The Apple and Epic Games saga took a new turn today, as the Fortnite game developer shared that Apple has terminated its developer account.
Maybe I'll stay somewhere else. Airbnb is giving away new badges. Underachievers, or the bottom 10%, are given an embarrassing badge: a digital dunce hat that signals travelers to swipe left.