Hey, look, some startups are still raising money

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Don’t forget that the code “EQUITY” can save you money on Disrupt tickets and TechCrunch+ access. And it makes us here on the show look good! Markets: Stocks are mostly down around the world today, taking especially … Read more

3 ways to implement a product-led sales motion to unleash PLG’s revenue potential

Stephen Moock Contributor Share on Twitter Stephen Moock is the head of sales and success at Calixa, a GTM platform providing sales with the product insights and workflows they need to prioritize, close, and grow self-serve accounts. Product-led growth (PLG), the go-to-market strategy where product usage drives customer acquisition and expansion, is becoming increasingly common … Read more

TikTok faces $29M fine in UK for ‘failing to protect children’s privacy’

TikTok is facing a £27 million ($29 million) fine after the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provisionally found that the company breached child data protection laws for a two year period. The alleged breach happened from May 2018 through July 2020, with the ICO noting that the company “may have” processed data of children under … Read more

Cloudflare launches an eSIM to secure mobile devices

Are smartphones ever entirely secure? It depends on one’s definition of “secure,” particularly when dealing with corporate environments. Most companies with bring-your-own-device policies install apps or agents on workers’ smartphones to help secure them, leveraging the management capabilities built into operating systems like Android and iOS. But those might not be sufficient. That’s what Cloudflare … Read more

IFC and other impact investors return to backing Ukraine startups, with new $250M fund aimed at founders under the gun

Funding sources for tech startups in Ukraine have gone off a cliff this year, with investors (and their LPs) wary of taking on the risk of backing potentially promising ideas and people who have stayed in the country amid the sustained, persistent and increasingly ugly onslaught from Russia. But just as there are glimmers that … Read more

timeOS is a Chrome extension that puts your meeting details in one place

Meeting reminders can be tough to navigate. Even if you get a notification 10 or 30 minutes before the meeting you might forget to join or struggle to find the meeting link moments before joining. Magical, a productivity company, aims to solve these problems with a Chrome extension called timeOS. This extension shows your next meeting’s details … Read more

EV charging deals keep coming, Ford squeezed by shortages and Kitty Hawk shuts down

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive the full edition of the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. This is a shorter version of The Station newsletter that is emailed to subscribers. Want all the deals, news roundups and commentary? Subscribe … Read more

Vendease, a food procurement platform for African restaurants, nabs $30M led by Partech Africa and TLcom

When Vendease launched in January 2020, it wanted to solve the challenges and inefficiencies in Nigeria’s highly fragmented food sector using a marketplace model that connected suppliers and farms to restaurants and food businesses, with deliveries facilitated within 24 hours. But over the next couple of months, Vendease switched from its middleman role — after … Read more

Samsung launches credit card in India

Samsung has launched two credit cards in India, entering a crowded category that sees over 50 companies fiercely compete for consumers’ attention in the world’s second largest internet market. The South Korean giant said it has partnered with the Mumbai-headquartered Axis Bank and global payments processor Visa to launch the cards, which it is calling … Read more

India is repurposing its COVID-19 contact tracing app and vaccination website

India is repurposing its COVID-19 contact-tracing app and vaccination website to address other health concerns in the South Asian country. A senior official said Sunday that the Indian government is planning to use Aarogya Setu as the country’s standalone health app. The app will offer residents the ability to book medical checkup appointments and verify the … Read more

Apple starts manufacturing iPhone 14 in India

Apple has started assembling the iPhone 14 models in India, it said Monday, locally producing the current lineup for the first time in the same calendar year in the world’s second largest smartphone market as analysts predict a greater shift in the American giant’s future manufacturing. The company’s global partner Foxconn is manufacturing the device … Read more

Interpol issues red notice for Terraform founder Do Kwon

Interpol has issued a red notice for Do Kwon, requesting law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and arrest the Terraform Labs founder whose blockchain startup collapsed earlier this year and wiped out investors’ $40 billion. Kwon faces charges in South Korea for the wipeout of investors’ money, the prosectors said. The notice against Kwon may … Read more

Disperse, which brings AI-fuelled data to construction projects, raises $16M

Disperse, a U.K.-based construction tech company that offers an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform to help project managers track work and capture data from building sites, has raised $16 million in funding. Founded out of London in 2015, Disperse effectively creates a digital version of an entire construction site, including visual snapshots that track the progress … Read more

The unicorn valuation gambit

Happy Sunday, fellow startup nerds. Today we’re talking about risk in the gambling sense of the word. You see, there’s a way for unicorns to avoid painful dilution when they next raise capital, and it appears that a good number of the world’s billion-dollar startups are taking the wager. But new data indicates that the … Read more

Insurtech goes niche

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous … Read more

Netflix’s edition of Night School’s ‘Oxenfree’ is now available to play on iOS and Android

Netflix is adding Oxenfree, the popular supernatural mystery thriller game created by Night School Studio, to its gaming roster. Oxenfree: Netflix Edition is now available for Netflix subscribers to download on iOS and Android devices, the company announced at its Tudum global fan event on Saturday. The launch of the game comes a year after … Read more

Startups are building businesses out of DevOps tools for existing sales platforms

The growing market for sales tools has given rise to a curious cottage industry: DevOps startups specifically targeting the software used in sales and marketing functions. (Here, “DevOps,” refers to tools that automate processes between software development and IT teams.) It’s become a blossoming sector all its own, with vendors selling DevOps platforms for software … Read more

Steve Case is trying to make money with founders outside Silicon Valley; his plan is starting to work

Steve Case, the cofounder of America Online, the investment firm Revolution, and its offshoot seed-stage arm Rise of the Rest, has a new book out called Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream. In it, Case argues that Covid was a “shake the globe” moment for entrepreneurship, … Read more