China criticizes India for ‘frequent investigations’ of local Chinese firms

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Thursday, July 07, 2022

Greetings on this fine Thursday. We are still reeling about Elon Musk and the twins. Connie has more on that. Amanda also covered the verdict in the case against Theranos' Sunny Balwani. Meanwhile, if you are a startup founder, don't forget to apply to be a part of the Startup Battlefield 200. The submission date is July 31. See you tomorrow!  — Christine Image Credits: Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3 More to the story: Manish is back with more information on the Vivo saga. Now China's embassy in India is saying that all of these investigations that India is doing into Chinese firms are bad for business. Perhaps, or maybe it is India being cautious. Level up your avatar: Reddit is getting deeper into the NFT game by launching a new avatar marketplace, Ivan writes. The advantages? You don't need a crypto wallet to buy one, and you can use it on or off Reddit. Check out that valuation: YuLife pumped up its valuation to $800 million after securing $120 million in new funding, Ingrid reports. The life insurance company, which has a wellness and gamification focus, was previously valued at $70 million. Talk about your good business models!

Startups and VC Over in this section, Mary Ann has yet another update on the saga she has been following this year, namely Better.com. In today's episode, she writes about all of the new hires who have joined the digital mortgage lender over the past few months, one that even called it a "rebirth." How many apps do you use at your company? If it is the average, that's about 110, according to statistics. Happeo raised $26 million to create an intranet portal for your company to connect employees with all of the apps, Kyle writes. That should make you happy, er Happeo. Here's what else we have for you: Invoice this: Mary Ann also wrote about invoice software startup Adaptive's $6.5 million raise, led by Andreessen Horowitz, which ironically included three companies that all compete with one another. Another one gets the horn: Tebra, an operating system for independent healthcare providers, is now a unicorn after taking in over $72 million in equity and debt, Catherine writes.  Tebra, Traba; Traba, Tebra: If the Great Resignation taught us anything, it's that people are looking for flexible options, even entry-level ones. Kyle reports on Traba's $20 million raise to match contractors with warehouse and fulfillment jobs. No venture capital apocalypse yet: I enjoyed Alex's look at how the U.S. was faring during the global venture capital market slowdown. From beds to insurance: Jordan's report on insurance startup Ranger's $5.25 million round answers the question of what former Casper CEO Philip Krim has been doing since he left the bed company. Super growth from superplants: Please enjoy my story on Fyto, a hardware and software company helping farmers grow aquatic plants using robotic automation. Who's calling who a "dinosaur"?: Mike reports that Headline VC may have been in the venture capital game since 1999, but armed with $950 million in new commitments across three funds, it is still proving it's more like the Energizer Bunny than a fossil.

Roe reversal weighs heavily on emerging tech cities in red states On June 24, Khadijah Robinson planned to offer a woman a job. As founder of the Atlanta-based tech startup Nile, she spent 3 years scaling the platform, which connects consumers to Black online businesses. That Friday, she was thrilled to finally find someone willing to relocate from California to Georgia to help grow the company. But by early afternoon, the offer was on hold: The U.S. Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade just a few hours before, and that worried Robinson. "As a founder and CEO, I now have to think long and hard about asking women to relocate to a state that will likely legislate against them very soon," she tweeted. "I'm so tired." (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Read More Image Credits: venimo / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. In today's Big Tech news, Meta took a new step in moving away from Facebook logins as its metaverse ID system, Lucas reports. One of the advantages is not needing Facebook credentials to play games and to use the Quest software. Speaking of Quest, Amanda gives you a look at Meta's next VR headset. Meanwhile, Natasha provides an update on Ireland's Data Protection Commission drafting a decision related to Meta's data transfer between the U.K. and the U.S. Aisha's story about Twitter starting the testing of "CoTweets," which will enable users to co-author tweets, has me thinking about the hijinks Haje and I could get into. As you can tell, we like to follow a good saga here at TechCrunch, and Annie delivers another one, providing us with an update on Flutterwave. The company is now denying the claims made against it for money laundering and fraud. More from us: This ain't good: Zack and Carly teamed up to write about a big police data leak in China that may have exposed…basically every one of its residents. Hail to the new chief: Anita writes that Binance.US got itself a new CFO. If you're blue in a red state, you might want to pay attention: Dominic-Madori and Becca Szkutak co-authored a TechCrunch+ article that talked to company founders in blue emerging tech hubs in red states and how the Roe v. Wade decision is affecting their ability to recruit new talent. Blue light special in aisle five: In shopping news, we have Aisha's report on Pinterest launching new shopping features for merchants and Lauren's story on Amazon tapping into influencers to boost sales during this year's Prime Day. We also aren't forgetting about Instacart's new rewards program. Pedal to the metal: We also have a bunch of car news to rev you up, starting with Jaclyn's pair of stories on Volkswagen breaking ground on the first of its new battery factories and a report that there is still a quarter of people who aren't jazzed about electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Kirsten writes about U.S. safety regulators opening a special investigation into a San Francisco automobile crash involving a Cruise autonomous vehicle.

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After filing for bankruptcy, crypto lender Voyager Digital says it will 'maintain operations'

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Wednesday, July 06, 2022

Greetings, and happy Wednesday! I had to check the calendar before I said the day because does anyone really know what day it is anymore? Amanda had me cracking up with her story on waiting for a new release of Nintendo Switch, only to have the news be something else. I also enjoyed the latest Equity podcast where Natasha and Alex discussed why everyone is copying off each other. Anyway, big tech and crypto news dominated our homepage today, so I have a lot of that for you. Let's get started! — Christine Image Credits: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3 When one falls, another falls: Manish is on a roll this week, writing another top story, this time about Voyager Digital, a crypto broker, filing for bankruptcy. It seemed to be a domino effect for the company, which cited Three Arrows Capital's bankruptcy announcement from last week as one of the factors. Seems Three Arrows owed Voyager Digital some $650 million. Not chump change for sure. Scraping by: Meta is suing Octopus Data, the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company alleging this company offered data-scraping services for Facebook and Instagram, Paul reports. So you don't have to look that up, data scraping is a means of using automated tools to gather data from websites "en masse." Paul says this is particularly timely as a U.S. court "reaffirmed an earlier ruling that web scraping is legal" less than 3 months ago. Back to the drawing board they go. Biting into food delivery: Amazon is trying a new approach to not only get a foot into restaurant delivery, but also attract more Prime members. The marketplace giant is partnering with Grubhub to offer free membership to Grubhub+ (everyone has a "plus," huh?) for 1 year, Ingrid writes.

Startups and VC It seems that Bolt and Authentic Brands Group, Forever 21's parent company, have kissed and made up. Authentic was initially suing Bolt with claims that Bolt had not delivered the one-click checkout technology that was promised, which resulted in the company missing out on some $150 million in sales. Mary Ann reports that the suit was settled "amicably," and Authentic is now even a shareholder. That was some negotiation. Crypto gaming startup Cauldron closed on $6.6 million toward the goal of becoming the "Pixar of web3," Jacquelyn writes. The company told her it wants to do more storytelling and create a legacy with its Project Nightshade game à la how Pixar did with "Toy Story." To infinity and beyond! Celus wants to automate the way circuit boards are designed and picked up $25.6 million in new capital to leverage its artificial intelligence technology so that a printed circuit board could be redesigned in a matter of minutes, Paul writes. What else have we got? Here's some more: This fund is on fire: Rita writes about Bonfire Union, Mask Network's venture arm, and its first fund of $42 million to "invest in web3 like Tencent does in web2." Oh, and she also wrote about Nothing and its Black Dot NFT. Everyone deserves digital: I wrote about Finli, a startup that raised $6 million in new funds to continue developing its payment management app for service-based businesses. An apple for the teacher: Online testing software startup Azota took in $2.4 million to assist Vietnam's teachers in creating and grading tests, Catherine writes. At it again: Kate reported that Korean telecom company KT definitely liked what it saw in Rebellions, an AI chipmaker. The startup got another $22.8 million funding from KT just a month after KT poured $50 million into it. Blop, blop, fizz, fizz: Jordan spoke with Wonderbelly founders Noah Kraft and Lucas Kraft, the Doppler Labs founder, to discuss the antacid startup's new $3.3 million funding and its mission to take on Tums.

Dear Sophie: How can we transfer a candidate's H-1B and green card? Dear Sophie, My startup needs to hire an AI expert, and our top candidate has a complicated immigration situation. She's from India and has been on an H-1B for more than 6 years. Her current employer applied for an EB-2 green card on her behalf about 4 years ago through the PERM process. She's been waiting for a green card number since she was approved and says it may take several more years before she receives it. She is asking us to transfer her H-1B and green card to our company. Can we do it? Do we have additional options to retain her? — Advancing AI (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Big Tech Inc. More crypto to see here! Jacquelyn does a deep dive into the second quarter's cryptocurrency company losses, which are down 52% from the same period last year. Meanwhile, Kyle writes that IBM acquired Databand for its observability capabilities in helping "customers better identify and fix data issues including errors, pipeline failures and poor quality." In cybersecurity news, hotel giant Marriott found itself on the wrong side of another data breach, Carly writes. She also laid out a claim by the U.S. government that North Korean hackers are targeting some of the country's healthcare organizations with their ransomware. Meanwhile, Zack reports that Apple's new lockdown mode "will switch off certain features aimed at helping targeted individuals combat government-grade spyware." Do you want a ride? In automobile news, Jaclyn reported on Rivian's goal of delivering 25,000 vehicles this year and whether Polestar can pull off a SPAC where other electric vehicles have failed. She also covered a lawsuit brought against Tesla by some former workers who say they shouldn't have to sign a release in exchange for lower severance than federal law provides. Then Harri discussed the highs and lows of Tesla's solar trailer. Activision's blizzard ahead: The U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority has launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft's $69 billion proposal to acquire Activision to see if it will reduce competition with any U.K. goods or services, Ingrid reports. Here's your delivery: Amazon isn't alone in its food delivery efforts. Aisha writes that Walmart is making its InHome grocery delivery service part of Walmart+ (see? Told you.) as an optional add-on. Meanwhile, the European Union is looking at Delivery Hero and Glovo with regard to antitrust inspections, Natasha reports. Speaking of inspections: Ivan writes that India's anti–money laundering agency raided Vivo's offices. Time to drool: Brian tempts us with pictures of the new M2 MacBook Air.

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