a16z literally doubles down, announces $4.5B crypto fund IV

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Wednesday, May 25, 2022

It's Wednesday the 25th of May, 2022, and we are devastated by the events of the last couple of days. It's hard to put together a newsletter about tech against the backdrop of a school shooting. Big news events impact everyone differently, so please remember to give yourself and those around you a bit of extra space. We love you. — Haje and Christine Image Credits: TechCrunch

The TechCrunch Top 3 Going, going gone: Twitter confirmed that its former CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from the company's board today. No, it's not a surprise. He and the company were vocal about when his final days would be. We assume Dorsey is happy with how he is leaving things. No crypto slowdown to see here: Even with a grim cryptocurrency market report, there are still dollars to be raised if you are developing viable blockchain infrastructure. StarkWare Industries grabbed 100 million of them, bringing the company's valuation to $8 billion, essentially a four-time boost from its previous round. Why is blockchain infrastructure so important? Why, integrity of the whole system of course, Jacquie reports. Creepy crawlers: What's half a millimeter wide and crawls? We're sure there's so many gross things running through your mind right now, but in this case it is a remote-controlled crab "robot" created by some geniuses at Northwestern University. Not sure what use there is for a teeny crab, but it's cute anyway. Image Credits: Northwestern University / Northwestern University

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Startups and VC In startupland, it's all crypto all the time today. Lucas covers how a16z announced a $4.5 billion Web3 fund less than a year since it announced its $2.2 billion crypto fund III. Meanwhile, Volt Capital debuts a $50 million fund, also backed by a16z. DJ Gabeau, one of Snapchat Stories' earliest engineers and founder of Web3 social network Primitives, told TechCrunch that he thinks NFTs can be an enjoyable way for people to connect, Anita reports. As members of the Terra community try to pick up the pieces from its currently defunct economy, Polygon launches a fund to entice the dozens of developers who had projects built on the inoperative blockchain, Jacquelyn reports. And finally, the IRS's tax partner ZenLedger was already off to the races, but it is leaning on the accelerator with a $15 million series B, Anita reports. Don't worry, there's nonblockchain news too: Jesus, take the wheel: Pony.ai loses permit to test autonomous vehicles with driver in California after one too many instances of its safety drivers not paying attention, Rebecca reports. Taking a bite out of food tech: Synthesis Capital closed its inaugural $300 million fund to invest in the future of food, Christine writes. A high-flying market: Anna did a series of interviews with cannabis tech investors to figure out where the market is going. All the things, everywhere, via the internet: Namibian B2B e-commerce retail platform JABU raises $15M led by Tiger Global, reports Tage. Signed, sealed, delivered — your severance package: Getir, valued at $12 billion, plans to axe 14% of staff globally and cut aggressive expansion plans, reports Ingrid. They won't need your TPS reports: The process to make any purchase within a business can be long and cumbersome. Zip raised $43 million in a Series B to help ease the pain, Mary Ann writes. Post-COVID reboot for femtech hardware: Inne was about to launch when the pandemic hit. Natasha has a great feature about how it regrouped and is gearing up for the future. And finally, the $3,000 podcasting microphone: Haje took a closer look at the newest podcasting microphone array from Nomono, wondering who would get in line to spend $3,000 on a spatial audio microphone array.

Despite regulatory roadblocks, these four US cannabis investors are planting seeds for tomorrow The cannabis industry is doing very well in the United States. A state-by-state patchwork of regulations has created a limited market for public and private companies that handle grow operations, distribution and transportation, inventory control, testing and point-of-sale software. Budtenders are a frequent sight at California weddings, but Anna Heim found that the industry still has a long way to go before it reaches maturity, largely because federal laws continue to prevent cannabis-related business from using traditional financial services. To learn more about the underlying market forces and hurdles facing entrepreneurs and investors in this maverick industry, she spoke to four investors: Jacqueline Bennett, managing partner and co-founder, Highlands Venture Partners Yoni Meyer, partner, Casa Verde Capital Matt Hawkins, managing partner and co-founder, Entourage Effect Capital Emily Paxhia, managing director, Poseidon Investment Management (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Read More Image Credits: JD and Kyle Shoot Stock / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. In anticipation of a possible reversal of abortion privacy law Roe v. Wade, a group of Democratic congressional members penned a letter to Google's CEO Sundar Pichai, urging the company to consider changing the way it currently collects and retains cell phone location data records. Carly reports the fear is that it could become a tool for "far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care." Apple says its iOS App Store supports some 2.2 million jobs and was responsible for a 118% increase in U.S. small developer earnings over the past 2 years. Sarah and Natasha provide some analysis of the numbers, noting, "these figures highlight how important the App Store is to a wide range of global developers. That, in turn, could also help demonstrate why a system this large and powerful could also be due for more regulation and competition." Speaking of Apple, if you live in Maryland and have an Apple Wallet, you can store your driver's license or state ID there. The state became the second, behind Arizona, to offer the feature. Don't miss these equally exciting stories from today: Brainly refused to remove content about the war in Ukraine and is now blocked in Russia. A few things came to fruition today, including Amazon's plans for a brick-and-mortar store with the opening of a retail store in California, and Google started running ads in YouTube Shorts. The National Football League is looking at having its own streaming service. Fans are in luck — it looks like the service fee will be nominal. And ICYMI from yesterday, Dyson has secretly been building robots that pick up things, Kim Kardadshian likes Beyond Meat so much that she is going to be the brand's first "chief taste consultant," Exploding Kittens game is finally coming out on Netflix and Bumble is diving into some new nondating features around communities and social groups.

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7 months after raising $1B, grocery delivery Gorillas exits four countries and lays off 300

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Tuesday, May 24, 2022

It's the 24th of May, 2022, and today Amanda made us laugh with her "Welcome to Hell, we all drive Teslas," subhead to her story about Everything you wanted to know about Elon Musk and Twitter (but didn't want to ask). Masterful.  — Haje and Christine Image Credits: Gorillas

The TechCrunch Top 3 Another layoff story: We've been talking a lot about layoffs in the past few weeks, much of it coming from the techiest of tech companies — we have some on PayPal’s recent cohort — and we also shift over to the food delivery space, which has not been without its own set of challenges as companies grew mighty quickly during the pandemic. Gorillas, which is one of the largest players here, is one of the recent casualties. It said it will lay off 300 workers, as funding has dried up and debts have accumulated, just a few of the problems we may see emerge from similar companies, Ingrid reports. A horse is a horse, of course, of course, unless it's a unicorn: Data observability company Monte Carlo got a shiny gold horn today after announcing $153 million in Series D funding. Alex shares why this company was able to secure such a feat in this less-than-stellar funding environment. Oh hey, look who's back: One guy we weren't expecting to hear from again for a little while is Adam "WeWork" Neumann, but it seems we were wrong. He's launched a startup that will sell carbon credits on the blockchain. The company claims it has raised $70 million worth of funding, including from a16z and a token sale, Anita reports.

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Startups and VC It's mildly absurd to be alternately covering $150 million rounds and layoff stories today, but such is the life of startups. Firework just raised a $150 million round from Softbank and co. to turn streaming experiences into e-commerce opportunities, Christine reports. In other climate news, Tim reports that Singularity Energy raised a $4.5 million round for a SaaS platform that reports grid carbon emissions. Go on, have a few more: SpecEd goes to cyberspace: Assessing and delivering special education virtually has proven to be excruciatingly hard during the pandemic, but Parallel Learning thinks it has a solution. It also has $20 million worth of cash to execute, courtesy of Tiger Global and a cabal of other VCs. Bad robot, no donut: Warehouse operators can't wait to see fewer humans messing things up on production lines, apparently, and Nomagic snags a $22 million bag of cold hard cash from the VC assembly line to ensure the robots can do their thing in more warehouses, Ingrid reports. Buy 海外, sell aquí: Access to global supply chains can be difficult for small businesses in Latin America, but Pandas is tapping into overseas relationships and technology to make importing goods from Asia easier. Christine reports the company raised $6.3 million. And breathe…: French startup moka.care has raised a new $16 million Series A funding round. The company is focused on mental well-being in the workplace, offering a full-fledged service that sits in between employees and HR departments, Romain reports. Excel, unplugged. Except, more like plugged. It's a confusing metaphor: After many years of the humble spreadsheet doing its thing, we are seeing a bunch of innovation in this space. Today, Actiondesk caught Romain's eye, with a solution that makes spreadsheets more compatible with the SaaS era.

Mayfield's Navin Chaddha: I've looked at clouds from both sides now As managing partner at Mayfield and a three-time founder, Navin Chaddha has seen two downturns. "I have invested in over 60 companies, and while many have gone public or been acquired, the journey has included pivots, near-death experiences and navigating through the 2008/2009 downturn," he writes in a TC+ guest post. "Every era is different, but here are some tips for our new normal." (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Read More Image Credits: Muhammad Ridha/500px / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Your Walmart delivery might come from the sky soon if you live in certain states. The retail giant is swooping in to expand its drone coverage to six states this year after extending its partnership with DroneUp. Interestingly enough, the $4 shipping fee does not deter people from selecting that method of shipment, even if they are just ordering Hamburger Helper. Among the myriad Microsoft coverage stories today, we wanted to pull out this item about one of the company's newly revamped Power Pages, which previously lived within Power Apps as a component called Power Apps portals. We know, web-design tools are a dime a dozen, but what Microsoft is banking on is the product's integration with other existing services like Visual Studio Code and GitHub. Meanwhile… An animal picture is worth a thousand words: If you need a little pick-me-up for your Tuesday, head on over to Devin's story about OpenAi, which made us smile. No Bae-cations for China: Airbnb said it will close down its domestic business in China, a place it had been since 2016, but alas it accounted for just 1% of the company's overall business. When it hails, down in Aaaafricaaa: Uber is popping some champagne after reaching 1 billion rides in Africa. Sorry, Elon: A California judge ruled that a sexual harassment lawsuit against Tesla will proceed in court rather than go the arbitration route the company had requested.

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Used-car marketplace Sylndr lands $12.6M pre-seed round, sets new record for MENA startups

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Monday, May 23, 2022

Monday May 23, 2022, and we're listening to our brand-new podcast called the TechCrunch Podcast. In it, we talk to TechCrunch writers about the stories they're most excited about. The first episode is live now, featuring Darrell and Taylor talking about … UFOs? — Haje and Christine Image Credits: Sylndr

The TechCrunch Top 3 Hey, you, get into my car: Automotive marketplace newcomer Sylndr is parking itself in a prime spot in the Egyptian used-car market with a $12.6 million pre-seed round, a big one for the region, to try to make some sense of an unorganized and outdated industry where buyers are distrustful of sellers. Sylndr's approach is to offer both a "certified pre-owned" option — they buy the cars and get them in working condition — and financing in hopes of putting the brakes on some of that mistrust. Is it a nerd? Is it insane? No, it's super-Solana: If you'll forgive the utterly dodgy Superman reference, Rita explores whether StepN, the latest crypto gaming craze, makes any sense. High returns: Cryptocurrency has never been one for stability — heck, even the stablecoins aren't proving to be stable — but for those die-hard investors looking for high-yield savings, Pebble wants to be your provider. Buoyed by a new infusion of $6.2 million in seed funding, the startup offers 5% annual percentage yield on all cash deposits through the use of stablecoins. Is everyone checking their bank APY right now?

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Startups and VC Putting robot operating systems in the cloud makes sense in a world where a lot of industrial robots have limited computing powers (and certainly no GPUs, TPUs, or FPGAs to help them along). Brian reports on a really interesting development from the Berkeley AI research lab, aiming to change that. It's pretty depressing that there are enough layoffs happening in startup land that we're now on our third weekly installment of a roundup of startup team reductions, but Natasha and Amanda have you covered, letting you read all the heartbreaking news in one post, rather than having to read all our individual coverage. As we're tightening our belts, battening the hatches and mumbling "winter is coming" under our breaths, Connie has some fantastic advice for why you should start talking to bankers and buyers to ensure you have options if the guillotine really comes down in a big way. Some good news, too: The pear tree is fruiting: Connie reports that Silicon valley VC firm Pear is raising a $410 million fund; this is a huge step up from its previous $50 million, $75 million, and $160 million funds. Moving from A to B in Uno, Dos, Tres: Christine reports how Argentina-based startup ClicOh raises $25 million to bring Amazon-level logistics to e-commerce businesses in LatAm. Twinkle, twinkle, little pedal: We didn't know how much bike pedals needed lights in them until we saw it in action. It just makes so much sense… From routing to routing: Amit Jain, who previously led Uber's APAC business and was a partner at Sequoia, is working on a crypto payments platform, raising money from Uber's CEO, Manish reports.

Cisco's latest results indicate a reckoning may soon be at hand Is networking leader Cisco in the doldrums? Ron Miller and Alex Wilhelm pored over the company's recently released quarterly results and found that year-over-year revenue was flat, with future earnings predicted to fall well short of expectations. Last week, CEO Chuck Robbins told analysts that the company was feeling the impacts of global supply chain issues and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but it's increasingly unclear whether healthy software revenues can compensate for its sinking hardware business. "Even when the supply chain issues are solved, Cisco must find a way to innovate and monetize in networking, something it has been struggling with over the last four to six years," said Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research. (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Image Credits: Bloomberg / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Some M&A news courtesy of Broadcom taking an interest in VMware. Ron and Alex weren't the first to get the news, but they spent some energy pondering why Broadcom might have its eye on VMware despite there not being much in common between the two. Today's mobility news is brought you by the letter "H," the letter "B" and the word "oops." Annie reported on a civil lawsuit that drivers in Kenya have filed against Uber BV with claims that the ride-hailing company had plans to "further reduce commuter charges in Kenya, months after the 35% cut of 2016." It also goes into why drivers stuck around even after the price reduction. Meanwhile, Hyundai says it will park some $10 billion into electric and autonomous vehicles by 2025. About half of that will go into the car maker's new EV factory it is building in Georgia. Over at Boeing, its team is cheering as its Starliner spacecraft docked with the International Space Station after many delays and even some nail-biting events after lift-off. In streaming news, late-night funnyman Conan O'Brien must be all smiles as his Team Coco podcast is now part of SiriusXM, and there is some positive news for premium streaming subscriptions that might be making Netflix a little jealous. And now, this: Where were you when "The Great Fintech Battle" was fought?: You might remember in one of last week's Daily Crunches we discussed Plaid and Stripe going head-to-head on some new tools. Alex and Mary Ann dig a little deeper into this fintech battle, where consumers might be declared the winner. Taking away toxic text: Microsoft developed some news tools that aim to find and fix flaws in the way artificial intelligence models take in large amounts of data to create large language models that often end up with hate speech and other harmful language. Epic Games fought the law and won, for now: Epic Games temporarily won on behalf of its internet music company holding, Bandcamp, to let the app run its existing payment system on Android. This is a similar antitrust legal battle against the tech giants that Epic Games is fighting itself. Data disasters: The U.K. fined Clearview AI £7.5 million and told them to delete information of U.K. residents after it was found the U.S.-based company, which has a database of over 20 billion facial images, was grabbing them and using them without permission in a breach of local privacy laws. Stateside, Mark Zuckerberg is finding himself in some hot water. The Facebook founder is part of new litigation brought by the District of Columbia, alleging he was personally involved in the failures that led to the whole Cambridge Analytica–Facebook data-misuse debacle. Well that takes the cake: Wedding planning app Zola confirmed that hackers gained entry into user accounts, which gave them access to credit card numbers, which the hackers used to buy gift cards.

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