AWS now accepting applications for its new 10-week generative AI accelerator

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Tuesday, April 04, 2023

Happy Tuesday Crunch, our crunchy compatriots. Today, there's a ton of fun events-based updates for you. If you're coming to Early Stage in Boston, Pitch to VCs there. Also, if you want to speak at Disrupt later this summer, you can apply now. Oh, and sustainability is getting a whole stage all to itself at Disrupt. It's gonna be rad. See you there? Also! Darrell is arguing that “not only is generative AI already here — it’s already dealing killing blows,” in his latest piece, “A knife so sharp you don't feel it cut.” — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Ron Miller/TechCrunch

The TechCrunch Top 3 Accelerating generative AI: Amazon is jumping into startup accelerators with both feet again and will boost generative AI startups around the globe with a 10-week program, Natasha M writes. Ten startups will receive $300,000 in AWS credits and will debut their tech at a demo day. A "not-quite open source startup": That's how Paul described Dozer, a startup that came out of stealth today with $3 million in the bank and technology to help any developer build real-time data apps in no time flat. All in the startup: Yes, startup founders matter when it comes to securing funding, but Ensemble amassed $100 million in capital commitments for its debut fund on the premise that behind every founder is a team that also matters when it comes to a company being successful. Becca tells you how.

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Startups and VC The hype around ChatGPT, OpenAI's viral AI-powered chatbot, hasn't reached a peak yet, Kyle reports. That's the vibe one gets from Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch, which features no fewer than four startups that claim to be trying to build “ChatGPT for X.” Today we are keeping an eye on the legal case of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Charlie Javice, the founder of student financial aid startup Frank. The SEC is charging Javice with defrauding JPMorgan in connection with the $175 million sale of the company to JPMorgan Chase Bank in 2021, Mary Ann reports. In between refreshing the news re: what's happening with Trump’s indictment, here's a few more stories to keep you entertained: That seems ethical: Alcohol recovery startups Monument and Tempest shared patients' private data with advertisers, Zack reports. Well that covers things: Jagmeet reports that Lightspeed backs Indian startup Zyod aiming to make apparel manufacturing more efficient. To da stock exchange: Ron and Alex report that Klaviyo may be sniffing around looking to IPO later this year. Off the chain: Blockchain messaging protocol LayerZero raises $120 million at a $3 billion valuation, Jacquelyn reports. It's all gone to the dogs: Twitter's new homepage logo is very doge-y, Amanda notes.

What's a fair price premium for startup shares? A new market update report from Redpoint Ventures contains insights for Series B and C founders who are planning to fundraise this year, reports Alex Wilhelm. “Middle-stage startups today still look rather expensive,” he writes. “Either the stock market needs to recover some of its juice, or startup prices need to fall more for things to get back to ‘normal.'” Three more from the TC+ team: Can mobile gaming survive?: Haje writes that spiraling costs are killing the mobile gaming space. I'm available: Should you post that you're #OpenToWork? Aline Lerner and Maxim Massenkoff explore a tale of two labor markets. Cool cool cool: Magnets and water net Magnotherm a $6.9 million seed round to kill hazardous refrigerants, Tim reports. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Javier Ghersi / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Today we bring you Twitter: everything, everywhere, all at once. Amanda and Alyssa give us a month-by-month rundown of Elon Musk's Twitter, from the layoffs to the verification drama, where changes meant to take effect on April 1 came and went, leaving us all feeling like it was an April Fools' joke gone wrong. Meanwhile, just as NASA named its new moon crew, or "Moon Unit" if we may, Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy. Darrell writes, "The bankruptcy filing follows weeks of bad news for the company, including a pause on all operations, a brief hunt for more money to continue as a going concern and massive layoffs to try to right-size to the company's actual available budget, which today's news essentially confirms was nonexistent." And we have five more for you: Security!: Kate has been following the search for more memory chips and reports that China launched a probe into Micron for cybersecurity risks while also urging Japan to stay out of U.S. chip export curbs. TikTok has a clock: TikTok is not having a good day. First, Ivan writes that Australia bans TikTok on official devices; then the social media giant is hit with a $15.7 million fine in the United Kingdom for misusing children's data. Natasha L has more. The latest in Israel: Mike covers Israel's political crisis and writes that reforms proposed by the government "[have] activated its apolitical tech industry, and there's no turning back." I don't want to see that anymore: If you're using Facebook in the EU, Natasha L tells you how to opt out of its creepy ads. Leaving on a space transporter: Satellite bus startup Apex Space will hitch a ride into space aboard SpaceX's Transporter-10, Aria reports.

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Patreon rival Fanfix projects paying creators $50M by end of 2023

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Monday, April 03, 2023

What up, Crunchers! Welcome back to Monday Crunch, where we sift through the seemingly never-ending string of gems posted on TechCrunch on Friday. If you read nothing else today, read The Great Pretender by Devin. It's a great piece that looks into AI and how it (sometimes/mostly/theoretically) works: "All that matters is that these systems do not distinguish between something that is correct and something that looks correct. Once you understand that the AI considers these things more or less interchangeable, everything makes a lot more sense." Oh, and this gave us a good giggle over the weekend. — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Fanfix

The TechCrunch Top 3 Move over TikTok: There's a new social media content sheriff in town. As TikTok tried not to get banned in the U.S., Lauren writes that thousands of Gen Z creators are using Fanfix to monetize content and interact with fans. And it's already paid out $11 million to creators so far. Oh, Twitter, you old tease: Ivan writes that Twitter's new label makes it hard to differentiate between legacy and paid verified accounts. But really, Amanda writes, we are too distracted right now by the new doge-y icon at the top of Twitter to notice the labels. Alex writes this icon is sending dogecoin to the moon. There's been an incident: Western Digital says hackers stole data in a "network security incident" that took place last week. Carly has more.

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Startups and VC In a major blow to shared micromobility companies, Paris has voted to ban rental e-scooters from its streets, Rebecca reports. Many in the industry fear that the move in Paris, where free-floating scooters initially took off in 2018, will have ripple effects in other cities. Connie reports that, despite pressure, Andreessen Horowitz is courting Saudi money. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz appeared onstage with WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann to talk about their firm's $350 million investment in Flow, Neumann's new residential real estate company. Their choice of venue was intentional: The conference was organized by a nonprofit backed by one of Saudi Arabia's largest sovereign funds. And we have five more for you: Running in place: Brian reports that, a decade later, this VR treadmill is finally ready to ship. Supplementary security for SaaS: Ingrid reports that Push Security raised $15 million to help SaaS users lower their online vulnerability. That's . . . not actually the problem: Ethicists fire back at “AI Pause” letter they say “ignores the actual harms,” reports Devin. Money flowing to LatAm: Kaszek earmarks nearly $1 billion in new funds for Latin American startups, reports Mary Ann. Who are ya?: AI startup Fourthline locks down $54 million to bring better ID checks and compliance tools to the finance sector, Ingrid reports.

5 growth lessons I learned while scaling from $0 to $1M ARR Annual recurring revenue is a critical health metric for every subscription-based business. It’s easy to calculate, but it’s a hard number to budge, since ARR indicates how well a startup is doing in terms of product-market fit. In his latest column, Sales Kiwi co-founder and TC+ contributor Jonathan Martinez shared five essential takeaways he learned along the way to leading his startup to $1 million ARR. Lesson one? “I never tested more than two paid channels at a time, which is how I was ultimately able to unlock acquisition for my team,” writes Jonathan. “This applies for all forms of growth, so if you're trying to unlock lifecycle marketing, don't also put efforts into unlocking four paid channels at the same time.” Three more from the TC+ team: Weathering a crisis: Christine explores how a fintech company handled a fintech crisis. Decks? We don't need no stinkin' decks: Do you need a deck to raise from VCs? Not always, writes Haje. Investing time, investing dollars: How you invest your time is just as important as how you invest your money, writes Allison Baum Gates. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More

Big Tech Inc. Do you like to travel? How about the price, is that important to you? Google is testing some new search features for travel, including a “price guarantee” tool for flights. Aisha writes there will be a little badge next to the price to indicate that Google doesn't think the price will go lower. If it does, Google will give you the difference. Meanwhile, Nintendo Systems, a joint venture between Nintendo and mobile games company DeNA is a go, Lauren reports. Nintendo Systems is meant to more easily deliver entertainment to consumers. Wait! There's more: Take a bite out of that: Apple came out on top of an appeals case in the United Kingdom over mobile market competition. Natasha L has more. Susan Sarandon surfaces: Warner Bros. debuts the official “Blue Beetle” trailer. Lauren has more. Driver acquired: General Motors' electric delivery van unit BrightDrop signs up Ryder and has made the first Zevo 600 deliveries, Rebecca reports. Still going: Rivian will stick to its 2023 production goal for EVs, despite a quarterly dip, Kirsten reports. Setting the stage: YouTube will livestream all six Coachella stages, Aisha reports.

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Citing data privacy concerns, Italy temporarily bans ChatGPT

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Friday, March 31, 2023

Fri-yay Crunch! We are pretty excited about Disrupt 2023 getting a whole stage dedicated to fintech. And while we're talking about events…There's just a few hours left to save $200 on TC Early Stage tickets in Boston in a couple of weeks, so get yer tickets while you can! On that note, enjoy your weekend! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Lee Woodgate / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3 Italy gives ChatGPT the boot: Italy's government has been on a blocking kick lately. A few days ago, we wrote about a possible ban on cultivated meat, and today Italy wants to block ChatGPT, citing data protection concerns. Natasha L writes that the country's data protection authority is opening an investigation into whether OpenAI is breaching the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. Groupon gets its Czech book: Ingrid reports that Groupon has lost 99.4% of its value since its IPO and now has a new CEO who will run the business from the Czech Republic. Jio gets its game on: Manish writes that Mukesh Ambani, CEO of India's streaming giant Jio, sees the Indian Premier League cricket tournament as "the perfect opportunity to revamp Jio's service adoption strategy even as the firm recognizes that cricket streaming will not turn a profit for several years."

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Startups and VC What do you do when you have a very successful and popular product (marijuana) that is legal in some places, but federally has been a Schedule 1 drug since 1970? Well, you can't rely on any national institutions as your business partners, Haje reports. One of the major places that shows up is in payments and payment processing; even after recreational cannabis became legal in 21 states and decriminalized in another dozen or so, cannabis has become largely a cash business. In a world that is increasingly cashless, that's a problem for both consumers and businesses. Smoakland is currently beta-testing a loophole that lets its customers pay by credit card. The secret, it turns out, is crypto. Need some more to get you through the long bleak gap of “less tech news” known as the weekend? Don’tcha worry fam, we gotchu: Down in proverbial flames: Aria reports that Virgin Orbit burns up in uncontrolled descent. Teaching an old browser new tricks: Artie sidesteps the app stores by putting high-quality games in your browser, Haje reports. Pouring our hearts out: Haje reviewed a fancy-ass $700 coffee maker and concludes that xBloom makes perfect pour-over so you don't have to, before asking if you would want to. Not worthless, but worth less: U.S. investors slash Byju's and Swiggy valuation, reports Manish. This meeting could have been a summary: Ivan reports that Read's AI-powered summary feature squeezes a meeting into a two-minute clip.

Yeah, of course, YC's winter class is oozing with AI companies Just over one-third of the fledgling startups in Y Combinator’s latest class say “that they are an AI company or use AI in some kind of way,” reports Rebecca Szkutak. “You can't blame the YC companies for leaning into AI,” she writes. “If you saw VCs dumping dollars — in a tougher fundraising market, no less — into a technology like AI that you could implement into your own business, why wouldn't you?” Three more from the TC+ team: Okay, here's the game plan: Anna and Alex have the lowdown on European startups looking to raise money in 2023. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead: Investors are unfazed by Q1 crypto funding decline, writes Jacquelyn. You're hired! Anastasiia Kuzmenko shares three recruiting metrics that can help startups make more data-driven hiring decisions. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Checkout.com has a new president who recently spoke with Mary Ann about being bullish on a U.S. expansion and how she "welcomes" comparisons to Stripe. Céline Dufétel says of the payments industry this year: "Now more than ever amid the uncertain economic landscape, CFOs and heads of payments are narrowing in on the impact of payments on topline growth and profitability. Increasingly, business leaders are recognizing the measurable impact of high-performing payments systems in maximizing acceptance rates, minimizing costly fraud concerns, and reducing operational costs." And we have five more for you: What's going on with the TikTok ban?: We’re so glad you asked. Taylor gives you the play-by-play. TV turned on its side: No, you aren't seeing your Hulu interface wrong. The streaming company changed some things around, including a revamped sidebar on the left, Ivan and Lauren write. You can't do that on social media: The lower chamber of the French parliament passed an influencer bill cracking down on risky products. Romain has more. Going public: Helbiz stock tumbles on reverse split, but it's okay because they are rebranding to Micromobility.com, Rebecca writes. Quite taxing: Amanda played an anime dating sim that does your taxes for you and has some notes.

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