Indian edtech giant Byju's delays $1B acquisition payment, lays off hundreds of workers

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Greetings on this Hump Day. We've got one housekeeping item for you: We need your vote on what roundtable sessions you'd like to see at Disrupt. And if you didn't get a chance to read Becca's piece on what venture capital deal terms look like in this environment, she and Natasha break down the story in today's Equity podcast.  — Christine Read More

The TechCrunch Top 3 Hits keep coming: Byju's capital woes are spilling over into its ability to make payments for a $1 billion acquisition of physical coaching center provider Aakash, Manish reports. This follows some layoffs the company made at online learning platforms Toppr and WhiteHat Jr. What gives with these layoffs?: And if you were wondering where all of these 2022 layoffs are coming from, Alex writes it has little to do with the economic correction we saw in early 2020, but instead was touched off by a crappy public market. Extra extra, read all about it!: If you were on pins and needles about Snapchat+, its new paid subscription plan it was testing, wait no more. Ivan writes that Snapchat+ is here and is $3.99 per month for all the new features you can stand. Image Credits: Paul Yeung / Bloomberg / Getty Images

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Startups and VC Remember the name Memomi the next time you shop for glasses in Walmart or Sam's Club. The retail giant is acquiring Memomi, which uses augmented reality technology so that you can virtually try on eyewear, Sarah reports. Though Walmart is mum about future plans for other applications, it sounds like this is only the start to what may emerge from the company in the virtual try-on space. Despite this crazy time, it's nice to read about venture studios that are accelerating growth rather than slowing down. Here, Annie spotlights Adanian Labs, which she writes is planning to grow 300 African companies in the next 5 years. Here's what else we saw today: You’ll want to remember her name: Have you met Debut Capital's Pilar Johnson? If not, you will enjoy Dominic-Madori's profile on Johnson, an investor who, she writes, is "one to watch." Yes, more layoffs: As Carly writes, cybersecurity was "once the VC darling," and even though breaches are still very much a problem, the industry is not immune to what's going on out there in the tech sector. Also coming in hot are reports of layoffs at Modsy and Niantic. Physicians get their own wingperson: Regard, an L.A. startup you might remember as HealthTensor, brought in $15.3 million in Series A funding to give physicians a "medical co-pilot" they can turn to for help in recognizing about 50 different common medical conditions, Catherine reported. Let's all get along: Frederic wrote about Helios, an Israeli startup buoyed by $5 million in new funding. It's helping developers understand how their code interacts with other applications using open source observability tools. The data has to get analyzed somehow: And Zing Data is hoping to be that method. Ron wrote about the company's $2.4 million seed round that puts all that data analysis on your mobile device. "The tax code is a turnoff": We're not sure any truer words have been spoken. A company called April, which raised $30 million, is taking a stab at personalizing and autofilling tax filings so it isn't so…yeah, Kyle reports. Move over, Amazon: Please enjoy my story about Nautical Commerce, which bagged $30 million in Series A funding toward democratizing the way businesses of all sizes can set up a marketplace. Getting animated: Tage reported on Kukua's $6 million round, which will build on its "edutainment" offering for children. Another new fund: Ingrid spins a delightful yarn about Entrepreneur First's $158 million raise that it will convert into an evergreen fund for backing entrepreneurs.

5 ways to seize the opportunities created by recent chaos in adtech This year, TikTok’s ad sales juggernaut is expected to triple to more than $11 billion, trouncing the combined revenue of Twitter and Snapchat. According to Alex Song, CEO and co-founder of data science company Proxima, this upheaval in media technology stocks is creating benefits for early-stage startups, “because forced innovation makes for a more competitive environment.” In a TC+ guest post, he shares five strategies “for capitalizing on the turbulent advertising environment.” (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Read More Image Credits: Jeffrey Coolidge / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Let's start off with some car news, shall we? Jaclyn wrote about Hyundai revealing its IONIQ 6 EV sedan. It looks pretty sharp — I may have to add this to my "next car wish list." Now over to Tesla, where the company laid off about 200 Autopilot workers and closed its San Mateo, California, office, Rebecca reported. And in case you’re wondering, Elon Musk still hasn’t tweeted yet, as of publication. Chat and Meet are now the new default for Gmail's redesigned interface, Ivan writes. No longer will you have to manually enable them. Don't worry, there is a revert option if you prefer the classic view. But why would you? Delta and Misapplied Sciences are working on some technology in Detroit that will have the airport's flight information display begin providing personalized gate and destination information, Frederic writes. If you are a Delta customer going through there, you need to try it and report back. Snapchat might not allow anonymous social apps anymore — and for good reason — but Sarah reports that new apps like Sendit and NGL are finding a home over at Instagram. I guess now they are Meta's problem. Some additional news for ya: Bob Chapek gets to keep his Mickey ears a bit longer: Disney's board voted to extend Chapek's contract for 3 more years, showing confidence in his leadership despite a rough go of it from the pandemic, Lauren writes. All things Google: From Sarah, the search engine giant is going to pay for commercial access to Wikipedia content. Aisha tells us about Google's Switch to Android app for iOS users is now compatible with all Android 12 phones. Finally, Ivan reports that Google and Apple received a note from FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr about removing TikTok from its app stores. Is shopping your cardio?: If it is, you are in luck because Aisha writes that Amazon is launching a new physical retail store analytics service that also gives brands anonymized insights about their products in Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores across the United States that use Just Walk Out and Dash Cart technologies. Up in smoke: Natasha reports that European Union lawmakers are proposing a ban on flavored vapes. ICYMI from yesterday: Harri wrote about the Federal Trade Commission suing Walmart over money transfer scams, and Taylor dove into Facebook’s and Instagram's decision to remove posts offering mail abortion pills.

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The party's over: Airbnb bans all disruptive gatherings in perpetuity

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Greetings, there is a lot of news to get into today, and my head is reeling a bit from some of that January 6 testimony today, so let's get right into it. Oh, and TechCrunch+ is having an Independence Day sale! Save 50% on an annual subscription here. (More on TechCrunch+ here if you need it!) Now that you have said subscription, head on over to Haje's story about your pitch deck needing an operating plan. — Christine Read More

The TechCrunch Top 3 Kid 'n Play would not be amused: Airbnb has spoken and is putting an end to party houses with a permanent ban, Ivan reports. This is something the company initially started 2 years ago, and it seems to have worked — the company reports 44% fewer complaints of parties year over year. On target: Though crypto exchange FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denied he was interested in buying Robinhood, Alex gets into why FTX would be interested at all. The headline speaks for itself: Mike scored a home run with his headline for a story about four European founders turned angel investors who are giving some of their venture capital firm competitors — many they say have not operated a company before — a run for their money. Image Credits: NurPhoto / Getty Images

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Startups and VC We enjoyed Ingrid's story about Speechmatics, a company that raised $62 million for its approach to speech-to-text artificial intelligence. One of the interesting things it is doing is removing some of the bias so that if you have an accent, or speak in a certain way, it will still be picked up and translated accurately. E-commerce is hot, hot, hot, but it can be daunting to sift through something like 7,500 apps, which Shopify has, to find the ones that will be best for your business. I wrote about Shop Circle, which came out of stealth mode today with $65 million. The company sifted through all of those apps and is acquiring them so you don't have to. We know electric vehicles are expensive, so wouldn't it be great to defer a portion of the monthly payment? Meet Tenet, which raised $18 million for its loan offering that could cut an average of $200 off the bill, Harri writes. Here's the short, short version of other stories: Powering job boards: While the tech sector is seeing layoffs, Kyle reports that Gloat grabs $90 million to build better internal job boards. Rising tides and all: Sustainable Ocean Alliance, an ocean-focused, early-stage startup incubator, got itself $18 million in new funding from sources, most notably Marc and Lynne Benioff, Devin writes. You got a friend in me: Finding friends is hard, and as Catherine points out, it gets even harder as you get older. That's why it's heartwarming to read about apps like Hank, which grabbed $7 million in seed funding and connects older adults to something fun they like to do. Vice no more?: It wasn't that long ago that venture capital firms were skittish on the idea of investing in one of the "vices," you know, like alcohol and cannabis. Haje reports that JourneyOne has a fresh $10 million fund that is ready to be put to work in cannabis tech.

Use chronological scenario planning to help your startup get through a potential recession People who burn wood to keep warm through the winter know how to calculate how many cords they’ll need to chop and stack. Creating a winterization strategy for a startup is a less straightforward process, however. In this environment, entrepreneurs should build decision trees that can help them manage 36 months of runway, recommends Gaetano Crupi, partner at venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab. A 3-year outlook “is a more appropriate time horizon for collecting more information so you can decelerate even further (with cash to pivot) if things are worse in 12 months, or accelerate if things are better in 18 months,” he advises. (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.) Read More Image Credits: Andriy Onufriyenko / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Starting off our Big Tech news today is a handoff of one of India's biggest telecom companies and the beginning of a new generation. Manish reports that Akash Ambani took the reins of Reliance Jio from his father, Mukesh Ambani, in what was viewed by analysts "as a clear illustration of a leadership transition in one of Asia's wealthiest families." Carly writes that cybercrime operation RansomHouse (why do these sound like book publishers?) is supposedly behind the extortion of some data from U.S. chipmaker AMD. The company is investigating the incident. Ron attended some of Google's Sustainability Summit this week and came out with a story about Google Cloud's new sustainability platform to provide businesses with data to help them achieve their climate goals. More for your viewing pleasure: Oh, yes, we got trouble, trouble, trouble: When you buy an electric vehicle, you want it to run with the same reliability as your old combustion engine car, but as Jaclyn reports, a J.D. Power survey found that was not the case. Get the band back together: Spotify's new Supergrouper in-app feature will create a mixed tape of sorts for up to five of your favorite artists, Aisha writes. Convoy: Rebecca reported on an open letter sent to California governor Gavin Newsom from a group of autonomous truck developers urging the state to reconsider an earlier ruling that prohibits those kinds of vehicles in the state. Listen up: If you are looking for some new earbuds, Brian provides a review of Nura's prototype.  Developer delight: Frederic writes about Hasura's new GraphQL Data Connector that "allows developers to bring virtually any data source into Hasura in order to expose it as a GraphQL API."

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