Ledger locks down another $108M to double down on hardware crypto wallets

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Thursday, March 30, 2023

Thursdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! It's one of our favorite days of the week. Definitely in the top 7. — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Ledger

The TechCrunch Top 3 Crypto wallet in disguise: Ledger, a company that designs and manufactures crypto wallets, is now flush with actual cash. Romain writes that after raising over $380 million in 2021, in today's dollars, Ledger brought in $108 million, raising at the same valuation and from a long list of investors. Even contact centers need tech: Customers have lots of questions, and to provide the best experience, you need more than just a friendly voice on the other end of the phone. That's where Parloa comes in, raising $21 million to add a little automation to contact centers, Kyle writes. Cashing in on the generative AI frenzy: In Kyle's second top story of the day, Fixie, backed by $17 million in venture capital, wants to make it easier for companies to build on top of language models.

Startups and VC "Our story starts 15 years ago," Frédéric Utzmann, founder and CEO of Effy, told Romain. After 15 years of bootstrapping, the energy renovation company is at a crossroads and just closed a $22 million funding round from Felix Capital to make the most of the opportunities in the energy renovation space. The layoffs continue: Indian edtech Unacademy slashes another 12% jobs, and online used-car marketplace Shift cuts workforce by 30%. Another fistful of wisdoms and nuggets: Taking on Twitter, too: Twitter alternative T2 launches new verification program and hires a Discord engineering head as CTO, Sarah reports Computer says no to fraud: Kyle reports that Oscilar emerges from stealth to fight transactions fraud with AI. Computer says no to other computers: DataDome uses AI to protect against bot-based attacks. The company just raised $42 million, Kyle reports. A captive audience: Ingrid reports that P97 fills up its tank with $40 million to fuel its gas station mobile commerce services. CEOs only: Natasha M writes that Hampton is tech's new membership community for chief executive officers.

How to build a sales development representative strategy that will fill your B2B pipeline Marketing teams deserve all of the credit for crafting innovative campaigns that break through the noise: Convincing someone to try out a new product or service takes real skill! In practice, however, sales development representatives (SDRs) do most of the work required to land new customers, “making cold calls, writing email outreach, or sending outbound mail,” says GTM strategist Mike Tong. Because it takes “about 15 touches for a prospect to want to see a demo,” Tong authored a TC+ guide for early-stage CEOs who need guidance around hiring and incentivizing SDR teams. “Pipeline generation at early-stage companies is expensive and time consuming, often more so than the sales process itself. That said, getting it right is likely the most important thing you can do for your business.” Three more from the TC+ team: Bork bork bork?: Anna takes a look at Sweden's startup scene as Techstars drops its Stockholm program. Let me insure you: Anna talks to six VCs who explain why embedded insurance isn't the only hot opportunity in insurtech. Reaching for the sky: Haje is back with his weekly Pitch Deck Teardown, looking at Northspyre's $25 million Series B deck, which comes with a few good surprises. And a few, er, not good surprises. 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: kampee patisena / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. It seems we can't go that many days without more news on a company cutting jobs. This time, Roku is doing a second round of layoffs, this time of 200 employees, or 6% of its workforce, citing "a larger plan to lower its year-over-year operating expense growth and prioritize projects that it believes will have a higher return on investment," Sarah writes. This comes four months after Roku laid off an initial 200 people. Meanwhile, if you want to book an environmentally friendly ride, you're in luck. Uber expands its Comfort Electric offering to 14 new markets in the U.S. and Canada, Rebecca reports. You can choose from Tesla Models S, 3, X and Y; the Polestar 2; the Ford Mustang Mach-E; the Audi e-tron; the Porsche Taycan; and the Hyundai Ioniq. And we have five more for you: Driving off into the sunset: Waymo retires its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan, Kirsten reports. Don't answer this call: Security firms say a new supply chain attack is targeting customers of a phone system with 12 million users, Carly writes. Not enough: Ivan writes that developers say the new Twitter API tiers still miss the mark. Game on: Netflix is working on games for the TV where people can use their iPhone as the video game controller, Lauren reports. Changes are coming: Lyft's new CEO has some ideas that might include dropping shared rides, Rebecca reports.

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After raising $3M seed, global fintech platform Payday plans to secure licensing in Canada, UK

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Hello, and welcome to Wednesday Crunch! On everyone's mind today is the power of AI and whether we're all doomed. Connie reports that 1,100+ notable signatories just signed an open letter asking "all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months." Meanwhile, Amanda explores how everything is “Goncharov” as the meme-makers are going mainstream with a huge assist from AI tech. — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

The TechCrunch Top 3 Future of work is borderless: Payday, now flush with $3 million in new capital, plans to expand its Africa-based operations to Canada and the United Kingdom, Tage writes. The company provides a way for those working remotely to receive payments in their currency of choice. "Alexa, call Grandma": A new Amazon capability brings T-Mobile customers into the fold for making and receiving calls via an Alexa-enabled device, Ivan reports. In-suring new funds: India-based insurtech company Acko, which is already backed by Amazon, is in talks for $120 million in new funding. Manish has more.

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Startups and VC With a drier than normal investment scene, founders are looking for more effective ways to reach the right VCs. Thousands of founders have applied to land capital through a common app, Natasha M reports. The platform they've been using is Seed Checks. Founders are invited to apply using a one-minute form that asks for a deck, memo and region. The app is then blasted to 16 investors. Autio, a location-based audio entertainment app co-founded by actor Kevin Costner and formerly known as HearHere, has raised $5.9 million. The funding round was led by iHeartMedia, Aisha reports. Autio uses GPS to narrate stories of landmarks, cities and towns nearby with the aim of fostering deep connections and understandings of the places users are traveling through. And we have five more for you: Yeah, but does it use outside-in compression: Deep Render lands $9 million for its AI-powered video compression tech, Kyle reports. A growing market: Christine writes that Italy's ban on cultivated meat could set the industry back. Wait, you can't say that: Kyle reports that LeapXpert raises $22 million to monitor employee chats for compliance. Is that you, Bob?: Spera raises $10 million for its identity security posture management platform, Frederic reports. Putting the pieces back together again: Distressed Indian startup GoMechanic acquired by Lifelong Group-led consortium, reports Manish.

Ask Sophie: What to do if selected/not selected in H-1B lottery? Dear Sophie, After three tries, I was finally selected this year in the H-1B lottery! What do we do next? — Wondering Winner Dear Sophie, I'm on STEM OPT. My employer put me in this year's H-1B lottery for the third time, but I wasn't selected again! What do I do? — Lottery Loser Three more from the TC+ team: Substacks of cash: Alex takes a look at Substack taking a different tack to raise more capital. Speak up!: Carly points out that Silence gets you nowhere in a data breach. So which one is it?: Are cryptocurrencies commodities or securities? Well, Jacquelyn discovers that depends on which U.S. agency you ask. 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: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Big Tech Inc. Lots of Google-related news today, so let's summarize, shall we? The TechCrunch audience was particularly enamored with Aisha's story about a new feature on extreme heat alerts. Why? Perhaps it's because our weather is not cooperating with the current month. Meanwhile, Frederic reports on Google Cloud launching AlloyDB Omni; Ivan has your look at Google's new ad transparency center; Manish reports on an Android antitrust case in India; Aisha writes about new Google Search features; and Lorenzo and Carly round it out with a story on hackers using spyware to target users in the UAE. And with that, we hope you have a Google day! Now here's five more for you: Spot-ify the new changes: Spotify is testing out new card-style user profiles so that users can have more of a social profile on the platform, Sarah reports. Gone fishing for competition: The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority is moving forward with an in-depth probe of the $61 billion Broadcom-VMware deal. Ron has more. WWYD with tickets to this show?: Apple's developer conference, WWDC, returns to Apple Park in June, Brian writes. Get your digital scissors ready: Amazon Pharmacy now automatically applies coupons on select brand name drugs, Aisha reports. Goooooaaaal!: Sarah writes that Apple is developing a "multiview" feature for watching sports that will enable Apple TV users to watch up to four streams at the same time.

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Zoom's new AI-powered features include whiteboard generation and meeting summaries

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Happy Tuesday Crunch! To meet the changing startup landscape, we're refreshing and reimagining TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 in a big way, with more of what you love and new ways to accelerate your growth — new stages, new content, and new opportunities. Panzer breaks down what you have to look forward to in his post today — don't miss it! Oh, and if you were laid off recently, we are offering a free Expo+ pass to TC Disrupt 2023. Join us! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3 It was only a matter of time: Zoom doesn't want you to stray far from its platform and has added new features, including email, assistant and calendar, so that it can go head-to-head with Slack, Calendly, Google and Microsoft, Ivan reports. That's a lot of sparring. We hope Zoom is up to the task. RIP: Natasha L makes her case for why "Twitter is dying." We won't spoil it for you, but it involves a certain person taking it over. If you need any further evidence, only verified accounts will show up in the "For You" section starting April 15. Yes, the people who paid $8 for the blue check. More layoffs: Manish reports that GitHub laid off "virtually its entire engineering team in India as the Microsoft-owned firm cuts its expenses amid weakening global market conditions."

"You can't be a global investor and not have presence in the UK" Sponsored by GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland The UK tech sector is home to more unicorns than Germany, France and Sweden combined with its founders focused on international growth. Find out how the UK is building world-class companies across AI, Fintech and Healthtech with a global outlook. Read More

Startups and VC Gotta love some solid startup drama, and Brian covers it in his summary of Turntable and all its iterations over the years: Turntable LIVE raises $7 million ahead of public launch, after years of co-founder disagreements and music licensing challenges. We've all seen “Jurassic Park,” so we conclude that there's nothing that could possibly go wrong from taking mammoth DNA and vat-growing mammoth burger meat. That's right, a cultured meat firm resurrects the woolly mammoth so you can get a whole new (well, old) sensory experience, Paul reports. Personally, we can't wait for dino-burgers next. Next step: Triceratops tri-tip, Stegosaurus steak and Brachiosaurus burgers all around. And we have five more stories for you, home grown in small artisanal batches by your friendly, local TechCrunch writers: Growing humans: Haje reports how Mate Fertility finds fertile ground with its seed funding round. Growing portfolios: Paul reports that under the “high conviction, low volume” investor thesis, Playfair launches a $70 million pre-seed fund for European startups. Growing communities: Substack opens up a $2 million community fundraising round, Aisha reports. Growth for cat food: Christine writes how fresh funding gives cat food brand Smalls an avenue into retail for the first time. Growth for women founders: Dominic-Madori reports how the Tory Burch Foundation launches a tool to help women founders find capital.

Q1 VC results tread water, but that's cold comfort for SaaS unicorns As Q1 2023 draws to a close, Alex Wilhelm reviewed early data from PitchBook to get a feel for key VC trend metrics like deal count and total capital invested. "The picture forming from Q1 2023 venture data is one of measured decline compared to the end of 2022," he found. "And March brought with it something akin to a boomlet in domestic venture activity, which could become an even brighter spot if the last bits of first-quarter data further bolster the month's totals." Three more from the TC+ team: More dollars for AI: Kyle writes how generative AI continues to be the hot thing and how it’s attracting stacks of VC dollars. More dollars for fusion: Tim reports that fusion startup Type One Energy gets $29 million seed round to fast-track its reactor designs. How many dollars for Turo?: Alex runs the thought experiment to find out what Turo is worth. 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: Nigel Sussman/TechCrunch

Big Tech Inc. If you're a fan of listening to music without words while you work, as Christine does, then Apple has a treat for you. Apple Music Classical is now available for download and includes over 5 million tracks, Ivan and Sarah report. Tweet at Christine and let her know your favorite piece. Hers is "Isle of the Dead, Op.29" composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It's a delightful 19 minutes. Also in today's Apple headlines is the launch of Apple Pay Later, which enables users to split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments over six weeks without interest or late fees. Kyle has more. Meanwhile, it's time to take a walk on Amazon's Sidewalk, a low-bandwidth, long-range network that the delivery giant opened to developers. Sidewalk can be used to connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices and "developers will be able to check their local signal strength on a map to get a better sense of whether their devices will be able to connect to the network before they start working on a product," Frederic writes. And we have five more for you: Breaking up is actually easy to do: E-commerce giant Alibaba is splitting into six business groups in what Rita writes is the company's biggest overhaul in 24 years. Hits keep coming: Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has found himself in another kerfuffle. This time he is charged for allegedly bribing Chinese officials. Jacquelyn and Alex have more. In the dark: Meanwhile, Tesla also finds itself in a mess. Lorenzo reports that it was found that hackers could remotely turn off lights, honk, and even mess with Tesla's infotainment system. Fighting back: Annie has the latest on Meta's woes in Kenya, where the Facebook parent is disputing it can be sued there again. Buy local: India's efforts to have more iPhones manufactured locally has paid off with shipments of the phones more than doubling, Jagmeet writes.

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