News Headline: In its second markdown in 4 months, Invesco slashes Swiggy's valuation to $5.5B

Monday, May 08, 2023

Hello, and welcome to a new week. Haje is off today, so it's just me and you going through the day's biggest stories. Let's hit it! — Christine

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The TechCrunch Top 3

Price cut in aisle five: Invesco cuts Indian food delivery giant Swiggy's valuation to $5.5 billion. In October, the valuation was cut to $8 billion. Manish writes, "The recent valuation reductions bring a fresh perspective to the effects of waning global market conditions on Indian startups"; where funding was down, valuations didn't follow.
Bet paid off: Qualcomm acquires Autotalks, reportedly for $350 million to $400 million, to boost Snapdragon's automotive safety technology. Ingrid writes that this deal didn't come as much of a surprise, noting, "In the world of advanced automotive technology, safety has become one of the most important issues, but also one of the most lucrative opportunities, in the building of autonomous and driver-assisted systems."
Don't blink or you'll miss it: Ingrid also wrote about Go1, which acquired Blinkist, a speed reading app, with plans to expand enterprise learning.

Startups and VC

When my husband and I bought our first house, we were eager to see builders break ground and get it built. Months later, we were still waiting in what the builder said was a municipality holdup — aka, permits weren't being issued fast enough. After reporting on PermitFlow's new $5.5 million round, I now know why this is a problem.

Meanwhile, Natasha M spoke to Mayfield's Navin Chaddha about the VC firm's new $955 million fund, writing that now that the firm is bigger — and busier— "the capital will be used to ramp up the firm's investment cadence in a more realistic market. Chaddha also admits that Mayfield has missed out on a lot of opportunities because of high valuations, but that he's okay with it."

Now here's four more for you:

Looking for a place to park it: Manish reports on 3one4 Capital's new $200 million fund, writing that while this is another Indian firm to raise a large fund, there are concerns that there aren't enough early-stage companies to take on significant capital.
Legendary: NFT spinoff from newspaper SCMP gets funded to tokenize historical artifacts, writes Rita.
On cloud nine: Antimetal now has $4.3 million in fresh capital to root out cloud cost inefficiencies, Ron reports.
Taking on the open seas: Navier's electric hydrofoiling boat is trying its luck over on the West Coast to line up its first pilot programs. Devin has more.

NFX's James Currier: Where unicorn ideas come from and why founders 'have to keep pivoting'

Are you a seed-stage founder who's building a unicorn?

NFX founding partner James Currier would like to save you some time: Startups that grow into billion-dollar companies have three basic forms of defensibility:

Network effects: Your product becomes more valuable as more people use it.
Embedding: Integrate your services so deeply, customers "cannot rip them out."
Data loops: Gather, process and act on real-time data.

"This is really only talking about world-changing, big-ass businesses with a lot of impact that could be a billion dollars or more in value," he said at TechCrunch Early Stage last month.

Three more from the TC+ team:

Strike!: Alex writes that tech workers could take labor lessons from Hollywood's writers.
Kismet: Haje writes that to find the right investors for your startup, it's about timing.
Wind blows, fire burns: Becca looks into VC interest in wildfire tech.

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!

NFX's James Currier: Where unicorn ideas come from and why founders 'have to keep pivoting' image

Image Credits: Haje Kamps / TechCrunch

Big Tech Inc.

Hey, Twitter users, your follower count is about to drop, according to Elon Musk. Sarah reports that Twitter will purge old accounts that haven't tweeted in a while. The good news is that you might be able to get a better username, depending on which account it is. Happy hunting! Also in bird news, Ivan writes that the social media giant is discussing a cheaper organizational verification plan.

We loved Connie's story over the weekend about a New York Times reporter's close encounters with Elizabeth Holmes, who, left to her own devices, apparently can still suck people in.

And here's four more for you:

Resuscitating: NextGen Healthcare confirms hackers accessed personal data of more than 1 million patients, Carly reports. Meanwhile, over at Western Digital, the company had to tell customers that hackers stole their data. Lorenzo has more.
Alert!: Samsung is celebrating after receiving FDA clearance for its Irregular Heart Rhythm Notification feature for the Galaxy Watch, writes Aisha.
"It's lonely out in space": Virgin Galactic said it will make a triumphant return with a crewed flight at the end of May, Aria reports. Also check out her TC+ story on space startups.
Switch-a-roo: Volkswagen is making some personnel changes at Cariad — again. Kirsten has more.

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