Technet: October 2021

Friday, October 29, 2021

Jio and Google set November 4 rollout for India's $87 JioPhone Next

The TechCrunch Top 3

Public cloud revenues reach $45B: In the third quarter, the value of public cloud revenues from Google, Microsoft and Amazon hit $45 billion, a figure good for a $180 billion run rate. That figure underscores how far the cloud has come in recent years and represents spend from a host of companies big and small, tech and otherwise. TechCrunch dug into what impact the chip shortage is, and isn't, having on growth amongst the public cloud lords, in case you were curious about that particular dynamic.
Trump's social network already in trouble: Sure, it was mocked when it was announced. And, yes, pranksters got busy in a hurry. But the biggest threat to former U.S. President Trump's Truth Social product is an open source project that you've not heard from in some time, namely Mastodon. Per TechCrunch, the social project "alleges that Truth Social is passing open source software off as its own and has given them 30 days to fix this."
The American heartland is startup-central: After our look into the larger Midwest startup market in the United States, TechCrunch took the time today to parse results from the city of Denver. Along with regional siblings, startups in the Mile High City are raising huge amounts of capital. But what we learned is that Denver's startup boom came after a long period of investments in its local technology scene from the industry's biggest players.
And, for something lighter, Google's partnership with Jio to create and sell a budget smartphone in India is bearing hardware fruit.

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Startups/VC

Kurly targets $5.9B IPO: Grocery delivery comes in a few forms. There's the "instant" players, the two-hour delivery crew and then what Kurly is up to in Korea, namely delivering foodstuffs the next day. The slower model hasn't harmed the unicorn, which intends to list next year at a valuation that could reach nearly six billion dollars.
Celebrities back electric boat venture: A bit like how venture capitalists will keep backing email startups in hopes of eventually solving their personal communications crisis, a number of celebrities are backing Arc, which makes a very snazzy, if expensive electric boat. With a price tag around $300,000, it's not a surprise that well-known celebrities-cum-investors Will Smith, Kevin Durant and Diddy are backing the company given that its product is inside their price range. You and I will have to get by with a Matchbox version.
Patreon wants to say yes to crypto: Creator payments and content platform Patreon may get in on the crypto boom. TechCrunch repots that the company is looking into how crypto might intersect with its creator-heavy user base.
Social Chat bets consumers want higher-touch digital shopping experiences: Personally one of the best things about online shopping is not having to talk to other humans. However, many consumers disagree, Social Chat appears to be arguing. The company just raised $6 million to help make online shopping more like buying stuff IRL.
And in case you want to know which three funding rounds the Equity crew thought were the hottest of the week, well, we have your back.

Predicting the next wave of Southeast Asia tech giants

Is Southeast Asia about to hit an inflection point for tech startups?

Four hundred million people in the region already use the internet, but by year’s end, one estimate suggests that 80% of the population over the age of 15 in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will be digital consumers.

“As per Jungle Ventures' calculations, the total value of the region's digital companies is around $340 billion today and is estimated to grow to $1 trillion by 2025,” says founding partner Amit Anand.

E-commerce, fintechs and the rapid digitization of the region’s SME workforce are a few of the factors reshaping the landscape for Southeast Asia’s startups, but supply chain technology is also a major opportunity, Anand says.

“With new deals and intentions to list in the U.S. being announced more frequently, the region shows no sign of slowing down and the birth of many more unicorns is on the horizon.”

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Predicting the next wave of Southeast Asia tech giants image

Image Credits: NicoElNino / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc.

If you are on iOS, you now have access to Super Follows: Twitter's product barrage has generated hits (Spaces) and flops (Fleets). But Twitter is forging ahead with more product work on its Super Follow product, regardless of early momentum or a lack thereof. Now all iOS users – globally! – can pay to "Super" follow creators.
German company to invest more in chip production: In the future, chip independence will replace food independence in terms of national security precedence. And Germany might sit pretty when it does, as domestic concern Robert Bosch GmbH is dropping nearly a half-billion into boosting chip output. More of this, please.

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Thursday, October 28, 2021

After renaming Facebook 'Meta,' Zuckerberg says 'mission remains the same'

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Facebook goes Meta: By creating a brand above its preceding corporate domicile, Facebook has created a meta-entity to include its various projects. And one of those is the metaverse. Thus, the new name for the company — Meta — makes pretty good sense. Most folks don't seem to like it much, but it's hard to weed the General Facebook Snark from the Actually About The Name Snark, if that makes sense. More in our Big Tech section down below.
NerdWallet writes its way to unicorn valuation: As online finance content empire NerdWallet approaches the public markets, the writing-centric company will garner a valuation north of $1 billion, per its latest IPO filings. TechCrunch, a words-first publication, had thoughts on the matter.
Facebook is cross with Apple: Facebook — Meta, I suppose — took a few potshots at Apple during its big event today. They are worth considering apart from the larger branding and VR efforts that the company announced. Apple's changing privacy rules have taken a toll on Facebook, and the social giant is not pleased about it.

Clouds that compete can still connect

Startups/VC

Before we get into the startup news, former startup Allbirds is going public, and TechCrunch has the details on just what it is worth. And, in the wake of Rent the Runway, we are starting to see a valuation band created for tech-enabled IPOs.

Atlys wants to make visa applications quicker: And it just raised $4.25 million for its work. Sure, fewer of us than normal are flying overseas, but eventually we'll get back on planes and go places. And when we do, well, the paperwork will beckon. Perhaps Atlys can take some of the sting out of stapling photos of yourself to a packet that you then mail to the black hole of an embassy.
Soon we shall all live in pods: Prefab pods, if Cover gets its way. The startup creates walls and other similar home components in its factory. Those bits are then shipped to building sites and set up sans a crane. Frankly, let's hope this works? We have a housing crisis in the United States, and any movement toward alleviating it is welcome. The company also just raised $60 million.
Inrupt's plans to reclaim internet privacy raising capital: The deal isn't done yet, but TechCrunch broke news today that Tim Berners-Lee's Inrupt startup, a company that wants to build "a platform that gives users control of their data" online, is looking to raise between $30 million and $40 million.
What if Nextdoor was even more insular? Well, that's what OneRoof is building, an even more hyperlocal Nextdoor, the social network known to bring neighbors together so that they can argue and throw racist invective at one another. Now you will be able to do so in even tighter-knit circles. The company just raised $1.25 million.
Healthcare remains a lucrative market: That's our takeaway from Hinge Health raising $400 million in a new round. The company is focused on chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, which encompass things like aching backs and knees. Given how large the American healthcare market is, the company's $6.2 billion valuation may make a mote more sense than you are mentally giving it credit for.
Alchemy raises $250M in competitive round: Every venture investor is in awe of Amazon's AWS group, because it eats growth and shits operating profit. It's worth a zillion dollars. So it's perhaps not surprising that the competition to put capital into Alchemy was more than hot. The firm provides basic infra to other crypto companies, and a grip of crypto companies that you know of are already Alchemy customers.
Yugabyte raises yuge venture round at yuger valuation: Yugabyte is now a unicorn, which feels like a very 2021 sentence. The database company just added $188 million to its own financial database at a valuation of $1.3 billion.
Dragos raises $200M, soars to $1.7B valuation, sadly isn't about dragons: Dragos works in industrial cybersecurity, which matters. Keeping IRL infra safe is a pretty big deal. But when I read the company’s name I was frankly hoping for mythical beasts. Alas.
And to close out our startup notes, TechCrunch's Neesha Tambe has notes from a chat with Sequoia concerning fundraising tips for today's startups.

Credit card and payments companies compete for a slice of the growing BNPL market

Giving consumers the convenience of deferring payment for a product is not a new idea, but now that upstarts like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm have taken the concept to the next level, legacy credit card companies and payment firms are taking notice.

Mary Ann Azevedo and Ryan Lawler have identified a “slow emergence” in the BNPL space “of a symbiotic relationship between traditional financial institutions, payments upstarts and leading companies.”

Visa announced yesterday that many companies are using its technology to power point-of-sale BNPL solutions; last month, its rival rolled out Mastercard Installments, its bespoke offering.

“It's not really a surprise that these credit card companies are stepping it up when it comes to BNPL,” reported Ryan and Mary Ann. “If anything, it's a wonder that it took them this long.”

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Credit card and payments companies compete for a slice of the growing BNPL market image

Image Credits: Photo Concepts / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc.

Before we get to our Facebook News Roundup, Twitter also made a bit of noise today. Users will now be able to record Spaces, its audio chat rooms. And its subscription "Blue" service will include early feature access.

The rest of what Facebook announced:

And from the rest of Big Tech:

Digging into majors attacking the BNPL market: While Affirm is best known as an early BNPL startup that made it to the public markets, Big Finance is not going to let tech have all the fun. Mary Ann and Ryan investigate.
And in news that is sure to make other companies as happy as the privacy changes, Apple's "App Privacy Report" is now in beta. Do note, please, that the more Apple pisses off other companies regarding data privacy, the better off consumers may be — but also that Apple is only doing this for its own results, not because it likes us.

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Wednesday, October 27, 2021

LinkedIn launches global freelancer platform to compete directly with Upwork, Fiverr

The TechCrunch Top 3

Can Ro expand past generics? In a detailed report, TechCrunch's Natasha Mascarenhas dug into Ro, the company behind Roman and other health-focused services as it works to expand its product mix and keep growing. Other issues at the company, per a host of sources, include low morale and refusal of "basic feedback."
Rent the Runway sees strong public debut: Yesterday evening, Rent the Runway priced at $21 per share, the top end of its IPO range. TechCrunch read the strong pricing event as indicative of a warm IPO market not only for pure tech companies, but also unicorns that are more tech-enabled than tech tech. The company began trading today, initially rising before losing ground as the day grew late. (More on the company's financials here.)
Uber to rent 50,000 Teslas: Remember when Hertz announced that it was buying a host of Tesla electric cars? It turns out the news wasn't just PR. The company is working with Uber to rent tens of thousands of the cars to Uber drivers. The result could be a higher-end, and perhaps greener, Uber fleet.

Clouds that compete can still connect

Startups/VC

The 2021 IPO market is not going quietly into the night. It's working to close out the year with a bang. News today indicates that Paytm could snag a $20 billion valuation when it goes public, setting records for its native India, while Brazil's Nubank dropped a post sharing that it has filed privately to go public. The company will list in the United States with some trading planned for its own domestic market.

Abacus.ai wants to democratize ML: As far as goals go, Abacus' plan to simplify machine learning model creation, as our own Ron Miller put it, is a good one. Tools like what the startup has in mind could lessen a market crunch in data talent and perhaps empower more workers to execute their own data-focused tasks.
Plant-based chicken is expensive: At least if you want to buy into the companies creating it. Today, Daring Foods announced that it has raised an eye-popping $65 million Series C, and that its plant-based chicken comp product will find shelf space in 3,000 Walmart locations. Given that Walmart is not the first megaretailer we'd anticipate would roll out fake chicken, the partnership could indicate that plant-based meats are more generally popular than we thought.
Groopit wants to help corp leaders listen to staff more effectively: The startup — founded by a longtime Microsoft staffer — just raised $2 million to build a product that, in the words of its founder Tammy Savage, "combines data collection and real-time data sharing into one lightweight workflow."
SoftBank writes checks this small? It turns out that the SoftBank Vision Fund 2 is capable of writing eight-figure checks. The investing group just put $25 million into Israeli startup OurCrowd. The startup operates a so-called venture platform, making its own fundraising slightly meta.
Truepill turns its sights to the corporate world: According to TechCrunch reporting, from a focus on "telehealth, diagnostics and pharmacies for consumers," Truepill is now "targeting healthcare incumbents." The company just added $142 million to its accounts, valuing it at $1.6 billion.
Broad productivity app ClickUp now worth $4 billion: Flush with $400 million worth of new capital, San Diego-based ClickUp has scaled its user base around 4x in the last year. What does it do? It brings together a bevy of features including chat, tasks, to-dos and more into a single package. Yes, all of tech is bundling and unbundling.
And from the podcast team, a warm if somewhat sad goodbye to Danny, who is leaving Equity after a long, successful run on the hosting team.

The Bowery Farming TC-1

Just over a tenth of Americans have jobs in food and agriculture, so it’s easy to see why many of us lack a keen awareness about what we’re eating or where it comes from.

Our food supply isn’t as secure or predictable as we assumed: Climate change, safety recalls, the COVID-19 pandemic and even immigration policies can directly impact what's available at the store. The technological leaps that made it possible to feed (most of) the world will not see us through the next century unless we change course.

Plant-based protein has gotten a lot of press, but vertical farming that leans on hardware and robotics has reached scale, reports Brian Heater, TechCrunch hardware editor.

In a four-part series, he explores the origins and operations of Bowery Farming, a profitable startup that has raised almost $500 million since 2015 to create new tech and facilities that raise leafy greens sold in nearly 900 markets.

Part 1: Bowery Farming is forcing us all to look up at the future of vertical agriculture

Part 2: Hacking lettuce for taste and profit

Part 3: Can LEDs ultimately replace the sun?

Part 4: The voracious fight for your salad bowl

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman

Big Tech Inc.

TechCrunch has a startup focus, but we do watch former startups after they reach the public markets. For a few quarters, at least. Today shares of Robinhood — until very recently a private unicorn — are off after the company reported results and forecasts that came in under market expectations. What its lackluster performance data will mean for other transaction-based trading platforms is not clear at this juncture.

LinkedIn's freelance push goes global: After testing in the United States market — LinkedIn's home turf, if you will — the company is bringing its "Service Marketplace" to more geographies. If you are familiar with Fiverr, this is perhaps comparable. Regardless, the move shows that LinkedIn is capable of making headlines that are not discussing major retrenchments.
Amazon cuts climate checks: The megaretailer is putting its $2 billion climate fund to work by putting capital into three startups. TechCrunch has the deets.
Google will now allow under-18s to delete images of themselves from search: Announced back in August, this new Google capability reminds me a bit of what Europe has mandated for its own lands. Perhaps we will get more EU-style digital tooling for consumers here in the United States.
Which tech giant is the podcast king? Spotify is deep into an effort to broaden its content base away from tunes to include a deep podcast library that may be bearing fruit. Per the company, it is now the leading destination for podcast listening in the United States. I've requested our own podcast results from Spotify as, well, I am now curious.
Robotaxis, delivery vehicles are just around the corner: Like, really. Per GM's Cruise group, commercial operations of its self-driving cars could come in 2022. That's brilliant news. Please, megacorps of the world, spare me having to drive for the rest of my life. I want to quietly read a book while a computer handles the turn signals.

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Technet

Friday, October 29, 2021

Jio and Google set November 4 rollout for India's $87 JioPhone Next

The TechCrunch Top 3

Use SMS to build stronger relationships with your customers

Sponsored by Attentive

Startups/VC

Predicting the next wave of Southeast Asia tech giants

Big Tech Inc.

TechCrunch Experts

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

Thursday, October 28, 2021

After renaming Facebook 'Meta,' Zuckerberg says 'mission remains the same'

The TechCrunch Top 3

Clouds that compete can still connect

Sponsored by Red Hat

Startups/VC

Credit card and payments companies compete for a slice of the growing BNPL market

Big Tech Inc.

TechCrunch Experts

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

LinkedIn launches global freelancer platform to compete directly with Upwork, Fiverr

The TechCrunch Top 3

Clouds that compete can still connect

Sponsored by Red Hat

Startups/VC

The Bowery Farming TC-1

Big Tech Inc.

TechCrunch Experts

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

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