TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Patrick Katz /Skydio

👀 Skydio wants more: Drone manufacturer Skydio has landed an additional $170 million in funding, extending the $230 million Series E round it closed earlier this year. New investors include Japanese telecom operator KDDI and Axon. Read more

🤝 Merger time: JobGet, a LinkedIn-flavored platform focused on hourly gigs, acquired rival Snagajob. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden speculates this won't be the only consolidation we see in the over-capitalized gig worker market. Read more

🧵 Battle of the X alternatives: Meta's Threads announced today that the platform would begin to test custom feeds to help users find online communities. This news comes as rival Bluesky is having a record week for new users. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Spill co-founder and CEO Alphonzo Terrell

Image Credits: Robin L Marshall / Contributor / Getty Images

📈 Speaking of X alternatives: Spill, another alternative to X, has also seen a spike in new users following the U.S. presidential election. Spill CEO Alphonzo Terrell said that last week was the platform's highest single week of growth since it launched in July 2023. Read more

🎙️Ben Horowitz banter: On today's Equity, the crew looks at Ben Horowitz's ties to the Las Vegas police; Klarna's IPO; and Elon Musk's role at DOGE. Listen here

🤔 OpenAI's almost acquisition: New exhibits in the lawsuit between Elon Musk and OpenAI reveal that the founders of OpenAI considered buying chipmaker Cerebras in 2017, stating that if they did, it would have been through Tesla. Read more

😵‍💫 Musk's meddling: Elon Musk's legal teams are truly working overtime. Musk is suing to block California law AB 2655, which requires online platforms to remove or label AI deepfakes related to the election. Sigh. Read more

🚀 Some space startups struggle: Space is a hard category for startups to get right. Seven-year-old ABL Space announced today that it's pivoting away from the commercial launch market and will instead focus on missile defense. Read more

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Around the web

💨 Vroom, vroom: Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg is getting into the venture capital game. Unlike other celebrities who angel invest or use their names to set up funds to back individual startups, Rosberg raised $100 million to back VCs themselves. Read more

🤑 Crypto crime time: It's a good day to be a crypto grifter. The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan announced that after several big wins, the department will devote fewer resources to policing cryptocurrency crimes. This is interesting timing. Read more

Before you go

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Do you need a VPN? Zack Whittaker just updated his guide to VPNs, which, among other things, answers the question of whether you need one in the first place. Read more