Equity

The amazing Mary Ann Azevedo was out this week, so Kirsten Korosec, Karyne Levy and Alex Wilhelm took to the mics to chat through the most important tech news of the week. And if you haven't already, head here to listen to our interview with founder and former VC Anshu Sharma about building competitive products and defining new markets. Here's what we got into on the show today: The latest Congressional hearing went about as expected: Poorly. Deals of the Week: Zum has raised $140 million for EV school transit; Ramp is still out there buying smaller companies despite a slew of layoffs across fintech; and Metronome's usage-based billing software is growing fast. Speaking of fintech layoffs: Job cuts at Block and Paypal underscore the fact that we are not out of the tech layoffs era. Indeed, it's getting worse. And in closing: Cap VC is building AI tools for venture investors. How much of a venture capitalist's work can be automated? As with every industry, we're going to find out. We'll be back on Monday!

This is our interview show, where we sit down with interesting, knowledgeable folks and dive deep into what they are building, designing, or thinking about. Today, we have Anshu Sharma back on the podcast. Last time, the Skyflow CEO riffed with us on interest rates and business cycles. This time, we wanted to talk to him about a theory he recently wrote up for TechCrunch: The Innovator’s Dilemma. Or perhaps, a partial solution to that dilemma. The gist is that instead of using lower-cost products to take on incumbents, you might want to start at the top end of the market. This comes to bear today with the Apple Vision Pro headset, which is very expensive, and is entering a category replete with big investments and occasional returns. Equity will be back tomorrow with our regular news roundtable, so we’ll chat with you soon! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify

This is our startup-focused, Wednesday episode, so today we’re counting down important venture rounds and chatting our way through other startup and VC news. Here’s the rundown: Plex raises $40M, targets profitability: The media streaming company thinks that it can reach black ink by the end of this year, or early 2025. Not bad for a very expensive industry. Rebellions raises $124M to take on Nvidia: What is designing new AI chips and is partnered up with Samsung? Rebellions, which is now quite a lot richer in cash terms thanks to a new round. Nile is building a new data system for SaaS: Multi-tenancy is tricky, but why should SaaS companies have to reinvent the wheel? Aurora Solar joins the layoff parade: Solar is booming, but that doesn’t mean that vertical SaaS companies in the space are growing as fast as they planned. And on the venture front, Giant Ventures raised $250 million for two funds, Poland’s SMOK Ventures closed a new $25 million vehicle, while Ubiquity Ventures proves that solo GPs ar

Here's what we got into today: Massive earnings week ahead: Big tech companies are dropping their quarterly results in the coming days, so we'll hear from Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon. Other companies are reporting as well, but the bigger the market cap, the bigger the splash. Arc's new mobile app is a cool search concept: Best known for its desktop browser, The Browser Company has a new mobile app that could change how we search on the go. Reddit could target $5 billion valuation in its IPO: The number makes a lot of sense given what we know about Reddit's revenue history. More on that here. And in closing: Meta and Apple, what Garry said, and OpenAI vs. the EU. We have a packed week coming up, so check your favorite podcast app soon! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show th

This is our interview show, where we sit down with an interesting, knowledgeable guest and dive deep into their favorite topics. For this weekend’s Special Equity Edition, we invited Gené Teare to come back on the podcast. Longtime listeners will recall that we’ve had Gené on a time or two to chat venture capital data with us, and she’s back to do the same this week! We’re back to dig into Q4 2023 venture capital results and what’s coming up this year. For backing data, here’s Gené’s Crunchbase News author archive, and here are a few posts that I have put out on the same set of topics. On the show we looked into stages, sectors — including both AI and web3 — and where we are seeing both weakness and strength. Gené was a treat to have on the show, and we’ll have her back this year as 2024 comes into sharper focus. Equity is back on Monday, so see you in a couple days! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscrib

Here’s what we got up to on our Friday show: Deals of the Week: Plural has a new $432 million fund, Vroom is no longer in the car selling business, oddly, and we chatted through the Fantuan-Chowbus deal. From there we turned to fintech (generally) and Brex (more specifically). In short, Brex is a big company today but not one that is having a lot of fun at the moment, it appears. With reports indicating that its growth has slowed and its burn remained sticky, it recently cut staff. To close, we dug into why edtech might not be in the dire straits that many presume that it is. A recent TechCrunch+ investor survey finds notable pockets of enthusiasm in the sector. AI, as you may have heard, is a big deal. That’s our week concluded! We start back up on Monday morning! See you there. For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has

This is our startup-focused, Wednesday episode, so today we're counting down important venture rounds, and chatting our way through other startup and VC news. Here's what we got into: Artisse AI's seed round caught our eye for two big reasons: First, its selfie app is cool; and second, despite competing in a crowded space, it's seen revenue climb rapidly. It's gotta be doing something right. Elsewhere, Bilt Rewards is proof that fintech is still alive and kicking, and Kittl is another example of a European startup taking on a massive global market. And Bulk Exchange has raised $4.5 million, and I'm still shocked at how far Byju's has fallen. In Venture Capital Land, General Catalyst might buy an Indian venture capital firm — further evidence of just how critical India might prove in the coming years for tech companies. Also: some former Xerox investors have their own new fund to report. We'll be digging into the Brex situation on Friday, so stay tuned for more about fintech soon! For episode transcripts

Here's the rundown: The Q4 2023 earnings cycle will kick off this week with names like Intel and Visa reporting results. The largest tech companies will start to report next week. Crypto is not enjoying a post-ETF boom for reasons that are yet to be nailed down. Then again, when have crypto price movements ever made complete sense? ElevenLabs is the newest AI unicorn. With $80 million in fresh capital, the synthetic voice startup now has oodles of cash to try and run its market. Canva is big! Who knew? Elsewhere, Crunchbase News reports that cybersecurity fundraising fell again last year. Given the number of breaches in the market, that feels off, yeah? Developers and Apple Vision Pro are not seeing eye to eye. Perhaps Apple should work to rectify its developer relationships? And in closing, it turns out you can slow down TikTok. That's all for this morning, and we'll be back on Wednesday. Talk soon! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT eve

This week, Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex Wilhelm took to the mics to chew through funding rounds and trends galore. Enjoy, and don’t forget that our interview with Aileen Lee is here. Pomelo: $40 million more dollars for Latin American fintech? It’s the perfect Mary Ann story. Even better, we got growth data from the company to noodle on. It turns out you can raise up rounds in 2024! Tandem: Alex chose the Tandem Seed round for his deal of the week, even if he doesn’t want to use it. In short, couples of all types have different money management needs, making Tandem a potential hit. Briq: Mary Ann has been covering this company for some time, making its recent extension round well worth our time. AI and the enterprise: AI is going to change everything, AI is going to make your job irrelevant, AI is going to eat your lunch. So we hear. The enterprise, however, is singing a slightly different tune. Valuations, and their potential recovery: Sadly it doesn’t seem too likely that we are about to see a massiv

This is our interview show, where we sit down with interesting, knowledgeable folks and dive deep into their favorite topics. This time around, we invited Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee to chat through her massive new article concerning the unicorn world. If you didn’t know, it was Lee who initially coined the term “unicorn” in a TechCrunch article back in 2013. Lee talked us through the data and taught us all sorts of new terms. You can sort of understand what one means when they say “unicorpse” or “zombiecorn,” but apparently there are even more exotic unicorn forms out there. We even wound up comparing venture capital returns to peaches in a bucket of piss (her words, not ours!). We also talked about where unicorns are based today (19% in New York, for example), and why seed rounds are getting bigger. But really, you should read her post while you listen so you can have all the context while we chew through the numbers! And for those of you who are here for the answer to our question, “How are Fortune 500 com

Here’s what we got into this morning: Vertice raises $25M: The bet here is that companies are willing to pay to have another company, Vertice in this case, to help them find savings in their existing software and cloud spend. Electra snags $330M: Charging EVs is big business, and Electra is wagering that building out its own charging network will pay dividends for a long time into the future. Build a Rocket Boy collects $110M: This is a big round for a company with unlaunched gaming titles. That said, it must have a few super-cool things cooking to raise that kinda of cash in today’s market. We also looked at rounds from Onera, Weavix, Long Story Short, and Xyte. There’s a lot going on! Thomvest raises new fund: Another day, another new fund, that’s the $250 million Thomvest story. We closed with what could be good news for African startups. And with that, we’ll see you back here bright and early on Friday! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m.

Here's what we got into: Stocks are down around the world to start a week that only features a single key earnings report, TSMC this Thursday. Next week really starts the tech reporting deluge, so get ready. In crypto, bitcoin's price failed to pump after its ETF products launched, which surprised some. Also surprising was the value jump that the Ethereum blockchain offers. Buy the rumor, sell the news? (Elsewhere, a crypto exchange raised around $100 million. In 2024! Who would have expected that!) Uber is killing Drizly: You can still get booze delivered to your house, but Axios notes that the $1.1 billion acquisition by Uber has run its course. Pour one out. On the deal front, Spot Technologies raised $2 million, while TechCrunch reports that Kuda raised $20 million last year at a flat valuation. That's pretty solid a result for a fintech startup that last raised in 2021. To close out, Apple is the world's smartphone king and has found a way to sell its Watch product sans legal issues, while Microsof

This is our interview show, where we sit down with a guest, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, we talked to Jenny Fielding, co-founder and managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, a founder collective and early-stage (think pre-seed) venture firm. Jenny and I discussed a wide variety of topics, including startups’ flight to quality in 2024 and how smaller firms are competing with larger firms in the current investment landscape. We also dug into the “great VC resignation” so stay through to the end for that. Jenny was a great guest – not afraid to speak her mind and share valuable insights. Besides founding her own venture firm, Jenny previously worked as a managing director for accelerator Techstars and founded several companies including mobile software company Switch Mobile, which was acquired by Via One. Equity will be back next Tuesday due to a U.S. holiday on Monday. See you then! For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every

Today, Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo dig through the key stories from the week. Then, Kirsten Korosec and Haje Jan Kamps are aboard to bring us the latest from CES! Deals of the Week: Shimmer raised $2.2 million to bring one-on-one ADHD care at a lower price point; Alex chose this one because mental health care startups that try to expand access are cool. Overmoon's recent fundraising and business progress were Mary Ann's choice for the week, showing that proptech is not dead yet! Circle is going public: Yep, the company behind the USDC stablecoin is once again heading for the public markets. The company's confidential IPO filing follows an aborted SPAC attempt in the past. Alex is bullish on the deal, though we'll need to wait for the full details before we can actually make some predictions. And speaking of IPOs, we're really far behind on how many exits are needed to clear the venture capital decks. CES: We went over a ton of cool stuff this year, including this Bane-style mask, ChatGPT in cars,

This is our newly revamped Wednesday episode, and we’re going to be digging deep into critical startup and venture capital news. If you are a long-time Equity listener, you will note that this is not the same interview show that we used to run mid-week! Don’t worry, we are still going to do interviews, so keep an eye out for those on Saturdays. Here’s what’s we got into on the show today: PhotoRoom is raising more money. French startup PhotoRoom is raising $50 million to $60 million at a $500 million to $600 million valuation. The round marks another potential win for AI in France, a market that is working to set itself apart in the EU. Treasure Financial cuts 14 staff members. The reductions in personnel represent a material percentage of the startup’s headcount, which feels a little weird given that the company raised $7.5 million last year, and reportedly saw its AUM soar. Tier and Dott are betting that 1+1=3. Two micromobility companies are tying the knot to try and use scale to their advantage. The

Here’s what we got into on the show today: Stocks and Crypto: Tech stocks aren’t moving too much this morning as the market digests the Boeing mess. In crypto-land, the price of bitcoin is up. Bitcoin ETFs: And this is why. A rush of new filings this morning showed that bitcoin spot ETFs are targeting a very low-fee structure as they compete for investor dollars. These investment vehicles are expected to get approved this week, or at least some of them, so expect a little market turbulence ahead. Carta is once again in trouble: Carta, which makes cap table software for startups, is in trouble after some of its sales people used internal information to try and broker trades without customer consent. Guess how well that is going over. The ULA managed to get its rocket into the sky! This is great news for space launch competition. And for going back to the Moon. And the GPT store is supposed to come this very week. All that and more, we promise. Talk to you in two days! For episode transcripts and more,

Here’s what we got into: Deals of the Week: Ruth Foxe Blader is leaving Anthemis, albeit slowly; Exponent has a second fund set up, but without a pure fintech focus; and Alex wanted to talk about why 2024 could be a pretty alright year for crypto. Layoffs, shutdowns: Frontdesk laid off 200 people and is shutting down, which makes for a good conversation about its business model. Countdown Capital is also throwing in the towel, due in part to larger multi-stage funds inflating the entry point for hot seed deals. It’s a trend worth keeping an eye on. Helping one another: Israel is working to support its startup industry which has been disrupted by the Israel-Hamas war, and how the new Tech for Palestine group was formed. And that’s Equity for this week! We’ll be back on Monday! Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPod, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok. For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monda

Today — ahead of the relaunch of our Wednesday episode that we discussed earlier this week — we have an interview to share featuring TechCrunch’s very own Morgan Sung and Shruti Dwivedi, the co-founder and CEO of health-tech startup, Duly. Duly took part in TechCrunch Disrupt’s 2023 Battlefield cohort, showing a global audience its contraceptive care platform that is initially targeted at the Indian market. Why India? The company cites a large, young population in the country with more than 700 million people under the age of 30. However, Duly also reports that fewer than 15% of Indians have access to sexual education. Even more, the startup notes that condom usage in the country is modest at best, and nearly half of young, unmarried women felt “judged when seeking contraception.” Put that all together, there’s a massive market gap that Duly wants to bridge. Sexual wellness is not a small market, naturally, and other startups are active in the space. News broke late last year, for example, that Evofem Bioscie

We're covering the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. This being the first week of the year, we had to go over a thing or two that broke just as 2023 gave up the ghost. Here's what we have on deck for you! Financial updates: Global stock market news, and the latest from crypto. On the decentralized front, strong price movements are driving trading volume. That's good news for exchanges around the world. AI versus Copyright: The New York Times suit against OpenAI that dropped in the final days of 2023 is still the biggest story in tech at the moment. If major LLMs are built on shaky grounds, what does that mean for the generative AI boom? X's value continues to fall, further evidence that social media is hard to monetize for nearly anyone who isn't Meta. Climatetech job growth could bode well for the startup genre. And, to close out, this Times story is fascinating if you want to understand where venture dollars are flowing. That’s it for today! More o

It's time to brush the dust off of an Equity tradition that stretches back into the years: our predictions episode. As we try to do every year, we brought in a number of voices to ensure that we covered a good amount of ground. And, we went back and vetted our predictions from last year as well, in case you wanted to see how off we were! Who took part? Alex Wilhelm, Mary Ann Azevedo, Kirsten Korosec, and Becca Szkutak. The voices you heard the most on the podcast this year! (A big thanks to Theresa Loconsolo for getting the whole gang together!) We bucketed our predictions into a few categories, including startup trends, media, proptech, AI, and transport. Mary Ann expects venture to continue contracting in personnel terms, Alex wanted to talk about AI at the OS level, Becca had notes on media, and more. There are other themes mixed in as well, but find your headphones and get ready for some Hot Takes, yeah? That is a wrap on Equity in 2023. We recorded something around 150 episodes, racked up seven-figures w