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Equity
By TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Sean O'Kane, Theresa LoconsoloBusinessEntrepreneurshipNewsTechnologyBusiness News
Based on Podcast App listening data
Equity episodes
- Match Group’s deal with OpenAI is just business with AI glitter on top
This week Mary Ann, Kirsten, and Alex gathered to chat through a massive sheaf of news. A note before we get to the rundown that Reddit filed to go public after we had recorded this episode, so notes on its IPO filing are not included in this particular episode. Don’t think that we won’t discuss its S-1, it just came too late for this particular entry. More to come!
Here’s the rundown:
Deals of the Week: PermitFlow raised $31 million to bring software to the construction permitting market, one man’s plan to keep Cake ebike’s alive for just a while longer caught our eye, and we had thoughts about Match Group’s tie-up with OpenAI.Fintech drama: With Reddit’s IPO in the hopper, eyes are turning to other companies that are expected to list this year. One such company is Klarna. And, the buy now, pay later company has been the latest recipient of governance drama. Former Sequoia leader Michael Moritz won this round, unsurprisingly.Video game startups could prove surprise 2024 winner: While the venture market retreats and venture funding for gaming companies slows, there’s good reason to expect fortunes to turn around for the startup genre. And while venture wallets might open for gaming companies this year, some others like Frost Giant are turning to their own community to raise.More to come, including Reddit IPO notes!
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
32 min - Could Reddit’s upcoming IPO reward its power users?
This is our Wednesday show, in which we talk through the week’s leading startup and venture capital news. This is short week, but there’s still a lot to talk about:
Loora’s $12 million round is a reminder that AI is going to find purchase in a host of new markets. The company wants to use AI for conversational language training. Sure, humans are good at that, but they are also expensive. Software aims to be more affordable.Dili is building an AI service to help investors handle their due diligence. Given that some accounting and financial work can be described as rote, the concept here makes good sense. The company just closed $3.6 million.Reddit may include a neat way to get some of its power users onto its ownership docket for its upcoming IPO.- And from the venture side of the startup coin, Bluestein Ventures has a new foodtech fund, while Partech has put together the largest African venture fund out there.
We’ll be back Friday morning! Chat then!
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10 min - The regulatory clock is ticking for TikTok
This is our weekly kick-off show, coming to you Tuesday morning as yesterday was a holiday here in the States. Here’s the rundown:
- Crypto prices are up, and we’re looking at another busy earnings week. Palo Alto Networks, Sprout Social, Nvidia and Block will report this week.
- Planity has put together a $48 million Series C, which is a super neat vertical SaaS deal. Software and payments make for a tasty combo, and Planity wants to bring those benefits to salons in Europe.
- The EU is after TikTok under the DSA, which could have major implications for social media regulation.
- And Walmart is buying Vizio; LockBit got smashed; and MariaDB has a buyer on the horizon.
- In closing, this WSJ piece on San Francisco is worth your time.
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
13 min - Foundry is shutting down in slow motion
On today's news round up, Alex, Mary Ann and Karyne are looking at:
Deals of the Week: Rasa’s $30 million Series C had our tongues wagging. The startup is building finservice-focused conversational AI tools. Karyne wanted to talk about the latest round at the intersection of AI and crypto, while Alex wanted to riff on Hippo Harvest’s $21 million round for indoor robot farming.Venture capital’s year of transition: After OpenView called it quits, and Countdown Capital returned funds to LPs it became clear that venture is evolving. New news that Foundry is not going to raise another fund after its current $500 million vehicle added another name to our roster of venture firms that are taking a different direction in the future.YC’s new call for startups: Well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator has a new request for startup list. Given the weight that YC carries in startup-land, we had to dig into what it’s proposing. Though we’re a little skeptical of the near-term impact of spatial computing, the other updates made good sense to our minds.We’ll be back on Monday!
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
32 min - OpenAI board member Bret Taylor has a new AI startup
Welcome to our Wednesday show, in which we talk through the week’s leading startup and venture capital news. Today we have an absolute pile of material, so let’s get to work:
Bret Taylor’s new startup is turning heads: Known for his work at Facebook, Salesforce and OpenAI, Taylor’s new startup Sierra is building conversational AI agents. It has raised a mountain of capital to date, which it might need given that it’s not alone in its niche.FlowFi’s counter-cultural decision: FlowFi is building software to help startups keep their books more intelligently. But it’s not going to try and replace human inputs into financial work. Instead, it’s pairing its software with a labor marketplace so that startups can blend human and computer intelligence. If this means more GAAP accounting for startups, we’re here for it.Bold and Antithesis snag new capital: Bold raised $50 million for its Latin American fintech business, in good news for the sector and region that once went together like peanut butter and honey. Meanwhile Antithesis raised $47 million for its software testing service.Homebrew up, Foundry out: Homebrew is putting together an interesting new $50 million fund, while Foundry has announced that after its current, $500 million fund, it’s out of the game.We also talked mushrooms — it’s PG-13, I promise — and Earlybird Health’s latest fund.
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
11 min - Peak XV's AI field trips, and why we don't set self-driving cars on fire
This morning we have an interesting mix of stories, which bring technology, politics and AI together in interesting ways. To work:
Stocks: It’s another big week for earnings, including Hubspot, Instacart, Monday.com, and Cisco. We should learn a lot about the state of software and hardware sales as last year ended, and what some critical tech names see for the rest of the year.Crypto: Prices are up in the crypto world over the last week. Coinbase reports this week as well, which should give us a feel for how optimistic the leading North American crypto company is feeling.Waymo: Some folks set fire to a Waymo car in San Francisco. Which is so goddamned dumb that I would pull my hair out if I had any.Bugcrowd: A $102 million round? You love to see it. Mega-rounds have become less common in recent quarters, so when bug-bounty-focused Bugcrowd put together just such a round, we had to talk about it.AI field trips: No matter where you are founded, you are going to need to keep tabs on the AI work going on in Silicon Valley.We are back on Wednesday morning at the latest!
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
12 min - Adam Neumann's bid for WeWork's scraps
Here’s the rundown:
Deals of the Week: Adam Neumann wants to buy WeWork from bankruptcy, Starship Technologies raised $90 million for a product that 100% of the crew love, and Ambience Healthcare’s massive $70 million round also got a warm reception for its target market.LatAm Rising: We love Latin America here at Equity, but have been a bit puzzled why its venture capital totals have fallen as far as they have. New data makes it plain that startups in the region are doing rather well. What gives?And to close out, earnings, ad spend, and the state of the economy. Advertising can operate a bit as a ‘canary in the coal mine‘ for economic health, Kirsten points out. Alex also brought up AI as a potential growth catalyst for tech companies. All told? Things aren’t perfectly sunny, but when we consider the tech forecast there’s no rain to be found.We’ll be back on Monday!
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
38 min - Fintech, edtech, and SaaS are not dead
This is our startup-focused Wednesday episode, so we’re taking a deep look at a number of startup fundraisings, and the latest from the world of venture capital itself. Startups and capital, it’s our jam!
Here’s what we got into on the show today:
Goodshuffle raised $5 million, showing that vertical SaaS is far from kaput, even if software valuations remain under strain.SUMA Wealth put $2.2 million into its own accounts, showing that audience-tuned fintech products still have legs. SUMA Wealth’s target Latinx demographic seems to be resonating with what the startup is building.- Behold! A crypto startup showing hella consumer traction.
- On the social media side, Bluesky is now open to everyone and growing quickly, and Blush raised $7 million more to keep its dating app invite-only.
- And then there were more rounds! Finally closed $10 million, while Klas put together $1 million for its edtech efforts.
- In closing, Episode 1 has a new early-stage UK fund that we wanted to talk about.
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10 min - Yandex takes a big hit to get rid of Russian assets
This is our Monday show, in which we look back at the weekend and the week ahead. A big thanks to Maggie for stepping back into the Equity seat while Theresa is out today.
Here’s what we got into:
- Stocks are mixed around the world as investors digest the possibility of high interest rates persisting for longer.
- Crypto price movements seem to have eased in recent weeks in the wake of bitcoin spot ETF launches.
Yandex’s parent to exit Russia: At a huge cost, it turns out. Given Russian sanctions, owning tech assets inside the country is not a good proposition. But when you sell, you will take more than a haircut.Everbridge is going private: For $1.5 billion, we hasten to add. Not a bad price bump for the 2016-era IPO, but still far from the value it commanded in 2021.- And from Startup Land, Wonder Ventures has two new funds, Naboo raised $8 million, and ProducePay put together $38 million to tackle food waste.
- We closed out with this fascinating CNN story about how a finance worker was scammed out of $25M after a deepfaked conference call.
We’ll be back on Wednesday morning!
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 min - The feast and famine cycle of tech
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!
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 that interviews founders and more!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
34 min
About Equity
From the publisher's feed
The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch's flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and…
enthusiasts alike. Every Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital. Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.
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