To get a roundup of gotechbusiness.com’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3PM PDT, register here.
Hello, and welcome to a new week. Hey is off today, so just you and me going through the biggest stories of the day. Let’s get to it! — Christine
Contents
The gotechbusiness.com Top 3
- Price reduction in aisle five: Invesco downgrades Indian food delivery giant Swiggy to $5.5 billion. In October, the valuation was lowered to $8 billion. Manic writes, “The recent valuation cuts offer a new perspective on the effects of declining global market conditions on Indian startups”; where funding fell, valuations did not follow.
- Bet paid off: Qualcomm is acquiring Autotalks, reportedly for $350 million to $400 million, to boost Snapdragon’s automotive safety technology. Ingrid writes that this deal came as no great surprise, noting: “In the world of advanced automotive technology, safety has become one of the most important issues, as well as one of the most lucrative opportunities, when building 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 home, we were eager to see builders break ground and build it. Months later, we were still waiting in what the builder said was a municipal robbery – 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.
In the meantime, Natasha M spoke to Mayfield’s Navin Chaddha about the venture capital 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 many opportunities because of the high valuations, but he is okay with it.”
Here are four more for you:
NFX’s James Currier: Where unicorn ideas come from and why founders ‘need to keep spinning’
Image Credits: Haje Kamps/gotechbusiness.com
Are you an early stage founder building a unicorn?
NFX founder James Currier wants to save you some time: startups that grow into billion-dollar companies have three basic forms of resilience:
- Network Effects: Your product becomes more valuable as more people use it.
- Embedding: Integrate your services so deeply that customers can’t take them out.
- Data loops: collect, process and act on real-time data.
“This is really just about world-changing, big-ass, high-impact companies that could be worth a billion dollars or more,” he said at gotechbusiness.com Early Stage last month.
Three more from the TC+ team:
gotechbusiness.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Hey, Twitter users, according to Elon Musk, the number of followers is about to drop. Sarah reports that Twitter will be purging old accounts that haven’t tweeted in a while. The good news is that you may be able to get a better username depending on which account it is. Good hunt! 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, can apparently still suck people in.
And here are four more for you:
Download your gotechbusiness.com fix IRL. Join Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September to immerse yourself in all things startup. From headline interviews to intimate roundtables to a jam-packed startup expo, there’s something for everyone at Disrupt. Save up to $800 when you buy your pass now through May 15, and save 15% on top of that with promo code DC. Learn more.
