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hello, Crispy McCrunchface! (What we call the Daily Crunch readers is still a work in progress.)
Super excited to share something double-plus-great with you: the culmination of months of work through Bag is finally live – we’ve launched the spyware search tool TheTruthSpy, which lets you see if your phone has been hacked by various spyware hacks. Dust off that IMEI and find out if you’ve been 1337 hax0red.
Contents
The gotechbusiness.com Top 3
- Move it or lose it: Google Cloud is shutting down its IoT Core service, leaving customers until next year to find another partner to manage that aspect of their business. Google has its reasons, but the move is not sit well with some customers. Ron has more.
- popping bottles: Robinhood competitor eToro has agreed to acquire Gatsby, a fintech company that also has its sights set on the Robinhood empire. Mary Ann writes that eToro sees the integration of Gatsby as a way “to provide US users with a safe and easy way to trade options and give them more flexibility to use new strategies.”
- No party here: Airbnb is getting more serious about its anti-party stance, introducing a number of new pieces of technology in the US and Canada aimed at screening potential rule-breakers at the time of booking, Ivan reports.
Startups and VC
Swiss startup Typewise shows the power of perseverance: the team behind proprietary text prediction technology is now part of Y Combinator’s S22 cohort. It won a spot in YC (and its standard $500,000 support) after focusing entirely on the B2B market — aiming to meet the demand for productivity improvements in areas like customer service and sales. The game was crucial, Natasha L explores in this fantastic, highly readable interview.
The other article that reminded us of “Oh?!” is Rebecca‘s piece on Exponent Energy, and its path to unlocking 15 minutes of fast charging for electric vehicles. The company has just raised a $13 million Series A and is targeting commercial fleets, where the pressure to run vehicles is much greater than in personal cars.
more more more:
- They will make you famous if you give them stock: VSC Ventures adds $14 million (fund now totals $21 million) to its storytelling-meets-checkbook venture model, Natasha M reports.
- Moar money for web3: The moolah is a’flowin, as CoinFund launches a new $300 million web3 fund to invest in early stage crypto, Jacquelyn reports.
- Just like HR, but automagicallyHR startup HiBob’s valuation jumps 50% to $2.5 billion as it raises another $150 million, Paul reports.
- From Funding Circle to Super Payments: Funding Circle co-founder unveils new fintech venture, Super Payments, as it raises $27 million for its cashback loyalty program-type play, Paul reports.
- Big bag of money for climate: We loved Harris‘s story about this VC, who went from “literally zero” experience to a $100 million fund.
- FFS Haje: All we can say is that this headline would have been dangerously sharp if the company’s product had been “hit” or “fit” or “white” – Getting Power From Poop, With Levidian’s Loop, Reports hiwho is now probably in the know because of terrible puns.
Choose your angel: learn how they invest and what motivates them
Image Credits: Newbird (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images
The “pick your fighter” meme can be traced back to the video game Mortal Kombat, but is also relevant to seed stage founders looking for an investor.
Making money is paramount to every angel, but according to Mack Kolarich, VP of Assure Analytics, most of them also have “a second or third motivator that drives them to invest in startups.”
In a guest post from TC+, he explains several factors entrepreneurs should consider when shopping for investors: Do they support a local ecosystem? Do they write instant checks?
“Armed with this knowledge, you can strategically select the right partner for your business,” says Kolarich.
(gotechbusiness.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams move forward. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
It’s kind of a TikTok day. The social media giant kicked off its in-app US midterms Election Center today. The company has partnered with a number of organizations, including the National Association of Secretary of State, Ballotpedia and Voting Tools, to provide information such as state election information, details on how to register to vote and who is on their ballot papers. Sarah and Taylor also write that TikTok is learning from the 2020 elections and taking a broader stance on eradicating misinformation.
In the meantime, Taylor reports that Meta has some plans of its own about how Facebook will manage its election coverage, including turning off new political ads a week before the midterm elections and disallowing posts that misrepresent the voting process — misrepresenting the voting process, for example. voting qualifications.
