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I know it’s probably unfair to assume that angels have the same approach to investors as professional institutional investors. However, amateur investors can be content with cutting a few cards from the professional playbook. In this cryptic rant that admittedly comes from someone who doesn’t have enough money to spend to do angel investing on any meaningful scale, and thus can be easily overlooked by anyone who writes out an angel check or two on a regular basis, I detail some of the mistakes I see. Angels do it all the time.
Well, with that long, somewhat startup-related tirade out of the way, let’s take a look at what else has kept our crafty corporate reporters club away this wonderful week. . .
Another bite of apple
Image credits: Hajj Kambas/Midnight Journey
Unless you’ve been hiding behind a malfunctioning humanoid robot (or automaton, if you will) all week, you’re probably aware that our neighborhood orchard has grown some new apples. The new iPhones – in the form of the titanium-encased iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro – now come with a USB-C port. In fact, there are a whole host of Apple products in the USB-C lineup these days. On the phone side, the cameras are better (and can now shoot 3D video). There was a new Apple Watch (also in pink!) and much more.
One fun story that we didn’t see coming was Olivia Rodrigo releasing a brand new video – “Bring It Back!” – Filmed with iPhone 15 Pro. Of course, it looks amazing.
Look, I know that everything Apple does isn’t always relevant to startups, but it would be really, really silly to not care about what the most valuable company in the world does. Darryl had a great point on this: As the iPhone becomes more powerful, he sees it becoming more viable as a game console for high-budget titles.
I bet you’re interested in knowing the most-read Apple stories, right? Well, I’m pretty sure that’s private information that the editors will do Dislikes I’m sharing with you, but everyone is gearing up for Disrupt next week, so I’m sure no one will notice I’m sneaking this into the newsletter:
Round: You’ll all love a good “just tell us what matters” story, so it’s no surprise that Kristen’s summary of the event is really good: Apple 2023 Event: Everything Announced So Far.
iPhone 15 launch: Of course, everyone will be very curious about what the iPhone 15 has in store. Brian delved into the full story, with Apple’s iPhone 15 arriving with a USB-C port (finally). Brian’s iPhone 15 Pro post was also very popular.
Goodbye, lightning: Okay, so maybe I just wanted to write this list because I noticed one of my stories getting a bit popular: Apple is ditching the Lightning connector in favor of USB-C after exactly 11 years.
What’s happening in fintech land?
![](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/an-ode-to-capitalism.jpg)
Image credits: Hajj Kambas/Midnight Journey
After the 2008 global financial crisis, central banks cut interest rates to near zero. As a result, money flowed elsewhere – a significant amount of it flowed into LP funds, from there to venture capital funds, and from there to promising young startups. Michael Sindich believes that this has allowed the emergence of business models that would, in any other circumstance, be completely unviable, and wonders whether the time of reckoning is approaching: Will the house of cards collapse?
Entrepreneurs will be entrepreneurs, so why not start a company to help other businesses close faster and at a lower cost? It’s a bold proposition, but there appears to be a market for it — SimpleClosure raised $1.5 million in less than a day to help struggling startups divest more quickly.
Some rays of hope from fintech startups to stave off the grim darkness:
New bank growth: Many startups looking for new equity investors may still be feeling the chill of the funding winter, but things are still heating up in the world of debt: UK neobank Zopa raises another $93 million as it reaches the 1 million customer mark.
Confronting Coinbase and Binance: After the collapse of FTX, cryptocurrency traders were looking for decentralized, non-custodial and more secure ways to execute orders and store their assets. Brine Fi just raised a $100 million valuation to help fill that gap.
Inclusion is hot: Banking for underserved banks and supporting under-supported people is tough work, but Alza has just come out of the closet to offer affordable and inclusive financial tools to immigrants.
Why, monotheist?
![A person writes with one hand on a laptop and the other uses a calculator](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GettyImages-1415313623-e1689969929952.jpg)
Image credits: krisanapong ditravipat/Getty Images
It was Y Combinator Demo Day last week, which means another wall of investment opportunities is flowing into VC firms like salmon swimming through a fallopian tube on their way to pregnancy. . . Well, that mixed metaphor has officially gone away. Some investors skipped YC’s demo day this year. Here are our favorite startups from day one and day two of YC. We spoke to a group of founders who have created YC multiple times to find out the value of going back to the well.
Elsewhere in startup news, we’re excited about AI reading coaching startup Ello, which has raised $15 million to boost children’s literacy.
In terms of education, I broke down Tomorrow University’s presentation, which, despite being prepared to offer an MBA program, looked like a formal statement rather than a simplistic presentation. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good manifesto – my most (and least) favorite ones are written in German – but they’re usually not very helpful when it comes to fundraising.
Some financing rounds to keep an eye on:
Sir, print me a house: Kyle reports that Mighty Buildings has raised $52 million to build 3D-printed prefabricated homes.
This seems like a good investment: Perfios, an Indian fintech company that provides real-time credit underwriting solutions to banks and non-banking financial institutions, has raised $229 million in a new funding round as it looks to deepen its expansion in North America and Europe, Manish reports.
Safety third: Freshly back from Burning Man, it seems only fair to highlight that That Thing In The Desert operates under the “safe third” mantra. In the rest of the world, not so much, and Kyle reports that compliance and risk management startup Certa has raised $35 million.
Top reads on TechCrunch this week
Here are the hottest and most-read stories of the week:
Snake-eyes: MGM Resorts seems to be having some issues; It blamed a “cybersecurity issue” for the rolling power outages that lasted at least four days.
Trucking on: Tesla’s Cybertruck is slowly making its way into production. This week, one was spotted with updated interiors. There was also a robotaxi concept somewhat similar to the two-seat Cybertruck.
You can truck it right away: In a blow to the self-driving trucking industry (but a boon to the 6% or so of the U.S. population who drive trucks for a living), the California Senate passed a bill Monday that would require a trained human safety operator to be present at any time a vehicle Heavy-duty self-driving vehicles operating on public roads in the state. In fact, the bill bans self-driving trucks.
Subscribe cheeky: BMW got into some hot water (and became the butt of many jokes) for charging you a subscription to enable your seat heating. So ridiculous, the German carmaker has finally stopped charging for cheek warmers.
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