Welcome to Startups Weekly – Hajj A weekly digest of everything you can’t miss from the startup world. subscription here Get it in your inbox every Friday.
Keep your Apple Watches, people! At WWDC 2024, Apple finally decided to do a brain transplant for Siri using something they call “Apple Intelligence” (AI – get it?). Apparently, he’s so smart that he’ll know more about your life than you do. Tim Cook promises it’ll be all about privacy and personal context, so your diary might feel neglected. And imagine what? Changing Siri means we get Genmoji (yes, that’s real), because I know you’ve been longing for AI to craft your own emojis. Also on the list: typing queries into Siri like it’s 2010 again and “private cloud computing,” which sounds like technical speak for “we’re still spying on you but better.” Stay tuned for this new wave of iMagic coming soon! Here’s everything announced at WWDC!
However, not everyone is concerned about these announcements: In the latest episode of “Tech Titans Throw Tantrums” this week, Elon Musk threatens to ban iPhones from Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI over Apple’s new ChatGPT integration. I think “cutting edge innovation” in Elon’s world is synonymous with banning the world’s most popular smartphone because of an AI assistant feature that asks for permission before doing anything. Is Tim Cook shaking in his boots or just moving his eyes? Answers to the postcard, plz.
Trend of the week: Circulation around the exchange
In today’s episode of “The Mighty: How They Have Fallen,” we bring you the tragic story of Byju’s, once a $22 billion edtech darling, now worth nothing in the eyes of BlackRock. After failing financial targets, dealing with resignations faster than you can say “governance issues,” and being publicly criticized by investors, Byju’s has become a cautionary tale for startups everywhere.
Now hold on to your tables, people! Once a Silicon Valley darling and dreaming of becoming the ultimate ruler of stock trading, Carta faces a steep decline in value from $8.5 billion to just $2 billion — if they’re lucky. After being caught red-handed misusing customer data and pulling out of their secondary business venture faster than you can say “PR disaster,” it’s clear that not all that glitters in startup land is gold. With lawsuits, claims of a toxic culture, and customers fleeing to larger banks, it seems Carta’s high-flying days have been halted forever. Investors like Andreessen Horowitz must be thrilled…
More bad news:
- Leaky snowflake: Fasten your seatbelts, people! Snowflake’s latest PR nightmare is here. Despite their claims of invincibility, they have been hit by a wave of data breaches that have included big names like Ticketmaster and LendingTree. The culprit? A former employee’s demo account with laughable security. Mandiant revealed that hackers obtained a large amount of data from Snowflake customers.
- Hard times for Apple’s third-party developers: Apple WWDC 2024 – Where innovation meets tradition! Get ready, third-party app developers, because Apple has once again shut down your favorite tools. Apple is essentially saying to these developers: “Thank you for the idea; We’ll take it from here.”
- HR-rrrgh: HR startup Rippling appears to have a “no soup for you” policy when it comes to former employees who now work at rival companies like Deel and Workday. Despite investor demand reaching over $2 billion (bags of money), Rippling is playing gatekeeper with its massive tender offer, allowing only non-compete former employees to cash in on their shares.
Most interesting fundraiser this week
Welcome to the startup funding circus of 2024, where Y Combinator companies are doing something bold new — raising small seed rounds at sky-high valuations and without major investors. Angels are swooping like hungry pigeons, leaving institutional investors scratching their heads and clutching their wallets. Will this tough measure pay off or will it leave startups dangling without a safety net? Grab your popcorn. This edition of the show is just getting started!
Heck, Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI just landed a whopping $640 million in its Series B funding. With General Catalyst leading the charge, this new AI contender is now worth $6 billion. Co-founded by former Meta and DeepMind experts, Mistral aims to take on big-picture like OpenAI with its shiny models and open source goodies. But don’t get too comfortable; Their higher level models are locked more tightly than the Bank of France unless you have an API pass.
- By it, sono tanti soldi: Italy’s startup scene is getting a caffeine boost with the new Italian Founders Fund (IFF) throwing €50 million into the ring. Aiming to fill Italy’s startup funding gap, IFF plans to distribute its money to 25 companies, raining down money on early-stage founders, tourists in Rome style without Google Maps.
- Naysayers, eat mushrooms: Urvashi Barooah is told she has a better chance of finding Bigfoot than breaking into venture capital. Rejected from every MBA program and mocked for her ambitions, she decided that the haters were just free motivational speakers: She’s now a partner at Redpoint Ventures, managing their ninth $650 million fund.
- Cash ching: Meet Fizz, the debit card that is here to save Generation Z from credit avoidance methods. It turns out that traditional banks are not catering to the TikTok generation. Two Harvard and Cornell dropouts decided that building a financial empire was more attractive than finishing college. Who needs testimonials when you have $14.4 million in seed funding led by Kleiner Perkins?
![Venture Capital, Venture Capital, Startups, Redpoint](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Urvashi_RP_Headshots_2023_1651.jpg?w=680)
Other unmissable TechCrunch stories…
Welcome to a world where cats finally get the VIP treatment they deserve – Meowtel has clawed its way to profitability, even though dog-obsessed venture capitalists have shown their noses. Founder Sonja Petkavitch, inspired by her own cat guilt trip, was given $100,000 and a dream of creating a premium cat grooming service. With 2,200 sitters and over 95,000 successful sitters under its belt (or should we say collar?), Meowtel proves that cats aren’t just second-class pets.
Muar? Moar!
- Rivian is making its way toward a less bleak future: Rivian’s roller coaster ride through the electric vehicle landscape just got a little less nauseating. After juggling electric pickups, SUVs, and delivery vans for Amazon, and even an ambitious IPO, Rivian has finally streamlined its chaotic existence. But eat your popcorn. The EV saga is far from over.
- Raspberry Pi goes to LSE: Who would have thought that the humble Raspberry Pi, beloved by hobbyists and hobbyists because it makes small, cheap computers, would grow up to ring the bell on the London Stock Exchange? With the company now valued at £542 million (or $690 million if you prefer dollar figures), its shares immediately rose 32%, because apparently everyone loves a good underdog story.
- Beddollars: BeReal, the app that has convinced 40 million people to share their mundane lives without filters, has just secured a €500 million lifeline from Voodoo. Obviously, keeping it real doesn’t mean paying the bills.
- Smartphone meets smartphone:Are you tired of your iPhone’s ever-increasing IQ that makes you feel like the village idiot? Enter the Light Phone III, the phone that boils your digital life down to its simple essence. With a shiny new OLED screen and no social media apps at all, it’s perfect for those who enjoy living in denial about technology.
- To infinity… and back!: Hold on to your space helmets: SpaceX just launched a triple-axle-equivalent rocket with its latest Starship launch. Not only did they send this strange mammoth into the sky, but they also managed to bring back both the booster and the upper stage. Musk’s team even used some heat-shielding tricks for good measure, proving once again that rocket science isn’t rocket science…