venture capital

To get a roundup of ZebethMedia’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello, and welcome to the beginning of another week. As mentioned last Friday, Haje is off scuba diving, leaving the rest of us to pick up the Twitter and FTX pieces. No bother, we are here for you. Mary Ann starts us off by reporting on SoftBank writing down an almost $100 million investment into FTX. And with that, let’s dig in! — Christine The ZebethMedia Top 3 This FTX business has wide reach: Tage reports on what happens to a young company that held some assets in FTX and now can’t access them due to, well, you know. In this instance, African web3 startup Nestcoin said it had to lay off employees as a result of not having that access. A true comparison: Now people in Europe can know the joy and wonder that is the Klarna price comparison tool, which Paul writes may just be a “credible alternative to Google and Amazon.” Oops: Bird, a micromobility company, told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had included unpaid customer rides in its revenue, thus having overstated that particular number for two years. Jaclyn has more. Startups and VC At this point, we all expect our data to move pretty quickly, but there is so much of it that it’s still a headache. This is where Quix comes in, Mike writes. The real-time data startup grabbed $12.9 million in Series A funding, not to do this with ksqlDB, Java-based solutions or any of those fancy schmancy SQL-based analytics solutions. Oh no, Quix is developing event-driven applications with Python. And we have five more for you: The show must go on: Just because FTX is having issues doesn’t mean other companies are shying away from association. Jacquelyn reports on the Joepegs NFT marketplace, which raised $5 million in a round co-led by FTX and Avalanche. “Adult friendships are fickle beasts”: Indeed they are, but have no fear, 222 will help you find that perfect friend who doesn’t care that you make more than they do or who “tends to be lazy,” if that’s what you’re into, Kyle writes. Singapore, get your exotic taste buds ready: Vow, an Australian-based cultured meat company, gobbled up $49.2 million in Series A funding to get its first cell-based meat product into Singapore restaurants, Christine writes. Spring into action: Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future signed a $350 million financing deal to hopefully get it out of its previous monetary challenges and to launch its first vehicle, Jaclyn reports. “The sun’s a ball of buttah”: Butter, now flush with $9 million in funding, led by Gradient Ventures, is helping smaller food distribution businesses comply with food safety rules, Catherine writes. Preparing for fintech’s second decade: 4 moves your firm must make now Image Credits: Emilija Manevska (opens in a new window) / Getty Images According to consultant Grant Easterbrook, fintech startups that hope to succeed over the next few years must be prepared to go up against: Major banks and financial service providers with loyalty programs and “super apps.” Emerging DeFi protocols “that can offer financial products that involve real-world assets.” Banking, invoicing, lending, payments, accounting packaged as “embedded financial products.” Multiple countries issuing their own Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). “Your firm will need a very strong value proposition to compete with all four types of competitors,” writes Easterbrook, who shares his ideas for navigating the next decade of fintech in a TC+ guest post. Two more from the TC+ team: See, Mom? Layoffs can teach us something: The big tech layoffs have not been great, but Natasha M writes that even though we could see more, entrepreneur Nolan Church, who helped lead Carta’s 2020 layoffs as its chief people officer, has some perspective on Twitter’s recent layoffs. If VCs aren’t investing in you, who are they investing in?: That’s what Becca discusses in her latest piece that looks at all the dry powder in the VC world, and why it’s not yet being deployed. ZebethMedia+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Big Tech Inc. And just like that, VLC’s download ban in India was lifted, Manish reports. Nine months ago, the country’s electronics and IT ministry instituted the ban on the popular media playback software, something VLC worked to try to reverse, stating that the ban had been “put into place without any prior notice” and didn’t allow VLC a chance for rebuttal. Natasha L has more on our favorite social media channel, this time writing that “Twitter is no longer fulfilling key obligations required for it to claim Ireland as its “so-called main establishment under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.” Can’t wait to see where this goes. And we have five more for you:

To get a roundup of ZebethMedia’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hoooo boy. As Alex would say: This week has been a long year. You just know it has been a pretty wild ride when Meta can lay off 13% of its staff, and it isn’t even really in the top 10 of crazy things that happened. Gmail no longer lets you use the old interface, you retro-loving nerd, you. Salesforce did a round of layoffs, the DOJ seized $3.36 billion worth of Silk Road crypto, Binance said it would buy FTX, then backed out, causing Sequoia to write off its entire FTX investment. Theranos’s founder Elizabeth Holmes will find out her lot next week, while Peloton’s founder gave up on exercise equipment and is selling rugs now. Then there was a wall of Twitter drama, including utter chaos with Twitter’s new “verified” system after it laid off half of its staff, before quickly making moves to hire some of them back. Oh, and we’re all #RatVerified 4lyf now, I guess. May next week be slightly more chill for you. It will be for Haje, who’s buggering off to go do some scuba diving for a week, and possibly trusting Apple with his life in the process. As he left for the day, he could be overheard muttering, “I hope there’s a bit of internet left when I come back.” Take a breather, you can always implode with stress next week instead. — Christine and Haje. The ZebethMedia Top 3 Only the beginning, we fear: If you’ve been following the whole FTX company drama, then no doubt you have a take on today’s big story that the crypto exchange founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and also resigned his position. This comes after SBF thought there was a chance to save the company through other methods, like a tie-up with Binance and then some liquidity. This has been so much that Jacquelyn said on CNBC this morning that everyone should put their crypto in their own private keys. All that back-and-forth is hurting our neck: We fear that Twitter developers have spent much of their 84-hour workweek flipping the “official badge” switch on and off to appease Elon Musk’s constantly flip-flopping ideas. Natasha L has more on what’s happening. Potato, potahto, let’s call the whole thing off (and on again): Ivan has the best headline all week — “Have you tried turning it off and on again, Elon?” We’re still waiting for that answer. Startups and VC Our entire news team are flopped over in their respective sofas, slightly shell shocked after one of the wildest news weeks we’ve seen. You know, we’re so exhausted, we’re not even gonna write a proper intro. Here, make yourself a cup of tea and click through these. Or don’t. You’re the master of your own destiny. Pitch Deck Teardown: Syneroid’s $500K seed deck Image Credits: GPC Smart Tags (opens in a new window) Stolen-vehicle recovery systems have been available for decades, but a lost pet has higher emotional stakes. According to Syneroid, a startup that makes smart tags, 10 million pets are lost each year in the United States, but “less than 30% are returned home.” After raising a $500,000 seed round, the company’s founders shared their 12-slide pitch deck with ZebethMedia for a review. According to Haje Jan Kamps, “no information has been redacted or omitted.” Three more from the TC+ team: ZebethMedia+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Big Tech Inc. Brian visited Amazon’s BOS27 robotics facility and not only watched cute robots line up, but also learned about the delivery giant’s plans for global domination. If you can’t tell by now, it involves robotics and how Amazon aims to improve the world of last-mile delivery. Need more entertainment? Here’s five more:

To get a roundup of ZebethMedia’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Tech reporting is a lot of things, but it sure ain’t boring, as the chaos around Twitter, crypto, and layoffs continues. We’re just trying to hang on for dear life to try to make some sense of it all. We think we did a pretty decent job, and here, we’ve got a selection of what’s been happening in the past 24 hours of tech. — Christine and Haje. The ZebethMedia Top 3 Another domino falls: It was probably already a fiasco, but Binance deciding to not buy FTX led Sequoia Capital to claim its minority stake in FTX as nothing more than some unrealized gains, Connie reports. Investor letter and everything. Meanwhile, over at our other favorite hot mess: Elon Musk was right when he tweeted that the company would be doing “lots of dumb things.” Darrell reports on one of its latest take-backs (because they seem to accumulate before we even have time to take a breath), where all of these accounts were promised that little blue checkmark in exchange for $8, but as you all know, when you make fake accounts, that means we can’t have nice things. More Twitter changes: Another group of top dogs at Twitter decided to leave the nest. This time it is chief information security officer Lea Kissner, followed by chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty and chief privacy officer Damien Kieran. The latter two have reportedly resigned today, according to Zack and Ingrid, who teamed up to chase down the details. Startups and VC Denver-based VC firm SpringTime Ventures is pivoting away from its original focus on its home state of Colorado, despite being the only local fund in two of the state’s 10 unicorn companies, Becca reports. It’s also now able to expand its team thanks to raising three times as much money for Fund II, giving SpringTime enough cash on hand to allow its partners to finally pay themselves “a real salary.” New crypto startups forged ahead during Alliance DAO’s demo day on Wednesday amid the FTX implosion. The most recent cohort, known as All9, for Alliance DAO, a web3 accelerator and builder community, presented their ideas on Wednesday during a demo day, exclusively covered by Jacquelyn. And here’s a smattering of other things that caught our beady little eyes today: Use IRS Code Section 1202 to sell your multimillion-dollar startup tax-free Image Credits: BrianAJackson (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Founding teams usually select a corporate structure like an LLC or S-Corp, but those who hope to exit for $10 million or more should consider starting up as a Qualified Small Business (QSB) C-Corporation, advises tax attorney Vincent Aiello. Under IRS Code Section 1202, founders who hold QSB stock for five years or longer will be exempt from paying capital gains tax after a sale. “It constitutes a significant tax savings benefit for entrepreneurs and small business investors,” Aiello says. “However, the effect of the exclusion ultimately depends on when the stock was acquired, the trade or business being operated, and various other factors.” Three more from the TC+ team: ZebethMedia+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Big Tech Inc. Elon Musk wants Twitter workers in the office and wants them battling spam. Those were some of the messages the new owner had for his social media staff, Ivan writes. Oh, he also told them to be ready for “difficult times ahead,” which is always something you want to hear from your leader with regard to the future of your job. After the Binance deal fell through, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has some new focuses: winding down trading at Alameda Research and winding up his fundraising prowess, Manish reports. We promise, no more FTX or Twitter below:

To get a roundup of ZebethMedia’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Whooo-weee interesting times for crypto land, as Bitcoin crashes down to under $17,000 for the first time in a while. Wild, given that the cryptocurrency was trading at $65,000 or so a year ago. That’s a 74% decrease. What kind of winter is this — are we seeing a crypto cold snap or crypto permafrost? Answers on an immutable blockchain transaction, please. If you’re excited to make sense of the crypto world, we’ve got an event in Miami coming up in a couple of weeks — details and tickets here!  — Christine and Haje. The ZebethMedia Top 3 More social media struggles: Though the subject matter was a downer, Paul wrote a great story about Meta’s confirmed layoffs of 11,000 employees, explaining what happened, why and what it means in the greater context of Meta’s future. More in Big Tech below. It was good while it lasted: For a few hours this morning, us ZebethMediaers were elated to see our precious Twitter handle get the “Official Twitter Badge,” but as Amanda writes, what Twitter giveth, Twitter quickly taketh away. This is what really happened: It was Elon Musk, in the boardroom, with the badge code. As we just mentioned, Musk was killing spirit all over Twitter today, rolling out gray checkmarks for high-profile accounts and then deleting them. Kyle has more. Startups and VC Edge computing cloud and global data network Macrometa has raised $38 million led by Akamai Technologies, as the two announce a new partnership and product integrations, Catherine reports. The funding also included participation from Shasta Ventures and Sixty Degree Capital. Akamai Technologies CTO Andy Champagne will join Macrometa’s board. Startups might be in a funding midwinter, but the ray of sun shining on some VCs speaks of a different trend, reports Ingrid. EQT Ventures, the venture fund arm of Sweden’s investment giant EQT making early-stage bets on startups primarily in Europe, has closed its latest fund and filled its coffers with €1 billion (and $1.1 billion in total commitments). Like our headline stories, but more summarized: Three tips for managing a remote engineering team Image Credits: Inok (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Remote work is not for every business, and it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. When Greg Soh and his co-founder decided to build a distributed engineering team for their startup, numerous questions raced through their minds: Will the team be productive? How will decisions be made? How do they keep the culture alive? Today, the startup manages a remote team of about a dozen engineers, and they’ve learned quite a bit along the way. On ZebethMedia+, he shares some of the tips and advice the company has learned — most of the advice is best applicable to earlier-stage startups. Three more from the TC+ team: ZebethMedia+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Big Tech Inc. Following today’s Meta announcement regarding the layoff of 11,000 employees, Ingrid did a deep dive into the company’s 8-K and emerged with some fresh catch, including the predictable — that slashing expenses on hiring and capex investments will help the company’s 2023 bottom line. Meanwhile, Frederic writes about IBM’s Osprey quantum processor, which isn’t exactly the 4,000 qubits the company wants to achieve by 2025, but at 433 qubits, it’s a good start. And we have five more for you: More layoffs: You didn’t think you’d get off that easy, did you? Ron reports that Salesforce has laid off hundreds of employees, while Aria reports that Astra lays off 16% of its staff after nearly tripling it in the last year. Brrr, it’s cold in here — there must be some crypto in the atmosphere: It’s like Anita had some sixth sense or something. Earlier today, she wrote that the proposed Binance and FTX M&A deal looked unlikely to close. Lo and behold, just before this went out, Binance decided to walk away from the deal, Jacquelyn reports. Collaboration station: Ready to Freeform? Not sure it’s going to be a verb yet, but Apple hopes its collaborative whiteboard is something that sticks, Ivan reports. Sensors and software and EV, oh my!: Volvo unveiled its first all-electric SUV today, and we are drooling. Jaclyn has more. We’re guessing he didn’t win the Powerball: Elon Musk sold more of his Tesla shares, Rebecca writes. The 19.5 million shares were worth almost $4 billion. Wonder what he’s using the money for…