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Category: Technology

  • This Innovative Company from Gujarat is Changing the Way India Charges: Introducing India’s Smallest GaN Charger

    This Innovative Company from Gujarat is Changing the Way India Charges: Introducing India’s Smallest GaN Charger

    In the vibrant state of Gujarat, where innovation meets entrepreneurship, a new player is making waves in the tech world. Smart Flick, a homegrown company, is rewriting the rules of charging technology with the launch of India’s smallest and most powerful GaN charger. With its compact design, cutting-edge efficiency, and focus on sustainability, this charger represents the future of powering devices in India.

     

    Revolutionizing Charging Technology with GaN

    At the heart of this breakthrough is Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology. Unlike traditional silicon-based chargers, GaN chargers are more efficient, compact, and durable. GaN allows for faster energy transfer with minimal heat loss, enabling chargers to be significantly smaller while delivering higher performance.

    Smart Flick’s GaN charger exemplifies these benefits, offering:

    • Compact Size:

    Perfect for portability without sacrificing power.

    • Faster Charging:

    Speeds that outperform traditional chargers by up to 3x.

    • Energy Efficiency:

    Less energy wastage, reducing environmental impact.

    • Heat Resistance:

    Cooler and safer operations for longer durability.

     

    Why Smart Flick Stands Out

    While global brands are adopting GaN technology, Smart Flick is pioneering this innovation from the ground up, proudly labeled as “Made with Love in India.” Here’s why it stands apart:

    1. Local Innovation:

    Designed and manufactured in Gujarat, Smart Flick brings international-grade quality at competitive prices.

    1. Focus on Convenience:

    Its pocket-sized GaN charger is a game-changer for professionals and travelers.

    1. Sustainability at the Core:

    With a focus on energy efficiency, Smart Flick is helping reduce India’s carbon footprint.

     

    Empowering India’s Tech Journey

    As Smart Flick continues to innovate, it’s not just about charging devices; it’s about empowering India’s technological aspirations. By introducing affordable, world-class solutions, the company is setting a benchmark for homegrown innovation in the electronics sector.

    Whether it’s charging your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, Smart Flick’s GaN charger ensures you stay powered up without compromising on space or performance.

     

    The Future of Charging, Made in Gujarat

    Smart Flick’s launch of India’s smallest GaN charger marks a significant step in bringing cutting-edge technology to Indian consumers. It’s not just a charger; it’s a testament to Gujarat’s entrepreneurial spirit and India’s potential to lead in tech innovation.

    So, whether you’re working from home, traveling for business, or just keeping up with your busy lifestyle, Smart Flick ensures you stay ahead with its efficient and compact solutions.

    Experience the future of charging, proudly made in Gujarat.

  • Post Series-B, anti-fraud platform SEON acquires AML startup Complytron for a rumoured €2.5M

    Budapest-based SEON, — an anti-fraud platform which looks at a customer’s ‘digital footprint’ to weed out false accounts and thus prevent fraudulent transactions —  has acquired compliance and AML specialist firm,  Complytron, also based out of Budapest.
    Terms of the deal were not officially released, but Techcrunch sources said the deal was in the region of €2.5M, although SEON declined to comment. Complytron had previously raised €257,000 from Budapest-based CVC Hiventures.
    Complytron’s co-founder and CEO, Oliver Lebhardt, will join SEON along with co-founder and UX lead, Abris Gryllus. A SEON spokesperson said the acquisition adds AML capabilities to SEON’s fraud-fighting platform, which will enable it to offer a wider raise of anti-fraud and AML services.
    SEON competes with Emailage, Iovation, Threatmetrix, but looks heavily at social media accounts to weed out fraudsters. Last year it raised a $94 million Series B funding round led by Silicon Valley-based IVP.
    SEON claims the addition of Complytron’s capability means it will be able to eliminate the need for separate searches across different AML databases, such as international sanctions and crime lists, Politically Exposed  Persons (PEP) databases, and watch lists of supervisory authorities and national law enforcement, such as Interpol and the FBI.
    In a statement, Tamas Kadar, co-founder and CEO of SEON, commented: “Less than a year on from our $94M Series B, we’re executing on our mission to fight  fraud and combat money laundering… Rather than building an AML solution from the ground up, it made perfect sense for us to acquire Complytron’s extensive and innovative algorithms  and worldwide databases – as well as the expertise of its talented team.”
    Lebhardt added: “We’ve watched the SEON story unfold, keeping up with the business alongside its exciting growth trajectory. It’s now great to be a part of the mission, and to play a role in combining fraud prevention and AML tools into a single source.”
    As part of the deal, SEON acquires full rights to Complytron’s technologies, as well as the company’s staff, including its dedicated AML team.
    SEON was also named the hottest cyber security startup for 2022 by The Europas Awards, held annually.
    Post Series-B, anti-fraud platform SEON acquires AML startup Complytron for a rumoured €2.5M by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch

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  • The solo GP behind iSeed SEA launches his second fund for Southeast Asia

    If you follow Southeast Asia funding, you’re probably familiar with iSeed SEA. Some of the startups the fund has invested in since it launched in 2020 include Dat Bike, Skuad and Upmesh. What you might not know, however, is that iSeed SEA is a solo GP fund. Now that solo GP, AngelList alum Wing Vasiksiri, is back with a new fund, called WV Fund II.
    The second fund brings Wing Vasiksiri’s total assets under management to $14 million. The core thesis of iSeed SEA and WV Fund II is to close the gap between Southeast Asia and Silicon Valley, since most of Vasiksiri’s network and many of his LPs are in the U.S. This means investing in seed-stage startups from a wide range of sectors, and introducing them to LPs or operators in the U.S., or bringing them onboard as co-investors.
    Vasiksiri typically writes checks between $100,000 to $500,000, depending on whether he is the lead investor or not, and the valuation stage of a company.
    The 30 startups in Vasiksiri’s portfolio have raised a combined total of over $85 million in follow-on funding from a who’s who of investors, including Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, AlphaJWC, AC Ventures, East Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Monks Hill Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures and MDI Ventures. Some examples of his investments include Humble, HD, Virtual Internships, Mio, Delos, Staffinc, Rukita and TCC.
    Investors in Vasiksiri’s second fund include institutional LPs such as Republic Capital, EGR Partners (Elisabeth de Rothschild’s family office), Kamco Invest and Central Pattana. Individual LPs include Duo founder and CEO Dug Song, Albert Wenger and USV managing partner Susan Danziger, Doordash and Square executive Gokul Rajaram, former Airbnb China COO Kum Hong Siew and operators from Dropbox, Discord and Github.
    The solo GP model is new to Southeast Asia, but has gained traction in Europe and the U.S., where Elad Gill, Lachy Groom and Josh Buckley are examples of investors running funds on their own.
    Vasiksiri told TechCrunch that solo GP funds first started in the U.S. with angel investors who were getting allocations to good deals and proprietary networks, and wanted to institutionalize their investing. So they raised capital from other sources to invest at a larger scale.
    Before launching his own funds, Vasiksiri worked in operations at AngelList, where he got close to AngelList India founder Utsav Somani, who now serves as one of his advisors and is the founder of micro-fund iSeed. The two thought about launching AngelList Southeast Asia, but then the pandemic got in the way of their plans. They continued talking to investors and founders, however, and got excited about trends they were seeing in the region. These included a relatively high GDP per capita, a growing middle class and more people coming online. The first generation of startups were going public, including Grab and Bukalapak, and the problem of downstream capital was being solved by funds like Tiger.
    Vasiksiri said benefits of a solo GP fund include speed and transparency since he’s the only decision maker and can commit to a round within days, or even hours.
    “There are both pros and cons to this model, but I think the biggest pro is the shape of your relationships with founders is drastically different when the relationship is entirely with you. There’s no kind of hierarchy to it,” he said. “You think about a traditional fund, what a founder does is talk to the analyst, the top-tier associate, maybe talk to a partner and then they talk to ICs or GPs. Oftentimes, the founder is telling the same story.”
    With a solo GP fund, however, the GP plays all those roles. “You can dig deeper, you can really build up more of an authentic, genuine relationship with the founder by spending more time with them. I think it eliminates the principal/agent problem entirely.”
    Another benefit is that a solo GP can relate to the experiences of founders. “I consider myself a founder, too, just instead of starting a company, I started a fund. I think having that high empathy for the entrepreneur journey, thinking through similar things and understanding how hard it is to be a new entrant competing with incumbents in this space.”
    Being a solo GP is also helpful when working with other investors because Vasiksiri isn’t fighting to get high allocations and he doesn’t have ownership requirements. This lets him collaborate instead of compete with other funds. “As you scale up your fund, your collaborators and competitors change at every stage of them game,” he said. “I think remaining disciplined and small, this fund size allows me to do things like openly share deals, avoid adverse selection from other funds, and build off other relationships in a win-win way.”
    Vasiksiri focuses on Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia as his core markets, and also looks for opportunities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Vasiksiri is sector agnostic, and instead looks at big contributors to GDP in each country. For example, this include agriculture and aquaculture in Indonesia, so Vasiksiri invests in companies like Delos, a startup developing sensors and other tech to help shrimp farmers increase their yields.
    Other areas he’s interested in include fintech, particularly payments and infrastructure, and gaming. “I think Southeast Asia is uniquely positioned for either a big game publisher or a game developer to emerge,” he said. “There are a lot of users here, especially with mobile games, and a lot of players are located in Thailand, the Philippines, a lot of creative talent as well.” Climate tech is also another important sector, since Southeast Asia is expected to become a net importer of natural gas by 2025, and needs to transition to green energy.
    While there are only a handful of solo GPs in Southeast Asia, Vasiksiri expects more to emerge as the ecosystem matures, especially as founders of successful startups become angel investors.
    “I think a source of solo GPs might emerge it becomes more institutionalized, from writing personal checks to raising funds,” he said. “This is the first generation of solo GPs here and I believe as the ecosystem matures, we’ll see a lot more.”

    How to find a job as a scout for a VC firm

    The solo GP behind iSeed SEA launches his second fund for Southeast Asia by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

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  • Ovni Capital is a new French VC firm backing startups with global ambitions

    If you’re a French entrepreneur, there’s a new venture capital firm in town. Ovni Capital is announcing a first closing of €50 million ($54 million at today’s exchange rate) for its early-stage fund.
    The firm’s two general partners Arnaud Laurent and Augustin Sayer have already invested in several companies in their previous jobs. Laurent has worked with Didier Soucheyre to create XLR Capital and invest in startups like MWM and Onoff. He’s also invested in early-stage startups through WeSprint, a startup accelerator.
    Sayer grew up in the U.S. and started his career there. More recently, he was a partner at Newfund Capital where he invested in 22 different startups, such as FairMoney and Umiami.
    When it comes to the firm’s investment thesis, Omni Capital wants to back new startups with strong international ambitions from day one. According to the Ovni team, many French entrepreneurs still think about global expansion too late. That’s why the number of unicorns per capita is higher in Berlin or Stockholm than in France.
    “Statistically, we also see that French startups are three times more likely to raise a Series B if they take this international approach from the start,” Augustin Sayer said in a statement.
    In addition to that focus on startups with foreign employees or startups that communicate internally in English, Ovni Capital will favor deep tech startups instead of platform plays, marketplaces or vertical software-as-a-service products. And the VC firm plans to support entrepreneurs by bringing experts to the board of directors.
    Ovni Capital tried to raise money from successful entrepreneurs as much as possible. Overall, the firm managed to convince 50 French tech entrepreneurs to back the fund. If some of them want to get involved in an operational way, they can represent Ovni Capital on the boards of portfolio companies.
    The firm plans to invest anything between €250,000 and €2 million in 30 different startups. In some cases, Ovni Capital will be able to invest in follow-on rounds up to €4 million. The first portolio company is Axeptio, a user consent management startup that recently raised €3.5 million from Isai, Evolem and Ovni Capital.
    Ovni Capital is a new French VC firm backing startups with global ambitions by Romain Dillet originally published on TechCrunch

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  • Startups, here’s how you can make hardware without ruining the planet

    Nobody starts a hardware company with the express goal of destroying as much of the planet as they possibly can. Walking around the startup hall at CES, however, I noticed that — with a few notable exceptions — there was painfully little attention given to material choice, repairability, ease of disassembly and considerations around the end of usable life.
    It’s embarrassing, really — but as someone who used to run a hardware startup, I know it can be hard to prioritize when you have limited time and resources. However, if you can’t make planet-friendly choices as the founder of a startup, when the buck literally stops with you, when can you?
    In an effort to figure out how you can create greener hardware, we spoke with Lauryn Menard, a professor at the California College of the Arts, where she teaches the future of biodesign. She’s also an adviser to Women in Design SF and the co-founder and creative director at PROWL Studio, an Oakland, California-based design and material futures consultancy focusing on sustainable solutions.
    “As a startup, you have choices. The thing is, it’s such a capitalistic society we live in, and a lot of decisions are made based on time and money,” Menard explained. The startups want to think about sustainability, but they are moving at breakneck speed and trying to get a product to market as soon as possible. “The startups need to hit their target price point and all that good stuff.”

    “You don’t have to adopt a new bioplastic, you can instead choose something that already exists: Not everything has to be made from a new freaking material!” Lauryn Menard

    But there are some big things moving out there in the market. Consumer demands are shifting, and climate pledges, circularity strategies and environmental questions are all bubbling to the surface. It’s hard to say whether enough customers are making purchasing decisions based on a company’s green credentials to move the needle meaningfully, but product development cycles can take years, and who knows what the landscape looks like by the time your product makes it to market? To some companies, it might make sense to take the risk, but other founders are starting to think differently about how products are made.
    “If a startup is being run by solely engineers, that can be problematic: Engineers tend to be worried [about] making sure they’re getting to the finish line. They put all of their energy into making something function and are probably leaning toward materials, ways of making and manufacturing processes that they’re already familiar with,” Menard explained. “What we’ve seen [be] really helpful is working with a design studio that specializes in more sustainable ways of thinking and healthier materials. Or partnering with someone like a materials library, so they’ve already started thinking about the functionality of the materials by the time they are making a prototype. Just in the same way that it takes a really long time to get an MVP product that works and looks the way you want, it sometimes takes a long time to put a new material into an existing manufacturing process.”

    Intropic helps single-use plastics decompose from the inside out

    Thinking sustainability
    One of the big challenges we have with creating more sustainable products is that we are often replacing plastics with something else. The problem is that plastics are deeply embedded in workflows already. Product designers love how predictable, easy to design and repeatable plastic is.
    There also isn’t an obvious one-for-one replacement for plastic; depending on the use case and material properties you need, you may have to replace it with wool, paper, wood, plant pulp, carbon fiber, seaweed, hemp, mycelium, lab-grown leather or any number of other materials that are available.
    Here’s what founders and product designers can do to think about sustainability and product development in a more conscious way.
    Startups, here’s how you can make hardware without ruining the planet by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

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  • India to block over 230 betting and loan apps, many with China ties

    India is moving to block 232 apps, some with links to China, that offer betting and loan services in the South Asian market to prevent misuse of the citizens’ data, the state-owned public broadcaster said Sunday.
    The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is in the process to enforce an emergency order to ban 138 betting and gambling apps and another 94 that provided unauthorized loan services in the interest of protecting the country’s integrity, the broadcaster said.
    The ministry’s move was prompted at the direction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Prasar Bharti added. The apps sought to mislead customers into taking big debts without realizing the terms and there were concerns that they could be used as tools for espionage and propaganda.
    Sunday’s step is the latest in a series of government efforts to crack down on shark loan apps and other services that are posing a threat to the nation’s citizens.

    Predatory loan apps in India rake in huge fees, and are driving some users to suicide

    The Reserve Bank of India introduced stringent rules for digital lending firms last last year, recommending firms provide more transparency and control to customers.
    According to the new rules, lenders are not permitted to increase a customer’s credit limit without obtaining their consent and are required to disclose the annual loan rate in explicit terms. Digital lending apps are also mandated to take prior explicit consent from customers before collecting any data and all such requests should be “need-based.”
    India has also blocked over 300 apps with links to China in recent years to protect the nation’s sovereignty and integrity. New Delhi banned Tencent’s Xriver, Garena’s Free Fire, NetEase’s Onmyoji Arena and Astracraft and 50 more apps with apparent links to China early last year. The Indian government also banned dozens of apps including ByteDance’s TikTok, Xiaomi’s Community and Video Call apps and Alibaba Group’s UC Browser and UC News in mid-2020 amid geopolitical tensions between the two neighboring countries.
    New Delhi has never specifically said that it’s taking actions on apps from any particular country.
    Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, however praised India’s blocking of TikTok and other apps last month, saying the country set an “incredibly important precedent” by banning the ByteDance app.
    Carr warned that TikTok “operates as a sophisticated surveillance tool” and found that banning the social app was a “natural next step in our efforts to secure communication network.” Carr said he was worried that China could use sensitive and non-public data gleaned from TikTok for “blackmail, espionage, foreign influence campaigns and surveillance.”
    “We need to follow India’s lead more broadly to weed out other nefarious apps as well,” he added.
    India to block over 230 betting and loan apps, many with China ties by Manish Singh originally published on TechCrunch

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  • Elon Musk says Twitter will provide a free write-only API to bots providing ‘good’ content

    Last week, Twitter said it is shutting down free access to its APIs starting February 9. Now, days before the deadline, Elon Musk said that after getting feedback from developers, Twitter will provide a write-only API for “bots providing good content that is free.”
    This decision is as opaque as some of the other policy decisions under Musk’s management. There is no information on what constitutes “good content” and who will decide that. However, if Twitter ends up implementing this rule, some bots will get a new lifeline on the social network.
    Previously, Twitter shuttered API access to third-party clients saying they broke a “long-standing rule” without any specification. Then the company silently updated its developer terms to reflect that app can’t  “use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”

    Responding to feedback, Twitter will enable a light, write-only API for bots providing good content that is free
    — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2023

    Following the announcement, a lot of developers who made fun of bots criticized the decision saying that their automation provided free content to people and in turn enhanced the services. Last week, Buzzfeed interviewed several bot developers who were unhappy with the decision. These include @_restaurant_bot which tweets random photos of restaurants and @_weather_bot_which tweets images of different places with weather updates.

    This will kill @PepitoTheCat account. Pépito is part of Twitter history, he post quality content with great engagement. pic.twitter.com/N1pBF55Pk4
    — Pépito (@PepitoTheCat) February 3, 2023

    Each of us Twitter bot makers already pay for the servers that send these tweets. That’s fine. But now some clownstick at Twitter decides they also want money for the priviledge of receiving these tweets.
    Because making their site a funner place mUsT Be mOnEtIzEd.
    — Year Progress (@year_progress) February 3, 2023

    At the moment, it’s not clear if accounts like @BigTechAlert, which tweets about big tech execs and organizations following and unfollowing each other, will be eligible for this free tier as they might need to scan account information.
    Darius Kazemi, a developer who has made over 80 bots and even organized a bot devs summit in 2016, told TechCrunch over a call that these automated accounts have been an integral part of Twitter for years. He said that some of these bots with thousands of followers bring joy to many people daily.
    He mentioned that it would be costly to maintain these bots who are providing free content to the platform
    “I have more than 80 bots on Twitter so it would take me several thousand dollars to keep them up every year and I can’t afford that kind of money,” he said.
    Musk has been trying to generate more revenue for Twitter with moves like a new costly subscription plan and ramping up ad money. He also plans to show ads in replies to share revenue with creators. While the details on how this will work are thin, the Twitter CEO said that only Blue Subscribers can earn this money. So it’s likely that content bots won’t earn money even if ads are displayed on their accounts or in replies below their tweets.
    Twitter’s free API discontinuation doesn’t just affect bot developers. There are tons of student developers and hate speech or misinformation researchers who might not have a budget to pay a monthly fee. Twitter’s v2 API had special access for academics but that might not be the case under the new API rules.
    Developers have also pointed out that a lot of bots spreading spam don’t use actually use the official API. So the company’s intention to shut down free API to weed out spam might not work well.
    Elon Musk says Twitter will provide a free write-only API to bots providing ‘good’ content by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

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  • This Week in Apps: Instagram’s founders’ new app, another Twitter rival, Biden admin criticizes app stores

    Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
    The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion, according to the latest “State of Mobile” report by data.ai (previously App Annie). However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion.
    This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.
    Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters
    Top Stories
    Instagram’s co-founders launch a Toutiao-like news app
    Image Credits: Artifact(opens in a new window)
    Surprising news this week saw Instagram’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger return to the mobile app market with the launch of a news reading app called Artifact. The app is part of a new venture aimed at exploring social apps, a report in The Verge noted.
    Artifact itself is not yet publicly available but offers a waitlist where interested users can sign up. As described, it sounds like a modern-day twist on Google Reader, a long-ago RSS newsreader app that Google shut down back in 2013. Except in this case, Artifact is described as a newsreader that uses machine learning to personalize the experience for the end user, while also adding social elements that allow users to discuss articles they come across with friends. (To be fair, Google Reader had a similar feature, but the app itself had to be programmed by the user who would add RSS feeds directly.)

    Instagram’s co-founders introduce a new social app…for news reading

    The app presents a curated selection of news stories, which become more attuned to the user’s interests over time. According to a demo version of the app, you’ll need to read at last 25 articles for the app to personalize your feed. (You can track your progress in the app.)
    During onboarding, you’ll tap on news interests you want to track to initially customize the experience. Users can also add their own paid news subscriptions for top publishers, like The New York Times and Bloomberg, if they choose. This will then prioritize those outlets in the app’s interface but links open in a web view. There’s no publisher integration or exclusive deals here, it seems.
    Future app features will include comment controls, separate feeds for articles posted by people you follow alongside their commentary, and a direct message inbox for discussing posts more privately. But for now, you can thumbs down articles or hide the publisher, save articles to read later, share articles through iOS or Android’s built-in sharing features, report content, view your reading history and read articles in a cleaned-up reader mode.
    There are some odd design choices, like the slightly too-small font for a text-heavy app and the italicized font styling on the sign-up page, but the latter isn’t present in the app itself. The app had two news reading tabs, which is strange, as one is a scrollable list of headlines, similar to an RSS reader like Feedly, while the other is a browsable page, similar to Apple News’ Today tab, but with categories at the top.
    The app doesn’t immediately feel original, as it overlaps with other news readers and read-it-later apps, like Flipboard, SmartNews, Newsbreak, Pocket and Matter, plus other RSS readers and the default news apps from Apple and Google. It seems as if the company is hoping to reproduce the success of something like ByteDance’s Toutiao, but in the U.S. that’s difficult to do. The new market is more competitive here, where consumers also rely heavily on getting news from Google Search and Facebook — a platform not available in China. Plus, as TechCrunch’s Catherine Shu previously reported, many people in the country skipped the PC and first went online with their phones, paving the way for a mobile news app to eat up market share.
    It will be interesting to track how well Artifact fares in this environment.

    Is there room for a US equivalent to China’s No. 1 news app?

    The Biden administration calls out app stores as anticompetitive
    Capitol building. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
    The Biden administration called out Apple and Google’s app stores for stifling competition. A new report, issued on Wednesday by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said it had investigated the competitive conditions in the mobile app ecosystem and found that it’s “not a level playing field, which is harmful to developers and consumers.”
    The report also made several policy suggestions that could improve the ecosystem and open up competition. These included pushes for more transparent app review process; limits on pre-installed apps and self-preferencing; bans on rules that restrict other means of installing apps, like sideloading; support for third-party payments; support for links to developers’ websites from apps; and more.
    The recommendations, however, are just that — ideas, not policy. The report only helps to solidify and clarify the Biden administration’s position on app store competition. As the report points out, “Congress should enact laws” and “relevant agencies should consider measures” to limit anticompetitive conduct.
    The Biden administration, so far, has seen mixed success in actually holding tech giants accountable. On the one hand, the Department of Justice is now suing Google over its digital ad monopoly, while on the other, Meta is winning against the FTC to move forward with its latest acquisition. The DoJ has yet to sue Apple, though it has been building a case and weighing in on Epic Games’ antitrust lawsuit. In the meantime, record lobbying spending from tech giants, including Apple and Google, has helped to block bipartisan bills that would curb anti-competitive behavior from advancing in Congress.
    Another decentralized social app launches to take on Twitter, then gets kicked out of the China App Store
    Image Credits: Damus
    Twitter has another competitor, with this week’s arrival of Damus, a decentralized social networking application that’s powered by an open and decentralized social networking protocol known as Nostr, which is based on cryptographic key pairs.
    Last year, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey donated around $245,000 in bitcoin (then roughly 14 BTC) to fund the development of Nostr even though he’s already investing in a different decentralized protocol with his Bluesky project.
    Though there are some venture-backed Twitter rivals coming onto the scene, like Spill, T2 and Post, Damus is not one of them. It’s an experiment in decentralized social networking. The app’s promise is a social network without a central authority that makes decisions about the network’s content or who’s allowed to participate, as Facebook or Twitter do. Explains the app’s homepage, “you are in control…there is no platform that can ban or censor you. You are in control of your data,” it reads.
    There’s no requirement to sign up with a phone number, email or name because of how the Nostr works. That’s a big point of differentiation with the federated platform, Mastodon, where a user’s account is attached to a particular server and admins have some control over their server’s registered users. That means issues with the Mastodon server you’re using — like an outage — could impact your ability to use the network. And you could risk losing data if that shutdown was sudden or permanent.
    The new app also includes end-to-end encrypted messaging — something Twitter does not have, and which has concerned users in the wake of the Musk takeover. Messages are distributed through decentralized relays — in fact, the name Nostr is an acronym for “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.” And users can tip one another thanks to Bitcoin Lightning Network integrations.

    Damus, another decentralized social networking app, arrives to take on Twitter

    The decentralization and promise of anonymity brought a flood of Chinese users to the app at launch, as typical social networks in China have censorship tools to eliminate content that’s illegal or banned in the country. Plus, anonymity is not allowed. Not surprisingly, China’s government soon took action on Damus and the iOS app was pulled from the App Store in China just two days after its launch.
    App Updates
    Apple News
    Image Credits: Emmanuel Dunand / AFP / Getty Images

    Apple missed on earnings. The company reported fiscal Q1 revenue that was down 5% year-over-year to $117.2 billion, its largest annual quarterly revenue decline since 2016 and below expectations of $121.10 billion. Net income was down 13% year-over-year to $30 billion.
    Except for Services (up 6.4%) and iPad (up 30%), all business lines were down, including iPhone (down 8%), Mac (down 29%), Wearables/Home/Accessories (down 8%). Revenue in Greater China also fell 7.3% year-over-year to $23.9 billion.
    Apple said it now has more than 2 billion active devices worldwide and 935 million paid subscriptions. Services, including iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, Apple One and Apple Pay, brought in $20.8 billion in the quarter.
    Apple will raise the App Store app and IAP prices in the U.K. and some other markets on February 13. The company said it’s adjusting for taxes and conversion rate changes. Additional countries impacted include Colombia, Egypt, Hungary, Nigeria, Norway and South Africa. Prices in Uzbekistan will decrease to reflect a reduction of the value-added tax rate from 15% to 12%, the company also noted. Meanwhile, proceeds are being adjusted in Ireland, Luxembourg, Singapore and Zimbabwe due to tax changes, but prices aren’t changing.
    Apple’s Support app adds Bulgarian, Croatian and Greek and expanded into 118 new markets.

    Google/Android News

    Spotify, an earlier tester of Google’s User Choice Billing option for third-party payments, said during earnings the offering has now expanded to more than 140 markets worldwide. The streamer didn’t say which markets were included nor how much of a commission cut it receives, but Google had previously said the program would reduce commissions by 4%.

    Spotify’s third-party billing option has now reached over 140 global markets

    Google’s new policy requiring digital lenders in Kenya to submit proof of license to operate has taken effect. The policy aims to cut down on the rogue loan apps that have been offering unsecured personal and business loans. Some apps have been sharing contact info from browsers with third-party debt collectors without consent.

    Social

    Meta reported Q4 earnings, with revenue down 4% year-over-year to $32.2 billion and net income down 55% year-over-year to $4.7 billion. However, the company said its family daily active users were up 5% year-over-year to 2.96 billion and Facebook had 2 billion daily active users, after adding 16 million DAUs in the quarter. WhatsApp had passed 2 billion DAUs in October. The stock jumped up by 24%+ after earnings, and is now up 110%+ since November, adding $250 billion to its market cap. (Apple observer John Gruber suggested that maybe Meta should maybe now stop “whining” about ATT!)
    Instagram’s newly launched Notes feature, which lets users post a status update that can be seen at the top of their inbox, expanded to global markets outside the U.S., including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The feature was already available in Latin America, North America and parts of Asia, and should have become available across all regions sometime during this past week.
    Instagram’s code reveals new references to a “paid blue badge” and a new subscription suggesting the company could be spinning up its own version of Twitter Blue-like paid verification.

    Is Instagram considering paid verification? Code reveals references to a ‘paid blue badge’

    Debt-laden Twitter made its first interest payment under Elon Musk to seven banks, led by Morgan Stanley, on the $12.5 billion Musk borrowed to take the company private last year. The payment was around $300 million, Bloomberg reported.
    One of Meta’s last apps built by the experimental projects group, NPE Team, is shutting down. The company announced its social to-do list app Move will close down on March 2, 2023.
    Snap reported mixed Q4 earnings. The company missed on revenue ($1.30 billion versus $1.31 expected) but beat on earnings per share (14 cents versus 11 cents expected). The app now has global daily active users of 375 million, close to expectations of 375.3 million. Snap’s stock plunged following the results as investors reacted to the net loss of $288 million and lack of official guidance for Q1.
    Among Snap’s earnings highlights, it announced its subscription service Snapchat+ topped 2 million paid users and talked about how AI could be used in AR glasses in the future.

    Snap hints at future AR glasses powered by generative AI

    Twitter killed a relatively unused feature called CoTweets which let two accounts author a tweet, similar to a feature Instagram offers.
    Twitter also expanded Twitter Blue to new markets and announced a plan to relaunch the Spaces tab with curated Spaces and podcasts. 
    In unfortunate news for developers, Twitter announced it would end free access to its API on February 9, including both the legacy v1.1 and the newer v2 version, and will instead launch a paid plan. The community is lamenting how this change will mean the loss of a number of fun and helpful bots that added value to the Twitter experience.

    Twitter to end free access to its API in Elon Musk’s latest monetization push

    Entertainment

    Spotify reported its Q4 earnings with revenue up 18% year-over-year to €3.2 billion and a €270 million loss, up from €39 million year-over-year. Paid subscribers were up 10 million to reach 205 million.
    Investors asked Spotify about the tests of a new Friends tab in the app, which suggests the company has expanded social ambitions as fewer young people use Facebook, which is what powers Spotify’s existing social features.

    Spotify’s test of a Friends tab on mobile hints at expanded social ambitions

    Netflix’s “Kids Mystery Box” feature hit Android devices. The discovery tool works similarly to the Shuffle button offered to adult viewers but offers kids the ability to find new content in a more playful way.
    Apple rolled out Apple Music Replay 2023, its annual collection of the top songs by year. The playlist is made available to the music app’s subscribers alongside a website that offers personalized details, like your top albums, songs and artists of the year.
    Apple launched MLS Season Pass in more than 100 territories, offering soccer fans access to all MLS matches, playoffs and more for $14.99/mo or $99/year. The subscription service is available through the Apple TV app and can be shared with up to six family members with Apple’s Family Sharing.

    Apple TV users can now watch Major League Soccer matches with MLS Season Pass

    Google’s YouTube Shorts topped 50 billion daily views, the company said during earnings. The company began sharing ad revenue with creators on February 1 to help it better challenge TikTok, whose own ad rev share program has not been going well.
    YouTube launched “Go Live Together” which allows creators with 50 or more subscribers to co-host livestreams with one guest at a time on its iOS and Android apps.
    TikTok said it’s going to adopt a strike system, similar to YouTube, to deal with violations. Penalties of exceeding the threshold, which varies by offense, will result in permanent bans.
    TikTok will also test a new button that will allow users to refresh their For You feed with new content when it gets stale. After pressing the button, TikTok’s algorithm will then go off the user’s new engagement patterns with the refreshed content.

    TikTok introduces a strike system for violations, tests a feature to ‘refresh’ the For You feed

    Gaming

    EA surprised investors this week with the news that it’s pulling the plug on “Apex Legends Mobile,” which was just named Game of the Year by both Apple and Google. According to CEO Andrew Wilson, the issue was that the game failed to keep enough casual players engaged. The decision also led the company to kill the planned mobile version of “Battlefield.”
    Sony added support for Discord voice calls in beta on its PS5 in the U.S., Canada, Japan and the U.K., similar to support on the Xbox. The Xbox version was recently updated to allow for direct joining from the console itself without needing a phone or PC.
    Roblox is going to host a free virtual Super Bowl concert featuring Saweetie. The concert will take place at 7:00 pm ET in Warner Music Group’s Rhythm City, a new destination on Roblox that was announced earlier this week.

    Security

    1Password previewed new features coming to its iOS app, including the ability to reorder fields and sections inside items, the (returning) ability to search within any list of items, PIN unlock on mobile, improved Face ID unlock, better VoiceOver support and more.
    A victim of the recent Google Fi hack had his Coinbase and 2FA app, Authy, hijacked by hackers, raising concerns about further potential fallout from the Google Fi data breach, which was likely related to the recent security incident at T-Mobile.
    Password manager Dashlane published its source code to GitHub in a new transparency push. The published code includes the Android app code, iOS app code and code related to the Apple Watch and Mac apps. It plans to later publish the code for its web extension, too.

    Etc.

    Samsung reported a ~$1.38 billion mobile profit in Q4 2022, down from $2.15 billion in the year-ago quarter. Its operating profit was down 69% year-over-year to ~$3.5 billion, its lowest since Q3 2014. Revenue was down 8% year-over-year to ~$57.3 billion, due to weak chip and smartphone demand.
    Samsung’s SmartThings iOS app now supports Matter devices.
    Some users of queer dating app Lex are complaining about the company’s new focus on friends and community, as they preferred its prior raunchy nature.

    Layoffs

    Pinterest is laying off 150 employees, or less than 5% of its workforce, but declined to share where the cuts were being made. This follows a first round of layoffs in December.
    PayPal said it’s laying off 2,000 employees, or around 7% of its workforce in the coming weeks.
    Car-sharing service Getaround is laying off 10% of its staff, or approximately 42 employees.
    Groupon laid off another 500 employees in a second round of layoffs.

    Funding and M&A

    Twitter rival Spill, being built by former Twitter employees, raised $2.75 million in a pre-seed round of funding after receiving 60,000 handle reservations.
    Egyptian fintech and e-commerce MNT-Halan raised up to $400 million in equity and debt financing. A large portion of the equity, about $200 million, was provided by Abu Dhabi-based Chimera Investments. MNT-Halan runs the Halan digital wallet app offering bill pay, e-commerce, ride-hailing and loans.
    Meta won a ruling against the FTC in a closely watched case over its proposed acquisition of VR software company Within. A U.S. district court judge denied the FTC’s request to block Meta’s purchase of Within, which makes a VR fitness app called Supernatural. The FTC had said Meta’s purchase would help the company dominate in VR, potentially creating a monopoly in the market.
    U.K. neobank Zopa raised £75 million (around $93 million) in an all-equity investment round, without a lead investor. The company said it was an inside round from existing investors including IAG Silverstripe, Uprising and Augmentum, but not SoftBank.
    Mexican employee wellness company Minu raised $30 million in a combination of equity and debt. The round includes $10 million in a bridge round from Coppel Capital, Besant Capital and Enea Capital, plus existing investors FinTech Collective, QED and Salkantay, and $20 million of debt from Accial Capital.

    Downloads
    Forum
    Image Credits: Waverly Labs
    TechCrunch’s Ivan Mehta took a look at Forum, a new app from Waverly Labs, the company behind wearables focused on translation. With Forum, users can translate and transcribe audio in real time across 20 languages and 42 dialects, including Arabic, Dutch, English, Hindi, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Users can switch to a new language in the middle of a session to get both a text and audio translation. The app also works with video calling apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
    Rewind
    Image Credits: Rewind
    A new app called Rewind wants to make it easier for music fans to explore the top songs of decades past. Hoping to cater to consumer demand for nostalgic music experiences, Rewind allows users to “time travel” through the music charts from 1960 through 2010 to learn about how older songs have influenced today’s hits. Users can explore the music from a given year by top albums and top music videos, in addition to growing the top Billboard charts. It also delves into relevant trends from a given time period — like 1991’s selection of “grunge-defining records.”
    Other sections present tracks that saw major radio airtime that year, highly anticipated releases and newly formed bands that emerged that year, and so on. A TikTok-like feed lets you swipe through the year’s top songs quickly.
    There’s also a “news” section that includes major events and moments from the year, and “ads” that give the app a retro feel. For example, in 1965, listeners will see ads for the first distortion guitar pedal while users browsing the 1980s might see ads for new synth instruments that helped shape 80s sounds. The app, a side project from a TIDAL developer, integrates only with TIDAL for now. Everyone else can hear 30-second song clips.
    This Week in Apps: Instagram’s founders’ new app, another Twitter rival, Biden admin criticizes app stores by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

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  • Netflix crackdown, monetizing ChatGPT and bypassing FB’s 2FA

    Happy weekend, folks, and welcome back to the TechCrunch Week in Review. Henry here, standing in for a vacationing Kyle Wiggers, who is standing in for a parental-leaving Greg Kumparak. Listen, we’ve got a deep bench, and both blokes will be back very soon. Until then, check out just a few of the top stories from the week.
    Want it in your inbox every Saturday AM? You can take care of that right here.
    most read
    Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown: The streaming giant has grown tired of its customers sharing passwords with friends and loved ones around the world. So this week it announced guidelines designed to keep the passwords close to home. Literally inside the walls of the abode of the account holder.
    Monetized ChatGPT: OpenAI this week launched a pilot subscription for its text-generating AI. For $20 a month, subscribers can access more than what the base level gets: access to ChatGPT during peak hours, faster response times and priority access to new features and improvements.
    Human or AI?: That is the question, and apparently OpenAI wants to help. The company launched a tool that is designed to distinguish between human-written and AI-generated text, but the success rate is only around 26%. OpenAI did say, though, that when used with other methods, it could help prevent AI text generators from being abused.
    Bypassing FB 2FA: Meta created a new centralized system so users could manage their logins for Facebook and Instagram, but a bug could have allowed malicious hackers to switch off 2FA just by knowing a user’s phone number. Yikes. A security researcher from Nepal discovered the bug and reported it to Meta Accounts Center last September. And he got paid.
    Salesforce layoffs hit: In January, the company announced the imminent reduction of 10% of its workforce. Not everyone was notified at the time, however. This week, hundreds more of the company’s staff found out the fate of their jobs.
    “Spill the tea”: Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell lost his job at Twitter as its global head of Social & Editorial three months ago and promptly got to work on a new app. Called Spill, the app has already attracted a seed round and 60,000 handle reservations. The app is due to launch in alpha during the first quarter of this year.
    Google Fi breach: The company said its cell network provider, Google Fi, confirmed a data breach, which, based on the timing of the notice, was likely related to the recent security incident at T-Mobile that allowed hackers to steal millions of customers’ information.
    audio roundup
    This week out of the TechCrunch Podcast Network, Equity covered the usual slate of venture and startup funding news, and Mary Ann spoke with Hans Tung, investor and managing partner of GGVC, a venture firm with more than $9 billion in assets under management. On Found, Darrell and Becca talked to Rosie Nguyen, a co-founder and the CMO of Fanhouse, about her journey from content creator to founder and how her experience as a creator informs every product decision at Fanhouse.
    TechCrunch+
    TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. I doubt you’ll regret it. Just check out the highlights from this week:
    Not quite secondarily: Becca reports on data this week that shows secondary deals are breaking away from the downturned venture market this year.
    Open source startups: Paul Sawers examines a report out this week that explores which commercial open source software startups are growing fast and raising cash.
    Go team: Ever wonder which slide is the most important slide in a startup’s pitch deck? Why, it’s the team slide and Haje expresses his surprise at just how many startups fail to tell a good story about their teams. And speaking of pitch decks, Haje brings Laoshi’s $570K angel deck breakdown to you.
    Dear Sophie: Immigration Sophie Alcorn answers the question, What H-1B and other immigration changes can we expect this year?
    Netflix crackdown, monetizing ChatGPT and bypassing FB’s 2FA by Henry Pickavet originally published on TechCrunch

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  • Dear founders, returning to the office is a numbers game

    Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.
    Toward the end of 2022, a number of entrepreneurs, some citing Elon Musk, told me that they’re bringing back an in-person work culture in the following year to help promote productivity and, in some cases, loyalty. One founder even told me over drinks and fancy snacks that they weren’t worried about losing talent — because those who leave just because there’s an in-person mandate weren’t truly mission-driven to begin with.
    While some founders are clearly set on a return, others are confused. There’s the argument — sometimes coming from venture capitalists desperate to see portfolio companies succeed — that being in-person will help grow productivity, and eventually the bottom line. And there’s also the counterargument that remote work allows for more inclusive and expansive hiring, which could also help, well, the bottom line.
    And if 2023 isn’t the year of the bottom line, I don’t know what else it could be. Kruze Consulting, an accounting firm for startups, mined through over 750 companies’ finances, which includes upward of $300 million in quarterly revenue and over $750 million in quarterly spend. I spoke to Healy Jones, who runs financial planning and analysis for Kruze Consulting, about his findings — and the results, he thinks, offer some balance to the debate.
    To read more about his findings, read my TC+ column “Data hints at the value of startup offices.” In the rest of this newsletter, we’ll talk about noisy venture firms, Salesforce spinouts and Artifact. As always, you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
    The wrinkle
    On paper, venture funding appears to be back. The flurry of new funds gives me and, more importantly, founders the vibe that VCs are back in business and ready to write lots and lots of checks. But one could argue that new VC fund announcement dates, much like the phrase “oversubscribed,” don’t mean much in practice.
    Here’s why this is important: There are many reasons why all the dry powder isn’t as jumpy as we may hope. While new fund announcements are certainly exciting, the fund may already be partially invested through and investors need to make capital calls before writing those checks. The signal to watch is less around new money entering the venture space and more around, Why is this VC firm announcing their fund now, versus before, versus later? What’s the argument to show that you’re playing offense right now? I imagine it’s more complicated than “business as usual.”

    Tiger Global says India returns have ‘sucked historically’ but remain bullish
    Passthrough raises $10M to simplify the process of investor onboarding
    Losing the horn: VCs think majority of unicorns aren’t worth $1 billion anymore

    Image Credits: Getty Images/dane_mark/DigitalVision
    Salesforce, salesfund  
    Firsthand Alliance, led by solo investor Simon Chan, is a venture firm seeking to capitalize on Salesforce. Here’s how: The firm, which closed a $25 million debut investment vehicle, landed investments from 21 Salesforce-acquired founders, while Chan himself built the company that he says is the foundation of Einstein, the AI initiative across all of Salesforce businesses.
    With the backing of alumni and advisors, the firm hopes it can help early-stage enterprise startups land extra support and, of course, fresh capital.
    Here’s why it’s important: Mafia funds can be exclusive, both in which LPs are invited to the table and which companies land funding. In a statement to TechCrunch, Chan said that the firm’s investment scope is “way beyond the Salesforce app ecosystem” and that founders do not need to be Salesforce alumni to be considered. Right now, 35% of Firsthand Alliance’s portfolio is founded or co-founded by females, and 50% of the portfolio is co-founded or founded by people of color.
    Impressive. And, well, interestingly timed considering both the layoffs and the tensions seeping out from the mothership as we speak. Maybe now is the time to capitalize on changes happening on the old stomping grounds?

    Some Salesforce employees just found out they’re part of the 10% layoff announced last month
    Board changes could signal Salesforce’s willingness to appease activist investors
    Salesforce turmoil continues into new year, as recent layoffs attest
    Can 4 activist investors play nice in the Salesforce sandbox?

    Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
    The follow-up
    There’s nothing like a good comeback story to follow up on, am I right? Instagram’s co-founders are back with a new social app, looking to make news consumption easier and smarter. The startup, Artifact, is accepting people on its waitlist as we speak.
    Here’s why it’s important: Artifact is eyeing a controversial business because it has to do with news consumption, control, algorithms and, no offense, easily persuaded consumers. If you’re raising your eyebrows at all the potential issues that may arise from this company, you’re not alone. We talk about the news and why we’re hopeful anyway on Equity.  

    Pinterest lays off 150 people as a part of its ‘long-term strategy’
    Is Instagram considering paid verification? Code reveals references to a ‘paid blue badge’
    Three months ago, he was laid off from Twitter. Now his competing app Spill is funded.
    Snapchat now has more than 2 million paid subscribers

    Image Credits: Artifact screenshot via The Verge (opens in a new window)
    Etc., etc.

    This tweet by VC Matt Turck.
    Shoutout to this wonderful newsletter, Axios San Francisco, written by former TechCruncher Megan Rose Dickey and Nick Bastone, founder of The SF Minute.

    Speaking of shoutouts, I’m so excited for “The Romantics” to get on Netflix.

    I’ll be at the Upfront Summit in LA next month. Who should I meet? And what should I eat? (For context: I love talking to humans, and I am vegetarian.)
    If you missed Startups Weekly last week, catch my last issue here: “The latecomer advantage in startups.” 
    TechCrunch is coming to Boston on April 20. I’ll be there with my favorite colleagues to interview top experts at our one-day founder summit TechCrunch Early Stage 2023. Book your pass ASAP! Speakers include Techstars’ Kerty Levy, Construct Capital’s Dayna Grayson, and NFX’s James Currier. 

    Seen on TechCrunch
    Car-sharing SPAC Getaround lays off 10% of staff
    Car-sharing platform Getaround gets delisting warning from NYSE
    There are still robotics jobs to be found (if you know where to look)
    Apple stock drops on rare earnings miss
    Coinbase’s asset recovery tool just saved my bacon
    Seen on TechCrunch+
    Pitch Deck Teardown: Laoshi’s $570K angel deck
    Dear Sophie: What H-1B and other immigration changes can we expect this year?
    Which open source startups rocketed in 2022?
    What do recent changes to state taxes mean for US SaaS startups?
    Why invest in Ukrainian startups today?
    This was one of those weeks that was filled with energizing conversations with entrepreneurs, both seasoned and fresh, who remind me what an ambitious world tech is. Even with the hurdles facing techies from quite possibly every angle, it’s rejuvenating to see how the hope of an idea can push farther than reality.
    On that earnest note, always,
    N 
    Dear founders, returning to the office is a numbers game by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch

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