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Hello, and welcome to your Thursday — aka, the day the TikTok CEO went in front of Congress. Our team has been working hard all day to keep up with everything going on there, and you can read the fruits of their labor in the Big Tech section. Now, on with the news! — Christine and Haje
The TechCrunch Top 3
- More layoffs: The layoffs affecting the technology industry are now making their way to the companies that service them. Accenture announced today that it will cut 19,000 jobs, Manish reports. That represents about 2.5% of its global workforce, but an eye-opening figure nonetheless.
- Do Kwon in custody: It looks like law enforcement caught up with Terra creator Do Kwon, who was reportedly arrested at the Montenegro airport, Jacquelyn writes. You might recall that Kwon has been under investigation in South Korea following the Terra/LUNA collapse, which wiped out about $40 billion from the cryptocurrency market. Despite saying he was cooperating with law enforcement, Kwon’s whereabouts have been unknown since September.
- An excuse not to go to the mall: DoorDash users can now order from Lush Cosmetics, Victoria’s Secret and Party City. The delivery giant also added some new shopping features, like search optimization. Aisha has more.
Startups and VC
At first glance, Boston Dynamics is a strange fit for a show like ProMat, Brian writes. For decades, the firm has presented a flashy image to the world — a company well known for robotic highlight reels, from the snow-traversing Big Dog to parkour-performing Atlas. But a recent approach has found it facing one of its biggest challenges to date: putting its robots to work in the form of commercialization.
Lun, a climate tech startup out of Denmark, is on a mission to help heat-pump installers decarbonize homes and fast, Natasha L reports, starting with heating systems and swapping out boilers for electric heat pumps.
Robots, heat pumps and five more tech news stories, oh my:
- F you, pay me: Mary Ann reports that a former Stripe engineer raises $4 million for Beam, a fintech startup out to help contractors get paid faster.
- Moar dollars for moar skillz: Workera double downs on AI for upskilling with a $24 million infusion, Kyle reports.
- Stop, collaborate and list-in: Hex lands another $28 million as the data collaboration platform continues to gain traction, Ron reports.
- Storefronts, get yer storefronts: Vue snaps up $20 million to grow its open source–based ‘frontend-as-a-service’ e-commerce toolkit and platform, Ingrid reports.
- Nah, we good: Indian edtech giant Byju’s says it’s not acquiring Unacademy, reports Manish.
4 Indian investors explain how their investment strategy has changed since 2021
For our latest survey, TechCrunch reporter Jagmeet Singh asked four Indian investors about how their work has changed since the global tech downturn began.
Venture capital funding in the region “dried up in the second half of 2022,” so he inquired about their current pace of dealmaking, which investment trends they’re watching and how founders can reach them:
- GV Ravishankar, managing director, Sequoia India
- Ashutosh Sharma, head of India investments, Prosus Ventures
- Vaibhav Domkundwar, CEO and founder, Better Capital
- Roopan Aulakh, managing director, Pi Ventures
4 Indian investors explain how their investment strategy has changed since 2021
Aaaand of course there’s three more from the TC+ team today as well:
- Time’s a-ticking: As TikTok and Coinbase face regulators, some questions are simpler than others, writes Alex.
- How to spot investment-worthy founders: Look for mindset, competence and confidence, writes Sanjay Reddy.
- A de-risking hardware trilogy: Haje recently covered Prelaunch’s $1.5 million round and spoke to the company’s founder about 10 tips to de-risk hardware. The final article in the trilogy is the company’s Pitch Deck Teardown, covering Prelaunch.com’s $1.5 million seed deck.
TechCrunch+ 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.
The big news for today was obviously TikTok, and our colleagues were plugging away at everything from the Congressional hearing to who benefits if a U.S. ban happens. Find out any new developments here.
- TikTok ban will benefit Meta, Google and Snap the most: Bernstein, by Ivan.
- TikTok’s hearing in Congress is a reminder of Chinese startups’ identity crisis, by Rita.
- TikTok commits to deleting US user data from its servers ‘this year,’ by Sarah.
- China reminds US that it can and will kill a forced TikTok sale, by Taylor and Rita.
- TikTok called out for misusing Citizen Lab research, by Amanda.
- TikTok questioned on ineffective teen time limits, by Sarah.
And now here’s six non-TikTok stories for you:
- If Reddit and Stack Overflow had a baby…: It would be Daily.dev, according to Paul.
- Unplugged: YouTube is shutting down Indian social commerce app Simsim but says it is still committed to building “a seamless shopping experience for viewers and supporting creators’ businesses,” Manish writes.
- Like riding a bike: Smoov and Zoov came together a couple of years ago and formed Fifteen, which is now showing off its latest shared, docked bikes. Romain has more.
- Brian walks into a supply chain show: And ends up having the best time. He chronicles his three days at ProMat and says he “may end up becoming a regular on the supply chain and logistics circuit as a result.”
- Coming to a theater near you…: Could be your favorite Apple TV+ movies. Apple is reportedly planning to shell out $1 billion a year to release its movies in theaters, Lauren reports.
- Looking for “the perfect vehicle for chaos?”: Then look no further than the 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV. Roberto writes, “It’s too big and not very efficient, but it shines when tackling unexpected obstacles.”
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