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The ukbusinessupdates.com Top 3
- Anchor that financing: Pezesha, a Kenya-based fintech startup, has raised $11 million in new capital as it aims to bridge the gap between access to financial products and what is a “$330 billion funding gap for the small businesses that make up 90% of Africa.” enterprises,” annie reports.
- We are all connected: If you haven’t seen yourself in any of your Twitter connection circles yet, maybe soon. The social media giant is launching “Close Friends” features worldwide, Ivan reports. Add some people to your circle and start tweeting.
- No delivery for you: Delivery platform Gopuff has only been in Europe since November 2021, but Natasha L writes that it has made the decision to discontinue its service in Spain. She cites that perhaps this is to focus more on the UK market, where sales are up 30% month after month.
Startups and VC
Initialized Capital was VC Garry Tan’s answer to a need first highlighted by Y Combinator. As a partner with the accelerator from 2010 to 2015, Tan worked with companies to better understand what they need from investors after graduation. This week he announced that he is back at the helm of YC, and Natasha M interviewed him about what’s next for Y Combinator.
The company behind last summer’s popular social app, Poparazzi, appears to be gearing up for a runoff after its $15 million Series A announced in June. A new App Store entry under the developer’s account, TTYL, is teasing a pre-release app called Made with Friends, Sarah reports.
When the news catches your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s one-more-news:
- Notification balloons: Devin reports that there is finally an underwater messaging app.
- Money for money laundering: Flooded with fresh funds, UK “eco-laundry” startup Oxwash has raised $12 million to ramp up its growth plans, Natasha L reports.
- Faster when you’re further awayUK’s £5bn Gigabit project issues its first contract to connect rural areas with high-speed broadband, Paul reports.
- PriceOye receives the Thiel quality mark: Islamabad-based startup PriceOye offers a range of electronic products, including smartphones, TVs and home appliances. It just closed a round of funding from investors, including Peter Thiel, reports Jagmeet.
- Dodging the SPAC Bullet: Alex and Anna wrote a really interesting piece on TC+ (use “DC” for 15% off if you’re not yet a subscriber) about SPACs, how they fall apart and how Europe dodged a bullet in that area.
How do you communicate with your crypto community when things aren’t going well
Image Credits: Peter Dazeley (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Being an emerging industry that is largely unregulated, crypto companies are generally not adept at crisis communication. (We’re being generous here.)
When a bank or financial services company experiences a massive security flaw or volatility shock, federal laws dictate how it must communicate with its customers. However, crypto startups must rely on their own common sense.
“It makes little sense to declare that the sky is falling and your community is begging for investment, but an overly bright outlook won’t fool anyone either,” said Tahem Verma, co-founder and CEO of Mesha.
(ukbusinessupdates.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams move forward. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
Last chance to play your game in the Facebook Gaming app. The social media giant said it will shut down its standalone app at the end of October, Aisha reports. Don’t worry, you can still find your games in Gaming on real Facebook. When the separate app launched two years ago, it seemed harder than Facebook expected, so it decided to join them instead of beating them.
