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Hello, Daily Crunchers!
Personal Story Time: I came to the US on an IR1 visa – also known as a “green card” – after being married to an American for over two years. I became naturalized a while back. There has been immense happiness and privilege in my path to American citizenship, and many have a much harder time settling in this honest country.
I am so grateful for the ukbusinessupdates.com team and our wonderful relationship with Sophie Alcorn, our friendly immigration attorney. She has a great column on ukbusinessupdates.com with tons of immigration advice, and tomorrow Walter does a Twitter Spaces Q&A with her. Set yourself a reminder and tune in tomorrow at 12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET, on @ukbusinessupdates.com.
With much multicultural and international love, hi
The ukbusinessupdates.com Top 3
- Take a look at the streets of India: Google Street View made its debut over a decade ago. Six years ago, India banned the service due to security concerns. Jagmeet and manish report that the tech company has relaunched Street View in India today. It expects to roll out the service to 50 Indian cities by the end of the year.
- $52 billion for US onhoring chip production: One surefire way to make something happen is financial incentives, and Brian reports how the US Senate just threw $52 billion into the semiconductor industry so that companies could once again make computer chips on American soil, through the CHIPS law.
- The tiny three-wheeled prototype that could…: I took a ride on the Nimbus three-wheel urban transport pod last week and found myself getting excited and confused in equal measure. I want it to exist, but at the same time I’m having a hard time imagining the vehicle finding a market, while the $10,000 price tag buys a bunch of other cool transportation options.
Startups and VC
As regulations, platform dynamics and consumer choice continue to eat up cookies, there remains a gap in the market for advertising solutions that can work well without relying on cookie functionality. Today, Ingrid reports that Seedtag, an adtech startup based in Spain, is doing just that. It has raised a $250 million funding round to double the odds.
annie reports that internet usage remains low in most of Africa despite growing broadband coverage. A recent report surveyed most countries in the world and shows that half of the top 10 most expensive countries in the world to buy mobile data in the world are in Sub-Saharan Africa, which can hinder investor activity and startup opportunities in the region.
More startup magic:
- Find your (medical) flow status: Pregnancy tests did it first; then we all stuck cotton swabs up our noses to see if we were pregnant with COVID-19. The era of home diagnosis has arrived and Senzo wants to bring some new rapid tests for the home to the market.
- Paragon gets SaaSier: Paragon, a startup building a platform that integrates and aggregates various SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) apps, aims to be the Plaid of enterprise SaaS. It raised $13 million to get there, Kylea reports.
- Get off my city lawn: Scooters on sidewalks is bad news for pedestrians. Drover AI has raised a $5.4 million round to use computer vision to keep scooter riders off sidewalks, reports Rebecca.
- Coffee is for shuttersShypyard is a startup that develops business planning products and services for brands and direct-to-consumer merchants. It aims to “increase sales” for DTC sellers and secured $3 million in seed funding, Christine writes.
- Some days even the sun shines on the roof of a car: This week, Sono Motors unveiled the final production design of the Sion EV, a solar-powered electric vehicle that has been in the works since the Munich-based startup launched in 2016. Rebecca reports.
8 fintech investors discuss the changing investment landscape and how to pitch them in Q3 2022
Image Credits: James Osmond / Getty Images
What are fintech investors willing to bet on in this climate?
To get a sense of how their stances and strategy have changed over the past few months, Mary Ann Acevedo asked eight of them about the advice they give portfolio companies, how they expect the coming quarters and their pitch preferences:
- Paul Stamas, managing partner and co-head of financial services, General Atlantic
- Alda Leu Dennis, General Partner, Initialized Capital
- Michael Gilroy, General Partner and Co-Head of Fintech, Coatue
- Justin Overdorff, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
- Addie Lerner, Founder and Managing Partner, Avid Ventures
- David Jegen, Managing Partner, F-Prime Capital
- Nik Milanovic, General Partner, the Fintech Fund
- Jay Ganatra, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Infinity Ventures
(ukbusinessupdates.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams move forward. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
Our main Big Tech story today – and the topic of our Daily Crunch newsletter today – is brought to us by Ivan. Google ups its bid to be the first place people go for discovery and pastime planning. That’s why the company today announced three new features for its star navigation app, Google Maps: aerial photos and more immersive images of 100 landmarks, more detailed cycling routes and improved location sharing with notifications for the arrival and departure of your friends.
Ax Sharma makes its ukbusinessupdates.com debut as a contributor today, examining how some open source projects are effectively sabotaging their own software as a form of protest. “Has it made an impression? We’ll probably never know,” said one of the developers. “Having said that, I think it was absolutely worth the opportunity to spread the word and hopefully get the attention of software folks in Russia who might not otherwise have seen what was happening.”
And a few more to keep your mind limber:
- Blink your eyes and you will miss it: Netflix released its July mobile games list yesterday, adding a slew of new titles. “Before Your Eyes” uses eye-tracking technology that continues the story every time the camera detects you blink, Lauren reports.
- Who watches the viewers?: TikTok will provide select researchers with greater transparency about its platform and moderation system. The company says researchers don’t currently have an easy way to rate content or run tests on their platform, and it plans to make API access available to select researchers later this year. Aisha reports.
- Stepping up those chartsSpotify said streams of Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” have jumped 9,000% after the song was featured prominently in a new episode of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and went madly viral on TikTok, Amanda reports.
- car nothing: We barely knew you, Car Thing: Spotify gives up playing Car Thing hardware, reports Ingrid.
- intro: Roberto Baldwin takes an in-depth look at the Zoox robotic axi design, complete with its cool carbon fiber fuselage, sensor suite, and battery technology. “Zoox would not share the estimated range, but said the goal is to keep the vehicle in use for at least 16 hours.”
