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Monday, May 15, 2023

Only hours left to apply to Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt

A last call and a major shout-out to any and all early-stage founders. It’s time to dig deep and take advantage of an unparalleled opportunity at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. I’m referring to the Startup Battlefield 200.

Applications to Startup Battlefield 200 close today

All good things must come to an end, and the Startup Battlefield 200 experience isn’t just good — it’s great. But you’ll never know unless you apply here today by 11:59 p.m. PDT. Why should you hunker down and get it done? Listen up.

Thousands of early-stage startups vie to make the cut, but only the top 200 — carefully vetted by the TechCrunch editorial team — win a coveted spot on the show floor in San Francisco. It’s a bright showcase, and the spotlight draws the attention of media and investors on the lookout for the next big disruptor.

In a classic, “but wait, there’s more” moment, 20 of those 200 — the best of the best — compete for TechCrunch’s $100,000 equity-free prize, as judged by TechCrunch editors, top VCs and entrepreneurs.

Startup Battlefield 200 perks and benefits

What’s in it for you? Plenty. Take a look at what you’ll receive if your startup makes the cut:

The coveted, door-opening TechCrunch seal of approval
Full, free access to Disrupt, plus four additional passes
Free exhibition space for all three days of the show
Investor interest and media exposure
Exclusive workshops and pitch training
Flash-pitch in front of investors and TechCrunch editors
Did we mention a shot at $100,000? Heck yeah we did!

The benefits extend far beyond the Disrupt conference. TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield program, one of the most coveted cohorts to belong to, consists of more than 1,100 startups that have collectively raised $13 billion and generated more than 126 exits.

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to make it to the top? You don’t have much time left — apply to Startup Battlefield 200 here TODAY by 11:59 p.m. PDT!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Only hours left to apply to Startup Battlefield 200 at Disrupt by Lauren Simonds originally published on TechCrunch

UK pension startup Smart banks $95M

Smart, a London-based startup that helps employers and their employees manage and monitor their pensions, said that it has closed $95 million in Series E funding. It plans to use the capital to expand its international footprint and make acquisitions, it said.

Aquiline Capital Partners, a new backer, led the investment, with previous investors Barclays, Chrysalis Investments, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, DWS, and Natixis Investment Managers also participating. The valuation is not being disclosed but Sky News, which leaked the news out yesterday evening, noted that it was at “only a modest discount” to its previous fundraising — meaning a slight down round.

For some context on what the figure might be, PitchBook estimates Smart was valued at $564 million (or £451 million at current rates). Moreover, it was reported back in January 2023 that Smart was trying to raise £100 million ($123 million), significantly more than the $95 million it’s announcing today, five months later. We have reached out to the company for a comment and will update as we learn more.

Tech valuations have been seeing a lot of downward pressure in the last year, even in cases where companies have been demonstrating growth. Smart said that group revenue in 2022 was £67 million, up 65% increase compared to 2021. It also claims to have £5.5 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM) on its platform and is on track to grow that to £10 million by end of June 2023.

“This investment is strong recognition of Smart’s success and journey to date, and highlights the immense opportunity that lies ahead. It is also a resounding vote of confidence in the UK’s fintech sector, and its leadership in financial services provision,” co-founders Andrew Evans and Will Wynne said in a joint statement. “We are on a mission to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing… This is a $62 trillion global sector in the early stages of being disrupted, and we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of that. We have already reached scale and profitability in the UK, with Smart Pension now serving in excess of one million savers, and this backing allows us to achieve that scale and profitability in our global markets across the group. We welcome Aquiline to our board and we’re incredibly excited for the years ahead.”

Founded out of London in 2014, Smart emerged in the wake of the U.K. government’s auto-enrolment pensions reform back in 2012, mandating that employers provide a workplace pension scheme by default rather than requiring workers to opt-in. The purpose of this was to ensure more people were saving toward their retirement via a private pension, but given that people may change jobs every few years, this has make it somewhat unwieldy to keep track of their myriad different pension funds that may be scattered across different providers — it can be an administrative minefield.

And that, essentially, is what Smart helps with.

On the one side, Smart helps employers fulfil their auto-enrolment obligations by setting up their pension schemes, and the company in fact operates its own “master trust” which it says currently serves 70,000 employers and more than 1 million individuals. On the other side, Smart also enables savers to consolidate and keep on top of their different pensions, so they always know the current status of their retirement pot. Smart does this via a retirement savings technology platform that it has built, called Keystone.

It’s also been weighing in on how the government has been looking to put new guidance and rules in place to improve transparency and clarity for pension scheme policy holders.

: Smart Pension app Image Credits: Smart

While the trillion-dollar U.K. pensions market is large enough in its own right, the company has expanded into mainland Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia, funded by some $280 million in external investments over the past seven years.

With another $95 million in the bank, Smart says it plans to expand into further international markets, as well as make some strategic acquisitions in the bigger trend for consolidation in the fintech market, and even with the turmoil in today’s market, investors are betting on it riding out the storm.

“Smart’s distinct retirement technology leadership coupled with Aquiline’s deep experience in the retirement technology industry makes this a compelling investment, as does the growing global need for better retirement saving technology,” said Jeff Greenberg, Chairman and CEO of Aquiline, in a statement. “Smart has consistently delivered impressive commercial growth, and is backed by an array of top-tier investors whom we are delighted to join. Under the leadership of Andrew and Will, we have every confidence that Smart is a multi-billion pound company in the making.”

UK pension startup Smart banks $95M by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Cold-chain startup Figorr raises $1.5M, backs the roll out of data-driven perishables insurance

Oghenetega Lortim built Nigerian-based cold chain startup Figorr after imagining better means of storage and transportation of temperature-sensitive products, following the post-harvest losses from his fresh agro-produce venture.

Figorr (previously Gricd) runs IoT-powered solutions that provide businesses, especially those in healthcare and agriculture, with key data such as location, humidity, and temperature of highly-perishable products, helping entrepreneurs to cut the losses that emerge from lack of such visibility. Figorr’s devices, which are placed/stuck in cold storage setups, come at no cost, but users subscribe to access the collected data.

Lortim says Figorr is currently on an expansion bid, following an increase in demand for its solutions outside Nigeria. The expansion is driven by a successful $1.5 million seed funding it has raised in a round led by Atlantica Ventures, with participation from Vested World, Jaza Rift and Katapult. The startup has so far raised $1.7 million equity funding, and $275K grants from various entities such as the Google Black Founders Fund, Africa Business Heroes by Jack Ma Foundation, FbStart, and Lafiya Innovators by Impact Hub.

Outside Nigeria, Figorr’s solutions are currently used in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. It recently entered the Kenyan market to tap the growth of its agriculture sector.

“Kenya is a very interesting market for us, especially because of the agricultural play. We also believe it could be a very key springboard into new markets,” Lortim, Figorr founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.

Figorr is also set to launch a risk management platform before the year ends, which will provide insurance companies with the data needed to introduce tailor-made products to their customers. The platform will be built against the data that Figorr has been collecting over the last three years to show the risk profiles of its customers.

Lortim believes that with suitable and specific data, insurance companies will be better placed to provide tailored products.

“One major challenge we have seen by serving the sector is that a lot of our customers fear getting notifications that their products are being exposed to harsh conditions, and this is simply because historically, perishables are a risky sector,” said Lortim.

“We are helping insurance companies to see the opportunity by providing them with the data [and] for our customer, if something goes wrong, they will have some comfort that insurance is providing them with some level of coverage,” he said.

He says the insurance solution its building will revolutionize the way business is done, especially for smallholder farmers.

Lortim said having insurance will not only insure businesses from losses, but also ensure products are cheaper as businesses will not need to pass costs emerging from losses down to their customers.

Lortim launched Figorr in 2019, as a provider of mobile solar-powered storage boxes, before pivoting to double down on the IoT component of the product.

“When we built the solution, a lot of people were more interested in that IoT component, and in 2020 we decided to focus on helping businesses monitor, temperature-sensitive products, informing them on the location as well, helping them preempt and prevent losses from happening,” he said.

Lortim expects Figorr to continue growing buoyed by the fast-rising opportunities in Africa’s agriculture and health sectors.

In Nigeria, the device is mainly used in the healthcare sector to monitor temperature-sensitive products like vaccines and insulin, while in markets like Kenya, there is demand in the agriculture quarter, especially by horticulture businesses.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 37% of the food produced, or 120-170 kg/year per capita, is lost or wasted due to poor storage and handling, yet this is preventable if the food is kept safely and monitored in real-time to prevent losses. It is estimated that half of the vaccines in the world go to waste mainly due to cold-chain breaches.

Startups like Figorr are helping prevent these losses caused by poor storage, and lack of monitoring.

“What we are building is something that really impacts people,” said Lortim. “You can actually see the real effect on people’s lives in terms of accessibility to health care, and improved incomes.”

Cold-chain startup Figorr raises $1.5M, backs the roll out of data-driven perishables insurance by Annie Njanja originally published on TechCrunch

Fintech startup Brex was among the bidders for SVB’s early-stage and growth portfolios

Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, we’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon. There’s a lot of fintech news out there and it’s our job to stay on top of it — and make sense of it — so you can stay in the know. — Mary Ann and Christine

Brex bid for SVB portfolios

The FDIC finally released the various financial institutions that bid for parts of Silicon Valley Bank’s portfolio. As our fellow fintech enthusiast Alex Johnson pointed out, there was one name that stood out on that list for being “not like the others”: fintech startup Brex.

TechCrunch spoke with Brex co-CEO and co-founder Henrique Dubugras, who confirmed that the company did in fact put its name in the hat for SVB but only for the early-stage and growth portfolios within its business.

The idea actually came from a customer, he said, who thought Brex “could handle those customers better than big banks.” The first week after the SVB meltdown, the FDIC was not going to accept any bids from entities other than banks. During that time, Brex worked to step up for SVB customers in other ways. Then the following week, the FDIC said it was open to selling it by parts — and also open to non-banks submitting bids.

“That’s when we submitted our bids,” Dubugras said.

While the offer didn’t pan out, he doesn’t regret Brex taking a shot at it. “In the end, we think it was just easier for them to sell the whole thing in one piece,” he added.

Still, the startup continues to “keep seeing [its] deposits materially increase,” as not every startup or early-stage that once banked at SVB wants to move their cash over to a big bank.

At one point (in early 2021), Brex was in fact thinking of becoming a bank itself, going as far as to apply for a bank charter, before later withdrawing that application.

Today, Dubugras said that’s not something he thinks is in Brex’s future. — Mary Ann

Digital banking for seniors

Different demographics can have different banking needs. So it’s no surprise that we have seen a flurry of financial technology startups offering banking services catered to certain populations based on factors such as age and ethnicity.

For example, numerous fintech startups cater to younger users — from Greenlight to Step to Current and now, Acorns. There are banks that target specific ethnicities and/or races. Greenwood wants to serve Black and Latinx consumers; Cheese started out targeting Asian American consumers; numerous (TomoCredit, Welcome) are eager to serve immigrants.

But far less common are fintechs dedicated to serving older members of our society. Enter Charlie, a new startup offering banking services for the 62+ community, which launched last week with $7.5 million in funding led by Better Tomorrow Ventures. The company’s goal, according to co-founder and CEO Kevin Nazemi (who also co-founded now publicly traded Oscar Health), is to help retirees and soon-to-be-retirees “make the most of their limited resources.”

My ears perked up when I got this pitch, as it’s a concept that hasn’t come across my inbox in all my years of covering fintech. I realized that (1) older Americans have fewer options when it comes to digital banking and (2) the COVID-19 pandemic really did lead to a lot of people who were once resistant to online banking being won over by the ease and convenience. And while trust probably remains an issue for some, I suspect a decent segment of this population would welcome more options.

Perhaps Jake Gibson, founding partner of Better Tomorrow Ventures, said it best. He told TechCrunch that he believes that the “vast majority of founders, including in fintech, tend to build products for people that look like themselves.”

“That’s why we have so many repetitive neobanks, social investing apps, etc. Meanwhile you can probably count on one hand the number of fintech companies serving the needs of seniors, despite that being such a huge population,” he added. — Mary Ann

Financial crime prevention

One of the fun stories I wrote this week was on Cable, a company that provides automated assurance and risk assessment. I don’t normally dabble in the financial crime sector of fintech, but what co-founders Natasha Vernier and Katie Savitz are doing is pretty interesting.

Why? Well, people in the U.S. reported $8.8 billion of financial fraud in 2022 to the Federal Trade Commission. And as Vernier explained to me, much of the controls monitoring by banks and fintechs to make sure they can prevent fraud is still done manually.

By automating this process — which is something Vernier believes Cable is the only company doing right now — banks and fintechs can monitor all of their accounts to know, in real time, if they are compliant with regulations and if their failure controls are working as expected to combat breaches.

The concept is catching on: In the past year, the company increased its revenue five times, and raised $11 million in Series A capital, led by Stage 2 Capital and Jump Capital, with participation from existing investor CRV.

“Regulators are particularly interested in effectiveness testing, but also, just the volatility in the banking industry right now, with COVID and if we are in a recession or not, there is increased financial crime,” Vernier said. “We’ve certainly seen, globally, an increase in fraud and other types of financial crime over the last few years. And, as real-time payments get rolled out in the U.S., we’ll see more financial crime.” — Christine

Weekly News

Alex Wilhem was on fire last week when it came to analyzing the fintech space. In this piece, he looked at how both Coinbase and Robinhood reported better-than-anticipated revenue in the first quarter. He wrote: “The changing revenue mix at both Coinbase and Robinhood makes it clear that their ability to generate material amounts of revenue off cash balances (and the crypto equivalent) is changing the game in their favor. Studying public company performance is a great way to better understand what’s happening in that segment of the market, so that’s what we’re doing today with Coinbase and Robinhood. As always, we’ll relate what we’ve learned back to startups.”

Alex also leapt off how PayPal saw its stock drop despite the company reporting better-than-expected revenue and profit in the first quarter. He wrote: “Indeed, fintechs haven’t fared well at all even when you account for the broader dip in valuations at tech companies. It almost feels unfair. Comparing data from F Prime’s fintech index with valuation marks for SaaS and cloud companies in terms of historical revenue multiples, it appears that fintech companies are being clobbered a little too much. So why are fintechs today worth less than they were before the recent venture boom? Why are cloud companies faring better?” More here.

Christine, too, was busy covering Capchase’s move into the buy now, pay later space. In a nutshell, Capchase Pay is aimed at helping software-as-a-service companies close deals faster by giving them a way to collect the full contract value for their software while also providing their customers with flexible payment terms. Though SaaS growth didn’t take as big of a hit as previously thought, Miguel Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Capchase, told TechCrunch “that SaaS companies did see a shift in their return on investment when sales cycles delayed as buyer’s asked for more flexible financing terms.” He called buy now, pay later offerings “one of the last B2B payment frontiers to be done in software.” More here.

Christine also wrote about the District of Columbia Attorney General announcing an agreement with SoLo Funds, a fintech company that enables peer-to-peer lending, to settle a lawsuit that alleged SoLo Funds engaged in predatory lending practices. As Christine wrote, SoLo denied the allegations in the Complaint and denied that it had violated any law or engaged in any deceptive or unfair practices. More here.

Reports Manish Singh: “After India and Brazil, WhatsApp is launching the ability to pay businesses within a chat in Singapore. Meta has partnered with Stripe to roll out the feature in the region. WhatsApp has built this payment feature using Stripe Connect and Stripe Checkout solutions, making in-app payments available online and offline. Customers can pay businesses using credit cards, debit cards or Singapore’s PayNow fund transfer system.” More here.

“In recent weeks, a number of brand-name mainstream financial institutions have been rolling out new crypto products and services in an attempt to make the space more accessible. At the end of April, Mastercard, PayPal and Robinhood all independently talked about the measures they’re taking to do so at Consensus 2023 and how they are furthering their moves into the crypto ecosystem.” More here.

Dan Primack interviewed Stripe president John Collison at Axios’ BFD event this week and discussed Stripe’s annual letter, among other things. Here are some takeaways from that interview:

It is still hard to start a business, and there is still too little cross-border finance, and Stripe is helping with that.
Stripe processed transactions totaling $817 billion in 2022, and Collison said that “it could be in the general vicinity of” $1 trillion this year.
When asked about why Stripe hasn’t gone public, Collison said, “The world in Q1 of 2023 didn’t seem like a phenomenal time to go public.” He noted that the company raised $6.5 billion in March instead to help employees with their equity awards “to do right by them.” Collison went on to say that “Silicon Valley seems to get caught up in transactions and IPOs, but look, we’re just focused on building something useful for people and having a good business that is self-funding.”

Fast co-founder Domm Holland is back with a new venture, Trady. After seeing his last two companies go bust, we have to say he’s certainly, uh…bold.

This tweet’ll make you think. (Courtesy of Theodora [Theo] Lau, founder of Unconventional Ventures.)

More headlines

Onboarding and automation: What fintechs can learn from big banks

Plaid signs agreements to migrate traffic to financial institutions’ APIs

Revolut’s CFO leaves the digital bank after two years, citing personal reasons

Visa partners with Tarabut Gateway. This news follows Tarabut Gateway’s $32 million raise last week to expand Saudi open banking.

Twitter to add encrypted direct messages and voice and video chat

Shopify launches eCommerce payments tool with help from Israeli fintech Melio

Tema launches active luxury and reshoring ETFs

Paysend launches cross-border payments solution for small businesses in US

Earnings of note

Affirm reported a quarterly loss of 69 cents per share for the quarter ended March 2023, compared to a loss of 19 cents per share a year ago. However, it said revenue was $381 million, an increase of 7.4% over the same period in 2022. Its gross merchandise volume was up 18% to $4.6 billion, and the company said it represents a 43% compounded annual growth rate on a two-year basis. In terms of transactions, Affirm reported that 88% of them were from repeat customers, while transactions per active consumer increased by 34%.

Robinhood also posted mixed earnings for the first quarter, including a net loss of 57 cents in earnings per share on net interest revenue of $208 million. That compares to a net loss of 19 cents per share on net interest revenue of $167 million for the fourth quarter of 2022. In addition, the company launched 24 Hour Market, which it said makes “Robinhood the first brokerage to enable customers to trade individual stocks at their convenience, 24 hours a day, five days a week.”

Dave, a neobank, reported that it narrowed its loss, posting a net loss of $14 million on revenue of $58.9 million, for the first quarter ended in March. That compared to a net loss of $32.8 million, on revenue of $42.6 million, for the same period in 2022.

Courtesy of Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly: “Varo did reduce its overall loss by about 11% vs. Q4 2022 but, at nearly $29 million, the fledgling neobank is still a long way off from profitability — which helps to explain why the company raised an additional $50 million in equity at a substantially reduced valuation, as first reported by Fintech Business Weekly. Still, the additional capital extends Varo’s runway by less than six months, based on its current burn rate. The additional $50 million in funding was finalized in April, per management comments in the call report, and thus is not reflected in Varo’s Q1 data.” More here.

Funding and M&A

Seen on TechCrunch

Salsa dips into $10M to fire up payroll features for software companies

The Mint, started by Better Tomorrow Ventures, wants to be the accelerator fintech needs

Petal raises $35M, spins off data unit ‘to bring credit scores into the 21st century’

Triumph raises $14M for an SDK to add real-money tournaments into games

8fig gives smaller e-commerce businesses the ‘C-suite’ they’ve always wanted

Zamp wants to give online sellers ‘freedom from sales tax’

And elsewhere

EasyKnock acquires power buyer Ribbon

Cross-border processor Rev acquires online payments company Netspend to reach underbanked customers

Join us at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco this September as we explore the impact of fintech on our world today. New this year, we will have a whole day dedicated to all things fintech, featuring some of today’s leading fintech figures. Save up to $800 when you buy your pass now through May 15, and save 15% on top of that with promo code INTERCHANGE. Learn more.

As always, we’re so grateful for your readership and support! Have a wonderful week ahead!! xoxoxo, Mary Ann and Christine

Fintech startup Brex was among the bidders for SVB’s early-stage and growth portfolios by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

An open letter to tech workers about careers in public service

Camille Stewart Contributor

Camille Stewart is the White House Deputy National Cyber Director for Technology and Ecosystem Security.

Thomas Peng Contributor

Thomas Peng is the Chief of Operations and Administration at the United States Peace Corps.

Dear Tech Workers,

 Careers are defined by moments.

Sometimes, these moments are meticulously planned out, and carefully strategized — a culmination of years of effort. A dream job, a long-awaited promotion or the successful completion of a noteworthy project. These moments recharge our professional batteries and propel us forward in our careers. Often, they also inspire us to achieve more.

For me (Camille), accepting an appointment to be part of the team starting a cyber policy office at the United States Department of Homeland Security changed my career trajectory. My understanding of how my career could evolve and the contributions I could make in and through cyber changed when I realized the benefits of a career that allowed me to move between sectors. I was able to support the drafting of Presidential Policy Directive-41 that outlines how the federal government organizes itself during a significant cyber incident.

I was then able to take that understanding and build out a federated security program at a large tech company, where I helped lead Log4j shell response efforts. Each sector provides a unique experience that, when combined, enhances your personal professional toolkit.

The federal civilian service has an opportunity that would greatly benefit from the expertise of talented technologists like yourself.

Other moments are unexpected. They catch us off-guard and force us to rethink everything. Maybe they even cause us to rechart our future.

For me (Thomas) — I graduated in 2000 during massive layoffs in Silicon Valley. I was laid off from my first job within three months. Although I was able to get another job and survive multiple rounds of layoffs, the instability made me rethink what was important to me. Service was always a part of my life, and I searched for opportunities to apply my tech skills to make a difference. It was the United States Peace Corps’ mission of world peace and friendship and its intention to promote mutual understanding between Americans and foreign peoples that drew me to apply as a volunteer for the agency.

During my two-year tenure as an Information and Communications Technology volunteer in the Philippines, I applied my tech skills to projects including the integration of technology into classrooms, developing an apprentice program for youth interested in computer repairs and developing a student information system for local teachers. The ability to foster innovation in a new environment and context changed the course of my career.

Despite record low unemployment five months into this new year, more than 170,000 workers at United States-based tech companies have been laid off – and suddenly face a unique, unscripted moment.  In 2022, more than 140,000 tech workers were shown the door. This is a lot of highly skilled tech talent that is poised to take steps in new directions.

As senior leaders within our respective government organizations who have each faced similar unscripted, unanticipated moments; we invite you to view this inflection point in history as your chance to dive into government service. The federal government has a unique role in cybersecurity and IT, which creates distinctive career opportunities for people with your technology skill set.

We recognize that government work can have a reputation for being too bureaucratic. Additionally, budget cycles, set hiring authorities and traditional organizational structures sometimes make it difficult to quickly hire and onboard talent. But things are changing.

We are working hard to overcome these challenges and increase opportunities for technologists to join the federal workforce. The federal government has already taken many steps to capitalize upon this moment and ease the challenges associated with swift hiring into the public sector. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the lead United States government office overseeing the federal civilian service, has championed careers in federal IT for those impacted by recent layoffs. OPM has hosted industry-specific job fairs, issued new pay guidance to agencies to leverage funding from previous legislation and streamlined the process for applicants to find opportunities within government service — including working remotely.

If you’re not ready to make a permanent switch to a federal career, many short-term, high-impact, public-sector opportunities have emerged that allow for specialized and highly skilled digital talent to plug into existing avenues. For example, at the Peace Corps, we have Peace Corps Response, which recruits professionals with diverse skills who know how to hit the ground running in three-to-12-month volunteer assignments. In addition, we have launched the Virtual Service Pilot, an expanded service opportunity for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to donate their time as private citizens by engaging virtually with host country counterparts on projects.

The government cybersecurity landscape is equally in need of talent like yours. Recent estimates cite that demand for public-sector cybersecurity employees grew 25% through 2022, with more than 45,708 new job postings. This continued need for cyber talent ranges from cybersecurity engineers and network security architects to cybersecurity analysts  and policymakers.

The Office of the National Cyber Director was tasked in the recently released National Cybersecurity Strategy to craft a cyber workforce and education strategy that will, among other things, develop concrete mechanisms through which a more diverse group of individuals with various education backgrounds and professional experiences can more easily find their fit within government service.

We have helped to champion interagency initiatives, such as techtogov.org, to serve as a resource for technologists transitioning into government service. This includes helping ease the transition of workers from the Big Tech culture to federal IT, organizing job fairs and standing up actionable hiring resources on the techtogov.org website.

As you survey the job landscape and think about your next steps, we strongly encourage you to consider federal service. From improved incentives to streamlined hiring processes, serving the American people with the United States government has never been easier or more fruitful. For those still unsure, short-term opportunities like those presented at the Peace Corps allow for fixed-period stops while Big Tech looks to reposition itself.

We both are incredibly confident that the federal civilian service has an opportunity that would greatly benefit from the expertise of talented technologists like yourself. We are excited for you to embark on your own journey to find that perfect fit, and we look forward to serving alongside you.

For jobseekers looking for tech opportunities within the federal government, visit usajobs.gov and techtogov.org for more information.

An open letter to tech workers about careers in public service by Walter Thompson originally published on TechCrunch

Saturday, May 13, 2023

A pivot, in this market‽

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior reporter Natasha Mascarenhas.

Startups Weekly readers know I love a pivot story, and now I have one of my own: I’m leaving TechCrunch! This is my last Startups Weekly issue, a newsletter that I’ve written every week for over two years. I’ll be moving on to a new publication, continuing to report on venture capital and startups.

It’s a bittersweet move. I’ve spent most of my post-graduation career at TechCrunch. The publication helped me land many professional firsts: my first scoop, my first long-form feature story, my first valuation-run bull cycle and my first layoffs-ridden bear cycle. I also launched an entire new show for Equity, TC’s flagship podcast, interviewing guests about their hottest takes and career paths. Plus, I interviewed Kevin Hart on the Disrupt stage. Grateful is an understatement.

While this will be my last Startups Weekly, it’s not the end of this newsletter. I’m thrilled to share that Haje Jan Kamps, a longtime reporter and the creator of our amazing Pitch Deck Teardown series, will be taking over Startups Weekly. Haje is one of the reporters I quote most in this newsletter because all of his work fits the “startup must read” category — and his witty headlines don’t hurt, either.

As for who will be covering my beat, TC already has an amazing venture desk, including but not limited to Connie Loizos, Mary Ann Azevedo, Christine Hall, Dominic-Madori Davis and Rebecca Szkutak. Big shout out to Kyle Wiggers, as well, who is fearlessly, and thoughtfully, covering artificial intelligence alongside Devin Coldewey.

In my next role, I’ll be covering the same beat and the same city, focusing on deeply researched feature pieces and scoops. To learn more about where I’m going next, and to follow my work, check out my (free!!!) Substack and stay in touch on Twitter. I’m excited for the new challenge. Tech has never been more newsworthy. Sources, I still would love your tips: My Signal: is 1 925 271 0912.

Now let’s get into a newsletter!

The AI debate

On TC+, I wrote a story about the debate happening inside every venture firm right now: What’s the best way to capture the artificial intelligence zeitgeist?

Here’s an excerpt:

Precursor’s Charles Hudson wants to be cautious but not too cautious. The venture capitalist was one of many at an AI confab last month, but he — and many others — has not yet made a new AI investment during the current hype cycle.

Also like many investors, he’s seen an inflection point take over a sector before, bringing in boatloads of capital, new founders and, at times, speedy and FOMO-driven deals. Historically, Hudson hasn’t minded sitting out. “With crypto, for example, I was OK being at almost zero,” he said. “I don’t think I’m OK with zero as the answer for AI. The question is where and how.”

A small ball outweighs a larger one balanced against it

Image Credits: Daniel Grizelj (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Minting new accelerators

The team behind Better Tomorrow Ventures saw some of its biggest wins before the firm even existed — back when the founding duo was backing pre-seed companies at 500. Now, founding partners Sheel Mohnot and Jake Gibson are launching an accelerator of their own.

Here’s what to know: The Mint will be a three-month accelerator, based out of San Francisco, that cuts $500,000 checks in exchange for 10% equity in between six to 10 startups. The initial cohort, which starts this upcoming August, already accepted one company, and sent a second acceptance letter out today.

Better Tomorrow seems to be stepping in where it believes Y Combinator is lacking. “YC is built for scale. The advice is a lot like one-size-fits-all,” Mohnot said. “We felt like with fintech, there are so many things that are unique about building that it makes sense to have something distinct.”

Image Credits: Syaheir Azizan (opens in a new window) / Shutterstock (opens in a new window)

Venture-backed everything for real-world problems, please

On Equity this week, the trio chatted through some deals of the week and themes — but the bright spot of the show was most certainly Mary Ann’s coverage of Wellthy. The startup recently raised $25 million to help caregivers feel less overwhelmed through a product it describes as “tech-enabled care concierge.”

Here’s what to know: While the venture ecosystem has certainly rushed to back digital health startups, and mental wellness is growing as a conversation, there is never enough on caretaking specifically.

Inside the story of one founder’s choice to shut her startup down, and advice for others going forward
Yeah, tech growth is slowing down
Despite a rocky start, climate tech is in a good position to tackle the rest of 2023
And that’s a wrap on my last Equity episode! To Equity listeners, thanks for coming along my entire journey on the show, from jumping on Equity Friday’s to hosting and leading the creation of our Equity Wednesday episodes. I’m so proud of my past three years on the show and can’t wait to now be an avid listener from afar. Much love to all of you, and I hope to win you back whenever I launch a new podcast!

Image Credits: Getty Images

Etc., etc.

Programming note: If you’re reading this on a browser, get this in your inbox too! Subscribe here and share it with your friends.
Of course: It’s already Disrupt season. Reminder that there’s a ticket for every budget and role.
And finally, I have a shameless plug: Scoops make me! If you hear about a venture firm or startup winning, raising, flailing, or, oh I don’t know, booting an executive because of internal happenings, tell me. I love seeing early pitch decks and term sheets too. Happy to talk about anonymity and explain more of my process and what I’m looking for. You can tell me stuff on Signal at +1 925 271 0912. No pitches, please.

Seen on TechCrunch

All Raise’s interim CEO is now full-time

Elon Musk says he has found a new CEO for Twitter

Boxed wine can be bougie with Allison Luvera and Lauren De Niro Pipher from Juliet

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried seeks to dismiss most US charges against him

Twitter launches encrypted DMs for verified users with security drawbacks

Seen on TechCrunch+

Pitch Deck Teardown: Fibery’s $5.2M Series A deck

Hidden in plain sight: 5 red flags for investors

Tech workers could take labor lessons from Hollywood’s writers

Ask Sophie: Can I apply for an EB-1A without first getting an O-1A?

It’s been fun. See you on the other side – and hope you stay reading along,

A pivot, in this market‽ by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch

All hail the Unicorn Kingdom?

W
elcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.

This week, I look into three topics that don’t have to be an “either/or” situation: France or the U.K.; product-led or sales-led; psychedelics medicine or traditional health care. — Anna

Cool or cringe?

“Welcome to the Unicorn Kingdom” is the slogan of a new U.S. campaign aimed at promoting the U.K. as “a place with all the right ingredients for tech success.”

When British prime minister Rishi Sunak referred to the new tagline at an event recently, some called it cringe. However, others beg to disagree.

To get biased national pride out of the equation, I reached out to Hoxton Ventures partner Hussein Kanji for two reasons: He’s London-based and a self-described “proud American.”

All hail the Unicorn Kingdom? by Anna Heim originally published on TechCrunch

Deal Dive: AI relationship coach Amorai offers more questions than answers

Building and maintaining relationships is hard, and COVID-19 definitely didn’t help. Multiple studies have shown that adults have gotten even more lonely since the start of the pandemic.

Founders are trying to find tech solutions. There are many startups looking to combat loneliness — some formed years before the pandemic — including senior-focused ElliQ and Replika, which creates an AI companion, and Infection AI’s Pi, an emotional support bot. But a newer entrant really caught my eye this week: Amorai.

The startup has built an AI relationship coach to help people grow and foster real-life connections by offering advice and answers to relationship questions. The company was founded by former Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg and was incubated in Andrew Ng’s AI Fund. The company just raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding that took only 24 hours to raise, Nyborg told Vox’s Recode Media podcast back in April.

While combating loneliness is a great mission — and some groups of people may be more open to chat with a bot than a human — this feels like it has the potential to go so wrong so fast. But what do I know? So I pinged an expert.

Turns out I’m not the only one a little wary of this concept. Maarten Sap, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and researcher for the nonprofit Allen Institute of AI, shared my concern. Sap’s research focuses on building social commonsense and social intelligence into AI. He’s also done research in the development of deep language learning models that help understand human cognition. Essentially, he knows a thing or two about how AI interacts with humans.

Sap told me that while the idea of creating a tech solution to help foster real-life relationships is admirable — and there is definitely proof that there will be solid use cases for AI in combating these types of issues — this one gives him pause.

“I’m saying this with an open mind, I don’t think it will work,” he said. “Have they done the studies that show how this will work? Does [Amorai] increase [users’] social skills? Because yeah, I don’t know to what extent these things transfer over.”

The biggest thing that gives him pause, he said, is the worry that this type of application will either give all of its users the same advice, good or bad, and that it would be hard for AI to get the nuances right about certain relationships. Also, would people trust advice from AI over another person anyway?

“The idea of the pickup artists sort of came to mind,” Sap said. “Is this going to give you advice to tell a bunch of straight men to nag women or try to sleep with them? Or are their guardrails for this?”

If the model is designed to learn off of itself, it could create an echo chamber based on the types of questions people are asking. That, in turn, could point the model to a problematic direction if left unchecked. Bing users might have already learned this the hard way when its AI told people they were unhappy in their marriages.

Sap said that one way this could definitely work would be if there were a human touch to this. Human oversight to ensure that the app is giving the right advice to the right people could make this a powerful tool. But we don’t know if that is the case because the company isn’t answering questions or accepting interviews.

This round also highlights how deep the FOMO in AI really is. Someone who researches this stuff every day can’t see how this company could really work, and yet Amorai raised funding in 24 hours pre-launch in a bad market.

Of course, investors know more about the company than what is released, and sure, these concerns can serve as feedback for the startup. But like a lot of AI startups, I have to assume it’s building with good intentions, despite having nothing concrete to prove it.

I also don’t believe this was a small pre-seed round — something I usually assume when a company doesn’t disclose the total of funding; if it was big, you’d want people to know — but in this case, I think it’s likely the opposite. It’s a lot of pressure to raise a lot of money before executing or finding product-market fit.

“When I hear about these kinds of ideas and startups, it comes from a good place, but it often is just the tech solutionist mindset,” Sap said.

Deal Dive: AI relationship coach Amorai offers more questions than answers by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch

Friday, May 12, 2023

A comprehensive list of 2023 tech layoffs

Last year’s techwide reckoning continues. In 2023, layoffs have yet again cost tens of thousands of tech workers their jobs; this time, the workforce reductions have been driven by the biggest names in tech like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo and Zoom. Startups, too, have announced cuts across all sectors, from crypto to enterprise SaaS.

The reasoning behind these workforce reductions follows a common script, citing the macroeconomic environment and a need to find discipline on a tumultuous path to profitability. Still, tracking the layoffs helps us to understand the impact on innovation, which companies are facing tough pressures and who is available to hire for the businesses lucky to be growing right now. It also, unfortunately, serves as a reminder of the human impact of layoffs and how risk profiles may be changing from here.

Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of all the known layoffs in tech that have occurred in 2023, to be updated monthly. If you have a tip on a layoff, contact us here. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact us here.

The running total of layoffs for 2023 based on full months to date is 168,243, according to Layoffs.fyi. Tech layoffs conducted to date this year currently exceed the total number of tech layoffs in 2022, according to the data in the tracker.

January: 84,714 employees laid off — see all January 2023 Tech Layoffs
February: 36,491 employees laid off — see all February 2023 Tech Layoffs
March: 37,109 employees laid off — see all March 2023 Tech Layoffs
April: 17,926 employees laid off — see all April 2023 Tech Layoffs

May 2023

Nuro

Announced May 12 that it will lay off 30%, or about 340 employees across the company.

Announced May 8 that it is cutting 716 jobs, or about 3.6% of total employees, and will phase out its local jobs app in China. Despite reducing some roles, LinkedIn also plans to open about 250 new jobs on May 15.

Rapid

Announced May 5 that Rapid (previously known as RapidAPI) has laid off another 70 employees less than two weeks after letting go of 50% of its staff. Just 42 people remain at the company, down from 230 in April, dropping a total of 82% in headcount.

Meesho

Announced May 4 that it has cut 15% of its workforce, or 251 roles. This comes after its first round of layoffs, which eliminated 150 roles about a year ago.

Shopify

Announced May 4 that it is laying off 20% of its workforce, impacting more than 2,000 people. It’s also selling its logistics business to Flexport for roughly 13% in stock.

Bishop Fox

Announced May 3 that it laid off around 50 employees — or 13% of its workforce on May 2.

Neato Robotics

Announced May 1 that Vorwerk-owned Neato Robotics is shutting down, with nearly 100 employees impacted by the move.

April 2023

Clubhouse

Announced April 27 that it has laid off more than 50% of staff. A spokesperson for Clubhouse declined to comment on the number of people impacted by today’s workforce reduction or the number of employees who remain at the company. Last October, Davison told TechCrunch that Clubhouse had close to 100 employees.

Dropbox

Announced April 27 that it would be laying off 500 employees or 16% of staff.

Amazon

Announced on April 26 that it is shutting down its Halo Health division, effective July 31, among other divisions. The layoffs are part of the 9,000 employees announced in March. Including the 18,000-person layoffs announced in January, this brings the total to 27,000 job cuts or 8% of Amazon’s corporate workforce this year.

Rapid

Announced on April 25, Rapid, previously known as RapidAPI, lays off 50% of its staff. The layoffs are believed to have impacted 115 people.

Anthemis Group

Announced on April 25 that it will lay off 16 people from its staff, or 28% of employees.

Lyft

Announced on April 21 that employees will learn whether they have a job or not via an email that will be sent out April 27.

Lyft layoffs to affect 26% of workforce, or about 1,072 people as promised on April 27.

Redfin

Announced April 13th that it has laid off 201 employees, about 4% of its workforce. This is the third time the Seattle-based real estate company has reduced its workforce since June.

Apple

Bloomberg reported on April 3 that Apple is laying off a small number of roles on its corporate retail teams.

March 2023

Netflix

Announced on March 31, Netflix confirms a “handful of layoffs,” which includes two longtime executives. The exact number of layoffs is unclear. Netflix is scheduled to report Q1 2023 results on April 18.

Roku

Announced March 30 that it is letting go of about 200 employees, or 6% of its workforce. The company had laid off 200 U.S. employees back in November.

Unacademy

Announced March 30 that it has laid off more than 350 roles, or 12% of its workforce — just over four months after cutting about 350 roles in November.

Shift Technologies

Announced March 29 that it laid off 30% of its workforce in Q1 2023.

Lucid

Announced March 28 that it is laying off 1,300 employees, or 18% of its workforce, to be completed by the end of Q2 2023.

GitHub

Announced on March 28 that it has eliminated over 100 jobs in the South Asian market, laying off virtually its entire engineering team in India. A GitHub spokesperson told TechCrunch that the layoff is part of the streamlining effort the firm had disclosed in February to cut roughly 10% of its workforce by end of Q1 2023.

Disney

On March 27 in an internal memo to employees, Disney revealed there will be three rounds of layoffs, the first beginning this week. The job cuts will impact approximately 7,000 employees, which was announced in February.

Salesforce

On March 24, Bloomberg reported that more layoffs could be on the way at Salesforce, quoting chief operating officer Brian Millham, who indicated that the company could be adding to the ongoing job cutting at the CRM leader and in tech in general. If the layoffs happen, it would come on top of the 10% cut in January.

Accenture

Announced March 23 that it plans to cut 19,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its workforce.

Indeed

Announced March 22 that it will lay off 2,200 employees, or 15% of its staff.

Roofstock

Announced March 22 that it has laid off 27% of its staff, approximately 100 employees.

Twitch

Announced March 20 that it will lay off 400 employees.

Amazon

Announced March 20 another round of substantial layoffs, this time 9,000 people are set to lose their jobs. TechCrunch is hearing that around 10% of today’s total came from AWS. As part of the new round of layoffs, Amazon is shutting down DPReview.

Livespace

Announced March 20 that it has laid off at least 100 employees, about 2% of the company’s workforce.

Course Hero

Announced March 16 that it has cut 15% of staff, or 42 people.

Klaviyo

Announced March 15 that it has laid off 140 of its staff across all teams.

Microsoft

As a part of its recent announcement to layoff 10,000 people, Microsoft laid off an entire team dedicated to guiding AI innovation that leads to ethical, responsible and sustainable outcomes. On March 27, Microsoft laid off 559 workers from its Bellevue and Redmond operations.

Y Combinator

Announced March 13 that it will impact 20% of staff, or 17 team members.

Salesforce…continued

Salesforce first announced that it was laying off 10% of the workforce in January, but some employees didn’t know until February. The week of March 10, more employees are just learning they have been laid off. Salesforce confirmed that these layoffs were part of the 10%.

Atlassian

Announced on March 6, Atlassian is laying off about 500 employees, or 5% of its total workforce.

SiriusXM

Announced on March 6, the company laid off 475 employees, or 8% of its total workforce.

Alerzo

The Nigerian B2B e-commerce platform had a headcount of more than 2,000 before a first round of layoffs in September 2022. Alerzo has laid off 15% of its full-time workforce, the company confirmed on March 6, leaving about 800 employees at the startup.

Cerebral

Announced March 1, the company is letting go 15% of it’s workforce — roughly 285 employees.

Waymo

Announced March 1, Alphabet’s Waymo issued a second round of layoffs this year. Combined with the initial cuts in January, the self-driving technology company has let go of 8%, or 209 employees, of its workforce.

Thoughtworks

Announced on March 1, the company laid off about 4% of its global workforce — approximately 500 employees.

February 2023

Twitter

Announced on February 26, the company laid off more than 200 employees, including Esther Crawford, Haraldur Thorleifsson and Leah Culver. Since Musk took over Twitter in October last year, the company’s headcount has fallen by more than 70%.

Poshmark

Announced February 24, Poshmark confirmed with TechCrunch that less than 2% of its workforce was affected, primarily in the U.S. The company employs roughly 800+ employees.

Green Labs

We do not have an exact figure of how many Green Labs plans to lay off its staff. Green Labs confirmed to TechCrunch that it is conducting a round of layoffs that could impact at least 50% of its workforce.

Chipper Cash

Announced on February 20, the African cross-border payments platform conducted a second round of layoffs just 10 weeks after it cut approximately 12.5% of its workforce. Chipper Cash relieved almost one-third of its workforce, about 100 employees.

Evernote

On February 17 the company confirmed laying off 129 people.

Jumia

Announced February 16 that it cut 20% of its staff, or more than 900 positions across its 11 markets, in Q4 of 2022.

Convoy

Announced on February 16 that it is shuttering its Atlanta office and laying off workers as part of restructuring. This is the third time in less than a year that the company has laid off workers.

Sprinklr

Announced on February 15 that it will impact 4% of its global workforce — or more than 100 employees.

iRobot

Announced on February 13 that it will lay off 7% of its workforce, roughly 85 employees.

Twilio

Announced on February 13 that it will impact around 17% of its global workforce, about 1,400 people.

GitHub

Announced February 9, 10% of its staff will be impacted through the end of the company’s fiscal year. Before this announcement, which was first reported by Fortune, GitHub had about 3,000 employees.

Yahoo

Announced on February 9, 20% of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its adtech business. Yahoo is the parent company to TechCrunch.

GitLab

Announced February 9 that it’s reducing its headcount by 7%. The round of redundancies will impact around 114 people, though that specific figure is dependent on its actual headcount as of February 9.

Affirm

Announced on February 8 that it is reducing its staff by 19%, or about 500 employees, and shutting down its crypto unit.

Zoom

Announced the cut of 15% of its staff, or 1,300 people on February 7.

VinFast

VinFast has not shared how many employees have been cut, but a LinkedIn post from a former employee said “nearly 35 roles” were affected. Announced on February 6.

Dell

Announced February 6, impacting 6,650 people, or 5% of worldwide workforce.

Getaround

Announced February 2, 10% of staff — about 42 employees.

Announced February 2, 150 employees impacted. This is the second job-cutting move within weeks of the first round in December 2022.

Rivian

Announced on February 1, cutting 6% of its workforce for the second time in less than a year.

January 2023

SoFi Technologies

Announced on January 31, cutting 65 jobs, or about 5% of its 1,300-person workforce. First reported by The Wall Street Journal.

NetApp

Announced on January 31, impacting 8% of its staff — about 960 people.

Groupon

Impacting another 500 employees announced on January 31. The company said this new set of layoffs will be spread across the first two quarters of 2023.

Impossible Foods

Reportedly affecting 20% of its staff, over 100 employees, Bloomberg reported first.

PayPal

Announced on January 30, about 2,000 full-time employees, or 7% of its workforce, were affected.

Arrival

Announced on January 30, with a newly appointed CEO, slashing 50% of its workforce — 800 employees globally.

Waymo

The self-driving technology unit under Alphabet quietly laid off workers on January 24, according to The Information and several posts on LinkedIn and Blind. It’s not yet clear how many of Waymo’s staff will be affected.

Spotify

Announced on January 23, impacting around 6% of its global workforce — around 600 employees.

Alphabet

Google’s parent company announced laying off 6% of its global workforce on January 21, equating to 12,000 employees. These cuts impact divisions such as Area 120, the Google in-house incubator and Alphabet’s robotics division, Intrinsic.

Fandom

The entertainment company announced an unspecified number of employees impacted across multiple properties on January 20. According to a report by Variety, the company employs around 500 people, and the layoffs have affected roughly 10% of its staff across different sites.