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Greetings and have a nice Wednesday! I had to check the calendar before saying the day because does anyone really remember what day it is? Amanda left me bursting with her story of waiting for a new Nintendo Switch release, only to let the news be something else. I also enjoyed the latest Equity podcast in which Natasha and Alex discussed why everyone copies each other. Anyway, big tech and crypto news dominated our homepage today, so I’ve got a lot of that for you. Let’s start! † Christine
Contents
The businesskinda.com Top 3
- If one falls, the other falls† manish is on a roll this week, writing another top story, this time about Voyager Digital, a crypto broker, filing for bankruptcy. It seemed like a knock-on effect for the company, which cited last week’s bankruptcy announcement of Three Arrows Capital as one of the factors. It appears that Three Arrows owed Voyager Digital about $650 million. Not a faint change for sure.
- scrape through: Meta sues Octopus Data, the US subsidiary of a Chinese company, that the company provided data scraping services for Facebook and Instagram, Paul reports. So you don’t have to look that up, data scraping is a way to use automated tools to collect data “en masse” from websites. Paul says this is particularly timely, as a US court “reaffirmed a previous ruling that web scraping is legal” less than 3 months ago. They go back to the drawing board.
- Bite into food delivery: Amazon is trying a new approach to not only get a foothold in restaurant delivery, but also attract more Prime members. The marketplace giant has teamed up with Grubhub to offer a free membership to Grubhub+ (everyone has a “plus,” huh?) Ingrid writes.
Startups and VC
It seems that Bolt and Authentic Brands Group, the parent company of Forever 21, have kissed and made up. Authentic initially sued Bolt, claiming that Bolt failed to deliver its promised one-click checkout technology, causing the company to miss out on approximately $150 million in revenue. Mary Ann reports that the lawsuit has been settled ‘amicably’ and that Authentic is now even a shareholder. That was some negotiation.
Crypto Gaming Startup Cauldron Closed $6.6 Million Toward Its Goal Of Becoming The “Pixar Of Web3” Jacquelyn writes. The company told her it wants to tell more stories and create a legacy with its Project Nightshade game à la how Pixar did with “Toy Story”. To infinity and beyond!
Seeking to automate the way circuit boards are designed, Celus has raised $25.6 million in new capital to leverage its artificial intelligence technology to redesign a circuit board in minutes. Paul writes.
What else do we have? Here’s some more:
- This fund is on fire† Rita writes about Bonfire Union, the venture arm of Mask Network, and its first $42 million fund to “invest in web3 as Tencent does in web2.” Oh, and she also wrote about Nothing and his Black Dot NFT.
- Everyone deserves digital: I wrote about Finli, a startup that has raised $6 million in new funds to continue developing its payment management app for service-oriented businesses.
- An apple for the teacher: Azota online testing software startup raised $2.4 million to help Vietnamese teachers create and grade tests, Catherine writes.
- at it again† Kate reported that Korean telecom company KT certainly liked what it saw in Rebellions, an AI chip maker. The startup received an additional $22.8 million in funding from KT just a month after KT put $50 million into it.
- Blop, blop, fizz, fizz† Jordan spoke with Wonderbelly founders Noah Kraft and Lucas Kraft, the founder of Doppler Labs, to discuss the antacid startup’s $3.3 million new funding and its mission to acquire Tums.
Dear Sophie: How can we transfer a candidate’s H-1B and green card?
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Dear Sophie,
My startup needs to hire an AI expert and our top candidate has a complicated immigration situation. She is from India and has been on an H-1B for over 6 years. Her current employer applied for an EB-2 green card on her behalf through the PERM process about 4 years ago. She has been waiting for a green card number since she was approved and says it could be several years before she receives it.
She asks us to transfer her H-1B and green card to our company. Can we do it? Do we have additional options to keep her?
— Advancing AI
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Big Tech Inc.
More cryptocurrencies to see here! Jacquelyn dives deep into cryptocurrency company losses in the second quarter, which are 52% lower than the same period last year.
In the meantime, Kylea writes that IBM acquired Databand for its observational capabilities to “help customers better identify and resolve data issues, including errors, pipeline failures, and poor quality.”
In cybersecurity news, hotel giant Marriott was on the wrong side of another data breach, carly writes. She also claimed that North Korean hackers target some of the country’s health organizations with their ransomware. In the meantime, Bag reports that Apple’s new lockdown mode will “disable certain features aimed at helping targeted individuals fight government-grade spyware.”
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.