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With nearly a hundred new stories on the site since the last Daily Crunch, we’re having a hard time picking the cream of the crop, but that’s what we dooooo. It’s been an Amazon and Google extravaganza for the past 24 hours, in addition to all the mainstream news stories our crack team of tech news sleuths have been searching for from the undergrowth. There will be no further delay – let’s do this! — Christine and hi
Contents
The businesskinda.com Top 3
- News you don’t want to use: Apple News users got some interesting – read “offensive” – notifications thanks to a hacker who hacked into Fast Company’s systems. carly has more.
- Well that went downhill fast: We feel like we were just hyped all about Apple iPhone 14, but now Ivan reports that the tech giant is “tuning its production targets” after not seeing so much rah-rah from customers.
- Cost less please: Ingrid the payment network covers Satispay’s €320 million funding round that values the company at more than €1 billion and also puts it in the hearts and minds of customers in Europe seeking better budget control.
Startups and VC
The first is Romain, which invites you to meet Roundtable. It is a new startup, backed by eFounders, that aims to bring community-driven AngelList-esque angel investment to European startups. The company has built a platform that simplifies the administrative, legal and financial challenges associated with angel investing.
Money continues to flow into new venture capital funds. In the past month, Runa Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Razor’s Edge Ventures, First Star, OurCrowd, Northzone, Janngo Capital and Kapor Capital all announced new funds. Now it’s Scale Venture Partners’ turn, announcing that it has secured $900 million in committed capital for its eighth fund, also the largest since its inception in 2000. Christine reports. The fund was raised in 120 days over the summer, said partner Rory O’Driscoll.
More more more, always more:
The unbearable lightness of asset-light
Investors have embraced asset-light companies like Rent the Runway, Uber and Airbnb that don’t own the hardware that generates their revenue.
Companies that generate billions from assets they don’t own “generally require less capital — and thus less dilution for their investors,” writes Daniel Hoffer, chief executive of Autotech Ventures.
“But some asset-light marketplaces struggle to satisfy their customers because not all the assets they can make available are equally valued by their demand-side customers.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
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Big Tech Inc.
Boy, do we have a treat for you today: Our team was busy covering both Google’s Search On event and Amazon’s Fall event, meaning we’ve got all the Amazon and Google news ready to print, uh, to post. There’s a lot to choose from, but here are some of our favorites:
- Amazon’s latest Halo device is a bedside sleep tracker; Kindle Scribe brings writing to Amazon’s popular e-reader; and Amazon’s Astro robot gets pet detection, home security updates, and an SDK, by Brian.
- Google revamps shopping with 3D graphics, shoppable looks, buying guides and more personalization and Google unveils a more visual search experience for the TikTok generation, by Sarah.
- Google’s upcoming Maps feature lets you check out the ‘vibe’ of a neighborhood, by Aisha.
- The new Echo Dot is also an Eero, from Devin.
- Amazon introduces new Echo devices, including Echo Studio with spatial audio, by Kylea.
And we have four more for you:
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.