Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly roundup of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday.
Holy hell, how is it Friday again? It feels like just yesterday I wrote one of these newsletters. There’s been a ton of exciting moves in the startup world, though: Some highs, some lows, some drama, and some fun new trends.
My big contribution this week was a deep dive into the world of crowdfunding — and whether you should use it to raise money for your startup.
Ok, so what else happened this week. . .
The most interesting startup story
Image Credits: Cory Green/Yahoo
Okay, so my newsletter is called Startups Weekly, but I want to dedicate a piece of it to Apple. Why; Because, as I wrote last year, I think Apple’s Vision Pro will be a huge game changer for startups.
We finally got our hands on Apple’s face-worn computer. And, what can we say, it’s pretty amazing.
Brian spent an hour with the Apple Vision Pro in January, then blogged his heart out as the Vision Pro finally arrived at his home, in a fascinating (and often hilarious) series of posts covering the first and second days in in-depth review that concludes it’s the best consumer headset out there, where it hopes the current experience will feel dated a generation or two down the road. Although, there is a strong use case right now, in the form of immersive attention.
However, there is an opportunity here, especially in business.
600 apps at your fingertips: Developers are rapidly preparing more than 600 new apps and games, joining more than 1 million apps compatible with iOS and iPadOS. This surge in app development comes in the face of concerns about developer interest due to Apple’s controversial compliance with the EU’s digital markets law.
Without YouTube app: With the launch of the Apple Vision Pro headphones, a third-party developer is taking on the YouTube app void with Juno, a $5 one-time purchase app that leverages YouTube’s built-in API for a native experience. The app offers features such as resizable windows and playback controls, with plans for further improvements.
Reasons to be excited: Lauren and Ivan have rounded up some of the visionOS apps from smaller developers that users can try out when their headsets arrive.
The most interesting fundraisers this week
Image Credits: Getty Images/pkfawcett
In a world where throwing food into landfills seems as American as apple pie, startups are mushrooming to address the absurdity of food waste. Enter ProducePay, which decided enough was enough. With a mission that honestly sounds more like a superhero vow than a business plan, ProducePay aims to wrestle with the chaos of the fresh produce supply chain. Armed with $38 million from its latest round of funding, it’s about to take its global crusade. Because, really, in the face of a planet where throwing food is a hobby, what’s a few million dollars between friends? Let’s hope their plan doesn’t rot on the vine.
Oh, how the mighty rivers of VC cash have dried up for cybersecurity startups. After a deluge of 2021 that saw $23 billion accidentally drop into the sector, 2023 saw these startups cover less than a third of that. Going against the grain of the financial drought, NinjaOne takes $230 million in Series C funding like it’s no big deal. Apparently, they weren’t even trying – investors just couldn’t resist throwing money at them. With this round, NinjaOne’s valuation reached $1.9 billion. In a world where cash is king, NinjaOne is grinning all the way to the bank, planning to splash some of that VC gold to expand its empire and make IT headaches a thing of the past.
A handful more:
It is electrified: Armed with a new $20 million and a dream to make fusion power much simpler, Thea Energy is betting big on software that will do the heavy lifting. Forget the expensive manufacturing of magnets. Thea’s plan is to play puppeteer creature with some clever coding.
Transformation, er, transformers: On the power grid, transformers have been dutifully plying their trade on ponies since the 1800s. Enter Amperesand, rocking a $12.5 million ring, ready to drag these guardians of the grid into the 21st century with solid-state technology.
Bitcoin on the exchange: We asked TechCrunch readers if they intended to buy bitcoin through one of the new spot ETFs, if they held bitcoin elsewhere, and what impact they expected these new investment vehicles to have on its value and on crypto.
This week’s big trend: It’s all social, all the time
Image Credits: Snap Inc.
I enjoyed Sarah’s breakdown this week of what’s happening on Twitter. In the wake of Twitter’s identity crisis under Elon Musk, the social media landscape is blooming with alternatives like Mastodon, Bluesky and Meta’s Threads, creating a buffet of short-post platforms. It’s a golden age for X (formerly Twitter) leavers, but a headache for early adopters using half a dozen apps. Amid this chaos, Tapestry and other aggregators aim to become the Marie Kondo of social media, promising to tidy up our digital mess with a unified app. Good luck with that in a world where even concentrators need concentration.
There has been a lot of activity in the social media startup world over the past couple of weeks. Perhaps most notably, Bluesky reaches for the sky. After nearly a year as an invite-only app, Bluesky, funded by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has opened up to the public, positioning itself as a promising microblogging platform. Bluesky is differentiated by its decentralized infrastructure, the AT Protocol, which is open source, allowing transparency and the opportunity for developers to build on it. As the platform opens up to the public, its CEO faces its biggest challenge yet as the platform gained nearly a million new users overnight.
As Bluesky opens, Meta’s Facebook goes the other way. Meta’s announcement to end its Facebook Groups API has sent shockwaves through businesses and social media marketers, marking a major shift in its operating philosophy. The shutdown is bad news for many startups building API tools. It’s another reminder to build a company, not a feature.
X, the Twitter genus, got a huge boost this week after Tucker Carlson’s announcement of his interview with Vladimir Putin sent the X app to the top of the US App Store, surpassing Instagram threads. The interview, Putin’s first with a Western media outlet since the invasion of Ukraine, is seen as a strategic move by Putin to reach a wider, potentially sympathetic audience through Carlson, known for his controversial positions.
Other tweet-sized social media news from this week:
Oh snapshot: Snap is doing the corporate shuffle again, shedding 10% of its workforce to “support growth,” which appears to be a corporate “we’re not making enough money.” This follow-up to last year’s layoff saga features a tab of $55 million to $75 million in layoffs and a side of downsizing. Meanwhile, Snap’s hardware adventures are falling harder than a Pixy drone in a recall.
Leave it: Meta is stepping up its anti-campaign game with new updates and a global awareness campaign. The company is promoting the Take It Down tool, which helps teens remove non-consensual personal images from the internet. This initiative allows users to create a digital fingerprint of the image without sharing the actual content.
TikTok on the rise: The Pew Research Center has once again shared its two-year look at America’s social media closet, revealing—to no one’s surprise—that platforms rise and fall like the tides. This year, they found the shocking news that TikTok exists, BeReal is almost unexpected, and Facebook somehow still clings to relevance like a cat on a screen door.
Other TechCrunch stories not to be missed. . .
Each week, there are always a few stories I want to share with you that don’t fit into the above categories. It would be a shame if you missed them, so here’s a random goodie bag for you:
Baby Rivian: Rivian is set to launch the R2, an affordable electric SUV, at a spectacular Laguna Beach event. Despite their current financial hemorrhaging, they are betting big on this cheaper route to eventually turn a profit. Just don’t hold your breath. it won’t hit the streets until 2026.
New phone that has: Okta is playing the layoff game again, axing 400 souls (7% of its crew) in an attempt to transform itself into a profitable unicorn. Despite earning cash on 21% revenue growth, they’re still on a cost-cutting spree. Global employees are biting their nails, waiting for the dreaded email. Meanwhile, Proofpoint is also entering the layoff league. Hard times in the tech city continue. . .
Thank God, browsing yourself is so tiring: Arc Browser is on a mission to dethrone Google by creating an AI that retrieves web content directly, bypassing the middleman of the search engine. With new tools like “browse for me” and “instant links”, it streamlines the search process, aiming to serve the internet on a silver platter.
This worked perfectly last time: Adam Neumann, the controversial former CEO of WeWork, is eyeing a dramatic comeback by attempting to buy the bankrupt co-working space giant.
Water good idea: Water filtration titan Brita has acquired Larq, the Bay Area innovator behind smart water bottles. Larq’s journey from a niche online brand to a key player in Brita’s global strategy highlights the evolving landscape of consumer goods in the digital age.
