Daily Crunch: Days after announcing plans to cut 10K jobs, Microsoft invests billions more in OpenAI
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here. Happy new week! Did you know that TechCrunch has a bunch of amazing newsletters that aren’t this one? If you’re into transportation, don’t miss Kirsten’s The Station. Greg writes our weekly Week […]
Babylist makes an even bigger bet on baby products with Expectful acquisition
Today, baby registry and product discovery platform Babylist announced that it has acquired health and wellness tool Expectful for an undisclosed price. The deal, announced today, brings together two companies focused on parental support, now helping people navigate everything from eco-friendly diapers to mental wellness around fertility. The overlap, however, is in more than the mission. […]
McKinsey, eyeing the MLOps space, buys Tel Aviv-based Iguazio
The same day Microsoft invested billions in OpenAI, McKinsey snatched up an enterprise-focused AI firm, Iguazio, for a relative steal. The consulting giant reportedly paid around $50 million for Iguazio, a Tel Aviv-based company offering an MLOps platform for large-scale businesses — “MLOps” referring to a set of tools to deploy and maintain machine learning […]
All that VC dry powder is damper than you think
Welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Natasha is back in the Bay, after five weeks away, so some could say, San Francisco is back. Big tech: Real quick, you should know that Elliott Management took a multi-billion stake in Salesforce, while […]
TechCrunch Live is back with top founders and investors, and you get to ask the questions each week
TechCrunch Live is entering its third season, and I’m thrilled to be leading the events again this year. The first event is on February 1, 2023, and will feature a timely discussion on what to do if your company can’t raise a Series A. We have Cambly’s Sameer Shariff and Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel speaking at […]
Founder and NFX VC James Currier vets startup ideas at TC Early Stage
You have a great idea for a startup, and you’re working hard to build, launch and scale. But, and stay with us here, is your idea truly good? According to James Currier — founding partner of NFX, a VC firm by and for entrepreneurs — good ideas have patterns, and 90% of the ideas he […]
Remote work revolution helps Deel reach $295M in ARR
Fintech-turned-HR outfit Deel reached $295 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by the end of 2022, the company’s co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz shared today. That’s up 417.5% from $57 million in ARR achieved at the end of 2021. The massive jump in ARR is impressive by normal standards but particularly so considering the challenging […]
Bling Capital-backed Coverdash unveils its embedded, digital insurance for small businesses
Coverdash, providing small businesses, e-commerce merchants and gig-economy workers with insurance, launched its product in all 50 states after closing over $2.5 million in seed capital. The round was led by Bling Capital, with participation from investors, including AXIS Digital Ventures, Tokio Marine Future Fund (in affiliation with World Innovation Lab), Expansion VC and Cameron […]
HubSpot co-founder Shah backs Peerlist for a new take on professional networking
With over 875 million users across over 200 countries, LinkedIn is a household name in the world of professional networking. But as the platform grew, it shifted some focus to becoming another source of consuming and producing content. Now a young startup wants to disrupt that. Peerlist aims to fill this gap by providing a space […]
Microsoft invests billions more dollars in OpenAI, extends partnership
Microsoft today announced that it’s extending its partnership with OpenAI, the startup behind art- and text-generating AI systems like ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and GPT-3, with a “multi-year, multi-billion-dollar” investment. OpenAI says that the infusion of new capital — the exact amount of which wasn’t disclosed — will be used to continue its independent research and […]
