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Not much news from me this week, but I've been doing a lot of preparations for TechCrunch Early Stage taking place in Boston on April 25th. It's going to be a great show, and you still have time to get tickets at early bird prices, if you're quick.
The most interesting startup stories of the week
Stability AI is bidding farewell to its founder and CEO, Imad Mostaq, who has decided to chase the dream of decentralized AI, leaving the unicorn startup without a permanent CEO. The company, known for burning through cash faster than a teenager uses his first debit card, is now in the hands of interim co-CEOs Shan Shan Wong and Christian Laforte. Mustack, in a dramatic exit, took to X to announce that his departure was about fighting the “centralized AI” bogeyman because, apparently, the real problem with AI is not rogue robots but who can control them.
Microsoft has staged a heist worthy of a Hollywood conspiracy, snagging the co-founders and much of Inflection AI's employees, along with the rights to use their technology, for a cool $650 million. The deal, which sounds to me more like a ransom payment than an M&A payment, includes $620 million for the privilege of using Inflection's technology and an additional $30 million to ensure Inflection doesn't sue over Microsoft's audacious talent grab. Reid Hoffman, Microsoft board member and Inflection co-founder, took to LinkedIn to assure everyone that Inflection investors will sleep well tonight, with early backers getting a 1.5x return and later backers getting a modest 1.1x return, although the calculations don't It adds up quite a bit. It's a bit bold to call a 1.5x return a “good upside,” by the way — most early-stage funds would be very upset.
They said your data will be safe: Facebook (now dead) was caught red-handed with its digital hands in the Snapchat cookie jar. Dubbed “Project Ghostbusters,” Facebook’s covert operation aims to hack Snapchat’s encrypted traffic, seeking to decode user behavior and gain a competitive advantage. New Robinhood Credit Card: Robinhood has unveiled its Gold Card, a credit card packed with features that might make Apple Card users pause for a hot second. For the low price of being a Robinhood Gold member (because who wouldn't want to pay $5 a month for the privilege of spending more money?), you can also earn 3% to 5% cash back on everything. Could Nvidia be the next AWS?: Nvidia and Amazon Web Services (AWS) may be just accidental heroes in the world of technology, stumbling into their core business like a little kid stumbling upon a hidden stash of cookies. AWS found that it could sell its internal storage and compute services, while Nvidia found that its gaming GPUs were unexpectedly ideal for AI workloads.
Stability AI CEO resigns because “you're not going to beat centralized AI with more centralized AI.” Image credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Trend of the week: Transportation problem
The New York Stock Exchange gave electric vehicle startup Fisker the boot, citing its “abnormally low” stock price. Fisker's financial path appears to be more of a tightrope, with shares falling more than 28% in one day, a failed deal with Nissan (or so rumors suggest), and a repayment clause in their loans that they can't afford — painting a picture of a company teetering on the edge The abyss. It wouldn't help, of course, for an electric vehicle manufacturer to lose millions of dollars in customer payments.
Can Arrival's Scraps Save Canoo?: Bankrupt Arrival is selling its scraps to Canoo, another electric vehicle teetering on the edge of continuity, in a deal that's less about innovation and more about Canoo's desperate attempt to cobble together a product line with the bargains of a yard sale. Sowwy, people: Steve Burns, the ousted founder, chairman and CEO of bankrupt electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors, has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over misleading investors about demand for the company's flagship all-electric Endurance pickup truck. Allowing the car to drive itself for a month: Tesla is about to start giving every customer in the United States a one-month trial of its $12,000 driver-assistance system, which it calls the Full Self-Driving Beta, provided they have a self-driving-equipped car. Compatible devices.
Canoo introduces a light tactical vehicle in 2022. Image credit: Canoo
Most interesting fundraiser this week
Super {set} is doubling down on its bet on boring but abundant data and AI startups, having just added a cool $90 million to its war chest. The move comes on the heels of its $200 million exit from marketing firm Habu to LiveRamp. The company is not your ordinary project studio. With a small group of 16 companies and a penchant for turning venture capital investing notes from art to science, super{set} is on a mission to design practical applications. With their new digs on an entire floor of San Francisco's 140 New Montgomery Building, they're not just investing in startups; They are buying the future of the city itself.
Tired of cramped hotel rooms and IKEA-averse landlords, Alex Chatzieleftheriou decided to fill the gap himself. Fast forwarding through the pandemic-induced boom in nomadic work, Blueground is now gobbling up competition faster than a tourist eating a free breakfast buffet. By acquiring companies like Tabas and Travelers Haven, Blueground has expanded its empire to include more than 15,000 apartments in 17 countries, proving that there's no place like a home that you can reserve for a month. Although the proptech sector is feeling the pressure from rising interest rates, Blueground's recent $45 million Series D funding round and massive debt facility suggest investors are still willing to bet big on Chatzieleftheriou's vision of a world where everyone can live in an apartment Fully furnished. At least temporarily.
$10 Million Microbial Party: Wes designed a compact system that processes the viscous byproducts of on-site breweries and food processors and turns them into biogas. This is not your grandmother's anaerobic digester; It's a microbial fad, complete with electrically charged fins for bacteria to feast on, producing about 30% more methane and leaving behind less waste. More Money for Diversity: New Summit Investments is on the verge of a major leap in its impact investing journey, eyeing a $100 million target for its latest fund, dwarfing its previous $40 million fund that closed in 2022. New battery chemistry: In the quest to get more power from electric vehicle batteries, automakers are increasingly turning to silicon. Ionobell, a seed-stage startup that recently closed a $3.9 million extension round, claims that its silicone material will be cheaper than existing competing products.
Image credits: Lyudinka/Getty Images (Edited by TechCrunch)
Other unmissable TechCrunch stories…
Each week, there are always a few stories I want to share with you that somehow don't fall into the above categories. It would be a shame to miss out on these, so here's a random bag of goodies for you:
Erm, what?: Marissa Mayer's startup Sunshine has gone from Silicon Valley's next big thing to leading the world's leading … contact management and photo sharing, leaving the Internet en masse scratching their heads and wondering, “This is it?” Dude, where's your data?: Three years after the hacker's “coming soon” teaser, the personal details of 73 million AT&T customers have hit the Internet, and while AT&T plays the silent game, customers are left to check their data leaks like a miserable DIY project . Come on Apple: In a move that's less about innovation and more about playing gatekeeper, Apple's removal of Beeper's push to bring iMessage to Android users is now a pitch to the Justice Department on how to stifle competition and maintain the exclusive blue bubble club. Who needs privacy anyway: Glassdoor, the safe haven for anonymous company reviews, appears to have turned into a privacy nightmare by surreptitiously adding users' real names to their profiles, making “anonymous” the most ridiculed word in their dictionary. . Welcome to Spotify University: Not content with just ruling over music, podcasts, and audiobooks, Spotify is now eyeing your brain cells with its latest venture into e-learning, because apparently, we all need another reason to never leave the Spotify ecosystem.
