Virgin Orbit runs low on cash, ByteDance pushes a TikTok replacement, and Canoo settles with the SEC
It’s the weekend, party people, and you know what that means: It’s Week in Review (WiR) time. For the uninitiated, WiR is where TechCrunch recaps all the tech news that took place for the week. It’s like the morning paper, but in digital form, and without all the extraneous stuff unrelated to tech. So…not much…
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. Reporter’s note: Before we get into this, thank you to the Startups Weekly readers who pointed out that last week’s link to my column was…
A U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York threw out a lawsuit against Meta this week that had been simmering for a year and a half. The suit, filed in late 2021 by now-shuttered social app Phhhoto, alleged that Meta violated federal antitrust law by copying its core features with the…
There’s enough trouble on this planet already that we don’t need new problems coming here from the sun. Unfortunately, we can’t yet destroy this pitiless star, so we are at its mercy. But NASA at least may soon be able to let us know when one of its murderous flares is going to send our…
No, it’s not an April Fools’ joke: OpenAI has started geoblocking access to its generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, in Italy. The move follows an order by the local data protection authority Friday that it must stop processing Italians’ data for the ChatGPT service. In a statement which appears online to users with an Italian IP…
A group of well-known AI ethicists have written a counterpoint to this week’s controversial letter asking for a six-month “pause” on AI development, criticizing it for a focus on hypothetical future threats when real harms are attributable to misuse of the tech today. Thousands of people, including such familiar names as Steve Wozniak and Elon…
The Indian hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo is in late-stage discussions to secure about $50 million in a new financing round, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, as the Bengaluru-headquartered startup scrambles for comfort in an otherwise funding winter for younger firms. Reliance Retail and Google, two existing backers of Dunzo, are among those…
Mukesh Ambani’s Jio, the South Asian telecom powerhouse, has long sought to entice its customer base with a plethora of services aimed at boosting subscriber retention. Despite amassing over 425 million customers and claiming the mantle of India’s top network provider—due in large part to its aggressively competitive data pricing—Jio’s array of additional services has…
Unacademy has laid off 12% of its workforce, or over 350 roles, in its latest round of layoffs — just over four months after cutting about 350 roles in November. Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal announced the new layoff decision in a Slack post to employees. “We have taken every step in the right decision…
Impact investor Goodwell Investments and Oxfam Novib, a Dutch foundation and Oxfam International affiliate, have set up Pepea, a €20 million ($21.7m) fund, to provide financing to early-stage startups in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. The fund, created with the backing of Oxfam Novib Impact Investments, will provide venture debt with a focus on mezzanine finance,…
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