For Your Information Blog: 23/05/23

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Meta sells Giphy to Shutterstock at a loss to comply with UK antitrust rules

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

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Today was a big day for news, so buckle up, folks. We've got Giphy being sold for pittance, lots of Microsoft news and some venture capital funds cleaning up. Enjoy learning who the Disrupt Audience Choice breakout winners are because this is your Daily Crunch for Tuesday. — Christine

Meta is either poppin' bottles right now or nursing a hangover after finding a buyer for Giphy. Find out who bought them and what kind of deal the buyer got.

MS Build 2023 is going on this week, and the team has already filed 10 Microsoft-licious stories. The top read was about Fabric, a new end-to-end data and analytics platform that centers around OneLake. We've set you up with all the ooey, gooey Microsoft goodness.

If size matters to you, Amazon launched the Fire Max 11, its biggest tablet. Get the scoop.

Some big changes are happening over at Reliance JioMart. The online shopping platform is reportedly laying off 1,100 employees, and this is just the start of it. Find out how many more jobs are being cut.

Generative AI is now going into Photoshop with some Firefly-based features. See what those are.

Builder.ai is on a roll right now, securing $250 million in Series D capital a few weeks after signing a strategic collaboration with Microsoft. Read more on where all that capital is going.

Driving ourselves is so overrated. If you're headed to Phoenix, you can be among the first to order a Waymo self-driving car from Uber. Find out how.

Brian ponders if you need the sports car equivalent of a home appliance. Well, if you do, then Dyson has some upgrades to its vacuums that might get your engine purring. Learn more.

If you didn't get enough generative AI talk with that Photoshop story, then read about Anthropic raising $450 million to build next-gen AI assistants.

HBO Max is no more. Warner Bros. Discovery debuted the Max app to U.S. subscribers with 35,000 hours of content. And let's hope there are also some good '80s movies. But if you want all that content to come free of ads, it's going to cost you. Read more.

Image Credits: Food Photographer / Getty Images

Let's head over to Google land, where more generative AI is at play. During the search engine giant's Google Marketing Live event today, one of the top stories there was the introduction of Product Studio, a tool that lets merchants create product imagery using generative AI. Find out more.

Now that Shein is partnering with Reliance to reenter India, this strategy reportedly could set an example for startups grappling with the China backlash amid rising geopolitical tensions. How, you ask? Read more.

Members of the European Parliament have some words for TikTok's lead privacy regulator in Europe. Get the scoop.

After two long years in testing, the Mimestream app, a Gmail client for Mac, is now out of beta. See what it does.

Meanwhile, who's got the money? This handful of venture capital firms do:

VC firm Neo looks to up the ante with $235M across two new funds.

QED closes on $925M to back fintech startups

Dispersion Capital launches $40M fund focused on decentralized infrastructure

E3 Capital and Lion's Head climate fund hits first close at $48M to back African startups

Matrix Partners expands new India fund to $525M

These startups are also flush with cash:

Plenty's new wealth-building app targets couples blending finances

Singapore-based BandLab Technologies raises $25M at $415M valuation

Datasembly grabs $16M to give brick-and-mortar retail pricing a big data intel boost

Ballerine brings open source to banks' risk and identity decision-making

Sequoia India's Surge backs AI-powered video creation platform Gan.ai in $5.2M funding

South African challenger bank TymeBank raises $77.8M from Norrsken22 and Blue Earth Capital

Image Credits: Google

TechCrunch (virtually) in Atlanta

On June 7, TechCrunch will host City Spotlight: Atlanta. We have a slate of amazing programming planned, including a fireside chat with Ryan Glover, the co-founder of the fintech Greenwood, as well as a panel that examines the venture ecosystem within the Atlanta region and identifies the best ways to raise and meet with local venture capitalists. But that's not all. If you are an early-stage Atlanta-based founder, apply to pitch to our panel of guest investors/judges for our live pitching competition; the winner gets a free booth at TechCrunch Disrupt this year to exhibit their company in our startup alley. Register here.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Threading the needle: A peek at Paul Judge's plans for Softbank's Open Opportunity Fund

Dominic Madori-Davis interviewed Paul Judge, the incoming chairman of SoftBank's recently rebranded Open Opportunity Fund.

With plans for a new $150 million fund that will support founders from communities that are traditionally marginalized, Judge is taking on the relationship-based model that defines venture capital.

"It's been about getting a 'warm intro,' and people brag about that — 'Oh, you need to know somebody in order to get a meeting with me,'" he said. "My view is, that has led to the system being closed."

Three more from the TC+ team:

Cava's listing won't bring back IPOs, but it could deliver welcome investor liquidity

Solana launches ChatGPT plugin to help users interact with its network.

Many startups fail in the 'valley of death,' so Collaborative Fund and Wyss Institute partnered to bridge it

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