GoMechanic lays off 70% after investors discover 'founders knowingly misstated facts'

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Helloooo, Crunchers! The heavy goods train of tech news keeps on rollin' down (and sometimes off) the tracks. Apropos tracks, we've been a little besotted with this absolutely magnificent music video of Ren this week. It's full of surprises and powerful bits — give yourself a 9-minute break and give it a listen!  — Christine and Haje Image Credits: GoMechanic

The TechCrunch Top 3 More layoffs: Sequoia-backed GoMechanic is the latest to make sweeping layoffs after funding didn't materialize in time, Manish reports. The India-based auto services company is cutting 70% of its workforce. But wait, there's more: GoMechanic's founders misstated financials to investors with GoMechanic co-founder Amit Bhasin saying the startup made "grave errors in judgment as we followed growth at all costs, particularly in regard to financial reporting, which we deeply regret." Can your robot do this?: In Boston Dynamics' latest Atlas video, we see its robot running, jumping and now grabbing and throwing things via the use of hands. Matt shares more. If you've never seen a car that looks like its name, you have now: Romain has your look at Kate, a new French carmaker developing tiny cars for your everyday use, from driving to work to driving on the beach. They remind us of a really fast golf cart only cuter.

What is Revenue Lifecycle Management? Sponsored by Conga Sometimes navigating contracts can feel like a never-ending maze. At Conga, we help you automate and simplify each stage of the contract lifecycle with products for document creation, lifecycle management, and quote generation. Read More

Startups and VC In a press conference on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it has arrested Anatoly Legkodymov, founder of crypto exchange Bitzlato, for allegedly processing over $700 million of illicit funds, Amanda reports. "Overnight, the Department worked with key partners here and abroad to disrupt Bitzlato, the China-based money-laundering engine that fueled a high-tech axis of cryptocrime, and to arrest its founder, Russian national Anatoly Legkodymov," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. There's a bunch more stuff happening in the world of startups today: Well oil'll say: Kirsten reports that Shell snaps up EV charging operator Volta for $169 million. It's not like we could remember our passwords anyway: Open source password management company Bitwarden acquires Passwordless.dev to help companies authenticate users without passwords, Paul reports. PayPal Ventures buys now, hopes it will pay back later: Buy now, pay later company Tabby raises $58 million at a $660 million valuation as PayPal Ventures deploys its first investment into the GCC, Tage reports. BainFund: Kate reports that the P2P lending platform PeopleFund raises $20 million in a Series C extension round led by Bain Capital. Ta-daaa! Money for you: Amanda reports that Goldenset launches out of stealth to make equity investments in creators.

Dear Sophie: What are some fast options for hiring someone on an expiring grace period? Dear Sophie, I'm a co-founder of a very early-stage startup. My co-founder and I are considering bringing on a third co-founder, who was recently laid off. She is currently in the United States on an H-1B with a grace period that will expire soon. What are the fastest, least risky immigration options that we should consider? What's going on with potential increases to USCIS filing fees? — Careful Co-founder Three more from the TC+ team: Losing the horn: VCs think majority of unicorns aren't worth $1 billion anymore, by Becca. Leaning into that midday energy: Noon Energy brings Mars tech down to Earth with carbon-oxygen battery system, Tim writes. Let's spreadsheet this out, shall we: Anna puts numbers on the global venture slowdown. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Big Tech Inc. The layoffs just keep coming in Tech World. The latest is Microsoft, which announced 10,000 job cuts, reports Paul. The company has already made some layoffs last year, but this latest one accounts for a sizable chunk of its workforce — 5%. CEO Satya Nadella echoed other tech companies making layoffs recently in saying that the company accelerated its growth as customers grew, but when that slowed down, Microsoft had to do the same. Cybersecurity company Sophos is making a similar move, laying off 450 employees globally, or about 10% of its employees, Jagmeet reports. Meanwhile, in happier news, Apple has a brand-new HomePod with better sound and "smarts," Darrell writes. And now that you know this, Brian has some thoughts on the newly returned smart speaker. Here's five more for you: Get the skinny on OpenAI: Connie's conversation last week with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman continues to yield all sorts of juicy details, this time about the company's deal with Microsoft. Altman confirmed that was not an exclusive pact, she writes. This message brought to you by…: TikTok now has a "state-controlled media" label in 40 more countries to show "whose 'editorial output or decision-making process' is subject to influence by a government," Sarah writes. If you're feeling Blue: Twitter now offers an annual Blue subscription for those hardcore users, Ivan reports. A tribute: Brian gives a final salute to Google Stadia, which shut down today. Another go at it: For the second time in six months, Mailchimp says it was hacked. Zack has more on what happened this time.

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard FOUNDATION RELATIONS ASSOCIATE at Catalyst California (Los Angeles, CA, USA) Principal software engineer (SQL API) at Cube Dev (San Francisco, CA, USA) Lead Software Engineer at Cube Dev (San Francisco, CA, USA) Developer, Mobile Center of Excellence at IEEE (Piscataway, NJ, USA) Cloud Production Engineer at IEEE (Piscataway, NJ, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Apple powers up 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro and Max chips

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Good news — we are back with another round of events for TechCrunch, and we have early-bird tickets available to our Early Stage event in Boston in April. Woohoo! Today, we also particularly enjoyed Connie's peek into the future as Sam Altman sees it.  — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Olly Curtis/Future / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3 An Apple a day…: Get ready to take a big bite out of Apple. Kyle and Brian peel off the cover to unveil the consumer tech giant's M2 Pro and M2 Max chips that pack some power. The chips will be available in the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and if you are looking around for a new computer, the M2 Mac Mini arrives January 24, starting at $599. Cloudy with a chance of embedded analytics: Nothing but blue skies so far for Cumul.io, a low-code embedded analytics platform for SaaS companies. The company raised $10.8 million to continue developing its business intelligence platform that quickly "connects just about any data source, drag-and-drop specific features to customize their dashboards, and then copy-paste a snippet of code into their application to serve thousands of end-users," Paul writes. The headline says it all: We couldn't help but steal from the TC+ section because Tim's headline is just so good: "Nest co-founder Matt Rogers' new startup is trash." We won't ruin it any more for you.

Startups and VC ChatGPT, the AI that can write poems, emails, spreadsheet formulas and more, has attracted a lot of negative publicity lately, Kyle writes. That's perhaps why AI21 Labs, an Israeli startup developing text-generating AI systems along the lines of ChatGPT, tried a different tack with its newly released assistive writing tool, Wordtune Spices. A part of AI21's expanding suite of generative AI, Wordtune Spices doesn't compose emails and essays like ChatGPT. Instead, it suggests options that change the voice and style of already written sentences, also offering up statistics from web-based sources to "strengthen arguments." Apropos robots that write…On the heels of raising at a $1 billion valuation last week, DeepL is taking the wraps off a new language product, the first extension for a startup that made its name from its popular AI-based translation tools, Ingrid, er, writes. Write is a new tool that fixes your writing — catching grammar and punctuation mistakes, offering suggestions for clarity and more creative phrasing and (soon) giving you the option to change your tone. There was a lot of fun startup news on the site over the past few days, so it was hard to choose just five to load up in our little recommendation engine, but here's what we came up with: QR isn't dead…: It's the tech that won't die, as Beaconstac lands a $25 million investment for its QR code management platform, Kyle reports. The DM says nah: Amanda reports that D&D publisher says "We rolled a 1" as it addresses backlash over controversial license. That price is un-Hinge-d: Dating app Hinge tests a pricier $60 per month subscription, similar to Tinder Platinum, Sarah writes. Want to buy that again?: CloseFactor raises $15.2 million to automate repetitive sales processes, Kyle reports. Time for 100 push-ups, stat: Darrell takes a closer look at Vitruvian's Trainer+, writing that it is an all-in-one home gym that actually lives up to its promises.

7 space tech predictions for 2023 At the time of this writing, Wikipedia notes that there have been eight successful spaceflight launches so far this year. New spaceports are entering operation, cell phone users will soon have connectivity from space, and the Artemis program backed by NASA is one of several ventures that will bring robots (and eventually human crews) to the moon. “Despite the economic uncertainty, we believe new records will be established in spacetech as giant commercial projects get funded,” says Mark Boggett, CEO and co-founder of Seraphim Space Manager LLP. Three more from the TC+ team: A feature does not a company make: Build a company, not a feature, by Haje. Mo IP, mo money: Cost-effective IP strategies can lead to massive exit valuations, by Kyle Graves. Here's a flying crystal ball: Mark Boggett has 7 space tech predictions for you for the upcoming year. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Orlando Sentinel / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. Extra, extra, read all about how the Royal Mail confirmed a cyberattack that disrupted postal service in the United Kingdom. Carly writes that the confirmation comes a week after the Royal Mail said it was hit by an unspecified "cyber incident” that caused it to not be able to dispatch items overseas. CEO Simon Thompson said he didn't believe customer data was compromised, but notified authorities in case that changes. Some reports say the LockBit ransomware group is behind this, and Carly is working on confirming that. And we have five more for you: "Baby Yoda" back again: Get ready for more cuteness from a galaxy far, far away. Disney+ released 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 trailer, Lauren writes. May the Force be with you. We see you: Frederic writes that Wyze is going back to its OG way with the Wyze Cam OG and OG Telephoto security cameras. Do you hear what I hear?: Ivan and Jagmeet paired up to report on a new pilot Google is doing of a “soundbox” in India for merchants to get audio-based payment alerts. If you like fast cars and you cannot lie: Get ready to burn rubber. Chevy unveiled its fastest Corvette yet, the electrified 2024 Corvette E-Ray. Matt has more. One company's trash is another company's treasure: If you're thinking of getting a giant neon Twitter bird light for your home or office, Amanda knows where you can procure one.

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Principal software engineer (SQL API) at Cube Dev (San Francisco, CA, USA) Lead Software Engineer at Cube Dev (San Francisco, CA, USA) Developer, Mobile Center of Excellence at IEEE (Piscataway, NJ, USA) Cloud Production Engineer at IEEE (Piscataway, NJ, USA) Senior Cloud Systems Engineer at IEEE (Piscataway, NJ, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

View this email online in your browser Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Unsubscribe © 2023 Yahoo. All rights reserved. 110 5th St, San Francisco, CA 94103