Microsoft's AI march continues

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Alex Wilhelm Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Welcome to the very first issue of TechCrunch AM, the best compilation of tech news from around the world that you'll read before brunch. Our long-running Daily Crunch newsletter is being split into two starting today: one arriving in the morning (this one, written by yours truly), and one in the afternoon (TechCrunch PM), because we felt one newsletter was simply not enough to cover the breadth of startup, venture, and tech news out there. More here from TechCrunch Editor in Chief Connie Loizos on how our newsletters are changing in 2024! And with that out of the way, let's get started! – Alex

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TechCrunch Top 3 Goodnotes buys Dropthebit: London-based note-taking app Goodnotes has acquired South Korean startup Dropthebit, which runs Thaw, a meeting and video summary tool. Notably this is not the first time that Goodnotes has gotten busy with its checkbook. The startup, which offers users tools like "AI-powered handwriting recognition," also invested $1.9 million into South Korea-based digital stationery company WeBudding last year. Bad news for startup valuations: A survey of more than three dozen investors predicts that startup valuations are not heading for a banner year in 2024. Instead, valuation trends will break down according to sector and stage, VCs predict. But new founders should take heart: Seed valuations are expected to be the most durable. The further along your startup is, the less sunny the forecast is for your next fundraise. Microsoft launches Copilot Pro: You and I can now subscribe to Copilot Pro, which brings enterprise-like generative AI features (think Office) to the masses. It costs $20 per month, and comes with priority access to the newest GenAI models underpinning Copilot, including OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo. Why do we care? AI is going vertical thanks to startups, and horizontal thanks to big tech companies. No matter what bell you toll, AI is coming for your workday!   Image Credits: Goodnotes

Don't miss these Apple may catch a break: Apple may get a full reprieve from the sales bans surrounding its newest Apple Watches thanks to a plan to disable pulse oximetry features on the devices. We don't think users will particularly mind the loss too much, but you can never tell how much Reddit will complain. For Apple, we're guessing being able to sell the Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches is probably more important than that. Spot Technologies raises $2M: El Salvador-based Spot has raised funding to build a software solution that turns security cameras into intelligent gadgets that can analyze consumer purchase and theft behaviors. Deep learning in security cameras? Welcome to the present, I suppose. Kuda's secret 2023 raise: It appears Nigerian neobank Kuda quietly raised $20 million last year at a flat valuation to its last 2021 price tag ($500 million). TechCrunch snagged some fascinating performance data from the company as well, showing that pursuing fintech can still make for a growth story. It's also not a small achievement for a fintech company to defend a valuation from the crazy good times of 2021, we reckon. For founders: If you are building a startup, we have lots for you this morning: How your customer acquisition costs can help determine whether you should launch a new product; the latest on climate tech incentives and capital flows; why micro funds are not doomed; and how to build a resilient SaaS company. Closing out CES 2024: Another CES is behind us, so to send us off, here are TechCrunch's notes on age tech, and all the future of transport technology that stood out at the convention. Just don't look for anything sex-tech related — it makes CES blush. You should definitely also read Mary Ann Azevdo's great interview with investor Jenny Fielding about startups' flight to quality. Also check out this Chain Reaction episode featuring Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale, about the bitcoin spot ETF news. And then there's FedEx's new e-commerce platform, which feels either very early, or very late. Image Credits: Darrell Etherington/TechCrunch

Rabbits are all the rage AI hardware startup Rabbit recently said it has sold out of its fourth run of 10,000 units of its new gadget, the R1. At $199 apiece, that's no small amount of revenue. Perhaps consumer AI hardware is going to be bigger than we thought? Image Credits: Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch

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Instagram eliminates 60 jobs

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Friday, January 12, 2024

Welcome to your Friday Daily Crunch. Today is the last "Daily Crunch" that will hit your inbox. TechCrunch is refreshing its newsletter offerings to bring you even more news on startups, venture capital and Big Tech. Starting Tuesday, January 16, Daily Crunch subscribers will get a bonus newsletter at 7 a.m. PT called “TechCrunch AM.” TechCrunch+ editor-in-chief Alex Wilhelm, who previously wrote Daily Crunch, will do the honors. I'll continue to write what will now be known as “TechCrunch PM.” That's not all — beginning this weekend, our vertical newsletters will have new names to better reflect the content they're putting in your inboxes. For example, TechCrunch Space, TechCrunch Crypto, TechCrunch Mobility and TechCrunch Fintech. See you Tuesday! Image Credits: Anadolu Agency / Contributor / Getty Images

Daily Crunch Top 3 Mark Zuckerberg's "Year of Efficiency" in 2023 is creeping into 2024. In today's top story, Aisha writes about 60 jobs cut over at Instagram, which involves the elimination of a layer of management. There is some good news, if you can call it that: Those employees are being given a chance to secure other roles within the company. Learn what the changes mean for Instagram. Meanwhile, Carly reports that Framework, a U.S. repairable laptop maker, confirmed that hackers accessed customer data after successfully phishing an employee at its accounting service provider. Get the scoop. And Aria has an update on Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander. It's still operating on orbit and "defying all odds." Earlier this week, after what seemed like a successful launch, the lunar lander suffered a fuel leak. Read more. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

More top reads Prometeo raises $13M from PayPal, Samsung: Uruguayan startup Prometeo is building channels to enable open banking across Latin America. While some open banking is focused on national rollouts, Prometeo's approach is to tackle Latin America's extensive fragmentation as a single market. Threads pulls at a Mastodon relationship: Threads' roadmap for integrations with Twitter/X rival Mastodon and others will happen soon, according to Meta. In particular, replies posted on Mastodon servers will become visible in the Threads application. Later in the year, users will be able to follow Mastodon accounts within Threads and then reply to them and like their posts. Coast Runner will have its own desktop CNC mill soon: If it's not evident from Haje Jan Kamps' stories from CES, Haje likes gadgets. And he went in pursuit of the coolest ones and landed in the area of CNC (computer numerical control) mills. He already reported on Rownd. Now see what he thinks of Coast Runner's version. Hertz shows how not to launch a product: Hertz surprised us this week by saying it would sell off some of its electric vehicle fleet. This is after the global pandemic pummeled the travel industry, after all the commercials (featuring Tom Brady!) that touted the EVs and the plan to buy 100,000 Tesla models. Over on TechCrunch+, Tim De Chant discusses how Hertz got here and recalls his own experience of renting an EV. (TC)+ Nasdaq CEO's comments about IPOs: The IPO drought could disappear sooner rather than later if what Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman says comes true. This week, Friedman told investing publication Barron's that more than 100 companies were poised to list on Nasdaq after filing confidentially with the SEC. After pushing their eyes back into their head, Anna Heim and Alex Wilhelm write about what this could mean. (TC+) Consumer tech continues to fill its shopping bag with venture capital: Today, I put on my own TechCrunch+ hat and wrote about how many consumer tech and companies focused on consumer packaged goods (CPG) have gobbled up venture capital in the past year. And why investors are so interested in consumer tech and CPG as an opportunity now. (TC+) CES 2024: Meanwhile, CES 2024 is sadly coming to an end, but our team isn't finished unpacking all of what they saw. Keep checking back as we continue to update everything that was revealed. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

On the pods This week on Equity, we discuss Shimmer raising fresh capital to offer 1:1 personalized ADHD coaching and vacation rental startup Overmoon showing impressive growth. We also took a deeper look at how the IPO window is reopening in 2024. We grabbed our friends Kirsten Korosec and Haje Jan Kamps to close out the show and bring us the latest from CES. Listen here. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

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Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Network Administrator at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA) 2024–25 Technologist-in-Residence Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations (New York, NY, USA) Chief Technology Officer / Cofounder at truckmentum.com (Atlanta, GA, USA) Enterprise Mobility Administrator at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (Middletown, PA, United States) IT Project Lead at Valley Water (San Jose, CA, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 per month.

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