Opendoor co-founder makes his exit

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Friday, December 15, 2023

Sometimes you know when it's time to go. In today's top story, Mary Ann writes that this time it's Opendoor co-founder Eric Wu, who is stepping away from the real estate tech company. In a statement, Wu said he wants to "get back to my startup roots and create and build again." The move isn't too much of a shock — Wu had been gradually decreasing his role in the company for the past year, Mary Ann reports. Get the scoop. Meanwhile, in the pursuit of grabbing market share from the likes of Facebook and basically any other social network, Jagat, a location-based social platform, surpasses 10 million users, Aisha reports. Learn what makes it so popular. And over on TechCrunch+, Jacquelyn covers the CoinFund Founder Forecast survey and why 30 web3 founders are optimistic about 2024. Read more. Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images

More top reads What's that smell?: In the fight against methane, a key greenhouse gas, Valley investors have hit upon an unusual target: Cow burps. Collaborative social media: A new Instagram feature called "Add Yours" lets users create customized templates, essentially like your own meme. Friends can even add to it. See how it works. Headed into space: In Orbit Aerospace wants to be the third-party logistics provider for science and industry. Read more. Extra, extra: A news publisher in Arkansas filed a class action antitrust lawsuit against Google and its parent, accusing the search engine giant of being anticompetitive when it comes to sharing content. Learn more. Pitch Deck Teardown: Haje really lets loose on Metafuels' $8 million climate tech seed deck. See what he says. (TC+) Cloud stocks are back!: Alex writes that the cloud stock rally could help inch open the IPO window in 2024. Do you agree? (TC+) It's not always all-in with AI: When it comes to generative AI in the enterprise, CIOs are taking it slow. Learn why. The scoop on scooters: Scooter startup Superpedestrian, which raised $125 million 18 months ago, is shutting down its U.S. operations as it explores the sale of its Europe business. Read more. No crack: After allowing artistic nudity in certain cases, Twitch is now cracking down on boobs again. Find out why. What was once public is private again: Ubiquiti, a video surveillance company, fixes a glitch that exposed private video streams to other customers. Learn what happened. Crypto bull’s-eye: Robinhood is on a quest to dive deeper into crypto, targeting anyone interested in digital asset investing, regardless of their experience. Here's the plan. (TC+) Six more stories you should read: MrBeast's analytics platform ViewStats is out in beta Waymo launches curbside robotaxi pickup at Phoenix airport What is happening with all these new venture funds? Credit Karma co-founder Nichole Mustard stepping down after more than 16 years Seed-stage investors react to higher hurdles for Series A funding 7 stellar photography gifts that won't break the bank in 2023 Image Credits: Getty Images under a license.

On the pods Today on Equity, we kicked off our episode with a breaking story from Cruise, which announced it will be cutting 24% of its staff. And steering away from layoffs, we turned to Prevu’s $6 million Series A and we look at why Verve Motion just raised $20 million for supportive lifting suits, what’s bubbling up in the French venture ecosystem, and how a few mega-deals are changing the numbers for AI. Listen here. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard QA Engineer, Data Validation at Murmuration (New York, NY, USA) Michigan Online, Software Engineer at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) Senior Software Engineer at Opus (New York, NY, USA) Director of Sales at Opus (New York, NY, USA) Mid Full Stack Software Developer at Gene by Gene, Ltd (Houston, TX, USA) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 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

Cruise cuts 900 jobs as revamp gets underway

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Thursday, December 14, 2023

In today's top story, Kirsten learned exclusively that General Motors' self-driving car division Cruise was slashing 24% of its workforce. Most of the cuts are being made in non-engineering positions. Get more of the scoop. This follows Kirsten's coverage yesterday of a number of Cruise managers and executives leaving after an initial safety probe involving a pedestrian that was struck and dragged by one of the company's robotaxis. Meanwhile, Ivan writes about a new Instagram feature that enables generative AI–powered editing of photo backgrounds. See it in action. And Lorenzo has a look at a supply chain attack that targeted Ledger, a company that makes hardware and software for crypto wallets. Learn how it started. Image Credits: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

More top reads Mega deal: India's Udaan, a business-to-business e-commerce startup, scores $340 million in new funding. Read about one of India's largest funding deals this year. Not just human, but superhuman: OpenAI thinks superhuman AI is coming and, of course, wants to build tools to control it. Here is the company's plan. A dose of their own medicine: Microsoft disrupts a cybercrime operation by selling fraudulent accounts to a notorious hacking gang. Take that! Mission accomplished: Amazon's Project Kuiper confirms its super-fast satellite communication tech works in space. Learn more. Connected home: Google Nest Renew and OhmConnect merge into "Renew Home" with a $100 million boost from Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners. Here's how it will work. No strings attached: Meta's Threads is finally available to users in the European Union. Welcome! At it again: Apple again targets iMessage-on-Android app Beeper, but the company isn't taking it lying down. There's a fix. A good sign: Paris-based venture capital firm Singular raises $435 million for its second fund. Learn more. You've got email . . . and a calendar: Encrypted email service Proton Mail finally gets its own desktop app. See what you get. Pivot: Jumia, a Pan-African e-commerce company, discontinues its food delivery across seven markets, instead shifting focus to expanding its physical goods business. Here's why. The elephant in the social media room: Mastodon founder touts Threads' federation, saying it makes his X rival "a far more attractive option." Get the scoop. Shop till you drop: Social commerce platform Maka raises $2.65 million to simplify buying fashion and beauty products in Africa. Read more. Pay for play: Andreessen Horowitz says it will give literally any politician money if they help deregulate tech. Call it optimism. Even more for your Thursday: Spotify confirms test of prompt-based AI playlists feature Temu's latest lawsuit against Shein is wild (TC+) Boston Dynamics joins forces with firm behind 'Avatar,' 'Jurassic Park' animatronics Linktree acquires link-in-bio platform Koji in its second investment of the year BoxGroup closes on $425M for two funds to back early-stage startups Image Credits: Dhiraj Singh / Bloomberg / Getty Images

On the pods For this week's episode of Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed Johann Kerbrat, the general manager of crypto at Robinhood. Johann is leading the application’s effort to expand its crypto exchange business and make digital assets more accessible to retail investors. We discussed Robinhood's expansion outside the U.S., how the platform restricted holding and trading of certain crypto assets in June, and where it stands today. We also talked about: Appealing to mainstream audiences. Growing crypto on its platform. Regulatory concerns. Robinhood's 2024 objectives. Chain Reaction comes out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. ET, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action. Read More Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard Michigan Online, Software Engineer at University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) Senior Software Engineer at Opus (New York, NY, USA) Director of Sales at Opus (New York, NY, USA) Mid Full Stack Software Developer at Gene by Gene, Ltd (Houston, TX, USA) Cloud Engineer Lead at Itemize Corp. (Anywhere) See more jobs on CrunchBoard Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $349 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