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Happy new week! Christine went on a well-deserved break, so you’ll be dealing with a double dose of my awful puns and worse headlines for a while.
Oh! And we’re having a live Q&A session on Twitter Spaces tomorrow at noon PT about what a 409A rating is and why you might care. Our own Natasha Mascarenhas and Anita Ramaswamy will speak with Sumukh from AngelList and Phil from Equityzen. You can set a handy reminder here yourself. – hi
The londonbusinessblog.com Top 3
- Exploration of vertical lines: “In a market like Egypt, retailers do not agree with the concept of paying for” [buy now pay later] with interest at the end of the month. They prefer it to be a part of product pricing and embedded in the order cycle, which makes us a little bit different,” Cartona’s CEO said. Tageas the company raises $12 million.
- Snap snaps in half: Snap took a beating after releasing its Q2 earnings and investors are having none of it. The stock plunged 40% on Friday, with investors adjusting their expectations for the once-fashionable social media platform. Luke reports.
- Healthcare premium? Amazon bought medical provider One Medical for nearly $4 billion. If that makes you scratch your noggin, Alex, Miranda and Walter got three takes on why and how that makes sense on londonbusinessblog.com+.
Startups and VC
Since its launch nine years ago, Seedstars has invested in 81 companies in more than 30 emerging countries. Now the company has set a goal to invest in another 100 startups with the launch of its second seed-stage fund for emerging markets, Catherine reports.
BAI Capital, the legendary China-focused venture investment firm formerly known as Bertelsmann Asia Investments, has raised $700 million to support Chinese companies that are part of the country’s structural reform, as well as companies expanding abroad, it reports. report. Rita.
Devin reviews Framework’s modular laptop. “Framework isn’t necessarily trying to get people who are already wild for DIY to scale up – this is about capturing people who want a little more flexibility and reusability but can’t find it in mainstream devices”: I thought this helped to cement the target a bit. If you like it, read it!
Go on, take a few more:
- Not so secure messaging: The popular video calling and messaging app JusTalk claims to be both secure and encrypted. But a security flaw revealed that the app is not secure or encrypted after a huge cache of unencrypted private messages from users was found online. Bag reports.
- To work remotely or not to work remotely: 77% of executives said they would consider firing employees or cutting their pay if they refuse to return to the office. Allwhere is secretly launched to help companies better manage their remote workforce, Kylea reports.
- Sir? Is this your lead balloon? Shares of Zomato fell as much as 14% to a record low on Monday, the end of the lock-in period for investors holding stakes in the company prior to the IPO. manish reports.
- Find all solutions at once: World Fund, a newcomer to climate VC country, is leading the way in a $128 million round for IQM, in hopes that the Finnish quantum computing company will one day deliver CO2 reductions by the megaton, Harris reports.
- You have the power: Perfect for those looking to charge multiple high-draw devices at once, Anker’s new GaNPrime charger range delivers up to 150 watts of power which I reported today.
How Ecommerce Brands Can Survive This Market Drop
Image Credits: Roc Channels (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Inflation is rising and consumer confidence is falling. Therefore, ecommerce startups hoping to weather the ongoing downturn need to expand their product offerings. Does that sound counter-intuitive?
“The more complementary and additive a product is to your catalog, the larger your cart and the more likely a customer will return,” says Bennett Carroccio. Before founding Canal, he worked with hundreds of companies as a consumer investment partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
In this TC+ post, he identifies two cost centers that are easiest to monitor and shares three tactics for “averting the brand pocalypse.”
(londonbusinessblog.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams move forward. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
Big tech — including Facebook and Google — have signed a pact to self-regulate harmful content shared across digital platforms in New Zealand. Critics say it’s a ‘weak effort to get ahead of regulation’, reports Paul
Rita reports exciting news for self-driving car enthusiasts – numerous autonomous driving vehicles are being tested on Shenzhen’s roads today: Pony.ai, Baidu, DeepRoute, AutoX, you name it. To date, these vehicles have not been the driverless vehicles that tech perfumes envision for the future. That will change from August 1, as driverless cars become legal in Shenzhen, China.
Also in the land of Automotive, Cruise is living up to its promise to launch an autonomous driving service in Dubai. Just a few weeks after the General Motors-backed AV company officially launched its driverless commercial operations in San Francisco, Cruise has sent two of its autonomous vehicles to Dubai to map the city in preparation for a planned 2023 launch. Rebecca reports.
More, more, always more:
- Skating to where the puck is going: NFL Game Pass is no more. NFL+ streaming service launches in the US, as Lauren reports.
- Google for Work becomes tablet tier: Good news for people who use Drive, Dogs, Spreadsheets and other Google services on their tablets: Google is adding optimizations to improve your life, Aisha reports.
- Money for nothing, and Stevie Nicks for free: Creators on Facebook can now make money even if their content uses licensed music, reports Aisha.
- To bypass App Store charges: An important milestone in a long-running battle, Netflix’s iOS app now has a sign up button. This will allow you to sign up for its service through its website, rather than through Apple’s subscription services, where the computer giant would take a discount on Netflix subscription fees, reports Ivan.
- When losing data really costs money: Telecom giant T-Mobile will pay customers $350 million as part of a data breach settlement, Devin reports.
A bit spicy for the mouse: In the US, Disney+ is rolling out a number of R-rated movies as ‘Deadpool’, ‘Deadpool 2’ and ‘Logan’ make it onto the streaming platform, writes Lauren.
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