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Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Daily Crunch! It’s lovely to have you here with me. Also, listen to freelance whales. I discovered the band when I started playing another (also excellent) song, freelancer, for a friend. I must like a happy coincidence. By the way, this is also how I discovered the band Queensrÿche – I was looking for some Freddie Mercury, but ended up with a new heavy metal band to love. What is your favorite accidental discovery?
Oh! And did you know – our Found podcast debuted its new mini-sodes, where they check in with past guests to see what the founders’ lives are like. In the first episode, Maggie Stamets speaks with our very first guest: Iman Abuzeid from Incredible healththat helps nurses connect with better jobs and career advancement opportunities.
Okay, enough aside, we have some serious tech news to share. Let’s go ~oooooo — hi
The londonbusinessblog.com Top 3
Startups and VC
Kurt Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Fly.io, says developers don’t really understand the term “edge computing.” Ron reports. Today, the company announced a $25 million Series B that it closed in June.
Evabot co-founder Rabi Gupta states there is “a lot of clutter” in the corporate gift space. He argues that many salespeople don’t do much more than company swag, such as T-shirts and thermoses, which don’t really promote loyalty. Kylea reports. The company announced it has raised just under $11 million to make corporate gifts less of a mess.
We are now reaching a sort of tipping point where we will see many more commercial applications of natural language processing entering the market. There has been a gold rush of startups trying to build on this technology, with an arms race developing between the major language model providers, Mike reports.
Keep it up, a few more:
Pitch Deck Teardown: Alto Pharmacy’s $200 Million Series E-deck
Image Credits: Alto Pharmacy (Opens in a new window)
If your company raises a $200 million Series E, it’s reasonable to debate whether you can still call it a startup.
Still, convincing investors to put aside enough money to produce your own sequel to “The Gray Man” is an impressive feat, which is why we were eager to check out the deck that helped Alto Pharmacy close such a big round.
(londonbusinessblog.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams move forward. You can register here.)
Big Tech Inc.
Instagram announced today that it will encourage a random assortment of people on its platform in the United States to participate in an optional survey about their race and ethnicity, Aisha reports. The company says the research will help better understand the different experiences people can have on Instagram to ensure the platform is fair and inclusive for all users.
According to a report, developers on the west side of London, UK, may be prevented from working on larger multi-tenant properties due to grid conditions and tensions caused by nearby data centers, Paul reports. Bad news for people who hoped London would hit the growth trajectory of 65,000 new homes a year.
Yesterday, Ford reported sales of more than $40 billion, up 50% from the same period last year. The company also reported that it was building 14,000 electric vehicles per month. Wall Street was positively surprised, pushing its share up by as much as 6% in after-hours trading. Rebecca reports.
Grab a few more, why not:
- Google Pixel Bud review: It’s not hard to imagine the Google Pixel Buds Pro really impressing, Brian writes, but he is disappointed that they seem to be a few years behind the curve.
- We’ve come too far to end this now: We’re beyond excited to see what interactive gaming company Immersive Gamebox will do with its plans to build a Squid Game experience with Netflix, Lauren reports.
- Sing me the money: Aisha reports that Snap has launched a creators’ fund, which will grant independent musicians up to $100,000 per month.
- Skip a generation: Smartphone sales in China are falling sharply, reports Brian. Virtually all the big players had a big hit last year compared to this time. Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and Huawei all saw double-digit declines from Q2 2021.
- You also get a lick of paint: Gmail rolls out its latest Material You redesign and search improvements to all users, Ivan writes.
- Meta sees it too, you’re addicted to ads: For the first time in its history, Meta records its first quarterly revenue decline, Amanda reports.
- Pass the gapple sauce: Apple has hired a 20-year veteran of supercar maker Lamborghini to work on the tech company’s not-so-secret electric autonomous vehicle program. Kirsten writes.
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