Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This week, Natasha Mascarenhas, Mary Ann Azevedo and Rebecca Szkutak jumped on the mic to talk through a diverse news week. Shoutout to our producer, Theresa Loconsolo, for putting together a script, and TC’s Andrew Mendez for this feedback: “Y’all slayyyed that recording and honestly can’t wait to you all up on social media when this episode drops.”
Yes, we’re talking about Gen Z, and yes, if you can’t already tell, we had fun on this week’s recording:
Deals of the week included a new Trust Fund, a $29M raise from a proptech started by the co-founders of cloud computing company DigitalOcean and a $27M bet by some U.S.-based VCs on an African gaming startup, Carry1st.
Then we got into the state of fintech funding in 2022. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t pretty. We compared fintech’s year to that of global startups as a whole, and Becca gave us a lesson on the difference between structured rounds and down rounds.
We had a blast discussing a new trend of compliment-based teen social media apps, including Gas, which recently got acquired by Discord, and Slay, a German startup that just raised $2.63 million.
And finally, we discussed Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs, which we found both unfortunate and a bit perplexing.
On that note, we appreciate you all and thank you for the refreshing flood of feedback and compliments to start off the year. It always makes our days, and we hope we can lighten up and inform yours.
Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together, and more!
Gas, Slay, what’s next? Fire? by Natasha Mascarenhas originally published on TechCrunch
Pasqal, a Paris-based quantum computing startup, today announced that it has raised a $100 million…
Developed with Sony Group Corp, the headset will have two ultra-high-resolution displays to handle the…
After years of blistering growth, most recently fuelled by remote working and studying during the…
Omar Ishrak had stepped down and the chipmaker appointed board director Frank Yeary as his…
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a new federal investment to build and commercialise…