Latest and Hotest Technology Updates

Facebook makes a billion-dollar acquisition, we learn more about Twitter’s Clubhouse-style feature and Moderna applies for emergency authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine. This is your Daily Crunch for November 30, 2020.

The big story: Facebook acquires Kustomer for $1B

Kustomer says it can give customer service teams better data and a more unified view of the people they’re interacting with. So with this acquisition, Facebook can improve its offerings for businesses that have a presence (in some cases, their primary digital presence) on the social network.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but TechCrunch has confirmed that the deal price was around $1 billion.

Facebook isn’t the only social media company making acquisitions to improve its customer service features. Earlier this month, Snap bought Voca.ai, a startup creating AI-based voice agents for call centers.

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The tech giants

Alphabet's DeepMind achieves historic new milestone in AI-based protein structure prediction — The advance in DeepMind's AlphaFold capabilities could lead to a significant leap forward in areas like our understanding of disease, as well as future drug discovery and development.

Twitter's Audio Spaces test includes transcriptions, speaker controls and reporting features — Earlier this month, Twitter announced it would soon begin testing its own Clubhouse rival, called Audio Spaces.

With an eye for what's next, longtime operator and VC Josh Elman gets pulled into Apple — Elman said he will be focused on the company's App Store and helping "customers discover the best apps for them."

Startups, funding and venture capital

HungryPanda raises $70M for a food delivery app aimed at overseas Chinese consumers — HungryPanda makes a Mandarin-language app specifically targeting Chinese consumers outside of China.

Materialize scores $40M investment for SQL streaming database — CEO Arjun Narayan told us that every company needs to be a real-time company, and it will take a streaming database to make that happen.

Curio Wellness launches $30M fund to help women and minorities own a cannabis dispensary — The new fund, started by the Maryland-based medical cannabis company Curio Wellness, aims to help underserved entrepreneurs entering the cannabis market.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

DoorDash aims to add $11B to its valuation during public offering — The delivery platform gave a range of $75 to $85 per share.

Strike first, strike hard, no mercy: How emerging managers can win — Investors at Fika Ventures argue that “Cobra Kai” offers valuable lessons for VC.

The road to smart city infrastructure starts with research — The right technology can upgrade any city, but we need to understand its impacts.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. And until November 30 — that’s today! — you can get 25% off an annual membership.)

Everything else

Moderna claims 94% efficacy for COVID-19 vaccine, will ask FDA for emergency use authorization today — If granted the authorization, Moderna will be able to provide it to high-risk individuals such as front-line healthcare workers.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will step down to make way for the Biden administration — Pai's tenure has been a controversial one.

Original Content podcast: Just don't watch Netflix's 'Holidate' with your parents — But if you avoid parental awkwardness, it’s a perfectly adequate holiday-themed romantic comedy.

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The UK’s getting a dedicated regulator to try to encourage more competition and limit the power of big tech. This is your Daily Crunch for November 27, 2020.

The big story: UK sets up pro-competition regulator

The UK is looking to do more to actively limit the power of big tech companies within the country, with a new pro-competition regulator designed to oversee web platforms including Facebook and Google. This body could impose restrictions like forcing ad platforms to opt out of behaviour-based advertising altogether.

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Dell Technologies Biggest Sale of the Year!

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The tech giants

Alibaba gets into the EV market in China with SAIC — The EV market in China is massive, so a massive company like Alibaba getting into the business is not really surprising. It’s partnering up with local automaker SAIC, which makes sense given it’s an entirely new market for Alibaba.

Google-Fitbit merger approval requires human rights safeguards, says Amnesty International – A major international NGO has sent a letter to the EU’s competition chief urging them to build in human rights protections as part of allowing Google’s Fitbit acquisition to proceed.

India sets rules for Ola and Uber fee structure – Uber and Ola (as well as other ride-hailing firms) are now subject to a maximum fee of 20% on rides in India, thanks to a new rule structure put in place on Friday.

Startups, funding and venture capital

College students create an undergraduate hacker house for women – Lacking any options for a good way to take a break from traditional schooling and live and work together building something, a group of college-aged women created their own.

Bigblue aims at ecommerce fulfilment automation – A French startup just raised a seed round to create an automated, end-to-end fulfilment solution for ecommerce companies looking to operate in Europe.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Remote work is the new normal and Wall Street needs to wise up – After stocks for companies focused on remote and home-based work and play took a beating on positive news about COVID-19 vaccines, Ron and Alex explain why this is a short-sighted reaction from public market investors.

Slack could be overpriced on Salesforce tip – Alex looks into the ramifications of the potential Salesforce Slack acquisition and more in The Exchange.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Facebook’s Libra could debut in January – Facebook’s forthcoming cryptocurrency might actually be available by January. I’m surprised it still exists, tbh.

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An Amazon Web Services outage has a wide effect, Salesforce might be buying Slack and Pinterest tests new support for virtual events. This is your Daily Crunch for November 25, 2020.

And for those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving: Enjoy! There will be no newsletter tomorrow, and then Darrell Etherington will be filling in for me on Friday.

The big story: Amazon Web Services stumble

Amazon Web Services began experiencing issues earlier today, which caused issues for sites and services that rely on its cloud infrastructure — as writer Zack Whittaker discovered when he tried to use his Roomba.

Amazon said the issue was largely localized to North America, and that it was working on a resolution. Meanwhile, a number of other companies, such as Adobe and Roku, have pointed to the AWS outage as the reason for their own service issues.

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The tech giants

Slack's stock climbs on possible Salesforce acquisition — News that Salesforce is interested in buying Slack sent shares of the smaller firm sharply higher today.

Pinterest tests online events with dedicated 'class communities' — The company has been spotted testing a new feature that allows users to sign up for Zoom classes through Pinterest.

France starts collecting tax on tech giants — This tax applies to companies that generate more than €750 million in revenue globally and €25 million in France, and that operate either a marketplace or an ad business.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Tiger Global invests in India's Unacademy at $2B valuation — Unacademy helps students prepare for competitive exams to get into college.

WeGift, the 'incentive marketing' platform, collects $8M in new funding — Founded in 2016, WeGift wants to digitize the $700 billion rewards and incentives industry.

Cast.ai nabs $7.7M seed to remove barriers between public clouds — The company was started with the idea that developers should be able to get the best of each of the public clouds without being locked in.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Insurtech's big year gets bigger as Metromile looks to go public — Metromile, a startup competing in the auto insurance market, is going public via SPAC.

Join us for a live Q&A with Sapphire's Jai Das on Tuesday at 2 pm EST/11 am PST — Das has invested in companies like MuleSoft, Alteryx, Square and Sumo Logic.

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Gift Guide: Smart exercise gear to hunker down and get fit with — Smart exercise and health gear is smarter than ever.

Instead of yule log, watch this interactive dumpster fire because 2020 — Sure, why not.

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