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Welcome to the Daily Crunch for Monday, April 11, 2022! Today was the day that Elon Musk surprised us by saying he was not joining Twitter’s board, though at this point I think it is more of a “shame on me” as we should stop being surprised by anything he does. Alex, luckily, took a closer look at whether we learned anything. Spoiler alert: “Yes?”
Completely unrelated in every way, Drew made a guest appearance over the weekend, pondering if social media is causing collective (re)trauma.
Take a breath, go outside, you got this, we believe in you! Much love, Christine and Haje
P.S. In case you were outside doing all that breathing this weekend, here are some of the things you might have missed:
- Coinbase suspends support for UPI payments in India just days after launch
- Mayfield’s Arvind Gupta talks fundraising during a downturn
- The non-crypto world feels some FOMO with regard to its cap tables
- Newsletters: Fintech and mobility
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Fitbit pulls at our heartstrings: Google confirmed that its Fitbit wearables are now FDA-approved to detect atrial fibrillation, most commonly known as an irregular heartbeat, which can lead to stroke or heart failure. What will be different, we report, is that “the new tech provides a more always-on approach to AFib detection, versus the periodic checks currently available through the Fitbit app.”
- How much is that AC in the window?: AC units are a pain in everyone’s collective butts, and the team at Windmill wants to de-pain the experience by adding ease of installation and long-lasting appiness to the mix. The company just raised $10 million to expand beyond the thousands of units it has sold to date. Very cool.
- Inside the SailPoint buyout: You’ll see this down in Big Tech, too, but wanted to highlight Alex Wilhelm’s unpeeling of the onion layers into Thoma Bravo’s purchase of enterprise security products company SailPoint. Does the buyout bode well for unicorn exit prices?
Startups and VC
I spoke to the team at Mayht earlier this year, at CES, and I knew the speaker-tech upstart was going places – I just didn’t realize quite how fast. Less than three months later, smart speaker giant Sonos announced it had bought the small but mighty startup. I did an in-depth interview with the founding team back in January, which is extra interesting in the context of this acquisition. Check ‘em both out!
Feast thine eyes on these fine stories:
- You know, for the kids: Epic raises a formidable $2 billion at a whopping $32 billion valuation to build out a metaverse for the younger generation.
- Dude, where’s my car(go): Tive has built a company around knowing exactly where your shipping container is hanging out, and just raised $54 million to continue to keep an eye on things.
- Look at the brains on Brad: Kyle just keeps on knocking amazing stories out of the ballpark (give him a follow on Twitter!). This time, he’s back with a piece on how vision and language combined could be the key to better artificial intelligence.
The Kindbody TC-1
Image Credits: Nigel Sussman
Founded in 2018, Kindbody has raised $154.7 million to build a network of clinics providing fertility, gynecology, and wellness services.
In a three-part series, reporter Rae Witte examined the company’s origins through interviews with founder Gina Bartasi, who explained why she felt called to pivot from fertility insurance to improving patients’ quality of care:
“There were just too many complaints from patients that as a call center at an insurance company, you couldn’t help. So patients would call, and they would complain about the physician leaving them in the waiting room, or not returning their call, or taking a long time to answer the phone. But you cannot effectuate change; you couldn’t really do anything.”
Part 1: How compassion and inclusivity are helping Kindbody change the fertility industry
Part 2: Why focusing on holistic care helped Kindbody triple its revenue in 2021
Part 3: Chipping away at the problems of reproductive healthcare, one patient at a time
(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
Big Tech Inc.
- Etsy sellers are crafting a strike: Starting today, more than 14,000 Etsy sellers planned to strike in protest of the platform raising its transaction fees from 5% to 6.5%, which for some sellers could mean relinquishing over 20% of the transaction to Etsy. Organizers amassed over 48,000 signatures from both buyers and sellers who are asking Etsy to “work with sellers, not against us.”
- Lots o’ M&A activity today: As promised from above, Ron Miller was busy writing this morning, as three companies announced deals: Perforce Software said it will buy infrastructure automation company Puppet, which we reported had been looking for funding when the acquisition opportunity came along. Next, Thoma Bravo’s $6.9 billion acquisition of SailPoint will take the company private. Cybersecurity is a hot market right now, and this will be Thoma Bravo’s sixth acquisition in the field. And, finally, if you didn’t believe us when we say the cyber industry was hot, then maybe Kaseya’s acquisition of Datto, a disaster recovery company, for $6.2 billion will make you a believer.
- Lots o’ streaming news today, too: If you like the Netflix show “Stranger Things,” there is a new experience coming to New York in May. Speaking of Netflix, just one “thumbs up” is not going to cut it anymore, so use the “two thumbs up” to say which shows you love versus merely like. For all you YouTube fans waiting for your picture-in-picture, the company wants you to know it will be “a matter of days.”