Yesterday at around noon in Los Angeles, investor Mark Suster of the venture firm Upfront Ventures began urging “calm” on Twitter. Silicon Valley Bank had bungled its messaging on Wednesday around an effort to strengthen its balance sheet, and startup founders were beginning to fear that their deposits at the tech-friendly, 40-year-old institution were at…
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PST, subscribe here. Hi, Crunchers, Today, there’s only one story on everyone’s lips: The sudden and dramatic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the 40-year-old Silicon Valley institution. With $209 billion of assets under management…
No one can predict the follow-on effects of a moment like this. We are in uncharted territory. I write this twice-weekly newsletter on a tight deadline, so when I saw a press release that started with “Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, was closed today,” I realized I might need to pivot. To protect SVB’s…
Jonathan Schwartz Contributor When engaging with our portfolio companies as well as with new investment opportunities, we’ve noticed that “profitability” and “efficiency” are two words that are often grouped with “growth” in every sentence. Three months into 2023, investors continue to use buzz words like “responsible growth,” “business efficiency” and “quality marketing” when explaining how…
In a way, fruit flies are just like us. They have eyes, legs, nervous systems, and they love fruit. Unlike us, however, they only have a few thousand neurons in their brains, which means scientists can map not just all the cells but all the connections between them — producing for the first time a…
In a way, fruit flies are just like us. They have eyes, legs, nervous systems, and they love fruit. Unlike us, however, they only have a few thousand neurons in their brains, which means scientists can map not just all the cells but all the connections between them — producing for the first time a…
Startups are facing a moment of reckoning in the current economic climate, and today one of the more promising in the world of fintech has cracked under the pressure. Railsr, the London, UK embedded finance startup formerly known as Railsbank and once worth nearly $1 billion, announced today that it has been acquired by a…
Keith Putnam-Delaney Contributor Keith Putnam-Delaney is the founder and CEO of Primer, a platform that offers hyperprecise targeting for B2B marketers. Growing a B2B business is becoming increasingly complex. The market is inundated with products thanks to the explosion of SaaS, it’s getting harder to leverage ad platforms and email, and identity management is Byzantine.…
Using data to make better decisions faster helps startups in the crowded SaaS space improve product development, identify hidden market opportunities and complete work with fewer false steps, important priorities as these startups seek out a piece of the booming SaaS market, projected to increase by 19.7% over the next six years. A Singapore- and…
Among the wave of Spotify announcements coming out of today’s Spotify Stream On event, the company also shared some exciting news with podcast listeners — in particular, Batman fans. Spotify is launching a new podcast series “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark,” starring comedian-actor Hasan Minhaj as The Riddler. As part of Spotify’s exclusive multiyear…
