Online payment methods can be expensive for merchants, who have to pay between 2% and 8% of every sale to debit and credit card, ewallet and BNPL facilitators. Much of this is often passed to consumers. Fast was a hugely well-funded startup that tried to address this by closed in spectacular fashion just recently. Other…
Autonomous vehicle startup Pony.ai has been awarded a permit in Guangzhou to operate 100 robotaxis as traditional taxis. The license, which allows Pony to charge for rides in its autonomous vehicles, signifies another step on the path to commercializing autonomous ride-hail vehicles in China. WeRide, one of Pony’s competitors in China, has been running a…
Twitter is smaller than you think. The company has around 7,000 employees, compared to other social media platforms like Meta, formerly Facebook, which has nearly 10 times as many employees. It means that a shake as large as we’ve seen today — with Elon Musk’s $44 billion bid winning him ownership of Twitter — has…
There’s no denying that including live sports content will ultimately be a boon to streaming services. However, last week, when Netflix executives were asked about live sports after the company reported a disappointing first-quarter net loss of 200,000 subscribers, Ted Sarandos pretty much rejected the possibility that the streamer would use live sports to generate…
Even in markets where credit card penetration is high, shopping cart abandonment is still a major source of concern for online vendors. Now imagine the situation in Southeast Asia, where many countries have scores of e-wallets, buy now pay later services and other forms of payment. Bank transfers are also popular option for online purchases,…
Elon Musk said Sunday via Twitter that his tunnel-building-for-urban-transport business The Boring Company will attempt to build a high-speed, and still theoretical, hyperloop in the coming years. In 2013, Musk put out a white paper that outlined the idea of a transport system that could send passengers and cargo in pods through a low-pressure tube…
Front’s cap table reads like an honor role of investors. CEO and co-founder Mathilde Collin raised funds from numerous Silicon Valley firms and individual investors. On April 27 she’s speaking on TechCrunch Live to share her strategy that allowed her company to raise funds from less traditional VCs. One of those VCs is also speaking…
It’s been a wild month of news for the social network that we collectively love to hate. In early April, Elon Musk took a bite out of Twitter, coming away with 9.2% of the company and plans to exercise his influence over the company through its board. After that he backed out of his planned…
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. When Andreessen Horowitz unveiled its new early-stage startup accelerator, which has been in the works for over a year, my eyes searched for two things: check size and ownership target. I care…
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. When Andreessen Horowitz unveiled its new early-stage startup accelerator, which has been in the works for over a year, my eyes searched for two things: check size and ownership target. I care…
