Category: Tech news

Managers of the ImageNet data set paved the way for advances in deep learning. Now they’ve taken a big step to protect people’s privacy.

Happy 3/14! Here’s how this mathematical constant keeps train cars from flying off their tracks during turns.

Who says there is no room for a new social network?

Tiger Global is in advanced stages of talks to lead a round of $15 million to $20 million in seven-month-old Kutumb that values the Indian startup at about $170 million, four people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

The American investment firm has offered a termsheet to the Indian startup but the deal — a Series A — has not closed yet, some of the people said on the condition of anonymity as the talks are private. Usual caveat: Terms may change, or the deal may not materialize.

Kutumb, which means family in Hindi, has built a “private social network like Reddit” that connects communities based on “culture, creed, beliefs, interests, [and] professions.”

The startup’s eponymous six-month-old app has amassed over 11 million monthly active users, up from about 550,000 in December last year, according to mobile insight firm App Annie (data of which an industry executive shared with TechCrunch.)

Kutumb was valued at about $15 million late last year when it raised funds from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge accelerator. It raised about $2.5 million in its seed financing round, according to insight firm Tracxn.

Tiger Global declined to comment. One of the co-founders of Kutumb didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Apple has discontinued its original HomePod after four years. It says that it will continue to produce and focus on the HomePod mini, introduced last year. The larger HomePod offered a beefier sound space but the mini has been very well received and clearly accomplishes many of the duties that the larger version was tasked with. The sound is super solid (especially for the size) and it offers access to Siri, Apple’s assistant feature.

The original HomePod was a feat of audio engineering that Apple spent over five years developing. In order to accomplish its development, the team at Apple built out a full development center near its headquarters in Cupertino, with a world-class development environment with a dozen anechoic chambers, including one of the bigger anechoic chambers outside of academic use in the US. I visited the center before its release, noting that Apple took it the extra mile to get the incredibly complex series of tweeters and woofer that built its soundspace:

But slathered on top of that is a bunch of typically Apple extra-mile jelly. Apple says that its largest test chamber is one of the biggest in the US, on a pad, suspended from the outside world with nothing to pollute its tests of audio purity. Beyond testing for the acoustic qualities of the speaker, these chambers allowed Apple to burrow down to account for and mitigate the issues that typically arise from having a high excursion subwoofer in such a small cabinet. Going even further, there are smaller chambers that allow them to isolate the hum from electronic components (there is a computer on board after all) and make attempts to insulate and control that noise so it doesn’t show up in the final output.

I found it to be one of the best speakers ever made for the home when I reviewed it in 2018. From the booming base and well-shaped nature of the tweeter assembly inside; the cloth cover that was specially shaped to avoid interfering with sound quality in any way; the way that it sensed the way that audio was being shaped by walls and other obstructions and adjusted its output to compensate. It was the definition of ‘no effort spared’ in the speaker department.

The major gripe for the speaker at the time was the $349 price, which was at the top end of the home speaker market, especially those with embedded home assistants. A price drop to $299 mitigated that somewhat, but still put it at the top of the pricing umbrella for the class. Apple’s HomePod mini, launched last year, has been well received. Our Brian Heater said that it had ‘remarkably big sound’ for the $99 price.

Apple gave TechCrunch a statement about the discontinuation:

HomePod mini has been a hit since its debut last fall, offering customers amazing sound, an intelligent assistant, and smart home control all for just $99. We are focusing our efforts on HomePod mini. We are discontinuing the original HomePod, it will continue to be available while supplies last through the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Resellers. Apple will provide HomePod customers with software updates and service and support through Apple Care.

Existing HomePods will continue to be sold but Apple’s website is already out of Space Gray. It will continue to provide support for existing HomePods. Apple seems to be betting on the mini going forward, which could point to their desire to fill every room with ‘good enough’ sound rather than to focus on the living room with ‘truly unbelievable’ sound. The HomePod itself never quite got to the level where it could act as a full home theater replacement, though paired in their multi-speaker configurations.

The HomePod research and production efforts will live on in some ways through Apple’s advanced audio rendering systems that led to things like Spatial Audio in AirPods. I quite enjoy the ones in my home and have yet to add any minis to the mix. Maybe a last minute hunt is in order.

Passion Capital, the early-stage venture firm in London, told TechCrunch earlier this week that — in an apparent first for a European fund —  it plans to crowdfund the final stage of its third and latest vehicle. Specifically, it’s carving out around half a million dollars for anyone who wants to invest in the vehicle, as long as they are a high net worth individual.

Firm founder Eileen Burbidge says the outfit was inspired by developments it has seen here in the U.S., from AngelList’s rolling fund program, to an imminent change in a crowdfunding regulation, Reg CF, that on Monday is set to increase the maximum amount that can be raised through a crowdfunding campaign from $1.07 million in any twelve-month period to $5 million — a nearly five-fold increase.

The move is interesting, especially coming on the heels of some other recent initiatives to democratize venture capital. But if crowdfunding a piece of traditional venture funds does become a bigger trend, it’s not going to happen overnight. We talked with fund formation attorneys and administrators this week, and they’d barely registered that the crowdfunding limit is about to quintuple because they aren’t being asked about it.

Why not? One fund formation attorney said he doesn’t think it will become a viable fundraising path — unless other paths aren’t available — because of the benefits of having investors who can provide contacts and expertise to portfolio companies. Think of the many funds that count CTOs as limited partners, for example; VCs can learn a lot about the kinds of technology they’re looking to implement by bringing them into the fold.

There are other pragmatic concerns, too. VCs like to personally know their limited partners because they call down capital on a deal-by-deal basis and want to be sure their investors will come through with the money.

A crowdfunded component could also be a “big  and permanent administrative burden,” given that it could involve “potentially hundreds of equity owners for a relatively small amount of money.” So notes attorney Mike Sullivan of the global law firm Orrick.

A less obvious reason VCs might not be thinking much about crowdfunding ties to complications when it comes to a firm’s internal rate of return. VCs don’t like to have money sitting around on their balance sheet; they like to call down the capital as they need it, because the clock doesn’t start ticking on an investment until they do this. (That gives them more time to hopefully shepherd an investment into an eventual success story that they can later tweet about.)

Asked about why the new crowdfunding cap isn’t on his colleagues’ radar yet, one fund administrator tells us it’s because they’re all too busy dealing with with SPACs, those special purpose acquisition companies that are springing up like mushrooms.

That many of these blank-check outfits are taking public fairly nascent tech companies — giving retail investors access more access to the kinds of high-risk, high-reward startups that would normally be out of reach —  could also slow the extent to which VCs begin incorporating more “ordinary” investors into the asset class.

Still, absent a last-minute change by the Biden administration — and it doesn’t that appear one is coming (at least, Gary Gensler’s nomination to serve as SEC chairman still requires full Senate confirmation) — Reg CF is on the cusp of changing.

It’s worth paying closer attention to what ripple effects — and opportunities — might result.

Extra Crunch publishes a variety of article types, but how-tos are my favorite category.

For many entrepreneurs, the startup they are trying to get off the ground might be only the second entry on their resume. As a result, they don’t have much experience to draw from when it comes to basics like hiring, fundraising and growth marketing.

Last week, Natasha Mascarenhas interviewed experts who had some strategic advice for finding the right time to bring a product manager on board. This afternoon, we published a guest post by growth marketer Jessica Li with tips for “how nontechnical talent can build relationships with deep tech companies.”

We’ve also received great feedback on a recent guest post about bootstrapping options for SaaS founders written by a founder who’s actually done it.

Full Extra Crunch articles are only available to members.
Use discount code ECFriday to save 20% off a one- or two-year subscription.

If you have some startup-related “how” and “why” questions, please browse our Extra Crunch How To stories. They’re aimed squarely at early-stage founders and workers trying to solve long-term problems.

Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch this week! I hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, TechCrunch
@yourprotagonist

Welcome to Bloxburg, public investors

Image Credits: Steve Jennings / Getty Images

As Roblox began to trade Wednesday, the company’s shares shot above its reference price of $45 per share. Roblox, a gaming company aimed at children, has had a tumultuous if exciting path to the public markets.

Seeing Roblox trade so very far above its direct listing reference price and final private valuation appears to undercut the argument that this sort of debut can sort out pricing issues inherent in more traditional IPOs.

4 ways startups will drive GPT-3 adoption in 2021

Image Credits: Zastrozhnov (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Trained on trillions of words, GPT-3 is a 175-billion parameter transformer model — the third of such models released by OpenAI.

GPT-3 is remarkable in its ability to generate human-like text and responses, able to return coherent and topical emails, tweets, trivia and much more. In 2021, this technology will power the launch of a thousand new startups and applications.

There have never been more $100M+ fintech rounds than right now

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

We are in a period of all-time record investment for so-called mega-rounds, or investments of $100 million or more inside the fintech realm.

To date, Q1 2021 is ahead and is thus guaranteed to set a new record, having already bested the preceding all-time high. What’s going on?

Global-e files to go public as e-commerce startups enjoy a renaissance

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

Global-e, an e-commerce platform that helps online sellers reach global consumers, filed to go public on Tuesday. Global-e’s business exploded amid the pandemic in 2020, and the company expects that the COVID-fueled shift to e-commerce will only lead to future growth.

Passive collaboration is essential to remote work’s long-term success

Image Credits: Alistair Berg (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Have you ever popped into a meeting because you overheard a snippet of a conversation and wanted to share your perspective?

That’s passive collaboration — low-friction ways to invite new ideas. But it’s only when we’re able to fully realize passive collaboration virtually that we’ll have unlocked the full potential of remote and hybrid work situations.

Dear Sophie: What are the pros and cons of the H-1B, O-1A and EB-1A?

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Dear Sophie:

I’m an entrepreneur who wants to expand my startup to the U.S. What are the benefits and drawbacks of various types of visas and green cards?

The ones I’ve heard the most about are the H-1B, O-1 and EB-1A.

— Intelligent in India

Proactive CEOs should prioritize European expansion

Image Credits: Sean Gladwell (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Many investors will encourage CEOs to remain U.S.-centric this year and perhaps expand their product offering or move into new market segments. But 95% of the world’s population lives outside the U.S., making an expansion into Europe your best growth lever.

Coupang follows Roblox to a strong first day of trading

Image Credits: Bloomberg (opens in a new window)/ Getty Images

After Roblox debuted on Wednesday, Coupang followed, with shares shooting above the South Korean e-commerce giant’s IPO price range. Quick math shows Coupang is worth around $92 billion at the moment, a huge number that nearly zero companies will ever reach.

How and when to hire your first product manager

Image Credits: Francesco Carta Fotografo (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Because product managers and founders often have overlapping skill sets, it can be tricky to find the right candidate.

While it’s different for every company, hiring a PM ensures companies aren’t “chasing the shiny object” but rather building the things that create enduring value for customers.

Deep Science: AI adventures in arts and letters

Image Credits: Alashi / Getty Images (Image has been modified)

AI isn’t confined to the tech sphere; machine learning is applicable across disciplines, from music and the “computational unfolding” of ancient letters to figuring out where EV charging stations need to be built.

A first look at Coursera’s S-1 filing

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

The SEC filing offers a glimpse into the finances of how an edtech company, accelerated by the pandemic, performed over the past year.

It paints a picture of growth, albeit one that came at steep expense.

Olo’s IPO could value the company north of $3B as Toast waits in the wings

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

Olo has a history of growth and profitability, making its impending pricing all the more interesting.

But are investors willing to pay more for profits? And, if so, how much?

From electric charging to supply chain management, InMotion Ventures preps Jaguar for a sustainable future

Image Credits: Andrew Ferraro — Handout/Jaguar Racing / Getty Images

InMotion’s investment in Circulor, a company that monitors supply chains from raw material inputs to finished outputs with an eye toward sustainable sourcing, shows the firm’s dedication to backing companies across the mobility space broadly.

White-label voice assistants will win the battle for podcast discovery

Image Credits: maxkabakov (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Americans are bored, housebound and screened out, driving roughly 128 million Americans to use a voice assistant at least once a month.

This has created a golden opportunity for audio as consumers turn to podcasts, voice assistants and smart speakers.

Why I’m hitting pause on ARR-focused coverage

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

One of the first recurring features Alex Wilhelm established at Extra Crunch was the “$100M ARR Club,” ongoing coverage of startups that have reached scale.

“Forget a $1 billion valuation — $100 million in annual recurring revenue is the cool kids’ club,” he wrote in December 2019. Since then, he expanded it to cover companies that attained $50M ARR.

The concept is a useful lens for studying the market. I can say this with confidence because it’s been widely copied by other tech news outlets. But this morning, Alex surprised me — he’s shelving the ARR Club, at least for now.

“In the end it became a pre-IPO list that was fun but not entirely educational, by my reckoning,” he told me. “The $50M ARR club evolution was supposed to help shake loose more interesting operational details, but just didn’t.”

Before putting the format on hiatus, Alex’s last ARR Club roundup looks at in-office display and kiosk startup AppSpace, data backup unicorn Druva, and Synack, which makes security software.

TC Early Stage: The premier how-to event for startup entrepreneurs and investors

From April 1-2, some of the most successful founders and VCs will explain how they build their businesses, raise money and manage their portfolios.

At TC Early Stage, we’ll cover topics like recruiting, sales, legal, PR, marketing and brand building. Each session includes ample time for audience questions and discussion.

Use discount code ECNEWSLETTER to take 20% off the cost of your TC Early Stage ticket!

A prominent Republican senator weighs in on Amazon’s labor disputes, Microsoft reports a security vulnerability in Exchange and we examine ByteDance’s gaming strategy. This is your Daily Crunch for March 12, 2021.

The big story: Marco Rubio sides with Amazon workers

Senator Marco Rubio published an op-ed in USA Today declaring his support for workers in Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, as they seek to unionize.

It’s surprising for a Republican senator to throw his weight behind a nascent labor union, but it seems that Rubio’s position has as much to do with his feelings about Amazon as his labor politics. In fact, his op-ed warned of the “dangers posed by the unchecked influence of labor unions,” while also arguing that Amazon is guilty of “uniquely malicious corporate behavior.”

The tech giants

Hackers are exploiting vulnerable Exchange servers to drop ransomware, Microsoft says — This puts tens of thousands of email servers at risk of destructive attacks.

How ByteDance plans to crack the gaming industry — The company’s strategy consists of a genre-spanning portfolio, a hiring spree, a proven monetization scheme, and a focus on both the domestic and overseas markets.

Elon Musk, Tesla board sued in lawsuit alleging ‘erratic’ tweets violate fiduciary duty — A Tesla investor is suing the company board and Musk for continuing to send “erratic tweets” that violate a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that requires oversight of his social media activities.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Assembled, an operating system for support teams, raises $16.6M — The round was led by Emergence Capital, a VC that specializes in enterprise startups.

Eying sustainability gains for its supply chain, BMW backs Boston Metal’s CO2-free iron production tech — The Boston startup had targeted a $50 million raise earlier in the year, and BMW’s addition closes out that round.

Legl gets $7M to help law firms upgrade to digital workflows — The Legl platform offers tools to streamline core business processes such as customer onboarding, due diligence and payments.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

How nontechnical talent can break into deep tech — Tactical advice for finding, reaching out to, cultivating relationships with, and working at deep tech companies.

US-listed SPACs have a new target: Latin American tech companies — There has been an unprecedented IPO boom of tech companies in the Brazilian stock exchange.

Why I’m hitting pause on ARR-focused coverage — Alex Wilhelm says that ultimately, he was getting similar notes from each company.

Everything else

Big Tech companies cannot be trusted to self-regulate: We need Congress to act — Thoughts from Color of Change’s Arisha Hatch.

Here are the new features and upgraded virtual Startup Alley experience at TC Disrupt 2021 — This year, we’re shaking things up a bit to help exhibiting founders make the most of a virtual environment.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

Immune intelligence startup Serimmune hopes to better understand the relationship between antibody epitopes (the parts of antigen molecules that bind to antibodies) and the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The company’s proprietary technology, originally developed at UC Santa Barbara, provides a new and specific way of mapping the entire array of an individual’s antibodies through a small blood sample. They do this through the use of a bacterial peptide display — a sort of screening mechanism that can isolate plasmid DNA from antibody-bound bacteria in the sample. This DNA can then be sequenced to identify epitopes, which provide information about which antigens someone may have been exposed to, as well as how their immune system responded to them.

“It’s a very highly multiplexed and exquisitely specific way of looking at the epitopes found by antibodies in a specimen,” said Serimmune CEO Noah Nasser, who has a degree in molecular biology from UC San Diego and has previously worked for several diagnostics companies.

This week, Serimmune announced the launch of a new application of their core technology to help understand the disease states of and immune responses to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

“So what we do is we take these antibody profiles we build, and we’re able to then map those back with about a 12 amino acid specificity to the SARS-CoV-2 proteome,” said Nasser. “And what we find is that antibody expression is highly correlated to disease state, so we can distinguish mild, moderate, severe and asymptomatic disease on the basis of antibodies that are present in the specimen.”

The more patient data Serimmune can collect, the better its core technology becomes at finding patterns across different antigen exposure and disease severity. Noticing those patterns sooner won’t only help physicians and researchers to better understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus operates, but can also inform new approaches to diagnostics, treatments and vaccines for any antigen.

Serimmune’s launch of its new COVID antibody epitope mapping service is a way of making this data more accessible to customers like vaccine companies, government agencies and academic labs that have shown interest in better understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2.

“The key was to zero in on the information that researchers wanted to know and standardize that,” said Nasser. “We can actually now provide these results back in as few as two days from sample receipt.”

Beyond this new service, Serimmune also has plans to launch a longitudinal clinical study on immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Using a painless at-home collection kit, study participants send in small blood samples to Serimmune, which then uses its core technology to outline an individual immunity map.

“We provide their results back to them in the form of a personal immune landscape to COVID,” said Nasser. “And what we’re trying to do is to understand over time how that immune response changes, and what happens to that immune response on repeated exposure to COVID.”

The mapping technology is now so specific that it can tell whether a patient has antibodies from natural exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus or from a vaccine, he added.

While the primary focus for Serimmune remains these applications to the COVID-19 pandemic for now, Nasser also mentioned that the company has plans to move into personalized medicine, potentially offering their mapping service directly to interested patients.

“We believe that this has value to individual patients in understanding their immune status and what antigens they’ve been exposed to,” he said. Until then, Serimmune plans to continue growing its database with more patient samples.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweets are the subject of another lawsuit.

A Tesla investor is suing the company board and Musk for continuing to send “erratic tweets” that violate a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that requires oversight of his social media activities. The lawsuit, which was first reported by Bloomberg, claims Musk is exposing the company to potential fines and penalties from regulators and could drive down its share price. The lawsuit names the board for failing to control Musk’s behavior, which puts the company at risk.

The lawsuit by investor Chase Gharrity, which was filed in Delaware Chancery Court, was unsealed Friday. It was originally filed March 8. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. 

Tesla, Musk and the SEC reached an agreement in April 2019 that gave the CEO freedom to use Twitter — within certain limitations — without fear of being held in contempt for violating an earlier court order. The agreement allows Musk to tweet as he wishes except when it’s about certain events or financial milestones. In those cases, Musk must seek pre-approval from a securities lawyer, according to the agreement filed with Manhattan federal court.

The April 2019 agreement was the product of a years-long fight between Musk and the SEC that began after his infamous August 7, 2018 tweet in which he stated the company had “funding secured” for a private takeover at $420 per share. The SEC filed a complaint alleging that Musk had committed securities fraud.

Musk and Tesla settled with the SEC without admitting wrongdoing. Tesla agreed to pay a $20 million fine; Musk had to agree to step down as Tesla chairman for a period of at least three years; the company had to appoint two independent directors to the board; and Tesla was also told to put in place a way to monitor Musk’s statements to the public about the company, including via Twitter.

The fight was reignited after Musk sent a tweet on February 19, 2019 that Tesla would produce “around” 500,000 cars that year, correcting himself hours later to clarify that he meant the company would be producing at an annualized rate of 500,000 vehicles by year’s end.

This latest lawsuit alleges that Musk’s tweeting violates the April 2019 judgment and betrays his, and the board’s, fiduciary duty.  The 105-page suit cites several tweets sent from Musk’s account, including a tweet on May 1, 2020 — over a year after the SEC judgment — which stated: “Tesla stock is too high IMO.”

The tweet sent shares into a free fall — nearly 12% in the half-hour following his stock price tweets. The tweet was one of many sent out in rapid fire that day, covering a variety of topics and demands “give people back their freedom” and lines from the U.S. National Anthem to quotes from poet Dylan Thomas and a claim that he will sell all of his possessions. Musk later told the Wall Street Journal in an email that he was not joking and that his tweets were not vetted in advance.

The lawsuit revealed Friday alleges that the Tesla board has also failed to secure a general counsel “who can provide advice untainted by Musk,” the lawsuit. Three general counsels departed from the company in 2019, which the lawsuit points to as evidence that none were able to exercise independent advice that differed from Musk’s “desired outcome.”

Musk’s “erratic” actions have caused the company “substantial damage,” including billions of dollars in lost market capitalization, the lawsuit says. 

The case is Gharrity v. Musk, Del. Ch., No. 2021-0199.

In a recent article, I shared more about how deep tech companies can hire growth talent. Here, I explore the other side: how nontechnical talent can build relationships with deep tech companies.

Startup hiring processes can be opaque, and breaking into the deep tech world as a nontechnical person seems daunting. As someone with no initial research background wanting to work in biotech, I felt this challenge personally. In the past year, I landed several opportunities working for and with deep tech companies.

Here, I’ll share what I’ve learned and offer tactical advice for finding, reaching out to, cultivating relationships with and working at deep tech companies as a nontechnical candidate.

Find companies by tracking fundraising

After startups raise capital, they are ready to spend the new funds on hiring. These companies are more likely to be posting new roles and actively hiring for a wide range of different teams, including nontechnical groups.

Hackers are exploiting recently discovered vulnerabilities in Exchange email servers to drop ransomware, Microsoft has warned, a move that puts tens of thousands of email servers at risk of destructive attacks.

In a tweet late Thursday, the tech giant said it had detected the new kind of file-encrypting malware called DoejoCrypt — or DearCry — which uses the same four vulnerabilities that Microsoft linked to a new China-backed hacking group called Hafnium.

When chained together, the vulnerabilities allow a hacker to take full control of a vulnerable system.

Microsoft said Hafnium was the “primary” group exploiting these flaws, likely for espionage and intelligence gathering. But other security firms say they’ve seen other hacking groups exploit the same flaws. ESET said at least 10 groups are actively compromising Exchange servers.

Michael Gillespie, a ransomware expert who develops ransomware decryption tools, said many vulnerable Exchange servers in the U.S., Canada, and Australia had been infected with DearCry.

The new ransomware comes less than a day after a security researcher published proof-of-concept exploit code for the vulnerabilities to Microsoft-owned GitHub. The code was swiftly removed a short time later for violating the company’s policies.

Marcus Hutchins, a security researcher at Kryptos Logic, said in a tweet that the code worked, albeit with some fixes.

Threat intelligence company RiskIQ says it has detected over 82,000 vulnerable servers as of Thursday, but that the number is declining. The company said hundreds of servers belonging to banks and healthcare companies are still affected, as well as more than 150 servers in the U.S. federal government.

That’s a rapid drop compared to close to 400,000 vulnerable servers when Microsoft first disclosed the vulnerabilities on March 2, the company said.

Microsoft published security fixes last week, but the patches do not expel the hackers from already breached servers. Both the FBI and CISA, the federal government’s cybersecurity advisory unit, have warned that the vulnerabilities present a major risk to businesses across the United States.

John Hultquist, vice president of analysis at FireEye’s Mandiant threat intelligence unit, said he anticipates more ransomware groups trying to cash in.

“Though many of the still unpatched organizations may have been exploited by cyber espionage actors, criminal ransomware operations may pose a greater risk as they disrupt organizations and even extort victims by releasing stolen emails,” said Hultquist.

There has been an unprecedented IPO boom of tech companies in the Brazilian stock exchange, which is transformative for a market that was traditionally dominated by utilities, mining, oil and financial companies.

The trend continues to be strong; in February alone, growth companies like Bemobi, Westwing, Mobly and Mosaico went public. Mosaico, for example, was 20x oversubscribed and went up 70% on its first trading day. The same is true for other companies like Meliuz, Enjoei and Neogrid, up 173%, 53% and 74%, respectively, since their listing just a few months ago.

But what is even more surprising is that now, new special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are raising money in Nasdaq with a mandate to buy Latin American private growth companies, which would be completely unthinkable just a year ago.

The opportunity for SPAC mergers in the U.S. has become quite competitive, as almost 300 SPACs, which raised over $90 billion, are now competing to find deals before the deadline. As a result, it has become more common to see SPACs with global mandates seeking to acquire foreign growth companies and list them in the U.S. to benefit from better multiples.

Just in 2021, eight Asian-sponsored SPACs raised over $2.3 billion in the Nasdaq/New York Stock Exchange, already surpassing the entire volume of 2020. More recently, it looks like the activity level may pick up in Brazil, and, potentially, in other Latin American countries, with $1.1 billion of Brazil-focused SPACs coming into fruition.

BMW has joined the cohort of investors that are backing Boston Metal’s carbon dioxide-free production technology for steel.

The Boston-based startup had targeted a $50 million raise earlier in the year, as TechCrunch reported, and BMW’s addition closes out that round, according to a person familiar with the company.

Through a commitment from BMW iVentures, the automaker’s investment arm, Boston Metal will have an in to a company with massive demands for more sustainably manufactured metal. For instance, BMW Group press plants in Europe process more than half a million tonnes of steel per year, the company said.

“We systematically identify the raw materials and components in our supplier network with the highest CO₂ emissions from production,” said Dr. Andreas Wendt, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for purchasing and the supplier network, in a statement. “Steel is one of them, but it is vital to car production. For this reason, we have set ourselves the goal of continuously reducing CO₂ emissions in the steel supply chain. By 2030, CO₂ emissions should be about two million tonnes lower than today’s figure.”

Conventional steel production requires blast furnaces that generate carbon dioxide emissions, but using Boston Metal’s process, an electrolysis cell produces the pig iron that gets processed into steel, the company said.

The addition of BMW to its investor group, which already includes Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and other strategic and financial investors, caps the fundraising process with another corporate partner wielding incredible industry influence.

“Our investors span across the steel value chain, from the upstream mining and iron ore companies to the downstream end customer, and validate Boston Metal’s innovative process to produce high-quality steel, cost competitively and at scale,” said chief executive officer and founder, Tadeu Carneiro.

Spring may be just around the corner (in the U.S., anyway), but it’s never too early to start planning for TechCrunch Disrupt 2021, which takes place on September 21-23. This all-virtual conference allows makers, innovators, entrepreneurs and investors from around the world to connect, collaborate and grow.

Startup Alley is a huge part of every Disrupt — it’s where hundreds of innovative, ground-breaking early-stage startups showcase their tech talent, products, platforms and services. This year, we’re shaking things up a bit to help exhibiting founders make the most of a virtual environment.

What’s new and different about exhibiting in Startup Alley at Disrupt 2021? Plenty. When you apply for a Startup Alley Pass, you stand in a giant spotlight of opportunity:

• Pitch it. Pitch it real good. Bring the heat, because every exhibiting startup gets a guaranteed spot to deliver a 60-second elevator pitch during a breakout feedback session. Your audience? TechCrunch staff and thousands of Disrupt attendees around the world.
• The Startup Alley Crawl. Every startup category will have an hour-long crawl in the agenda, where we’ll go live from the Disrupt Stage to interview a select number of founders in Startup Alley from that category.
• Startup Battlefield Wild Card. The Startup Battlefield is the stuff of legend. Past winners include the likes of Vurb, Dropbox, Mint and Yammer. Two Startup Alley exhibitors — chosen by the TechCrunch Editorial team — will compete in this year’s Battlefield and have a shot at the $100,000 (equity-free) cash.
• Startup Alley+. Every Startup Alley exhibitor is eligible, but only up to 50 companies will make the final cut to participate in Startup Alley+. These founders receive, at no additional cost, a curated experience to set them up for additional opportunities, learnings, exposure and success before Disrupt even starts. They’ll receive access to a series of founder masterclasses, take part in a pitch-off at Extra Crunch Live, and get introductions to elite investors in the TechCrunch community. Get your Startup Alley Pass soon because StartupAlley+ shifts into high gear at TC Early Stage: Marketing and Fundraising in July, where all Startup Alley+ companies get to attend this virtual event for free.

Pro Tip: Early-bird pricing to apply for Startup Alley ($199) ends May 13 at 11:59 pm (PST). The sooner you apply, the more you save.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 takes place on September 21-23. Don’t miss an opportunity to exhibit in all-new Startup Alley and apply now! Snag extra exposure, build your network and make connections that can alter the trajectory of your startup in the best possible way.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Disrupt 2021? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Investors often say they don’t just invest in products, but in the right teams to solve a particular problem. With Steady, Adam Roseman built the platform based on his own personal experience. His father hadn’t saved enough for retirement and needed to work part-time. Steady, a platform that helps people find flexible jobs quickly, get financial advice and save money through deals on things like healthcare plans and tax help.

Today, Steady has more than 2 million registered users.

So it’s no surprise that Emmalyn Shaw, co-manager of the $500 million Flourish Ventures fund, was eager to invest. She led the company’s Series A back in 2018.

We’re thrilled to have Roseman and Shaw join us on an episode of Extra Crunch Live on Wednesday at 3pm ET/noon PT.

We’ll interview Shaw and Roseman about what made them want to work with one another, advice on how to make the most out of pitch meetings, and what it takes to secure capital and be successful in the fintech space.

This episode of Extra Crunch Live will also feature the Pitch Deck Teardown. Decks sent in by audience members will be featured on the show, and Shaw and Roseman will give their live feedback on those decks about what works and what doesn’t.

Audience members are welcome to ask questions.

Extra Crunch members have always had free access to Extra Crunch Live (and always will), both live and on demand. But, we’ll also be selling tickets à la carte to the show. That’s right! Anyone can come hang out, ask their own questions to Shaw and Roseman, and learn a thing or two from the seasoned experts.

You can hit up this link to either register (if you’re logged into Extra Crunch, the ticket is free) or purchase a ticket.

A full library of past episodes can be found here, and folks interested in checking out our future slate can find everything they need right here.

See you there!