What are these rich people doing pumping crappy assets?

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s broadly based on the daily column that appears on Extra Crunch, but free, and made for your weekend reading. Want it in your inbox every Saturday morning? Sign up here.  Ready? Let’s talk money, startups and spicy IPO rumors. It’s been a bizarre few weeks, with Robinhood raising a torrent of new funds to keep its zero-cost trading model afloat during turbulent market conditions, other neo-trading houses changing up their business model and more. But...

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Minneapolis police used geofence warrant at George Floyd protests

{rss:content:encoded} Minneapolis police used geofence warrant at George Floyd protests https://ift.tt/2My38Wo https://ift.tt/3oR6GQl February 06, 2021 at 05:00PM Police in Minneapolis obtained a search warrant ordering Google to turn over sets of account data on vandals accused of sparking violence in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd last year, TechCrunch has learned. The death of Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in May 2020, prompted thousands to peacefully protest across the city. But violence soon erupted, which...

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Will the Clubhouse model work in China?

On Friday just past midnight, I stumbled across a Clubhouse room hosted by a well-known figure in the Chinese startup community, Feng Dahui. At half-past midnight, the room still had nearly 500 listeners, many of whom were engineers, product managers, and entrepreneurs from China. The discussion centered around whether Clubhouse, an app that lets people join pop-up voice chats in virtual rooms, will succeed in China. That’s a question I have been asking myself in recent weeks. Given the current hype swirling in Silicon Valley about the audio social...

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5 creator economy VCs see startup opportunities in monetization, discovery and much more

Everyone knows YouTubers and other creators are popular with internet users of all ages. But today, these influencers also have real businesses powered by a range of software tools and service providers who help weave videos, pictures, clips, memes and other types of content into sustainable success. The pandemic added fuel to existing trends pushing growth in this category. Today, the platforms are bigger and more diverse than ever and many creators have years of experience growing audiences and monetizing online. Parallel to this industry, the...

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Daily Crunch: Myanmar blocks Twitter and Instagram

Myanmar’s government extends its internet crackdown, Microsoft’s lobbying arm blacklists presidential election objectors and Dublin’s Frontline Ventures raises a new fund. This is your Daily Crunch for February 5, 2021. The big story: Myanmar blocks Twitter and Instagram The military government in Myanmar recently told telecom operators and internet service providers to block access to Facebook. Now it’s doing the same thing to Twitter and Instagram. This comes after the military staged a coup in Myanmar to take power from the civilian government....

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Extra Crunch roundup: 500 Startups’ demo day, smart SaaS pricing and much more

Demo days at startup accelerators are a pretty big deal around here. These events aren’t just a chance to review the latest cohort of hopeful entrepreneurs — they also showcase the technology, products and services that will compete for VC and consumer attention over the next few years. You never know where a hit will come from, which is why these events capture our attention. Here’s just one example from Y Combinator’s Summer 2013 Demo Day: Positioning itself as the “FedEx of today,” it hopes to provide a logistics framework that goes beyond...

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A look at how proptech startup Knotel went from a $1.6B valuation to filing for bankruptcy

This week, flexible workspace operator (and one-time unicorn) Knotel announced it had filed for bankruptcy and that its assets were being acquired by investor and commercial real estate brokerage Newmark for a reported $70 million. Knotel designed, built and ran custom headquarters for companies. It then managed the spaces with “flexible” terms. In March 2020, it was reportedly valued at $1.6 billion. At first glance, one might think that the WeWork rival, which had raised about $560 million since its 2016 inception, was another casualty of the...

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