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Whats up, and welcome to your Friday. Did the week drag on, or did it go by shortly for you? Or possibly you had at the moment off. Irrespective of, I’m right here to carry you all of at the moment’s techy goodness. The lesson for at the moment: “Don’t ever leak information.”
Oh, and help our colleagues over on the Chain Response and Discovered podcasts: They had been nominated for a Webby, so please help them with a vote by April 20. — Christine
The TechCrunch High 3
That’s one a-spicy software: ByteDance’s newest hit, Lemon8, which some describe as a cross between Instagram, Pinterest and Amazon, is now sitting among the many high 10 apps within the U.S. Nevertheless, Rita says Lemon8 is extra like one other app known as Xiaohongshu and discusses why ByteDance might have taken one other web page from the China playbook.
Get your unicorn horn prepared: You’re going to want a TechCrunch+ subscription to learn this subsequent one, however I promise, it’s price it. Alex went unicorn IPO searching and got here again with an inventory of names, saying, “The primary group of upcoming potential unicorn IPOs is shaping up properly.”
In a galaxy far, distant: In case you’re a Star Wars fan, Disney+ will debut a brand new collection known as “The Acolyte” in 2024. Aisha writes that this storyline takes place on the finish of the Excessive Republic period earlier than the occasions of the principle Star Wars movies.
Startups and VC
Everybody wants some good competitors to get the creativity flowing. Kyle, Devin and Manish teamed up to take a look at Anthropic’s $5 billion, four-year plan to tackle OpenAI. Going by means of the corporate’s pitch deck, the trio describe the enterprise mannequin that can take Anthropic there and the buyers behind it.
Wrapping up the week, as talked about yesterday, there was a bunch of us watching Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 Demo Day. Synthetic intelligence and open supply had been large buzzwords on Day 1, whereas Day 2 had us questioning if crypto is again and why accountants are immediately getting a whole lot of love.
VCs to recommerce startups: Let’s pop some tags
Picture Credit: Kinga Krzeminska (opens in a brand new window) / Getty Pictures
Thanks largely to Gen Z’s curiosity in sustainable procuring, recommerce is hovering to new heights, and VCs are in search of the come up.
Since Etsy went public in 2015, firms like Poshmark, The RealReal and thredUP adopted swimsuit, attracting much more buyers to the sector. Final 12 months, VCs flowed roughly $6 billion to resale platforms, writes Brian Schwarzbach, an investor with Cathay Innovation.
In a put up for TC+, he explores three recommerce areas attracting VC funds and shares “some meals for thought for founders constructing startups on this (re)rising area.”
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup groups get forward of the pack. You possibly can enroll right here. Use code “DC” for a 15% low cost on an annual subscription!
Huge Tech Inc.
Generally issues don’t go as deliberate. In India, its central financial institution determined to press pause on plans it had for a rival to the nation’s dominant fee system, Unified Funds Interface. Manish writes that the venture, known as New Umbrella Entity, had made some traction, attracting curiosity from massive firms and monetary establishments, and alluring bids in 2021 for licenses to function new retail fee and settlement techniques throughout India. Nevertheless, the venture simply didn’t have that sizzle and pop that the Reserve Financial institution of India was in search of.
Catch a falling iPod and put it in your pocket…Harri experiences on Apple’s patent software for what seems to be to be a teeny, tiny iPod that may do all of it: music, movies and books, no smartphone or smartwatch wanted. Although undecided how one can learn on one thing that small. I suppose we’ll see.
And now we have 5 extra for you: