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**Equity**

The intersection of technology, startups, and venture capital touches everything now. That’s why Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, digs into the business of startups for entrepreneurs and enthusiasts alike. Every Wednesday and Friday, TechCrunch reporters keep you up-to-date on the world of business, technology, and venture capital.

Equity is ranked the No.2 podcast in the Top 100 Venture Capital All time leaderboard on Goodpods—As well as No.17 for the Top 100 Finance All time chart and No.32 for the Top 100 Business News All time chart.

Latest Episodes:

Brex and the curse of having too much money Jan 26, 2024

Show notes

Here’s what we got up to on our Friday show:

Deals of the Week: Plural has a new $432 million fund, Vroom is no longer in the car selling business, oddly, and we chatted through the Fantuan-Chowbus deal.
From there we turned to fintech (generally) and Brex (more specifically). In short, Brex is a big company today but not one that is having a lot of fun at the moment, it appears. With reports indicating that its growth has slowed and its burn remained sticky, it recently cut staff.
To close, we dug into why edtech might not be in the dire straits that many presume that it is. A recent TechCrunch+ investor survey finds notable pockets of enthusiasm in the sector. AI, as you may have heard, is a big deal.

That’s our week concluded! We start back up on Monday morning! See you there.

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

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Who knew M&A would be the thing we couldn’t shut up about? Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

This is our startup-focused, Wednesday episode, so today we're counting down important venture rounds, and chatting our way through other startup and VC news.

Here's what we got into:

Artisse AI's seed round caught our eye for two big reasons: First, its selfie app is cool; and second, despite competing in a crowded space, it's seen revenue climb rapidly. It's gotta be doing something right.
Elsewhere, Bilt Rewards is proof that fintech is still alive and kicking, and Kittl is another example of a European startup taking on a massive global market.
And Bulk Exchange has raised $4.5 million, and I'm still shocked at how far Byju's has fallen.
In Venture Capital Land, General Catalyst might buy an Indian venture capital firm — further evidence of just how critical India might prove in the coming years for tech companies. Also: some former Xerox investors have their own new fund to report.

We'll be digging into the Brex situation on Friday, so stay tuned for more about fintech soon!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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It’s 2021 for AI while the rest of the startup market is stuck in 2024 Jan 22, 2024

Show notes

Here's the rundown:

The Q4 2023 earnings cycle will kick off this week with names like Intel and Visa reporting results. The largest tech companies will start to report next week.
Crypto is not enjoying a post-ETF boom for reasons that are yet to be nailed down. Then again, when have crypto price movements ever made complete sense?
ElevenLabs is the newest AI unicorn. With $80 million in fresh capital, the synthetic voice startup now has oodles of cash to try and run its market.
Canva is big! Who knew?
Elsewhere, Crunchbase News reports that cybersecurity fundraising fell again last year. Given the number of breaches in the market, that feels off, yeah?
Developers and Apple Vision Pro are not seeing eye to eye. Perhaps Apple should work to rectify its developer relationships?
And in closing, it turns out you can slow down TikTok.

That's all for this morning, and we'll be back on Wednesday. Talk soon!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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The other side of AI hype Jan 19, 2024

Show notes

This week, Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex Wilhelm took to the mics to chew through funding rounds and trends galore. Enjoy, and don’t forget that our interview with Aileen Lee is here.

Pomelo: $40 million more dollars for Latin American fintech? It’s the perfect Mary Ann story. Even better, we got growth data from the company to noodle on. It turns out you can raise up rounds in 2024!
Tandem: Alex chose the Tandem Seed round for his deal of the week, even if he doesn’t want to use it. In short, couples of all types have different money management needs, making Tandem a potential hit.
Briq: Mary Ann has been covering this company for some time, making its recent extension round well worth our time.
AI and the enterprise: AI is going to change everything, AI is going to make your job irrelevant, AI is going to eat your lunch. So we hear. The enterprise, however, is singing a slightly different tune.
Valuations, and their potential recovery: Sadly it doesn’t seem too likely that we are about to see a massive rebound in startup valuations this year. The good news? It doesn’t seem too likely that we are about to see massive price erosion, either.

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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Back in the Unicorn Club with Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

This is our interview show, where we sit down with interesting, knowledgeable folks and dive deep into their favorite topics. This time around, we invited Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee to chat through her massive new article concerning the unicorn world. If you didn’t know, it was Lee who initially coined the term “unicorn” in a TechCrunch article back in 2013.

Lee talked us through the data and taught us all sorts of new terms. You can sort of understand what one means when they say “unicorpse” or “zombiecorn,” but apparently there are even more exotic unicorn forms out there. We even wound up comparing venture capital returns to peaches in a bucket of piss (her words, not ours!).

We also talked about where unicorns are based today (19% in New York, for example), and why seed rounds are getting bigger. But really, you should read her post while you listen so you can have all the context while we chew through the numbers!

And for those of you who are here for the answer to our question, “How are Fortune 500 companies ranked?”, well, the answer is revenue and not market cap.

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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AI versus SaaS, EV charging, and a new $250M fund Jan 17, 2024

Show notes

Here’s what we got into this morning:

Vertice raises $25M: The bet here is that companies are willing to pay to have another company, Vertice in this case, to help them find savings in their existing software and cloud spend.
Electra snags $330M: Charging EVs is big business, and Electra is wagering that building out its own charging network will pay dividends for a long time into the future.
Build a Rocket Boy collects $110M: This is a big round for a company with unlaunched gaming titles. That said, it must have a few super-cool things cooking to raise that kinda of cash in today’s market.
We also looked at rounds from Onera, Weavix, Long Story Short, and Xyte. There’s a lot going on!
Thomvest raises new fund: Another day, another new fund, that’s the $250 million Thomvest story.

We closed with what could be good news for African startups. And with that, we’ll see you back here bright and early on Friday!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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See? Fintech isn’t doomed, it just needs more time Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

Here's what we got into:

Stocks are down around the world to start a week that only features a single key earnings report, TSMC this Thursday. Next week really starts the tech reporting deluge, so get ready.
In crypto, bitcoin's price failed to pump after its ETF products launched, which surprised some. Also surprising was the value jump that the Ethereum blockchain offers. Buy the rumor, sell the news? (Elsewhere, a crypto exchange raised around $100 million. In 2024! Who would have expected that!)
Uber is killing Drizly: You can still get booze delivered to your house, but Axios notes that the $1.1 billion acquisition by Uber has run its course. Pour one out.
On the deal front, Spot Technologies raised $2 million, while TechCrunch reports that Kuda raised $20 million last year at a flat valuation. That's pretty solid a result for a fintech startup that last raised in 2021.
To close out, Apple is the world's smartphone king and has found a way to sell its Watch product sans legal issues, while Microsoft is very busy with AI.

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When it comes to startups’ flight to quality, have we swung too far in the other direction? Jan 13, 2024

Show notes

This is our interview show, where we sit down with a guest, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, we talked to Jenny Fielding, co-founder and managing partner at Everywhere Ventures, a founder collective and early-stage (think pre-seed) venture firm. Jenny and I discussed a wide variety of topics, including startups’ flight to quality in 2024 and how smaller firms are competing with larger firms in the current investment landscape.

We also dug into the “great VC resignation” so stay through to the end for that. Jenny was a great guest – not afraid to speak her mind and share valuable insights.

Besides founding her own venture firm, Jenny previously worked as a managing director for accelerator Techstars and founded several companies including mobile software company Switch Mobile, which was acquired by Via One.

Equity will be back next Tuesday due to a U.S. holiday on Monday. See you then!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CES, Circle-ing back to IPOs and why we're over the moon about Overmoon Jan 12, 2024

Show notes

Today, Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo dig through the key stories from the week. Then, Kirsten Korosec and Haje Jan Kamps are aboard to bring us the latest from CES!

Deals of the Week: Shimmer raised $2.2 million to bring one-on-one ADHD care at a lower price point; Alex chose this one because mental health care startups that try to expand access are cool. Overmoon's recent fundraising and business progress were Mary Ann's choice for the week, showing that proptech is not dead yet!
Circle is going public: Yep, the company behind the USDC stablecoin is once again heading for the public markets. The company's confidential IPO filing follows an aborted SPAC attempt in the past. Alex is bullish on the deal, though we'll need to wait for the full details before we can actually make some predictions.
And speaking of IPOs, we're really far behind on how many exits are needed to clear the venture capital decks.
CES: We went over a ton of cool stuff this year, including this Bane-style mask, ChatGPT in cars, eVTOLs and more!

Equity will be back next Tuesday due to a U.S. holiday on Monday. See you then!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI hardware, fintech woes and venture capital's shedding phase Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

This is our newly revamped Wednesday episode, and we’re going to be digging deep into critical startup and venture capital news. If you are a long-time Equity listener, you will note that this is not the same interview show that we used to run mid-week! Don’t worry, we are still going to do interviews, so keep an eye out for those on Saturdays.

Here’s what’s we got into on the show today:

PhotoRoom is raising more money. French startup PhotoRoom is raising $50 million to $60 million at a $500 million to $600 million valuation. The round marks another potential win for AI in France, a market that is working to set itself apart in the EU.
Treasure Financial cuts 14 staff members. The reductions in personnel represent a material percentage of the startup’s headcount, which feels a little weird given that the company raised $7.5 million last year, and reportedly saw its AUM soar.
Tier and Dott are betting that 1+1=3. Two micromobility companies are tying the knot to try and use scale to their advantage. The moves comes in the wake of U.S. scooter company Bird filing for bankruptcy.
AI Hardware, Part 1: The new rabbit r1 looks super cool, and is surprisingly cheap. I dig it.
AI Hardware, Part 2: Humane trimmed staff before shipping its AI hardware.
On the venture capital side, Keith Rabois is heading back to Khosla Ventures, and Seedstars Africa Ventures added $30 million to its upcoming fund.

We’ll be back on Friday with our weekly roundtable!

For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website.

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