💰 Softbank Strikes Again!
Finally AI takes on Lego, Tom Blomfield talks Monzo, and a new type of TikTok scam
So, what happened this week in the Tech & Startup world? 🌍
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The Grapevine Newsflash 🔥
11 tech & startup stories in 158 super-duper short seconds.
📈 Looking Back On When We First Met As of this week, Jeff Bezos is no longer CEO of Amazon. Over 27 years, he built the company into a true powerhouse across multiple industries. For a fantastic quick breakdown of the heights he’s taken Amazon to, check out this overview.
🎙️ Monzo & Mental Health. If you do one thing this week, we would recommend you watch Tom Blomfield’s interview with Steven Barlett, the founder of social chain. It covers the rise and fall (sort of) of Monzo, Tom’s relationship with Starling Bank and his own mental health. It’s really very brilliant. Watch it here or listen to the podcast here.
💰 Softbank Strikes Again! Clearco (previously Clearbanc) has raised $215m of funding from Softbank. What’s Clearco? It’s an alternative investment company that provides super-fast cash to e-commerce companies. If you haven’t looked into their business model, you really should, and you can do so here.
🤔 A Global Debt Dashboard? World debt reached $281 trillion at the start of 2021. A16z has written a brilliant blog to discuss which fintech is best placed to create a ‘debt dashboard’ for everyday people.
🎨 The Creator Economy Future. Deloitte has published an awesome report on the future of the creative economy. The report is a little lengthy, but does some cool market sizing and delves deep into some potential trends. It’s worth having a skim to understand the key topics. Take a look here.
✉️ Google’s Messenger Mess! It’s no secret that Google has launched a failed spree of messaging apps. Heard of Google Talk? How about Google Allo? Or maybe Google plus circles? Read a brief summary of Google’s messenger failures here.
⭕ Circle’s SPAC. What's Circle? It’s a fintech that launched back in 2013 as a peer-to-peer payment app. Subsequently, it’s gone on to build a crypto exchange and payment service and an investment app. Listen to its founder explain why they're going public via a SPAC at a valuation around $4.5bn.
🚨 “Midnight Patrol” Tencent, one of China’s largest tech conglomerates, has installed facial recognition in 60 of its games. Why? To prevent minors from gaming late at night. There’s a huge question around privacy, especially since its minors, but as this article shows, facial recognition can be beaten.
💭 Hong Kong Tension Proposed data laws in Hong Kong have been received with caution by big tech companies including Facebook, Twitter, and Google. The laws are set to be put in place to prevent ‘doxing’ - the practice of putting people’s personal info online so that they can be harassed by others. Tech companies say the rules could make them liable for the sharing of personal information and, as a result, they may have to stop offering their services. Another sad development in the Hong Kong story.
❗ TikTok Scam Earlier this week, Billie Eilish did a livestream and as many as 43k people watched live. The only problem, it wasn’t her account and it wasn’t live. Instead it was a scam where a similarly named account was replaying a previous live stream in order to benefit from the coins that can be gifted and converted into cash. One to watch out for.
🏗️ Lego AI Our favourite app of the week is easy - Brickit. It can scan a pile of Lego bricks, and then offer designs on what you could build with that selection of bricks. The future has officially arrived. See a quick demo here.
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Over & Out,
Nick, Louis, & Gareth Southgate
⚽ COME ON ENGLAND ⚽