So, what happened this week in the Tech & Startup world? 🌍 Netflix expands into gaming, Twitter wants you to pay, and there’s a new concorde in the sky.
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The Grapevine Newsflash 🔥
11 tech & startup stories in 133 super-duper short seconds.
😎 Ever wondered how Augmented Reality actually works? We stumbled across this handy 4 minute video to talk you through just that! Watch it here.
🥽 VR Therapy VR hasn’t kicked off to the same extent that some expected. However, one area it has had a take up within has been treating PTSD for veterans. It allows them to uncover memory fragments of their experience and make peace with it. This could be an incredibly useful tool going forward, especially with the rise of PTSD amongst our frontline workers during the pandemic.
🎮 Netflix Original Games? Netflix is reportedly planning an expansion into the gaming industry. The current thinking / rumour is that Netflix could launch a competitor to Apple Arcade, that gives access to 100 games for a monthly subscription. Read more here.
💲 Pay for Twitter? The social network has unveiled its first ever paid subscription product - Twitter Blue. It’ll cost $2.99 a month and allow you to ‘undo’ posts, bookmark tweets, more easily read threads, and get faster customer-support. We’re sure this is just the beginning but we’re still waiting for an ‘edit’ Tweet feature…
😢 Tandem’s CEO steps down. Ricky Knox, the CEO of Tandem bank, has stepped down. Hear more about his vision for the bank here.
📈 Vimeo IPOs! The Youtube competitor has IPO’d this week, dropping 15% in it’s first day. Read more about the IPO here, or hear more about the history of the company and its CEO here.
🥣 Fancy Some Crunchy Nut? Kellogg’s has just launched a retro-looking vending machine to serve and stir your cereal. Take a look here.
🏥 Public Gardens of Babylon UK healthtech giant, Babylon, is set to go pubic via SPAC at a $4.2bn valuation later this year. Their service allows users to schedule video chats with doctors and specialists and is even used by the NHS. Want to know more about SPACs? Check out an explainer here.
💸 Charlie Bit My Finger! The other week we gave you the heads up the icon viral youtube video was going to be sold as an NFT. Well, this week it’s sold for £500,000 ($705,000). Still confused about how NFTs actually work? Find out more here.
✈️ Concorde 2.0 United Airlines announced that they will buy up to 50 planes from ‘Boom Supersonic’. The startup promises to bring back supersonic flights (i.e. New York to London in < 4 hours) using sustainable fuel. this comes a few months after United invested $20m in electric air taxi company Archer.
🤑 $1.1bn That is how much Alexander Karp, CEO & founder of Palantir, was paid last year. That made him the 3rd highest paid CEO since 2007 (beaten comprehensively by Elon Musk’s $2.28m in 2018). Another new entrant to the list is Tony Xu of Doordash. Check out the full list here.
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Over & Out,
Nick, Louis, & Wanda Maximoff