🌎 WTF is the Metaverse?
Airbnb steps up for Afghan refugees, OnlyFans U-turns again, and the robots are officially here
So, what happened this week in the Tech & Startup world? 🌍
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The Grapevine Newsflash 🔥
11 tech & startup stories in 155 super-duper short seconds.
🎨Visa’s NFT. The payment processing giant has bought an NFT for $150k. Visa isn’t alone here. Recently we’ve seen CNN, the New York Times and Fortune Magazine sell their own NFTs. Read the full story here.
🏅 How To Build a Great Company It’s not often we highlight articles from McKinsey but this one was too good to not include. They analysed Europe’s top 1000 startups to identify the ‘winning formula’. Specifically they’ve found four strategies: network, scale, product, and deep-tech. Read more here.
🤖 Remember Atlas? Last year Boston Dynamics shocked the world by showing their leading robot, Atlas, doing a backflip. Well, Atlas is back and there is a new video of the human-like robot negotiating an obstacle course and jumping about. Take a look here.
💸 Drivewealth Raises $450m. Drivewealth is a B2B US API-based brokerage fintech that gives fintechs around the world access to the US equities market. Drivewealth works with 100 partners including Revolut, MoneyLion & Vested.
📉 Atom Bank Continues Losses! Atom Bank, the Durham-based challenger bank, has reported £36m in losses, down from £46m in the prior year. Atom Bank may struggle as it gets squeezed on one side from Starling & Revolut, and on the other side from Metro and TSB. Find out more here.
📷 Afghan Digital Identity! Read this fascinating article by Reuters on how Afghans are scrambling to delete their digital identities, fingerprints, and biometrics so that they can’t be targeted by the Taliban. Full article here.
🏘️ Airbnb for Refugees We love it when big tech steps up and this week, Airbnb, have done exactly that. The home-sharing company is offering temporary housing to 20,000 Afghan refugees (and has already placed 165). This would almost double the amount of refugees they’ve given temporary housing to (currently standing at 25,000).
↩️ U-Turn x2 After turning their back on the community that built them, OnlyFans have now ‘suspended’ the planned policy change that would have banned sexual activity from being shared on the platform. OnlyFans blamed their banking partners for the initial changes, but a backlash from creators has pushed them to reassess. Expect competitors to increase market share.
🎶 Napster 2.0 EDM artist, Justin Blau (3LAU), has raised a huge $16m seed round for ‘Royal’. The company will allow users to buy shares of songs through a marketplace, and earn royalties from their popularity. Blau has been an active member of the NFT community and thinks the technology can be used to revolutionise the music industry. In related news, as the NFT hype continues to grow, scammers & hackers are seeking opportunity. Check out how they’re doing that here.
🩸 “Bad Blood” The demise of Silicon Valley startup, Theranos, and its founder Elizabeth Holmes has been well documented (watch HBO’s “The Inventor” if you’re not familiar with it). Holmes is about to go on trial for fraud but there’s an even darker side to the story. A generation of female entrepreneurs are feeling affected by her actions and, specifically, what her image has done for them. Read more here.
🌎 A Future Digital World? One term you’re going to be hearing a lot more in the near future is “The Metaverse”. It’s a concept that’s been around for decades but has had a recent insurgence over the pandemic. What is it? Take a look at an explainer here. If you prefer podcasts, check out this one with Gaby Goldberg.
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Over & Out,
Nick, Louis, & Saul Goodman