To get a roundup of the biggest and most important stories from TechCrunch delivered to your inbox every day at 3pm PDT, sign up here. Happy Friday Crunchers! It’s May 27, 2022 and we’re approaching a long weekend because it’s Memorial Day weekend here in the US absolutely nothing, which we wholeheartedly celebrate. See you around here on Tuesday! Not sure what to do this weekend? Check out this roundup of all the amazing podcasts we put out this week. It will keep you busy for a few hours at least. — Haje and Cristina
TechCrunch Top 3
golden goose: manish was on fire today, writing not one, but two of our top stories of the day. The first is about Jar, an Indian fintech company seeking a $50 million Series B round. Citizens of the country have bank accounts to save money, but Jar helps them do something they may not be so familiar with: invest. And the company has chosen to start with something that Indians love, gold.Revolving door: The second Manish story is about another Manish: Manish Maheshwari, the former head of Twitter India, who left a startup he co-founded after just 6 months. Our Manish reported in December that Maheshwari left posting him on Twitter to start the edtech company Invact Metaversity with Tanay Pratap. The arrangement didn’t seem to go as planned, with some company hiccups related to getting the product out for sale and some leadership disagreements.Sometimes it’s not meant to be: In the case of Substack, a new round of capital. Connie yesterday went over the details of her attempt to get a Series C, but then it was called off when favorable terms weren’t worked out with investors. This Dia, Alex peels back some of the onion layers to explain why Substack’s goals, based on its 2021 Series B raise, did not translate well into the 2022 investment environment.
Startups and VCs
Earlier this week, anita reported that Adam “WeWork” Neumann is back with a new venture and got endorsement from a16z. On today’s Chain Reaction podcast, Anita and Lucas discuss whether Neumann really deserves $70 million and another chance. We are completely confused as to why anyone would make another bet on him, and will certainly be keeping a close eye on his new startup. Some more gems for you:
ride or diesel
Image credits: Bloomberg Creative (opens new window) / Getty Images Diesel prices alone are driving about 17% of the inflation we’re seeing today, and Tim writes a moving article about how gasoline and diesel may not be the best, especially given that the economy is leaning over the precipice into an abyss whose depth is equal to our general optimism about the climate right now. Maybe that’s exactly what’s needed: maybe when economic and climate interests align, we’ll find the pot of “yes, we can live on this planet for a few more years” at the end of the rainbow. (TechCrunch+ is our membership program, helping startup founders and teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
great tech inc
Sony Live Service Plans: Sony bets on all its live service offerings. This follows the company’s acquisition of Bungie earlier this year. Sony laid out plans this week for the life of its company after the acquisition, which includes a heavy investment in the live-service gaming sector, though it didn’t go into detail about which of its franchises would get the treatment.fit him: We thought Snapchat was just people sending little “snaps” to other people, but the social media giant has bigger plans than that. Their new snappy feature, “Shared Stories,” is a riff on their “Custom Stories” feature to allow users to, well, you can see where we’re going with this. Here’s how it works: Users added to a group can also add their friends to make it easier to share their stories. Don’t worry, if someone in the friend group is not your cup of tea, your stories will not be shared with them.database debacle: Voto Consulting, a New Jersey talent acquisition firm, learned the hard way what happens when you don’t password-protect a database and leave it on the Internet. The resumes and personal information of some 30,000 workers were exposed. As Zack reports, the story becomes much more interesting, something he really needs to check out for himself.time to drive: In today’s transportation news, Rivian cracked open its hood and rearranged some things with the company’s engine (yes, we know it’s an electric vehicle) in the form of hiring new COO Frank Klein. This comes amid other leadership changes as their head of manufacturing has been fired. Meanwhile, Tesla says it won’t open a manufacturing plant in India until it can sell and repair vehicles in the country. manish sets up the back-and-forth between the country and the company: The country’s officials want the cars to be built locally and for Tesla to comply with its high import tariffs. Tesla doesn’t want to pay higher fees yet if the market doesn’t perform well. Therefore, a super fun stop.
