Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.
This week saw Equity back on the live-taping game, with Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex gathering with Grace and the TechCrunch video team (shoutout Julio and Yashad!) to chat through the week’s news. Naturally we had to cut like all hell, but we had a simply terrific time traipsing through the following items:
- AngelList Ventures raising a $100 million round, and what the deal seems to mean. Mara snagging $6 million for a business that had us all hype, and the Public-Otis tie-up from earlier in the week was also on the docket.
- Then we worked through the history of the Better.com rolling fiasco, which took a fresh turn through well-trod ground this week by messing up layoffs. Can Better.com get better at being a dotcom? We wrote up on our Twitter a whole thread of what went down.
- Then we nattered on the recent Acorns and Kin Insurance rounds, following what happens when a company decides that a SPAC is no longer the proper fit for its fundraising and exit plans. It reminded us of our recent Wednesday episode, when we asked if fintech is playing offense or defense these days.
- And we closed on a grip of news from Africa, where startups are raising more money, more quickly, and taking part in more accelerators than ever before. Make sure you follow Tage Kene-Okafor and Annie Njanja for fresh reporting on startups across the continent.
We do live tapings every two weeks, so come to the next one! This time, we gave away a SXSW ticket, next time, who knows!
Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PST, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.