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Friday Crunch is here! Friday Crunch is here! We are ready to go sit by the proverbial pool with an umbrella drink. (Realistically, it’s going to be TV and a beer, while incorporating fancy cocktails and a pool. The mind is that powerful.) For now, on to the news! — christina and The wine
TechCrunch Top 3
- Probably nothing to see here: For a few moments there, the cryptocurrency giant Binance had to temporarily suspend spot trading, deposits and withdrawals. manish reports. Everything returned to normal as of this morning.
- Missing: Google removed hundreds of Kenya-focused loan apps from its Play Store following a new policy that digital lenders needed to provide proof of license, annie writes We saw something similar with the Indian government and loan applications in February.
- Big investment in electric vehicles: Ford is stepping on the gas when it comes to electric vehicles and will build a next-generation electric truck at its $5.6 billion factory in Tennessee by 2025, kirsten reports.
Startups and VCs
Zigazoo, the startup known for its TikTok-style video-sharing app for kids, is launching a separate app aimed at Generation Z users, lauren reports. The new app will take on the flagship name and is intended for ages 13 and up, while the original kid-focused app is for the Alpha Generation (ages 3-12) and has been rebranded “Zigazoo Kids.” Previous users in the younger age range will be automatically migrated to Zigazoo Kids.
WebAssembly (Wasm for short) is an open standard that allows browser-based applications to run with near-native performance, Frederick reports. It’s also been extended to support non-browser environments, which is what’s driving much of the recent hype around it. But like any emerging technology, it needs a stronger ecosystem of tools to realize its full potential, and Dylibso is raising $6.6 million to help developers bring the technology to production.
And here are six more, as we gear up for the weekend:
Launchpad Teardown: Prelaunch.com’s $1.5M Seed Pad
Image Credits: prelaunch.com (Opens in a new window)
Earlier this week, Haje Jan Kamps interviewed Prelaunch.com CEO Narek Vardanyan to get his perspective on how hardware startups can validate products before going to market.
In a follow-up, he discussed the pitch deck for Prelaunch.com’s $1.5 million seed round, which showed investors how the company monetizes its product forecasts:
- deck slide
- summary slide
- Market Context Slide
- problem slide
- solution slide
- Problem with existing solution slide
- Product Slide 1
- results slide
- Product Slide 2
- Product Slide 3
- Product Slide 4
- vision slide
- Value Support Slide
- Traction Slide and Metrics
- Business model and pricing slide
- Market Trends Slide
- why now swipe
- team slide
- The Ask Slide
- contact us slide
Three more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps startup founders and teams stay ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” to get 15% off an annual subscription!
big tech inc
Remember yesterday when we discussed that the CEO of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, would have been detained? Good, Kate has an update, and it looks like Kwon was quite naughty by, among other things, trying to flee to Dubai with forged documents. Both the US and South Korea are seeking Do Kwon’s extradition so that he can face multiple charges. It is not yet known where he will end up.
Now let’s complete our TikTok coverage from yesterday. It seems that CEO Shou Zi Chew did not impress the congressional audience. However, we learned a few new things: Sarah reports that the social media giant scans public videos to determine the ages of users. Chew also denied that spying was taking place when ByteDance employees were monitoring journalists. Taylor has more on that.
And we have five more for you:
- across the pond: Natasha L. He has a couple of news from foreign governments. The UK’s antitrust watchdog said the new evidence “tentatively allays” concerns over the supply of video game consoles in the UK related to the antitrust investigation of the Microsoft-Activision deal. And the French parliament voted in favor of biometric surveillance at the Paris Olympics.
- Up, up, but not far: Blue Origin published a report on the launch anomaly that occurred six months ago and promises to fly again “soon”, writes Devin.
- cancel at any time: The Federal Trade Commission proposes a new rule to make it easier to cancel subscriptions and free trials. Aisha has more.
- Testing, testing 1, 2, 3: Battery exchange provider Gogoro plans to scale into new markets through B2B partners, such as Foodpanda in Singapore, Rebeca reports.
- 800,000 problems and the AI is not one: The Allen Institute for AI created a database of 3D models of everyday objects for its AI to play with: 800,000 virtual props to be exact, Devin writes.
