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How are you, Crunchers? Good to see you again! We are so glad you are with us. It was a very busy day at the site today, and Haje has been busy getting very grumpy at Tesla for not recording the car accident he was in today. (He’s fine. Or at least as good as he was before the car accident.) — Christine and Hey
The toptecheasy.com Top 3
- Apparently the hacker’s LastPass wasn’t really the last: Two months after LastPass suffered a breach, we are now learning more about what the hackers got. Carly writes that the company’s owner, GoTo, says hackers stole customers’ encrypted backups.
- If you like the outdoors: Strava, the activity tracking and social community platform, has acquired Fatmap, a 3D outdoor mapping platform, to make that next hike a doozy, Paul reports.
- What’s going on with WhatsApp: Ivan follows a developing story of WhatsApp releasing its native macOS client in public beta. He writes that “Mac users have until now had to rely on WhatsApp for the web or the web-based WhatsApp client. Neither are ideal in terms of performance or getting a full experience.”
Startups and VC
It’s a tough time being a high priced company that didn’t go public when earnings were good. Not only are there fewer later-stage players with the resources and willingness to support such companies (for example, SoftBank and Tiger Global have pulled out dramatically), secondary investors have even lost interest. At least that is Connie‘s reading of a new report, in its excellent article Opportunistic Investors Give Up on Aging Pre-IPO Firms.
Connie also reported that Cowboy Ventures closed two new funds totaling $260 million in capital commitments. The outfit raised $140 million in pledges for its fourth flagship fund and an additional $120 million for its first opportunity-type fund (the “Mustang Fund”).
And we have five more for you:
A VC’s perspective on deep tech fundraising in Q1 2023
Image Credits: Xi Huo (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Successful deep tech startups and SaaS companies generally reach multi-billion dollar valuations in the same time frame.
“It took the average deep tech startup $115 million and 5.2 years to become a unicorn,” said Karthee Madasamy, managing partner at MFV Partners.
New companies in this sector raised about $600 million last year, a steep drop from $800 million in 2021. But Madasamy says recent climate regulation, automation and space are just a few factors that are sparking investor interest during this recession .
“As major exits become increasingly difficult to achieve in the coming years, the technologies within deep tech that are transforming entire industries provide some of the only avenues for ’10x exits’.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
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Big Tech Inc.
Selling or renting out a house comes with all sorts of fun things, like having to leave in a heartbeat and strangers walking through your house. If there could be a rainbow amidst the downpour, it’s Zillow who wants to make booking a house tour for hire easier. Enter the Calendly-like instant booking feature that can be used without having to interact with anyone. Ivan writes that the feature is already available for thousands of properties and will eventually offer the option to choose between a virtual, in-person or self-guided tour.
Now there are five more:
