Top News of the Week:
Oracle working with Sequoia, GA to acquire TikTok (link)
SpaceX raises $1.9B @ $46B valuation (link)
AMEX acquires Kabbage for $850M (link)
Uber, Lyft avoid CA shut down (link)—look to franchise (link)
Apple threatens to cut off Fortnite developer access (link)
Weekly Synthesis:
This week, Uber and Lyft avoided a shut down in California, after a ruling requiring ride-sharing companies to reclassify all of its contractors as employees was delayed by an appeals court late Thursday afternoon. Tech continued to grow its dominance as Apple became the first company in history to eclipse $2 trillion in market value and Tesla’s market cap overtook Walmart. As tech equity valuations recovered to near all-time highs, more companies prepared to go public via IPOs and reverse merger SPACs including Airbnb, Casper, Waterdrop, and Canoo. Finally, the flight from Silicon Valley as a result of Covid-19 may be real—real estate inventory increased dramatically in San Francisco as compared to other major U.S. cities, according to this analysis by Zillow Research:
Podcasts:
This week, I went on two podcasts: The Way Work Should Work and Blockcrunch. On the episode of ‘The Way Work Should Work’ below, I shared my views on the future of work and how we and other companies are starting to invest in distributed innovation given everything happening in the world with Covid-19 and remote work, growth of the gig economy, and rising income and wealth inequality.
Covid-19 Related News:
Palantir relocates headquarters to Colorado (link)
Amazon expands physical offices in 6 U.S. cities incl. NY (link)
Alibaba online orders soar during Covid, fueling recovery (link)
Artificial Intelligence:
Meatpacking industry becomes incubator for AI, automation (link)
Controversial Clearview AI inks deal with ICE (link)
Attabotics raises $50M for warehouse fulfillment robots (link)
Autonomous & Mobility:
Tesla now worth more than Walmart (link)
AutoX launches robotaxi service in Shanghai (link)
Electric commercial truck startup raises $20M (link)
iFarm raises $4M to automate urban farming with AI, drones (link)
Fintech:
Robinhood raises $200M @ $11B valuation (link)
Ant Financial launches new consumer finance company (link)
Chinese insurtech Waterdrop raises $230M—plans IPO (link)
Mexico City conversational commerce startup raises $15M (link)
Blockchain & Crypto:
Video: China rolls out digital currency on WeChat (link)
Akon raises $4B to build crypto city in Senegal (link)
Investor revolt sparks lawsuit against Filecoin (link)
Crypto lender BlockFi raises $50M Series C (link)
Consumer Tech:
Apple becomes first company to be worth $2 trillion (link)
Apple expected to roll out ‘Apple One’ services bundle (link)
Facebook integrating WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger (link)
Edtech:
Google’s certificate program will disrupt education (link)
Edtech VC funding reaches $4.1B in 2020 so far (link)
AR, VR, Gaming:
Oculus to require Facebook logins in October (link)
Apple awarded another VR glasses patent (link)
Russian billionaire creating a new social VR platform (link)
March Capital launches $60M fund for gaming startups (link)
Enterprise Tech:
Agiloft raises $45M to automate contracts, procurement (link)
SpyCloud raises $30M to prevent account takeovers (link)
Cobalt raises $29M for SaaS penetrating testing platform (link)
Startup raises $18M to auto schedule sales lead meetings (link)
Health Tech:
Uber can now deliver prescriptions in Seattle, Dallas (link)
Patient engagement startup raises $15M from Google (link)
Facebook, NYU use AI to make MRIs 4x faster (link)
Exo raises $40M to bring ultrasound to handheld devices (link)
Space Tech:
Japanese startup raises $28M for private moon landings (link)
Private space industrialization is here (link)
Mergers and Acquisitions:
Apple acquires AR, camera tech startup Camerai (link)
Take-Two Interactive acquires Playdots for $192M (link)
Reliance acquires majority of online pharmacy for $83M (link)
Unity acquires 3D workflow startup (link)
IPOs:
Airbnb files confidentially for IPO (link)
EV startup Canoo going public via SPAC (link)
Casper files for $300M IPO via SPAC (link)
Tech vs. Government:
Uber, Lyft ruling shows gig economy running out (link)
Zuckerberg interviewed as part of FTC investigation (link)
Ex Uber CSO charged for covering up data breach (link)
Taiwan plans to ban Chinese video streaming services (link)
Leadership:
Elon Musk becomes world’s 4th richest person (link)
Former House speaker Paul Ryan starts blank check SPAC (link)
VC Kevin Hartz raises $200M for blank check SPAC (link)
Pinterest appoints first black board member amid discrimination (link)
Things I’m Involved In / Tracking:
Podcast: Ian Lee on ‘Investing in Distributed Innovation’ (link)
Podcast: Ian Lee on ‘Design Thinking in DeFi’ (link)
Investors put $400M into ‘dead’ $YAM project (link)
Hiring:
About Synthesis
Synthesis is a weekly newsletter of the top tech and innovation news for busy executives. Stay up to date, and save time. Delivered every Friday.
About the Author
I’m Ian. I’ve been in the venture and corporate innovation space for the last 10 years and helped build and operate investing, venturing, and innovation units at IDEO, Citigroup, and Deloitte. You can find me on Twitter here, mostly rambling about the latest in decentralization and crypto.
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