Top News of the Week:
Chamath to take Clover Health public via $3.7B SPAC (link)
Square puts 1% of its balance sheet into bitcoin (link)
Instacart raises $200M @ $17.7B valuation (link)
Uber Eats expands to flower, supplies, retail delivery (link)
Hyundai unveils full lineup of flying cars for 2028 (link)
Weekly Synthesis:
This week, the SPAC to IPO trend continued with Clover Health (Social Capital / Chamath), space company Momentus, and a new blank check SPAC started by controversial ex Uber exec Emil Michael. Meanwhile, delivery startups (Instacart, Uber Eats, goPuff), fitness (Strava, NordicTrack), and enterprise SaaS (mmhmm, Dialpad) were also hot, as the pandemic continues to shift spending and investment towards these categories. Lastly, Square turned heads, as Jack Dorsey’s company announced that it put 1% of its balance sheet into bitcoin as a hedge against inflation risk as the U.S. and governments around the world continue to print money.
Covid-19 Related News:
At-home Covid test maker raising capital at $1B valuation (link)
SF office rents tumble with no sign of bottoming (link)
Covid is carving deep divide between haves, have-nots (link)
Artificial Intelligence:
AI startup for transcribing doctor visits raises $15M (link)
58% of top AI researchers financially backed by big tech (link)
Autonomous & Mobility:
Waymo opens robo-taxi service in Phoenix (link)
Amazon launches fully electric delivery van (link)
Didi, Whatsapp partner on ride-hailing in Brazil (link)
Neocis raises $72M for dental surgery robot (link)
Fintech:
Square Capital’s chief, Jacqueline Reses, resigns (link)
Venmo launches credit card competitor (link)
India’s Uni raises $19M from Lightspeed, Accel (link)
AP startup Tipalti raises $150M at $2B valuation (link)
Blockchain & Crypto:
SEC Chairman: all stocks could become tokens (link)
DoJ: Crypto poses growing threat to national security (link)
Coinbase loses 5% of workforce over politics ban (link)
Ripple threatens to leave U.S. over crypto regulation (link)
Consumer Tech:
Strava raising at $1B+ valuation (link)
TikTok passes Instagram as 2nd popular app with U.S. teens (link)
NordicTrack owner raises at $7B valuation (link)
Delivery startup goPuff raises $380M @ $3.9B valuation (link)
AR / VR & Gaming:
Fidelity tries work collaboration in VR (link)
eSports firm ReKTGlobal raises $35M (link)
mmhmm raises $31M from Sequoia, All Turtles (link)
Enterprise Tech:
Salesforce Ventures launches $100M impact fund (link)
Dialpad raises $100M @ $1.2B valuation from a16z, Google (link)
Color Screens raises $80M from Verizon, Microsoft, SVB (link)
Low-code startup raises $28M from Accel, Salesforce (link)
Mergers & Acquisitions:
Uber sells $500M stake in freight business to conserve cash (link)
Tesla acquires German automation company (link)
IBM spins out infrastructure business—to focus on cloud (link)
AMD in talks to acquire Xilinx for $30B (link)
IPOs:
Affirm confidentially files for IPO (link)
Airbnb plans to raise $3B via IPO (link)
Ex Uber exec files for $250M SPAC (link)
Space company Momentus to seek $1B IPO via SPAC (link)
Tech vs. Government:
U.S. House panel seeking breakup of tech giants (link)
Facebook: Breakup of Instagram, Whatsapp a non-starter (link)
U.S. exploring curbs on Ant, Tencent payment systems (link)
John McAfee arrested in Spain for U.S. tax evasion (link)
Things I’m Involved In / Tracking:
New creator platform to give 70% of network to users (link)
New stablecoin DEX launches—$15M AUM in 3 days (link)
Valiu helps migrants in Columbia send, save money (link)
Fair launch as a new alternative fundraising model (link)
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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