Thank you for subscribing to Synthesis. It’s a holiday week in the U.S., so I’m sending this out before folks take some well deserved time off.
Top News of the Week:
400+ companies stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram (link)
Uber offers to buy Postmates for $2.6B after losing Grubhub (link)
Lululemon acquires at-home fitness startup Mirror for $500M (link)
Empower Retirement acquires Personal Capital for $1B (link)
Google acquires AR smart glass startup North for $180M (link)
Weekly Synthesis:
This week, the backlash against Facebook’s neutrality on hate speech further intensified as over 400 companies (Pfizer, Ford, Adidas, Unilever, Pepsi) stopped advertising on Facebook and Instagram wiping out $60B in market value—and a third of Facebook’s advertisers are now considering joining the boycott. Meanwhile, companies like Uber, Lululemon, Empower, Google, and VMware made strategic acquisitions, and two edtech startups (Byju, Zuoyebang) became unicorns as Asia is driving new excitement in the sector. Finally, as Covid-19 resurges in the U.S., 85% of startups plan to permanently go 100% remote, remote-first, or adopt a flexible work arrangement, according to a recent study by TechCrunch:
Ask:
Last week one of our most promising portfolio companies, Braintrust, launched out of stealth, receiving coverage in Fortune, The New York Times, Yahoo! Finance TV, Coindesk, Business Insider, The Hustle, Cheddar and more. Braintrust also released a Research Paper in collaboration with Harvard about the Future of Work, which you can view by clicking this link.
Braintrust is a marketplace that connects Fortune 1000 enterprises like Nestle, NASA, Porsche, Deloitte, and more with top technical talent from around the globe. With Braintrust, organizations can assemble flexible teams, and make their budgets go 2-3 times further by cutting out unnecessary, expensive middle men. This new business model of minimizing fees and enabling users to control the network is uniquely enabled by a blockchain token.
If you or your company might be interested in learning more, I’d love to connect you to the co-founders for a further conversation. Just reply to this email to get in touch with me. 🙏
Black Lives Matter Related News:
Reddit, Twitch, YouTube start to ban Trump and far-right (link)
Netflix makes $100M commitment to support black community (link)
Maker of Tinder, Match adds people of color, women to board (link)
Covid-19 Related News:
Apple re-closing 30 U.S. stores as Covid-19 cases resurge (link)
Microsoft to permanently close all retail stores—shifts to digital (link)
Airbnb CEO: “Travel will never go back to the way it was” (link)
Amazon to pay $500M in bonuses to front-line workers (link)
Operator of 1,600+ Pizza Hut, Wendy’s stores files for bankruptcy (link)
Artificial Intelligence:
Voice AI used to combat elderly loneliness in UK, Sweden (link)
Amazon launches CodeGuru—uses AI to optimize code (link)
NASA uses generative AI to design next-gen spacesuits (link)
Autonomous & Mobility:
UPS, Penske, Berkshire partner on autonomous truck network (link)
Autonomous robots start delivering groceries in Michigan (link)
Tesla becomes the most valuable automaker in the world (link)
Fintech & Legaltech:
German fintech solarisBank raises $68M from Vulcan, Samsung (link)
AI messaging platform for insurance companies raises $8M (link)
Blockchain & Crypto:
Telegram to pay SEC $19M fine and return $1.2B to VCs (link)
Binance acquiring stake in Swipe.io to move into payments cards (link)
Crypto custody startup Curv raises $23M from Coinbase, DCG (link)
Vanguard going live with FX transactions blockchain in Q3 2020 (link)
Augmented & Virtual Reality:
Gucci, Snapchat launch AR lens to virtually try on footwear (link)
Niantic, Sleep No More partner on immersive AR shows (link)
Facebook Labs unveils VR sunglasses prototype (link)
ControlZee raises $3M for massive interactive swarm games (link)
Consumer Tech:
Discord raises $100M to compete with Slack (link)
NY Times ends partnership with Apple News (link)
Apple Arcade cancels contracts as it struggles to retain users (link)
Kanye West, Gap partner to create Yeezy apparel—shares soar (link)
EdTech:
India edtech startup Byju raises $500M at $10B valuation (link)
China edtech startup Zuoyebang raises $750M at $1.3B valuation (link)
Microsoft to provide free online classes to 25M people in 2020 (link)
Enterprise Tech:
Surveillance startup raises $200M from a16z at $1.9B valuation (link)
Enterprise data connectivity startup raises $100M from a16z, GC (link)
AWS making push into military and commercial space industry (link)
Developer platform for apps run on Kubernetes raises $27M (link)
Future Tech:
Samsung, Bloom partner on zero-emissions cargo vessels (link)
3D-printed plant-based steaks could arrive in 2021 (link)
Michigan passes bill making employee microchips voluntary (link)
Venture Capital:
Y-Combinator cuts standard deal from $150K to $125K (link)
Facebook co-founder raises second fund B Capital with $822M (link)
Cendana Capital raises $278M for 4th fund of fund (link)
Tim O’Reilly: Venture capital is doing more harm than good (link)
Mergers, Acquisitions, IPOs:
Softbank-backed Lemonade raises $319M in IPO (link)
Shift plans to go public this year—Covid-19 boosting online sales (link)
VMware acquires disaster recovery startup Datrium (link)
Medtech company acquires surgery gaming startup (link)
Tech v. Regulation:
India bans 59 Chinese apps including TikTok amid conflict (link)
Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google CEOs to testify before House (link)
Trump’s H-1B freeze endangers U.S. firms, India tech industry (link)
U.S. suspends export of sensitive tech to Hong Kong (link)
Leadership:
Alexis Ohanian is leaving Initialized Capital (link)
Jeff Bezos’ wealth soared to $172B prior to divorce (link)
ex-VC Mike Rothenberg could face 30 years in prison for fraud (link)
Things I’m Involved In / Tracking:
Decentralized platform for creators and influencers launches (link)
The freelance economy is broken—this startup aims to fix it (link)
23 year-old tokenizes himself—gives holders power over his life (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 morning.
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.
Get in Touch
🚀 Working on a crypto startup? I’d love to hear about it. Ping me here.
👍 If you have content you want to share in this newsletter, fill out this form.