For $ 20 / month, Citizen Crime Alert app will connect users with live “security guards” – TechCrunch

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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for August 3, 2021. Today we have a delicious mix of news for you, from Twitter product changes to struggling VCs, mega-deals and even very early rounds. Let’s have fun! – Alexis

The Top 3 TechCrunch

• Even VCs are affected by ransomware: Of course, people with less technical knowledge are constantly affected by malware and ransomware. You don’t really expect anything better from traditional telecom operators or underfunded utilities. But when the victim is Advanced Technology Ventures, which manages around $ 1.8 billion in assets, the scourge of aggressive cybercrime begins to take a more sinister turn. Who is safe? Person?
• Fleet of disadvantaged fleets: Twitter’s plan to kill its Fleets product came to fruition today. It has disappeared from our iOS apps. The fleets were fleeting, as everyone noted, with the product life cycle coming and going in rapid succession. Bad news for Twitter? Not really. Its Stories-like feature wasn’t very popular, and the company has a million other things behind the scenes, like its subscription service, live audio product, and newsletter effort.
• Substack buys Letter: TechCrunch covered this deal today, forcing your humble scribe to sit down and think. Why would Substack buy Letter, a written debate platform? Well, the newsletter-driven startup is big on the written word and its value. And many well-known authors of Substack are controversial in one way or another. You know, the kind of people you might want to see in a debate? The two products should line up well.

Startups / VC

Today we divide our startups and venture capital news into three sections. The first deals with the VCs themselves. Then we’ll discuss a few mega-tours and conclude with some little deals that are worth our time.

• Moderne Ventures raises $ 200 million: Every first venture capital fund wants to access its second fund. And if they do, to raise a bigger fund. From this point of view, things seem to be going well at Moderne, a company whose second fund is a multiple of the size of the first. And he was oversubscribed. What does the group invest in? According to our own reports, startups working in the “real estate, finance, insurance and home service industries”.
• Is VC going public one thing? Yes, it turns out that is one thing. Several European venture capital funds have gone public in recent quarters, including Draper Esprit, moving from the smaller AIM to the main board in London. It turns out that being a public venture capitalist can remove some of the time constraints that more traditional venture capital firms face. And ordinary people can invest.

Now, some big tricks:

• Indian BharatPe raises 370 million dollars: Confirming the previous TechCrunch scoop, fintech unicorn BharatPe is now worth $ 2.85 billion after Tiger led his final round. The company, TechCrunch reports, “operates an eponymous service to help offline merchants accept digital payments and secure working capital.” Considering the number of SMEs in India, BharatPe’s TAM is huge. And now he has almost infinite capital to use to fuel his own growth.
• Rapyd raises $ 300 million for fintech APIs: The fintech world hasn’t seen a single huge turn today, but two. The $ 300 million infusion of Rapyd led by Target Global values ​​the company at around $ 8.75 billion, according to TechCrunch sources. What is Rapyd doing? It offers APIs that power wallets, money transfers, and card issuance, among other services, helping other businesses deliver fintech services around the world.
• Of course, why not, here’s another huge round of Indian tigers: Further proof that Tiger is building an index fund of growth-driven private companies around the world and India’s startup market is hot, Infra.Market today announced its third round in nine months. The $ 125 million Series D values ​​the Mumbai-based company at $ 2.5 billion, after silver. Infra.Market creates software to help construction companies obtain the raw materials they need and manage project logistics.

And then there’s the news from startups on the first side of the market:

• bina raises $ 1.4 million for edtech focused on children: bina – the little b is part of its brand image – wants to build an online school with small classes for children from 4 to 12 years old. Considering the huge changes in the global education market in light of COVID-19, this is a big task.
• $ 1.3 million for the African agtech startup Khula: By providing farmers large and small with software and a market, Khula wants to address the chronic problems of the African agricultural market through technology.
• Finally, Aira’s wireless charging technology has just raised $ 12 million: Of course, Apple ditched AirPower, but Aira is still working hard on the wireless charging issue. Which gives us hope, because our phones are always low on batteries, so are our headphones, keyboards and just about everything. It’s not just us, right?
• Citizen is launching its Protect service at $ 20 / month: The controversial Citizen’s Protect consumer security starter service is now something you can buy. Reach that line of communication and company staff will help you manage your emergency. It doesn’t sound too spicy, but as TechCrunch reports, “the app made the news earlier this year for the launch of a private fleet of” rapid response service “and a reward for one wrongly accused. for starting a forest fire in Los Angeles “.

Embodied AI, superintelligence and master algorithm

Over the next 18 months, a technologist says the increased adoption of embodied artificial intelligence will pave the way for superintelligence – incredibly powerful software that overshadows anything the human mind could produce.

“All of Boston Dynamics’ crazy videos of robots jumping, dancing, balancing and running are examples of AI embodied,” says Chris Nicholson, Founder and CEO of Pathmind, which uses deep reinforcement learning to optimize industrial operations and supply chains.

“The field is changing rapidly and in this revolution you can dance. “

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Big Tech Inc.

• YouTube’s big brief push goes live: Alphabet’s Google division has a video product called YouTube that you may have heard of. And the affiliate’s branch has a $ 100 million fund that it hopes will spark interest in creating short videos for its viewers. TikTok changed the video game and YouTube’s huge financial response is now live.
• Google is updating its Maps product on iOS: If you’re using Maps on iOS, which we think is about half of you reading this note, good news. Now you can more easily share your location in iMessages, use dark mode, and get traffic data on your home screen. You’re welcome.
• Nikola cautions against deliveries of electric vehicles: The flea shortage has yet another victim. This time it’s Nikola, the struggling electric vehicle company that has seen its CEO get shot for fraud in recent days. The company was one of the early successes of PSPC and is now a caveat to the financial mechanism.
• Marvell buys Innovium for $ 1.1 billion: Here is a great acquisition story which is also a disappointment. Innovium, a maker of “cloud-optimized network Ethernet switches,” according to our own reports, was worth a little more on its last private tour. Still, it’s a big deal and an outflow of over $ 1 billion, which is well worth it.

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