Internal memo: Instagram plans to eventually eliminate its existing Shopping page and will test a simpler and less personalized page over the next few months

  Techmeme   ·   3 months ago

OnlyFans reports revenue for the year ending November 2021 rose 160% YoY to $932M, creators up 34% YoY to 2.1M, earning nearly $4B, and fans up 128% YoY to 188M

  Techmeme   ·   3 months ago

TikTok has cut jobs in its US advertising department as part of a restructuring, offering affected employees the chance to find roles in other units

  Techmeme   ·   3 months ago

Source: Cisco CEO told staff that the company will increase operating expenses by $1B over the next year, in part to raise pay and stop employee departures

  Techmeme   ·   3 months ago

Source: BeReal had 7.9M DAUs in July, up from 2M in January 2022; this spring, BeReal raised a Series B led by DST Global at a pre-money valuation of $600M

  Techmeme   ·   4 months ago

Sources: DataRobot's CFO and several other executives have resigned after CEO Dan Wright's resignation in July 2022 amid an uproar over execs' quiet stock sales

  Techmeme   ·   4 months ago

Memo: Dan Wright, CEO of enterprise AI company DataRobot, resigned after less than 1.5 years, following employee uproar over stock sales by senior executives

  Techmeme   ·   4 months ago

Google says it will pause hiring for two weeks, not affecting offers that were already made, after saying last week it would slow hiring for the rest of 2022

  Techmeme   ·   4 months ago

In an internal post, Meta's Head of Remote Presence and Engineering Maher Saba instructed managers to identify and "move to exit" low performers

  Techmeme   ·   5 months ago

Sources: Mysten Labs, a blockchain startup founded by ex-Meta crypto execs, is in talks to raise a $200M+ Series B led by FTX Ventures, seeking a $2B valuation

  Techmeme   ·   5 months ago

As tech stocks fall, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, GGV, and other VC firms are buying publicly traded stocks of companies whose prospects they deem to be strong

  Techmeme   ·   5 months ago

Source: Oracle considered cost reductions of up to $1B that could result in thousands of layoffs as soon as August, mostly impacting staff in the US and Europe

  Techmeme   ·   5 months ago

Sources: more than two dozen Azure data centers globally are operating with limited server capacity; more than six will continue to be limited until early 2023

  Techmeme   ·   5 months ago

Source: eToro and the SPAC company that agreed to take it public are planning to let the June 30 deadline for their merger pass without closing the deal

  Techmeme   ·   5 months ago

Source: Meta decided not to release the first version of its AR glasses, scheduled for 2024, to focus on its second version, with a release unlikely for years

  Techmeme   ·   6 months ago

Sources: Coinbase is testing an app from Ray Dalio's company Principles that lets staff rate each other on how well they exemplify Coinbase's 10 cultural tenets

  Techmeme   ·   6 months ago

Sources: Coinbase is pausing new projects, freezing hiring, cutting costs, and giving staff more stock grants after its stock fell 75%+ in the past six months

  Techmeme   ·   6 months ago

PitchBook: 16 new VC funds with 60%+ female decision makers have raised $4.5B from January to April 2022; women-led funds raised $3.7B in 2021 and $1.8B in 2020

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Source: crypto analytics startup Chainalysis raises a $170M Series F led by GIC at an $8.6B valuation, up from $4.2B in June when it raised a $100M Series E

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Sources: Meta is considering reducing the money it gives news outlets and focusing on news content as short videos on Facebook rather than as links to articles

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Source: Cameo plans to lay off 80+ employees, or about 25% of its workforce; CEO Steven Galanis says the cuts will "balance our costs with our cash reserves"

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Internal FTC survey: overall satisfaction among staff has dropped from 89% in 2020 to 60% in 2021; in an email, Lina Khan pledges to fix sinking staff morale

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Roadmap: Meta plans four VR headsets by 2024; source says high-end MR headset Cambria, once set for 2021, could debut in September before its successor in 2024

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Sources: Palmer Luckey's AI-powered defense tech startup Anduril is raising a $500M-$1B Series E at a $7B valuation, up from $4.6B about a year ago

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Document: one-click checkout service Bolt's transaction revenue grew ~10% to $28M in 2021, and has had partner merchants numbering in the low 300s since 2020

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Sources: the FTC opened an inquiry into whether Elon Musk complied with its reporting requirement as he amassed his 9.1% Twitter stake between January and April

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Corporate data management and security startup Veza, formerly Cookie.ai, raises $50M led by Accel at a $500M valuation

  Techmeme   ·   7 months ago

Sources: Apple doesn't collect much user data from services and the data it collects is not widely accessible to staff, making it harder to compete with rivals

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Source says Twitter's board of directors views Elon Musk's takeover offer as unwelcome, suggesting the company will fight the bid

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Sources: Meta chose a Qualcomm chip for the second version of its Ray-Ban smartglasses, after struggling to develop its own custom chip codenamed Brasilia

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Sources: one-click checkout startup Fast is shutting down entirely, after having raised $120M from backers including Stripe, Index Ventures, and Addition

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Sources: at a recent employee town hall and a management offsite meeting, Netflix executives cautioned employees to be more careful about spending and hiring

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Sources: Stripe-backed one-click checkout service Fast generated just ~$600K in 2021 revenue; source says Fast tried raising a $100M Series C in late 2021

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Source: Philadelphia-based delivery startup Gopuff to lay off ~3% of its staff to cut $40M in costs; layoffs follow the resignations of several key executives

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Sources: Sequoia China, whose portfolio includes ByteDance and online fashion startup Shein, is in early talks to raise $8B+ across four new funds

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Sources: Sam Altman's Worldcoin is raising $100M in a token sale from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, a previous backer, and Khosla, at a $3B valuation

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Tech execs may face criminal prosecution or jail time for failure to comply with Ofcom within two months after UK's Online Safety Bill, if passed, takes effect

  Techmeme   ·   8 months ago

Sources: Google has struck a deal to acquire Raxium, a five-year-old startup that makes microLED components for AR and VR displays

  Techmeme   ·   9 months ago

Bessemer Venture Partners launches BessemerDAO to discuss crypto trends and share resources, and earmarks $250M of its new $2.5B fund for crypto deals

  Techmeme   ·   9 months ago

Source: Tiger Global partners have committed $1B of their own cash, at $300M+ every year, to invest in seed funds that focus on backing the youngest startups

  Techmeme   ·   9 months ago

Source: Google is in talks to acquire cybersecurity company Mandiant, after a February report indicated Microsoft acquisition talks; Mandiant's stock is up 15%+

  Techmeme   ·   9 months ago

Sources: automation software startup Hyperscience, last valued at $1.65B, laid off 100 staff after missing FY financial targets; CEO Peter Brodsky stepped down

  Techmeme   ·   9 months ago

Sources: Meta broke up a 300+ team working on OSes for its VR headsets and upcoming AR glasses, including a group working on a new OS code-named XROS

  Techmeme   ·   9 months ago

Source: Tiger Global told investors earlier this month that it will no longer focus on large, late-stage startups preparing to go public

  Techmeme   ·   9 months ago

Source: Tiger Global has raised over $11B for its latest venture capital fund as of January and expects to close the fund at $12B in March

  Techmeme   ·   10 months ago

TikTok says it is testing allowing creators to charge subscriptions for their content

  Techmeme   ·   10 months ago

Sources: Meta has stopped developing a new OS for its VR devices and upcoming AR glasses; the multiyear project involved hundreds of employees

  Techmeme   ·   11 months ago

Kevin Martin, the Republican who was Meta's head of US public policy, will resume the position, as Meta drops plans to hire a Democrat to lead its lobbying team

  Techmeme   ·   11 months ago

Sources: Bolt, which offers a one-click checkout service, is seeking to raise ~$400M at a $14B valuation, after raising $393M at an $11B valuation in October

  Techmeme   ·   11 months ago

Meta says it acquired ImagineOptix, a North Carolina-based startup specializing in liquid crystal lenses, which could help reduce the size of VR headsets

  Techmeme   ·   11 months ago