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via https://ift.tt/SLeDkqV To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here . Midweek? More like mid-weak! Okay, terrible pun, but we’re a little low energy in this heat wave today, so it kinda made sense. Oh! And good news, btw, we’re offering 15% off Disrupt tickets (excluding online or expo tickets) for you, our trusty Daily Crunch readers. Use promo code “DC” to claim your discount ! See you tomorrow!  — Christine and Haje The TechCrunch Top 3 Slumdog $5-illonnaire : Landa is the latest startup to attract venture capital, in this case $33 million, to democratize real estate ownership, Mary Ann writes. Its approach enables people to invest in the real estate sector, which is known for providing generational wealth, but in a less expensive, more fractional way, and in some cases, for as little as $5 initially. Snap, crackle and . . . fizzle : Despite the myriad of news and new revenue st...

Welcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups. This week’s guest Shiv Rao founded Abridge after experiencing how unnerving it can be to go through a medical emergency with a loved one — even for a practicing doctor like himself. So he and the Abridge team created an app that doesn’t just transcribe a conversation between doctor and patient but can summarize the important parts, pull out the next steps and even define any medical terms that were said so the patient walks away with all the information they need. The same technology helps doctors take better notes and alleviate the “pajama time” burnout by recording what happened in the appointment and synthesizing it in a format that is useful to a doctor. Darrell, Jordan and Shiv talk about the importance of making an impact at scale in the medical field. Subscribe to Found  to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us: On  Twitter On  Instagram Via email: found@techcrunch.com...

When it comes to types of venture capital instruments, party rounds are as controversial as they come. A party round is an early-stage financing round, usually occurring between the pre-seed and Series A stages, that includes a laundry list – or “party” – of individual investors. It’s different from a more traditional round, which may look like it’s led by one or two institutional investors with a few participating investors also taking part. The investment vehicle has been around for over a decade and has been a subject of debate for just as long. The positives are obvious: With more investors on their cap table, startups have more avenues for distribution, introductions and advice throughout their lifecycle. The cons are more complicated. Is the party-round investment as helpful as capital from fewer, more commitment sources? Are there too many cooks in the kitchen? Is it a negative signal that this startup had to raise from dozens of people instead of one high-conviction partner? ...

Masha Bucher is the founder and general partner of Day One Ventures , an early stage venture capital firm that backs customer-focused startups and leads their communications. The contracting private tech markets are driving down the pricing and frequency of funding rounds, while inflation cuts into companies’ runways, meaning they are able to build less product and acquire fewer users with the money they raised. It’s true that VCs are doing more diligence and being more cautious with their decisions. Some want to make sure their existing founders have enough runway to weather this storm so they are prioritizing these companies. At the same time, there are hundreds of millions earmarked for early-stage companies , and firms such as Lightspeed, Collaborative Fund, CoinFund and Menlo Ventures have announced new funds in the last few weeks. Later-stage capital is now being redirected to earlier stages to avoid being exposed to one- to three-year exit timelines due to short-term turbulenc...

Studio Ghibli films just became available to rent on major digital platforms Apple TV, Amazon and more via https://ift.tt/2FxL5Jc It’s an exciting day for Studio Ghibli fans — fans in the United States and Canada, that is. The majority of Studio Ghibli’s film catalog has just been released to major digital rental platforms, such as Apple TV , Amazon , Google Play , Microsoft  and Vudu, a report by Variety confirms. For the first time, Studio Ghibli’s films can finally be rented digitally in North America. Critically acclaimed titles like “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and the award-winning “Spirited Away” will be available to rent for as low as $3.99. However, although Google Play lists the titles at a $5.99 price point, it has a sale where the titles are available to rent for just $3.99 at present. All films will be available in HD, and customers can rent original Japanese-language or English-dubbed versions. Other titles now ava...

via https://ift.tt/IsWk8dQ Amazon is lagging its chief rival Flipkart in India on several key metrics and struggling to make inroads in smaller Indian cities and towns, according to a report by investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein. The American e-commerce giant’s 2021 gross merchandise value in the country, where it has deployed over $6.5 billion, stood between $18 billion to $20 billion, lagging Flipkart’s $23 billion, the analysts said in a report to clients Tuesday that was obtained by TechCrunch. The company’s recent spendings for growth in India has also made profitability “elusive,” the report added. India is a key overseas market for Amazon, where it competes with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, Walmart-owned Flipkart and social commerce startups SoftBank-backed Meesho and Tiger Global-backed DealShare. Amazon has so far offered “a weaker proposition in ‘new’ commerce” in the country, the report added. At stake is one of the world’s last great growth markets. The e-commerce...

via https://ift.tt/0z9oY7V Kate Anthony started in the Lone Star State. It was there, in 2019, that she launched her app Euphoria , seeking to provide information and resources on gender-affirming care. She knew the stakes were going to be high, and as the state passed anti-trans legislation, she and her company were forced to flee. Settling in Denver, Anthony made a plan on what to do next. She decided to maintain business as usual while the fight for trans rights continues. She’s not alone in that decision. Many apps, if not all, that service the trans community are hyperexposed, under fire and seemingly undeterred. TechCrunch conducted a vibe check to see how trans entrepreneurs servicing their communities are navigating this moment. The Human Rights Campaign told TechCrunch that legislators in state houses have introduced 344 anti-LGBTQ+ bills this session, with more than 140 specifically targeting the trans community. “We will not allow these anti-trans people to bully us i...

via https://ift.tt/Ucazh5i Millions around the world suffer strokes every year, and millions more are in recovery from one they’ve suffered. Regaining the use of affected limbs and capabilities is a long road, but one that can be shortened by intensive rehabilitation efforts — which Neurofenix has shown can take place in the home rather than during frequent trips to the hospital. Its Neuroball device and home therapy platform have led to $7 million in new funding to expand and deepen its platform. The problem with existing stroke rehabilitation techniques is not that they aren’t effective, but that they’re mostly located in hospitals and thus limit how often they can be engaged with. “For many, many years rehabilitation, especially neural rehabilitation, has been focused on big bulky equipment in facilities,” explained Guillem Singla, CEO and co-founder (with CTO Dimitrios Athanasiou) of Neurofenix. “We’ve extracted the essence of what needs to be done in neural rehabilitation: It ...

Can battery recycling help end US reliance on China? via https://ift.tt/ol405Bc The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this month , puts the U.S. on the path toward realizing its carbon reduction goals, in part by spurring its EV market. It has also plunged that same market into short-term chaos by requiring entire supply chains to be restructured in just a few years. The catalyst is the IRA’s steep requirements around where automakers can shop for critical battery materials if they want to be eligible for the $7,500 Clean Vehicle tax credit. China, the world’s largest producer of such supplies, is not on the list. As a result, many in the industry are swiveling their heads toward battery recycling companies that promise to supply automakers with at least some of the materials they’ll need in the coming years to produce the wave of EVs coming to market. This space has already seen substantial recent VC investment , particularly as millions of ton...

The majority of early-stage VC deals fall apart in due diligence via https://ift.tt/kRbaJ58 Covering Five Flute’s fundraising and tearing down the deck the company used to raise its $1.2 million seed round  had me wondering: How the hell do investors decide whether to invest in a company at the earliest stages? VC firm Baukunst led the Five Flute investment, and I sat down with  Axel Bichara and Tyler Mincey to learn how they evaluate a potential early-stage deal. They told me that the vast majority of the deals they look at fall apart at the due diligence stage and helped me get a deeper understanding of what that process looks like from the inside. “Common wisdom tends to generate mediocrity. That’s not helpful. In VC, we are looking for the outliers.” Axel Bichara, co-founder and general partner, Baukunst “The decision to take a second meeting is one of the biggest decisions in venture capital because, from that [moment] onward, you are committing significant time...

Aston Martin is using its upcoming Valhalla high-performance plug-in hybrid to develop a playbook for its future EVs. Executives said that the 937-horsepower Valhalla supercar exhibited at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday showcases lessons in driver engagement, visual effects and sound that could surface in its first EV in 2025 . “If we get that performance hybrid recipe right, it’s something we could see elsewhere later on in the range,” said Alex Long, head of Product & Market Strategy for Aston Martin Lagonda. The Valhalla’s engineers were especially concerned with retaining the brand’s racetrack-ready driving dynamics when developing the mid-engine two seater, he said. Electric vehicles can feel less engaging as the driver cedes control to the electrical systems and advanced driver assistance functions that govern them. “EVs are more like daily drivers and less of a weekend thrill,” Long said. Engineers strived to put the driver back in control of the Valhal...

via https://ift.tt/q3MZvSX Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has decreased. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports . Global spending across iOS and Google Play last year was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more. Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up h...