KTM City Posts

via https://ift.tt/cTLyJli Of all the venture capital funding invested in 2021, around one in every five dollars went to fintech. But this boom now seems behind us, as global fintech funding activity returned to pre-2021 levels . Worse, fintech didn’t escape the recent waves of tech layoffs , with high-profile companies like Brex, Chime and Stripe making headlines for this disheartening reason over the last few weeks. And yet, fintech startups are still getting founded and funded this year. Of the 223 companies in Y Combinator’s summer 2022 batch, 79 fell more or less  into the fintech category. Why are founders and investors still placing bets in fintech, and where? To find out more, we reached out to fintech-focused VC firm Fiat Ventures . Fiat co-founders Alex Harris , Drew Glover , and Marcos Fernandez also run its sister arm, Fiat Growth , a growth consultancy working with fintech and insurtech clients. This enables them to comment not only on sector trends from an inves...

via https://ift.tt/4Pr9eN1 It’s me! Hi! (I’m not the problem, just the podcast’s host, here to bring you the latest greatest in startup and tech news this fine Monday morning). Welcome back to Equity , the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. And for those of you who hummed the first sentence of this post, extra points to you. I’m starting things off this week as a test run before Alex heads on paternity leave. We have lots to get to, so shake off the holiday feels and let’s remember how this ecosystem works? Here’s what we got to:  The markets are broadly down, due to COVID-19 protests breaking out in China.  Blockfi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Our crypto reporter Jacquelyn Melinek has more on what happened – and she explains just how intertwined this universe is. I’ll also get to notes I took from our recent crypto conference and how the reality may be looking like Web 2.5 before it looks like W...

via https://ift.tt/5odILPT Legal trouble may be brewing for Microsoft in the European Union where an assessment by a working group of German data protection regulators that’s spent around two years looking into a swathe of privacy concerns attached to its cloud-based 365 productivity products — including by engaging directly with the tech giant to try to get it to fix compliance issues — has found Microsoft has still not been able to resolve any of the compliance problems they’ve raised with it. The working group’s update could crank up pressure on Microsoft 365 customers in Germany — and elsewhere in the European Union where the same data protection framework applies and other regulators are also investigating cloud services’ GDPR compliance — to reassess usage of its software and/or seek out less compliance-challenged alternatives. The EU’s data protection supervisor (EDPS), which oversees the bloc’s own institutions’ GDPR compliance, has been looking into the European Commission...

via https://ift.tt/fo7WHXx Search any major Chinese city on Twitter, and you will see a cascade of spam tweets showing porn, escort services, and gambling content that are published every few seconds, making it impossible to get any legitimate results. There has been a “significant uptick” in these tweets over the last three days, according to a China-focused data analyst . The surge in such bot content coincides with an unprecedented wave of protests that have swept across major Chinese cities and universities over the weekend. The demonstrations are largely a result of China’s zero-tolerance approach toward COVID-19, a rare show of defiance amongst the people. The country’s stringent COVID restrictions have led to prolonged lockdowns across the country, obstructing life, business, and manufacturing activities. Protests erupted last week at Apple’s biggest iPhone factory in China as workers were roiled by delayed bonuses and concerns over COVID spread. Discussion of the new nati...

https://ift.tt/Upe06Pm Another week, another set of firsts for the new King. This time round, Charles III hosted the first state visit of his reign and welcomed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the UK.

via https://ift.tt/lVPH7ST Amie raised a $7 million seed round led by Spark Capital . The round closed in June 2022 and the startup is disclosing it today. The company is building a productivity app anchored around your calendar. It helps you stay on top of your schedule, connect with your team and manage your upcoming tasks. Other investors in the round include Creandum , Guillermo Rauch, Hanno Renner and Quick Coffee Ventures. Amie competes with a new wave of calendar startups, including Vimcal , Magical , Fantastical , Cron and Rise . It’s a crowded space but Amie thinks it can provide a better user experience. As I wrote in my first article on Amie , the app combines your calendar with your todos. By default, your unscheduled todos appear in the left-side column next to your calendar. You can drag tasks from the sidebar and drop them in your calendar at a certain date and time. This way, you can see both your events and tasks in a week view. Many people already use their cal...

via https://ift.tt/KY0NoxH Amazon is shutting down its wholesale distribution business in India, the latest in a series of retreats for the retailer in the key overseas market where it has deployed over $7 billion in the past decade. The American e-commerce giant said Monday that it is discontinuing Amazon Distribution, its wholesale e-commerce website available in small neighborhood stores in Bengaluru, Mysore and Hubli. “We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are discontinuing this programme in a phased manner to take care of current customers and partners,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. Amazon Distribution was designed to help kiranas, the neighborhood stores in India, pharmacies and department stores secure inventory from the e-commerce giant. “We offer a wide range of products at competitive prices and the convenience of next day delivery at your door-step. As a member, you can purchase thousands of items for resale at any time of the day at competitive price...