Google will use private subsea cable to launch its first full-scale cloud region in Africa

Wednesday, October 05, 2022

Happy Wednesday! Haje is enjoying a well-deserved day off, but I’m here to dive into some news with you. Let’s join hands and jump in at the same time, shall we? — Christine

Image Credits: Sean Gallup / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3

Cloudy day: Google’s first cloud region in Africa launched in South Africa. Annie and Tage write that this move “allows for the localization of applications and services” and for businesses to more quickly deploy capabilities — for example, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics.
Duck, duck, goose: French food tech startup Gourmey took in $48 million of new funding to cook up its slaughter-free and lab-grown foie gras. Romain has more.
Show a little more, show a little less: Facebook is testing out a new feature with Reels to let users say how much or how little they want to see of certain things in their feed, Aisha reports.

Announcing Jotform Sign: E-signatures meet automation!

Startups and VC

Headline included, I enjoyed Paul’s story today on Whistleblower Software, an aptly named company that took in a $3 million seed round to continue developing its product aimed at making it easier for workers to report corporate wrongdoings.

Enjoy five more:

Breaker breaker one: Ron writes that Mvmnt, a freight technology startup, is bringing some sophistication to the way shipping brokers do business. And it’s doing it with $20 million in new capital.
Supergraphs are super: GraphQL company Apollo has a new offering for enterprises to “allow businesses to integrate data from a wide variety of sources into a single supergraph that developers can then easily use in their applications,” Frederic writes.
Perfect model: IriusRisk took in $29 million to help companies automate threat modeling for apps, Kyle reports.
It’s our party — we can rebrand if we want to: Party Round is now Capital as the company looks to expand its offerings into how founders manage their finances, Natasha M writes.
Turning green is not a bad thing here: Please enjoy my story on EcoCart, which grabbed $14.5 million of new funding to tell you how you can do more sustainable shopping.

Dear Sophie: Any tips for negotiating visa and green card sponsorship?

Dear Sophie,

I’m currently on an F-1 student visa. I’ll receive my bachelor’s degree in computer science in December and will apply for OPT. I’d like to stay and work in the U.S.

Do you have any tips for negotiating visa and green card sponsorship? Anything else I should remember as I start contacting prospective employers?

— Shy Student

Three more from the TC+ team:

Should he stay or should he go?: Tim evaluates if the time has come for Elon Musk to step down from one of his many jobs.
Do as I say, not as I do: The path to profitability may not be what VCs look for after all, Becca writes.
Lasso them tabs: Annie Saunders loves tabs — she even subscribes to newsletters about them — so here’s her take on one tab startup that helped wrangle them for her, once and for all.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

A cybersecurity incident disrupted business at U.S. hospital chain CommonSpirit Health, causing it to take some of its information technology systems offline, Carly reports. It is not yet known what kind of incident it was or what, if any, personal information was taken in the process.

Here’s five more for you:

How we doing?: It’s been one year since Google’s $1 billion pledge of support to Africa’s digital economy, and Tage and Annie do a little performance review.
M&A action: Spotify acquires Kinzen, a content moderation tech company, in a move that Sarah writes will address platform safety issues.
We take your sale and raise you one: Walmart is not letting Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale get the best of it and is countering with its own sale, Aisha reports.
This is only the beginning: Just as Elon Musk announced he was moving forward with the Twitter deal, a judge was granting the social media giant time to do some digging. A lot of twists and turns indeed, as Taylor put it. Also, Alex weighs in on how expensive Elon’s Twitter buy is.
Fight, for your right, to partAI: The White House is proposing an AI Bill of Rights, which “mandates that AI systems be proven safe and effective through testing and consultation with stakeholders, in addition to continuous monitoring of the systems in production,” Kyle writes.