Judge orders Elizabeth Holmes to report to prison and pay Theranos hoax victims $452M

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

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Today, we bring you the latest on Elizabeth Holmes and her prison sentence, Wefox keeping its valuation and Google’s in-app billing policy in India. This is your Daily Crunch for Wednesday. — Christine

Well, Elizabeth Holmes tried what she could, but after attempting to delay and appeal her 11-year sentence, “a panel of Ninth Circuit judges ruled that Holmes’ legal team has not raised enough of a ‘substantial question’ to keep her out of prison.” Only, that’s not all. Here’s why “Time’s up for Elizabeth Holmes.”

German insurtech Wefox secured $55 million in new funding from existing investors, but that’s not the impressive news: The company managed to maintain the same valuation of $4.5 billion. Find out how.

Jia, a blockchain-based fintech startup, banked $4.3 million in seed funding and an additional $1 million commitment for on-chain liquidity. The one-year-old company provides loans of up to $5,000 to micro and small businesses in emerging markets. Read more on how Jia plans to deploy the capital.

Healthy vibe: Singapore’s Ora has some fresh capital to support its vertically integrated approach to telehealth.

Expansion plans: Tiger Global, Sawari Ventures and Raba co-led a round of $8.25 million into Axis to launch its digital payments platform for Egyptian SMEs into the North African market.

That’s hot: Insurtech bolttech is now valued at $1.6 billion after getting $196 million from investors like MetLife.

Young European startups, listen up: Finnish VC firm Lifeline Ventures now has a $163 million fund for early-stage startups.

Everything’s better with a friend: Two cloud security companies, Eagle Eye Networks and Brivo, did a joint round where they raised $192 million. The pair of U.S. companies are majority owned by the same individual, security entrepreneur Dean Drako.

Image Credits: Getty Images

Big Tech Inc.

Google said its Google Play payments policy is now in compliance with India’s watchdog order and so it’s moving ahead with plans to enforce the policy in the South Asian market. Learn more.

You want some Echo Pop? First, find out what that even is, and then see how it refreshes Amazon’s lineup of new gadgets and gizmos. There’s aplenty.

More blue check marks: Meta’s paid verification program is now available in the U.K.

Binge-worthy: Disney+ plans to launch all of its “Echo” episodes at once amid changes to its release model.

Level up: Ripple acquires Metaco, a crypto custody startup, for $250 million.

ICYMI: Tesla held its shareholder meeting this week. Find out what happened.

Cybersecurity investment opportunity makes waves

Here’s what I learned while leading a bootstrapped startup to $40M ARR

Hotjar launched as a bootstrapped startup in 2014, but since then, CEO Mohannad Ali says it has reached $40 million ARR.

“The influence of the larger product insights market and our relationship with customers enabled us to move quickly and pivot regularly,” writes Ali, who shares the early strategies they used to manage beta testing, pricing and marketing.

“If you’ve been considering bootstrapping, now is the time to commit,” he says.

Three more from the team:

Are rising seed-stage valuations a poisoned gift for startups?

Emerging managers shouldn’t rush a first close — even in this market

To hire your first startup employee, begin with a list of 1,500 people

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