Citing improved manufacturing efficiencies, Ford chops its F-150 Lightning EV base price

Monday, July 17, 2023

Today’s top story is about Ford’s significant price cut to its F-150 Lightning electric pickup. See how much.

Designing websites can take as long as you want to take. But Wix doesn’t think customers want to spend that much time creating entire websites. Learn how its new tool helps you do it from prompts.

Meanwhile, Microsoft isn’t eager to talk about how Chinese hackers stole a key that enabled them to hack into certain U.S. federal agencies. However, the company is opening up a little bit.

If you’re looking for a crypto card, Gnosis launched a Visa card that lets you spend self-custody crypto in Europe. It’s coming soon to the U.S. and Hong Kong. It’s the best of both worlds.

And robotics firm Figure already announced that its humanoid officially took its first steps, and now it has some new backing from a top company. Find out more.

Image Credits: Ford

More top reads

Not without my permission: Meta was temporarily banned from running behavioral advertising on Facebook and Instagram in Norway unless it obtains users’ consent to the processing.

Get paid: Thunes pockets $72 million at an over $900 million valuation to expand its cross-border, B2B payment platform.

Clickety clack: We have a review of the OnePlus 81 Pro mechanical keyboard. See also Corsair is buying mechanical keyboard maker Drop.

Going cashless: Lee Fixel’s Addition leads a $6 million seed round into Egyptian fintech Flash, helping people go cashless through QR codes.

More companies losing their keys: JumpCloud says nation-state hackers breached its systems. Speaking of breaches, if cybersecurity isn’t recession-proof, what is? (TC+)

“Unwavering optimism”: TLV Partners raises a new $250 million fund amid civil unrest in Israel.

See her: Herself Health, founded by former Amazon Care lead Kristen Helton, raises $26 million to provide primary care to women 65 and over.

This one probably won’t mow over the competition: The $2,899 EcoFlow Blade robotic mower disappoints with shoddy hardware and software.

It’s best to know when to say when: While founders don’t often want to separate themselves from the company they birthed, some realize that’s the best thing to do for the company to succeed. In this TechCrunch+ story, one founder talks about when he knew it was time to replace himself as CEO. Speaking of new CEOs, Tubi appoints Vimeo’s Anjali Sud as its new CEO.

More for your Monday:

Rocket Lab aiming to advance Electron reusability with tonight’s launch

Virgin Galactic gearing up for second commercial suborbital flight in August

India’s Furlenco to sell 35% stake for $36.5 million

A tale of two climate tech SPACs (TC+)

Artiphon’s latest mashes Orba and Instrument 1 into a clever new music maker

Image Credits: Getty Images

All money is not created equal: What raising venture debt looks like

In an excerpt from his new book, All Money Is Not Created Equal, Runway Growth Capital CEO/founder David Spreng gives TC+ readers a vivid explanation of how venture debt is raised.

From the breezy intro meeting all the way through “confirmatory due diligence,” this article describes the process from the lender’s side of the table. Some good news: you won’t need a new pitch deck, and venture debt lenders “don’t have a problem with” signing NDAs, says Spreng.

“I would estimate that everything I’ve outlined above should take about four to five weeks from our first phone call,” he writes. “That means you’d probably have a term sheet by Week 5.”

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