17 years after its launch, Twitter gets rebranded as 'X' by new owner

Monday, July 24, 2023

Today’s top story has been brought to you by the letter “X.” Twitter officially changed its logo to “X.” While X was doing that, Mastodon usage numbers soared again. Despite what you might see on X right now, CEO Linda Yaccarino assured company staff that platform usage was at an “all time high.”

And we reignite the cage match talk because it’s time for Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to fight over whose rebrand is worse.

Meanwhile, Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning crypto startup, has embarked on a global rollout of its services to help build a reliable solution for “distinguishing humans from AI online.” See how this audacious plan is going.

And listen up, everyone, if you’re trying to figure out which earbuds to buy, you need to read this Sony WF-1000XM5 review first.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

More top reads

We are going to start off this section with a trio of cybersecurity stories. First, hackers exploit Citrix zero-day to target U.S. critical infrastructure. Then, some North Korean hackers exposed themselves when their IP addresses were leaked while targeting JumpCloud. And finally, Spyhide stalkerware is spying on tens of thousands of phones.

Coming to America: Dutch neobank Bunq raised $111 million at a flat $1.8 billion valuation to break into the U.S.

No traction, no revenue, no problem: What to do about your traction slide when you don’t have revenue yet. (TC+)

Text support: TikTok began as a short-form video platform, later adding support for images. Now it is adding text posts.

The day the music got more expensive: Spotify confirms a price hike for its premium plan in the U.S.

Future of food funding: Supply Change Capital is the latest women-led VC to raise a substantial debut fund.

Plugged in: Voltpost raised $3.6 million in seed round funding to bring EV charging to the curbside. (TC+)

Time for tech’s report card: It’s another earnings cycle, so we’re taking a look at the results of some of tech’s largest and wealthiest companies to get some perspective on the state of the economy as it relates to tech goods and services. (TC+)

Out of this world: Impulse Space is flying high with new funding led by RTX Ventures.

Get out your wallet: Crypto wallet Zengo launches a pro subscription with additional security features.

From the “pod” files:

In today’s Equity podcast, Alex takes a look at stocks around the globe, news from Worldcoin in crypto land, Twitter’s new brand, Spotify’s price raises and why San Francisco is the new AI hub. Listen now.

More for your Monday:

Public transit is driving EV sector growth in Kenya

Netflix rolls out ‘My Netflix,’ a new tab for trailers, reminders and more

Instagram is launching creator subscriptions in Australia, Canada, the UK and more

SoftBank and Symbotic team to offer automated warehouses as a service

Image Credits: Traitov / Getty Images

5 key questions climate tech founders should ask impact investors

Companies that are trying to solve environmental and social problems are worth more than $2.3 trillion, according to a study by Dealroom.co.

The entrepreneurs building in this sector have lofty aspirations, says Agnes Svensson, chief impact officer at Norrsken VC, but enthusiasm will only get you so far.

“To help drive more trackable impact investments, here are five key questions that all founders should consider asking impact investors competing for a space on your cap table.”

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