What do Ryan Reynolds and Sam Altman have in common?

To answer the question from today’s headline, Paul reminds us why we’ve heard of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), who’s using them and why they are having a moment right now. Get the scoop.

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is seeping into every industry as a way to automate and streamline workloads. Romain writes about Nabla, a French startup that raised another $24 million for its AI approach to helping doctors. Read more.

And Kirsten reports on Aurora and Continental, which made a pre-CES announcement that they completed the first phase of a more than $300 million project to mass-produce autonomous vehicle hardware for commercial self-driving trucks. Buckle up.

More top reads

Tough year in VC: Venture capital activity was down everywhere, including Africa. In today’s story, Annie and Tage give a deep dive into what happened in 2023 and talk to investors about what happened and where the ecosystem goes from there. Read more.

Drive time: Uber is testing a flexible pricing model across India in a move that could help it gain a broader customer base. See how it works.

IPO alert: MobiKwik, an Indian financial services company, is going after an $84.2 million raise through issue of new shares in an initial public offering in the home market. Read more.

Pitch Deck Teardown: In this latest version, which just so happens to be the 78th one (and you can be the 79th), Haje looks at Pepper Bio’s seed deck. Find out what he liked, and didn’t like, about the drug discovery company’s approach. Get the scoop. (TC+)

Hype it up: Artificial intelligence was everywhere in 2023, especially if you’ve been reading TechCrunch. After a year of hyping it up, venture capitals say they are eager to move forward and see more enterprise adoption and vertical AI solutions. Learn more. (TC+)

Watching for the plateau: It’s true — when you hit a peak, usually the only way to go is down. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this section, it’s been a tough year for VC. Now we have the fourth-quarter data to prove it. Take a look. (TC+)

In case you missed it:

CES 2024: How to watch as Nvidia, Samsung and more reveal hardware, AI updates

Logan Paul promises CryptoZoo refunds, as long as you don’t sue him

Lawsuit against Snap over fentanyl deaths can proceed, judge rules

The goal of a startup is to cease existing (TC+)

On the pods

This week on Equity, we kicked things off with news of Ruth Foxe Blader leaving Anthemis to launch Foxe Capital and Exponent announcing their second fund. We then dove deep into layoffs and shutdowns for Frontdesk and Countdown Capital, respectively, and new efforts to support tech startups in both Israel and Palestine. Listen here.

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