Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! Today, we bring tidings of a new and exciting fusion round, commentary on Tesla’s latest EV choices, notes on how AI chatbots are getting monetized, and even a $130 million Series F! A late-stage round?! In this economy!? — Alex

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Guesty

1. Guesty snaps up $130M at $900M valuation: What does it take to raise a chunky Series F in today’s market? Guesty, a SaaS platform that owners can use to manage their rental properties, grew its revenues 5x in the last three years, and “expects to turn profitable this year.” Read More

2. Tesla’s risky robotaxi choice: The EV maker is reportedly shifting its focus to robotaxis instead of building cheap, $25,000 EVs, but is that such a good idea? TechCrunch’s Tim De Chant argues that Tesla’s low-cost car could have helped grow the company’s TAM and challenge surging Chinese EV manufacturers. Robotaxis are cool, but they could prove a hard nut to crack… Read More

3. VCs are still investing in fusion: It’s hard to put money into companies like Proxima Fusion, which, like all fusion power companies, has a long and hard road to commercialization ahead. Still, with €20 million, this spin-out of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is taking a shot at a problem that, if solved, would change life for every human. Venture capital indeed… Read More

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Morning Must Reads

Image Credits: Poe

Poe continues to break ground in chatbot monetization: Quora’s Poe chatbot service shares revenue with bot creators if they drive paid subscribers to its platform. Now, the AI chat platform is letting bot creators set a per-message price for their bots so they can make money whenever a user messages them. In other words, make sure you have some human friends in case you run out of chatbot recharge money… Read More

True Anomaly is turning that frown upside down: True Anomaly’s launch of two satellites didn’t go as planned, but the company is refusing to take the loss as such. Instead it is framing the situation as a learning opportunity. I love the attitude. Sending stuff to space and keeping it there is a hard problem, so you are going to need some pluck if you want to pull it off. Better luck next time, True Anomaly! Read More

Proton buys Standard Notes: Best known for its privacy-focused ProtonMail service, Proton has acquired Standard Notes, a note-taking service that has a similar privacy stance. Proton has expanded its product line from email to VPNs, cloud storage, and password management, so adding notes to the mix makes sense... Read More

Do you recycle wood? Cambium thinks that you should. The company’s co-founder and CEO Ben Christensen told TechCrunch’s Found podcast that only 5% to 10% of wood today gets recycled, and it thinks it can improve that. Our planet can use every boon it can get, so I dig this idea... Read More

The complete roundtable lineup at TC Early Stage 2024: Early Stage is just around the corner, so we’re announcing the final bits of content for the event. Apart from Q&A sessions with leading operators and investors, we have roundtables galore. These tend to be super popular, so make sure to check the list now and get a seat early... Read More

Yoshi Mobility snags $26M Series C: Evolving from a service that would gas up your car every month, Yoshi Mobility now offers preventative maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging. That mix led to 10x growth since 2020, as well as this new fundraise. Read More

Faraday Future? More like Faraday Fracas: Two whistleblowers at troubled EV maker Faraday Future allege that the company lied about sales numbers, and that the startup is retaliating against anyone who “speaks up about these alleged misrepresentations,” TechCrunch reports... Read More

Around the Web

WoW to return to China? Net Ease and Microsoft are working to bring Blizzard titles back to China later this year, Reuters reports. That’s great news for the millions of WoW players who’ve been stuck using VPNs for the longest time… Read More

Apple’s (slowly) diversifying supply chain: Bloomberg reports that the value of Apple iPhones made in India during its fiscal 2024 reached $14 billion. In simpler terms, about one in every seven iPhones is now manufactured in India... Read More

ByteDance is now more profitable than Tencent: After seeing its profit jump by 60%, TikTok’s parent company is now more profitable than its Chinese rival, Tencent, Bloomberg reports. ByteDance is currently facing a possible forced sale of TikTok in its critical United States market, so that profitability picture could change fast... Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Messenger

Messenger now allows for HD photo sharing, larger file sends: Formerly known as Facebook Messenger, Meta’s own messaging product is beefing up its sharing capabilities. Users can now share entire albums in chat, send files up to 100 MBs in size, and connect with others via a QR code… Read More