Daily Crunch - EU-US Privacy Shield is truly dead

Friday, July 24, 2020 • By Darrell Etherington

Apple starts making the current iPhone in India, Revolut’s Series D gets bigger and an electric truck maker says they’ll be on the road by next year. This is the Daily Crunch for July 24, 2020.

The big story: EU-US Privacy Shield is truly dead and there's no grace period

The big Schrems II judgement that nullifies the EU-U.S. cross-border Privacy Shield that essentially protected companies in cases where they were transferring personal data of European residents to the U.S. is dead, and updated guidance says there’s no grace period for companies dealing with the transition — so technically, everyone has to stop doing that unless they have legally valid means that protect said data from U.S. surveillance immediately or face potential penalties.

Could Colocation Be the Nervous System of Digital Business?

Apple has begun making its iPhone 11 smartphone in its plant outside of Chennai, India. That’s the first time production of a current-generation iPhone has been assigned to Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn’s Indian assembly facilities. The iPhone-maker has long sought ways to expand production capability in the country.

HBO Max acquired 4.1 million subscribers in its first month. That’s a lot of paying users for the AT&T-owned streaming service, particularly since it’s not on the extremely popular Roku devices yet.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Startup Butlr adapts its sensor hardware for COVID-19 counter-efforts. This startup had created sensors designed to provide retailers with in-store shopper analytics, while still respecting individual privacy, but it’s turning its attention to addressing safe distancing and max occupancy numbers designed to prevent the spread of COVID.

Indian education startup Entri raises $3.1 million. Entri’s goal is to provide necessary skills and job training that many Indians need to land jobs, in particular state and federal government gigs, and to do so in the vernacular that each learner is most comfortable with to make the process easier.

Rivian to kick off electric pickup deliveries next June. The would-be Tesla competitor has received a ton of funding and support from some big auto industry players, and now it says that it’s going to start shipping its first vehicle — an electric pickup truck — in June 2021.

Revolut adds $80 million more to its latest round of funding. The total size of the round is now $580 milllion, after it announced the original $500 million tranche in February. The total valuation for the neobank is now $5.5 billion.

Startups, funding and venture capital image

Image Credits: Revolut

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Are insurtech startups undervalued? I have no idea. Alex asked that question and then presumably goes on to answer it in this edition of The Exchange for Extra Crunch.

Ali Partovi, founder of Neo, on how to hire great engineers early. It’s hard to recruit top-flight engineers when you’re a young startup just getting on your feet. Neo’s Ali Partovi, whose company specializes in teaming up young engineers and ones with plenty of great experience, has advice via our Early Stage event from this past week.

Accel’s Amy Saper and Talia Goldberg tear down a pitch deck. Also at Early Stage, we welcomed VCs Amy Super and Talia Goldberg to take a look at some pitch decks and provide live advice to the founders and companies that created them.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch image

Everything else

No-code and vanlife, plus a roll-your-own Instacart all feature on this week’s episode of Equity.

NASA’s really big balloon. It’s the size of an actual football field, and it’s going to pretty much the edge of space in order to photograph stars being born.