It’s Wednesday, May 18, 2022, and we’re hanging out at our Mobility event, ogling cars that fly, drive themselves, and have various identity crises. I wish you were here if you aren’t, and I hope to run into you when you are! — Haje and Christine
The blog line Top 3
Fintech finds a foothold in fraud: in other words, prevention. Plaid offers new tools to help users share data securely through its platform. It’s not the only one: Down in the “Big Tech Inc.” section, you’ll see Stripe get out of his comfort zone too. Ironically, these new offerings put Plaid and Stripe on an even more competitive basis. Bob Iger Joins Team Gopuff: With former Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger investing and advising Gopuff, the instant delivery company may give him his first assignment: how to keep up the momentum in a crowded market. GoPuff confirmed it has already had to take some layoffs as part of its restructuring, and we are seeing companies in the sector lower their valuations, like Instacart. It’s a recipe for a challenging project – we’re curious to see how Iger tackles it. Tesla isn’t immune: A UK-based company said it could unlock Tesla doors by hacking into Bluetooth Low Energy technology used by Tesla to unlock and control the car through its app or key fob. It recommended entering a four-digit PIN before the car could be driven, which is smart, but it’s also another number to remember. It’s not just Tesla — anyone using this kind of technology is vulnerable, the company said.
Startups and VC
The green grass of climate investment just got a $1.7 billion boost from Generation Investment Management, a sustainability-focused public and private equity firm co-founded by Al Gore.
On TC+, in a world where everything is a bit overpriced, Alex wonders if crypto startups are even more mispriced than their non-crypto siblings.
Ugh, we’re doing business with some of the smartest, most thoughtful people. This week on Equity, Natasha asks how digital healthcare startups build successful companies in a post-Roe world.
More? Do you want more? All right then:
Five construction tech investors analyze trends and opportunities for 2022
Image Credit: Donald Iain Smith (Opens in a new window)/Getty Images
Our technological advances over the past 2,000 years are astounding, but the construction industry still relies on age-old technology.
Configuring a robot to mix cement is relatively simple, but delivering a CementTron 3000 to a construction site, training workers, and maintaining it is not the kind of disruptions builders look for, especially when margins are thin, and workers are hard to find.
Still, investors support startups that bring robotics, data management, automation, and augmented reality into the construction process. To learn more about the market forces shaping this sector in 2022, we spoke with five investors:
Nikitas Koutoupes, Director, Insight Partners Heinrich Gröller, Partner, Speedinvest Momei Qu, Director, PSP Growth Suzanne Fletcher, Venture Partner, Prime Movers Lab Sungjoon Cho, General Partner, D20 Capital
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Big Tech Inc.
It’s apparently “new features day” (although we suppose that could be any day with the way Big Tech is swinging them around). This is what we saw:
Speaking of Apple, the tech giant is running a new ad campaign targeting data brokers. The company highlights ways it allows its users to take back their private data. Meanwhile, Spain, the country fined Google 10 million euros for failing to comply with the EU data protection program.
In India, Amazon launched Smart Commerce, a way for convenience stores to join the digital storefront wave by creating their e-commerce sites. It’s something moving through Latin America, so we’ll see how this plays out in India, where 30 million stores are up for grabs.
