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Elon Musk fired top Twitter execs including CEO, reports say

Elon Musk fired key Twitter executives Thursday, one of his first moves as the official owner of the social media platform. A ccording to reports from the New York Times , CNBC , the Wall Street Journal , the Washington Post and other outlets, Musk fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett, and head of legal policy, trust and safety Vijaya Gadde. The deal is done, according to multiple sources, which is what gave Musk the mandate to clean house among the executive ranks. The Tesla CEO had previously criticized Gadde on the platform , and he has also tangled with Agrawal with the two exchanging messages that indicated a falling out as revealed by chat logs disclosed in discovery in the legal battle between the billionaire and the social network. This story is developing… It happened: Elon Musk officially owns Twitter   Elon Musk fired top Twitter execs including CEO, reports say by Amanda Silberling originally published on Te...

It happened: Elon Musk officially owns Twitter

It’s for real this time. After months of legal drama , bad memes , and will-they-or-won’t-they-chaos to put your favorite rom-com to shame, Elon Musk has closed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. A number of outlets reported that Musk sealed the deal Thursday night , taking Twitter private and ousting a handful of top executives — CEO Parag Agrawal included — in the process. Musk reportedly cleaned house on Thursday, firing CFO Ned Segal, Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett right out of the gate. Though it’s still an aggressive and abrupt day one move, Agrawal was inevitable given his well-documented clashes and a failed virtual meeting with Musk. It’s also no surprise that Gadde was among the first to go. Musk previously singled the top policy executive out with accusations of “left wing bias” over her role in politically-charged decision making at the company, driving a wave of racist hate and harassment her way. The road to...

Hidden Door wants to turn fiction into immersive roleplaying experiences

The first season of “ House of Dragon ” just ended, and I find myself wishing for more. I’ve seen each episode twice already, read through the lore and even re-watched some “Game of Thrones” episodes. If I had the option to immerse myself in that world and roleplay as a dragon-riding Targaryen queen, you bet your ass I would do it. That’s eventually the vision of Hidden Door , a game studio that specializes in narrative AI and which participated in TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 200 last week. Hidden Door wants to be able to turn any work of fiction into an immersive collaborative roleplaying experience, where players can jump into their favorite story worlds turned into dynamic graphic novels, with text and images being generated based on their choices. Hidden Door is currently testing out an adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz” because the story addresses various age groups and the original text is “so banana pants, which is perfect because it’s supposed to be silly and fun...

Hidden Door wants to turn fiction into immersive roleplaying experiences

The first season of “ House of Dragon ” just ended, and I find myself wishing for more. I’ve seen each episode twice already, read through the lore and even re-watched some “Game of Thrones” episodes. If I had the option to immerse myself in that world and roleplay as a dragon-riding Targaryen queen, you bet your ass I would do it. That’s eventually the vision of Hidden Door , a game studio that specializes in narrative AI and which participated in TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield 200 last week. Hidden Door wants to be able to turn any work of fiction into an immersive collaborative roleplaying experience, where players can jump into their favorite story worlds turned into dynamic graphic novels, with text and images being generated based on their choices. Hidden Door is currently testing out an adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz” because the story addresses various age groups and the original text is “so banana pants, which is perfect because it’s supposed to be silly and fun...

Apis in talks to back fintech Money View at $1 billion valuation despite market slump

India’s Money View is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a unicorn valuation, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, in a boost to the local fintech community that has been rattled by the central bank’s stringent guidelines and funding crunch in recent months. Apis Partners is deliberating leading a funding round of about $125 million to $150 million in the Bengaluru-headquartered startup at a valuation of about $1 billion, the sources said. The round, a Series E, hasn’t been finalized, so terms of the deal may still change, the sources cautioned, requesting anonymity speaking about nonpublic information. Apis Partners, Money View and the startup’s founders did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening local time. The eight-year-old startup, which was valued at $615 million in a Series D funding round in March this year, offers lending to individuals who can’t avail credit from banks and other financial institutions. The startup has said in the ...

Apis in talks to back fintech Money View at $1 billion valuation despite market slump

India’s Money View is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a unicorn valuation, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, in a boost to the local fintech community that has been rattled by the central bank’s stringent guidelines and funding crunch in recent months. Apis Partners is deliberating leading a funding round of about $125 million to $150 million in the Bengaluru-headquartered startup at a valuation of about $1 billion, the sources said. The round, a Series E, hasn’t been finalized, so terms of the deal may still change, the sources cautioned, requesting anonymity speaking about nonpublic information. Apis Partners, Money View and the startup’s founders did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening local time. The eight-year-old startup, which was valued at $615 million in a Series D funding round in March this year, offers lending to individuals who can’t avail credit from banks and other financial institutions. The startup has said in the ...

GenZero’s Frederick Teo on “limitless” opportunities in climate tech

2050 is an important year for climate tech , with the Paris Agreement calling for emissions to reach net zero by then. In a conversation with GenZero’s Frederick Teo for SOSV’s Climate Tech Summit, we talked about realistic paths to hitting that goal and how startups can tackle what Teo called one of the most existentialist challenges of our generation. GenZero is a $3.6 billion investment company that is backed by Temasek, already known for its climate investing. Teo talked about how it gauges companies before investing, supporting nascent technologies and solutions in the space and what startups can tackle in the next two decades. This Q&A was edited for length, and you can watch the full conversation here or at the bottom of the article. TC: GenZero’s initial commit is from Temasek, which was already a leader in global investing when it announced GenZero in June. It’s a wholly-owned company of Temasek, so why did Temasek decide to start GenZero and what is GenZero doing that ...