Thursday, January 16, 2025

Welcome to TC PM! Today we learn Mark Cuban is on the hunt to fund a TikTok alternative; we look at a startup that helps trucking companies keep an eye on workers; and we've got some fun funding rounds to parse through. Let's do it!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: TechCrunch

🤑 If you build it, he will pay: Billionaire Mark Cuban posted a video on TikTok where he said (kind of ironically) that he's interested in funding a TikTok alternative built on the AT Protocol, the decentralized protocol Bluesky is built on, if the TikTok ban goes through on Sunday. Of course, there are plenty of other TikTok alternatives. Read more

🤝 A symbiotic partnership: Robotics firm Symbotic announced that it will be taking over Walmart's robotics and automation business. This deal is being pegged more as a partnership than an acquisition. The two companies have worked together for years. Read more

🧐 Well, that's interesting: Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told startups at the Cisco AI Summit yesterday that they should reconsider going public. Interesting, considering Goldman has quite a big business underwriting IPOs. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: ZU_09 / Getty Images

🌱 Down but not out: Funding for climate tech startups decreased in 2024, but you can't just look at the headline numbers. While funding went down, deal sizes went up, which signals that the market is starting to mature. Read more

🩺 Cash for cancer screening: Teal Health, a startup building an at-home cervical cancer screening test, just raised a $10 million seed extension round. The company wants to make "this critical preventive screening more accessible, comfortable, and convenient." Read more

📹 Surveillance in the name of safety: Netradyne is a startup that works with commercial trucking fleets to install AI-enabled dashcams in their trucks to collect data and improve driver safety. Safety is good, but being watched 24/7 at work by a camera isn't. Read more

📉 Polestar looks ahead: Electric vehicle company Polestar has another bleak year ahead of it. The Volvo spinoff announced today that it expects to generate less revenue in fiscal 2024 than it did in 2023. Yeah, that's not good. Read more

🛟 Wait, will TikTok live? As the clock ticks down to TikTok's Sunday deadline, where it will be banned in the U.S., it's not really clear whether it will get banned at all. The incoming Trump administration is apparently looking for ways to extend that deadline. Read more

Around the web

🚦 Tracking traffic: New York City's congestion pricing finally started a few weeks ago. While it will take some time for the MTA to release data that shows whether it's working, an app built by two brothers in college has filled in the gap — and it's drawing a lot of eyeballs. Read more

💰 Here come the crypto bros: Last summer, Donald Trump said that if elected, he would create a federal stockpile of Bitcoin. Now as his inauguration looms, the crypto community hasn't forgotten and is hoping Trump hits the ground running. Read more

Before you go

Image Credits: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

👀 Well, well, well: TikTok CEO Shou Chew plans on attending Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday. It's slightly odd to attend an event of that nature the day after your product is banned in the country. Conspiracy theorists, do your thing! Read more