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The australiabusinessblog.com Top 3

• Klarna, Klarna, Klarna, Klarna, Klarna chameleon: Sorry, we had to bring this header back – it’s just too good and makes us happy. This time we confirm the rumors were true: Europe’s Klarna packed a hefty chunk of venture capital real estate – $800 million – but did it at a lower valuation, so 85% less to land at $6.7 billion, Paul writes.
• everyone wants you: And by ‘you’ we mean Gen Z. They’re not really old enough to remember the absolute horror of seeing stocks and investments slump during the 2007-2010 economic downturn, but the 2022 environment gives them some of that taster. No worries, Christine writes about Uprise, a new private beta app that is building an investment tool with Gen Z in mind so they can know when to take that 401(k) match or how much is too much to have in a checking account.
• One way or another we manage: Managing a fleet of migrant workers, however, can be an administrative headache. In another story by Paulhe writes that Kadmos aims to provide a cure for those headaches in the form of a salary payment platform specifically for migrant workers so that, among other things, they can avoid paying some of the exorbitant fees for transferring money to their respective homes.

Startups and VC

Unacademy, one of India’s high-flying startups, is undergoing a series of cost-cutting measures, including pay cuts for founders and closing “certain companies” as it tightens its belt and promises an IPO in the next 2 years, manish reports.

possibly fired, Natasha M took a closer look at the data on who has been hit hardest in the wave of tech layoffs. Spoiler alert: it’s fintech leading the charge. There’s also a ton of other really interesting news from the past week, in Natasha’s Startups Weekly newsletter. You can subscribe to them, and a bunch of our other great newsletters, on this handy one-stop-shop subscription page.

It was a busy weekend at australiabusinessblog.com. Here is the cream of the crop!

• One, two, three times a decimation: Amid events harking back to in-person events and interest in virtual events waning, Hopin — once the world’s fastest-growing startups — has laid off just a third of its workforce, just months after the latest round of layoffs, Natasha M reports.
• Hey Google send some money to my BFF: There are surprisingly few voice payment solutions, but Kylea did a deep dive into PayTalk and its promises to handle payments of all kinds with voice. It’s a great read from a promising company with a shaky start.
• We were raised, maybe? Byju announced $800 million financing in March, but manish reports that the startup is $250 million short of meeting that goal. “The delays are due to macroeconomic reasons,” a spokesperson told australiabusinessblog.com.
• Like SmileDirect, but in SpanishImpress raises a $125 million Series B round in a bid to bring digital orthodontics to European markets, Mike reports.
• The tiger is locked up for a while: Tiger Global has been on the run, but manish reports that it will put the brakes on for a few quarters and plans to raise a new fund later this year.
• A dime for your thoughts: With the current economy, it’s hard not to spend a dime, so Google’s Gradient Venture is backing Penny with $4.8 million so that UK workers don’t have to spend a pretty penny to merge or manage their pensions. Paul reports.
• It’s like a soap opera: Elon Musk has had a week and a half, if Greg sums it up so elegantly in his Week in Review newsletter.

“Fun” fact we came across when Googling stuff for this newsletter: Wikipedia tells me that “decimate” actually means “reduce by 10%” and stems from the Roman army, where, as punishment, every tenth man in a group was executed by members of his cohort. That means two things: getting fired from a startup sucks, but at least you won’t get killed. Also Hopin, who started this rabbit hole, was not only decimated, but decimated three times. Yowzers.

Turn your startup’s pricing strategy into a powerful lever for growth

Image Credits: happyphoton (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Early stage start-ups need to regularly review their pricing models: the competitive landscape is constantly changing and every time they release a new product or service, their revenue streams need to be recalibrated.

In his latest TC+ post, Michael Perez, director of growth and data at VC firm M13, shares five questions he uses to devise pricing strategy frameworks, along with three value metrics and a detailed GTM strategy measurement plan.

“Pricing models that scale proportionally with value tend to capture more value as revenue and contribution margin,” he writes. “The contribution margin can then be reinvested in sales and marketing or operations to create more value.”

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Big Tech Inc.

First off, we have to give a shout-out to the team that took the late Friday news that Elon Musk had decided not to buy Twitter. Taylor got the news fast while darrell covered Twitter’s initial response and Kirsten “delivered” (pun intended) one of the top headlines in her article on Tesla stock.

Meta is going after “fake news” in a new way with Sphere, an artificial intelligence tool based on content from the open web, and Wikipedia is the first user, Ingrid writes.

Meanwhile, London lost its grip on Australia’s Atlassian, which said it will move its headquarters to Delaware. Mike reports. Please announce yourself to the neighbor with this gif†

Sometimes robotics doesn’t always work, and unfortunately that’s the case with salad robot startup Chowbotics, which was bought by DoorDash 17 months ago and is now shutting down, Brian writes.

Here’s what else we have for you today: