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Why, hello there, Crunchianistas!

Today Haje waltzes through the house with a candle in hand to celebrate Saint Lucia. Honestly not because he’s so excited about it the traditional Scandinavian feast or the excitement over candlelight and saffron buns, but because he is visiting his parents and there is a power cut. That means all kinds of excitement in the cold, frozen European, -7°C December. Christine, meanwhile, is chilling like a bad guy in 80-degree heat. Fortunately, that’s in Fahrenheit, otherwise we’d be looking at some pretty serious discomfort.

Okay, that’s enough about the weather outside. Let’s see which way the wind blows elsewhere, such as in the tech world. — Christine and Hey

The australiabusinessblog.com Top 3

• Swap suits for stripes: After much fodder all over why Sam Bankman-Fried wasn’t behind bars sooner for his involvement in the collapse of FTX, Darrell reports that SBF has been arrested in the Bahamas following allegations of fraud by several US government agencies. We are sure that this is just the beginning.
• Don’t let them escape: When it’s not easy, customers move on. That’s why TheyDo wants companies to take ownership of the customer journeys and helps large companies organize themselves with the customer in mind. Mike reports.
• Blue and gray and gold, oh my!: You’ve probably noticed that Twitter has become more colorful lately. That’s on purpose. We can’t keep up either, so luckily we can Ivan to explain what all those check marks and badges mean. More tick news in the Big Tech section.

Startups and VC

After seven years of startup, Ngrok announced today that it has raised $50 million in a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with the participation of Coatue. Shreve tells Kyle that with the fresh capital, Ngrok will grow its business and “make ongoing investments” to improve its core product offerings.

The trillion-dollar construction industry is not known for its efficiency, and has been accused of not keeping up with the times and ignoring digitization in favor of legacy tools. Paul reports. There is ample evidence that things are changing, with countless startups raising large sums of money to help modernize the construction industry. It’s against that backdrop that German VC firm Foundamental today unveiled its new fund, targeting $85 million of early-stage construction tech startups worldwide and building on the early success it’s seen from its inaugural $65 million fund, launched in 2019. was closed.

And we have five more for you:

3 Methods for Valuing New AI Startups Before Revenue

Image Credits: Charles Taylor / EyeEm (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images

The Berkus method, scorecard valuation and venture capital are the most commonly used frameworks for calculating costs for startups, but are traditional metrics still useful when it comes to AI?

“AI can scale much faster than other technologies, so what works in the beta or minimum viable product stage may not work when an AI product scales to millions of users,” said Ryan E. Long, lead attorney for Long & Associates.

Long identifies some of the limitations of using traditional means to premoney value “prototype or new AI startups” in an article that identifies regulatory issues and shares tactics designed to “minimize the number of uncertain variables.”

Now three more from the TC+ team:

australiabusinessblog.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams lead the way. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

Apple’s iOS 16.2 update is now available to all users along with iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1, Ivan writes. He takes a look at all the top features of the update, including improved encryption for iCloud data, Live Activities on the home screen, a karaoke feature for Apple Music, and the new Freeform collaborative whiteboard app.

Speaking of apple, Bag spent some time tracking down information from the consumer technology giant, writing that it confirmed “that an iPhone software update it released two weeks ago fixed a zero-day vulnerability it now says was actively exploited.”

And we have five more for you:

• Goodbye, check mark: Christine just got the coveted blue Twitter check last year after 10 years of trying, and now it’s going away. Rebekah writes that Twitter will remove all outdated verifications “within a few months”. Christine took a picture of her profile for posterity, just to show she was once remarkable.
• Bye bye, virtual reality world: “Westworld” fans should host a binge-watch party soon as the show, along with others, may soon be removed from HBO Max, writes Lauren.
• Hello, new appraisal: It’s hard to know what private companies are worth, so it can be a treat if a company tells us. And while major valuation was the goal for 2021, companies were more realistic in 2022. In this case Roman writes why Checkout‏‎.com lowered its internal rating.
• Hello to compensationUber’s food delivery company has reached a settlement with more than 4,000 laid-off couriers in Spain, agreeing to pay severance pay to those fired ahead of the country’s labor reform law. Natasha L reports.
• Goodbye and hello: Paul writes that Microsoft will discontinue the Soundscape 3D audio app, but will release the code in an open source format for developers.