Cruise layoffs, exosuits, and why French startups are bubbling up

Equity

TechCrunch

Entrepreneurship, Business News, News, Business, Technology

4.2 • 372 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This is our very last regular news roundup of the year. We still have a lot planned for you, though, with special interviews, guest appearances, and predictions. But that’s all to come. This time ’round we once again had Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex Wilhelm together to hammer through the key news from the week: Cruise layoffs: Breaking as we went to record, self-driving company Cruise is cutting a simply massive number of staff. Deals of the Week: Prevu’s $6 million Series A and why proptech is Not Dead Yet, and why Verve Motion just raised $20 million for supportive lifting suits. What’s up with France? With Mistral AI making waves, other French startups are also snagging our attention. This includes Pivot which just raised $21.6 million, and what’s going on with startup studio Hexa. And then there’s AI: We can’t not talk about it, yeah? Sorry if you are a bit over AI, but while deals keep happening and founders keep building, it’s going to be in the rundown. This time we’re digging how a few mega-deals are changing the numbers, and also how AI might need to pay for itself. We are back Monday with some really fun stuff! Stay tuned, we have done work just for you! Connect with Equity on X and Threads @EquityPods, and keep up with all of TechCrunch's podcasts @TechCrunchPods on TikTok. For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity’s Simplecast website. Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more! Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups where we
0:15.2	unpack the numbers and the nuance behind the headlines. My name is Alex and I'm
0:19.1	joined as always by my dear partner in crime, Mary Ann Azvedo, senior reporter on the FinTech Beat,
0:24.1	the Angel of Austin, the Tyrants of Texas,
0:26.4	how are you?
0:28.1	I love that.
0:29.0	Thank you, Alex, I'm good.
0:30.3	I'm feeling a little, I don't know,
0:32.4	sentimental about this being our official last
0:34.8	recording of the year yes and we want to talk about that because this is the last
0:38.9	Friday news roundup we are going to have for you But we all know that during the holidays you often have family around and that means you need to take breaks to get away from said family so equity has a full slate for you through the rest of the year. We are not just going to give up and do
0:55.0	reruns like some shows do. No, Equity has prepared lots of stuff for you.
0:59.0	We're going to have look-back episodes, predictions episodes,
1:02.0	in interviews with founders and VCs.
1:04.3	We've dragged in some of our Tech Orange colleagues.
1:06.5	We are really excited about what we've put together for you.
1:09.2	And if we have sounded a little bit hoarse lately,
1:10.9	it's because we've been doing a lot of extra work to make sure that you are
1:13.7	entertained all throughout the end of December. But Marianne this is our last news roundup so
1:19.6	what are we going to talk about today? Well deals of the week is preview and verve motion.
1:24.4	Then we are going to look at what the hell is going on in France and why is it blowing up
1:29.2	and then why mega deals could be inflating the overall AI funding figures.
	...

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