Good news for Rubrik, bad news for TikTok, and encouraging news for Early Stage startups

5 snips

Apr 26, 2024

Rubrik's recent IPO shines a light on a potentially lively public market for tech startups. Meanwhile, Pomelo is shaking up remittances by improving users' credit scores while sending money abroad. The looming threat of a TikTok ban raises privacy and free speech concerns, reflecting a turbulent social media landscape. Lastly, the energy at a recent early-stage startup event in Boston highlights resilience in the face of sluggish venture capital, with founders exploring innovative paths forward.

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INSIGHT

Rubrik's IPO Success

Rubrik's successful IPO, pricing above its range and trading higher, signals a bullish market.
This indicates investor confidence despite Rubrik's slow overall growth and unprofitability.

ANECDOTE

Pomelo's Remittance Model

Pomelo offers a "send now, pay later" service for remittances to the Philippines, helping US users build credit.
Users send credit to family, repaying Pomelo later, thus improving their credit scores.

INSIGHT

TikTok Ban

TikTok faces a US ban unless it divests from ByteDance within nine months, due to privacy and propaganda concerns.
The US joins other countries like India in banning TikTok over these issues.

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Rubrik’s strong IPO pricing and warm reception by the public markets after its listing add more weight to the perspective that the public markets are not as closed to tech startups as some thought. If Rubrik’s result isn’t enough to break the logjam, well, maybe there’s something else going on.

But there was a lot more that happened this week, which meant that the Equity crew had a pile of news to get through as always, with a little bit of our own mixed in. Happily it was all pretty darn interesting, so Mary Ann and Alex started with Rubrik before pivoting to Pomelo, a startup that has a very interesting twist on the remittances market.

From there it was time to talk about TikTok. What was once an unfathomable result — TikTok being forced to divest from its parent company or face a ban — became reality pretty darn quickly. The United States is not the first company to ban the service, but we noted during the show that the company we are keeping is not the most enticing. Still, here we are, what does it mean for consumers?

And to close, Early Stage. TechCrunch held its annual early-stage focused even this year, and it was a banger. Not to toot our own horn, but it was the second year in a row that our shindig in Boston was packed, useful, and lots of fun. The coffee was even good. At a tech conference. Alex had notes.

Equity is back on Monday. Thanks for hanging out with us!

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