The hosts dive into the sizzling European startup market, where venture capital is flowing like never before. They discuss major funding events, including a big round for crypto trading house FTX and the IPO prospects for Duolingo, marking an exciting time for edtech. The contrast between Europe's and China's startup ecosystems is highlighted, emphasizing Europe's rising seed-stage market. There's also a spotlight on Mural's impressive funding success in remote collaboration and innovative transformations in spreadsheet technology.
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insights INSIGHT
European Startup Boom
European startups raised $49B in the first half of 2021, 2.9x the amount in the same period last year.
WISE's $11B direct listing signals a booming European market.
insights INSIGHT
FTX's Meteoric Rise
Crypto exchange FTX raised $900M Series B at an $18B valuation, despite being founded in 2019.
The large number of investors (60) and FTX's Hong Kong base raise questions given China's crypto crackdown.
insights INSIGHT
OpenSea's Growth
NFT marketplace OpenSea reached a $1.5B valuation after a $100M Series B, indicating continued NFT market interest.
With $160M in sales last month, OpenSea aims to be the leading NFT platform.
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We were smaller team this week, with Natasha and Alex together with Chris to sort through yet another summer frenzy of a week.
This time around we actually recorded live on Twitter Spaces, which was a first for the podcast. If you missed it, it's probably because we didn't promote the taping since it was just an experiment. Good news, though, is that it went well, and we're going to some more live tapings of the show with the entire crew on the mics. Make sure to follow the show on the Big Tweet to ensure that you can come hang with us next week. We'll also do some Q&A at the end, if we're in good moods.
Until then, let's live in the present. Here's what we got into in today's show:
Duolingo's first IPO price range: It's a good-news week for consumer-focused, edtech startups, since the public markets will finally get a taste of an non-enterprise sector startup. Plus, Duolingo's upcoming finance event could lead to them finally bolstering areas like speech, cultural norms, and fluency.
From the world of funding rounds, we had notes on Sololearn, Numerade, NewCampus, Mural, Spreadsheet.com, and Bolt. The conversation ran into some fresh corners, such as how a company raised less than its preceding round but 4x'd its valuation and if we should bite-size all learning.
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.
Equity