Apple this week updated its App Store rules to comply with a court order after the Supreme Court declined to hear the Epic Games-initiated antitrust case against Apple over commissions.
This seems to skirt the court’s decision requiring Apple to remove the “anti-steering” clause from its agreement with App Store developers.
But in its place is a complicated process that requires app developers to apply for permission to include their desired link or button, via something dubbed the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement.
Apple has used entitlements to set up exceptions to its App Store rules — for example, last year when it allowed “reader” apps (apps that provide access to digital content, like audio, music, video, book, and more) to point to an external website where customers could manage their accounts with the app developers.
In the case of the new U.S.-based Link Entitlement, Apple is again demanding to first vet which applications can include external links and control how they’ve been implemented.
YC’s Tom Blomfield will speak at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 about raising money with no regretsWhat does it take to raise your first round of funding?
That’s just one of the many topics that will be featured at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 on April 25 in Boston.
Get to know Tom Blomfield: Group partner at Y CombinatorPrior to joining Y Combinator, Tom Blomfield, a British entrepreneur, founded two companies valued at more than $1 billion.
TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 takes place on April 25, 2024, in Boston.
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But Apple’s compliance doesn’t give app makers the victory they had hoped, as the tech giant aims to still charge commissions on purchases made outside of apps — a decision Epic aims to challenge in court.
The decision meant Apple had to remove the “anti-steering” clause from its agreement with App Store developers.
Apple updated its App Store Guidelines following the Supreme Court’s decision but with a lot of caveats.
For instance, users won’t be able to cancel their subscriptions within Apple’s App Store or request refunds — they’ll have to do this through the developer’s website.
The developer lobbying group, Coalition for App Fairness, which also includes Epic, issued its own statement on Apple’s new App Store rules.
In this edition, I’m going to look at some hits and misses in the real estate fintech space, Carta’s missteps (again), and more!
A prominent customer accused Carta of misusing sensitive information that startups entrust to the company in pursuit of its own goals.
Meanwhile, Alex and Anna argued that Carta’s growth story is being overshadowed by its stock trading snafu.
Analysis of the weekThe real estate fintech space continues to have its ups and downs.
I also reported this week on Downpayments’ mission to help investors purchase new properties with interest-free down payments.
Prometeo, a startup out of Uruguay building channels to enable open banking across Latin America, is today announcing that it has picked up $13 million in funding to expand its business.
A lot of open banking these days focused on national rollouts — not least because banking conventions and regulations are often very localized.
(It’s not the only company that believes that open banking has a big role to play in financial services in the future: last year, the open banking startup Ivy raised funding specifically to expand to Latin America; and Christine wrote here extensively on Finerio, an ambitious open banking startup out of Mexico.
More recently, last year it led a $14 million round into nocnoc, a Latin America cross-border commerce specialist.
It also owns the point-of-sale payments company Zettle, which has been making very big inroads into Latin America for years now.
Naturally, global crypto VC funds flooded into India, hoping to replicate the home runs that Accel, Sequoia and Lightspeed had hit a decade prior.
Bullish reports predicted India housed over 100 million crypto participants, despite far fewer participating in any investment instrument in reality.
Despite having an earlier blanket ban overturned in court, regulators persisted in likening crypto to Ponzi schemes and pressured banks from engaging with any crypto startups.
The pending removal across Google Play, internet providers and beyond caps a journey mired with shutdowns, pivots and relocations abroad for Indian crypto startups.
Some entrepreneurs are still fighting for the Indian crypto dream, requesting New Delhi reconsider the punishing 30% crypto tax.
Treasure Financial has laid off 14 employees, the fintech startup confirmed to TechCrunch today.
Sam Strasser, founder and CEO of Treasure Financial, told TechCrunch that “a need to streamline our operations and align our workforce with our current strategic goals and financial realities” drove the decision.
“Market conditions and organizational challenges aside, financial stewardship necessitated this unfortunate but necessary action,” he added.
San Francisco-based Treasure Financial offers cash management software for businesses and is a registered investment advisor (RIA).
Just last July, the startup raised $7.5 million in a funding round led by Ventura Capital, a previous investor in the firm.
When reached by email, LoanDepot spokesperson Jonathan Fine reiterated the company’s statement, but declined to comment further or say whether the company has received a ransom demand from the hackers.
LoanDepot says it assists more than 27,000 customers monthly.
A November ransomware attack on Fidelity National Financial, one of the largest insurance providers in the United States, knocked the company offline for more than a week.
In December, mortgage and loan company Mr. Cooper said hackers had stolen the personal data on more than 14 million customers during an earlier October cyberattack.
You can contact Zack Whittaker on Signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849, or by email.
Nigerian fintech Cleva, focused on creating a banking platform for African individuals and businesses to receive international payments by opening USD accounts, has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding.
“The team is uniquely qualified to address this given their experience building banking products at Stripe and robust platforms at AWS.
Both founders share a strong connection with the African market.
(It’s worth highlighting that while Cleva exclusively provides USD accounts, other players offer GBP and EUR accounts.)
Meanwhile, the YC-backed startup, which generates revenue when users swap and exchange their funds (in USD accounts) for the local currency (in naira for now), also charges a 0.9% fee on deposits into customers’ USD accounts.
New fundsWe started the year with news of a couple new venture funds that will be writing checks into fintech startups.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 and was impressed with her knowledge and insights around venture capital.
Back in October, I reported on this after speaking with Synapse, which operates a platform enabling banks and fintech companies to easily develop financial services, and Evolve.
— Mary AnnMeanwhile, Mary Ann looked back at the biggest fintech hits and misses of 2023.
Among the fintech companies were Braid, Daylight and ZestMoney.
