In this edition, I’m going to look at Brex’s latest round of layoffs, the state of fintech investing in 2023 and more!
I may be taking some time off in coming weeks but never fear, TechCrunch Fintech isn’t going away.
While interest rates were low, the company saw a bump in business and VC money was easier to come by.
The move came after reports the company burned $17 million in cash each month during the fourth quarter and that it is trying to preserve runway.
Fintech investors injected $34.6 billion in startups across 2,055 deals in 2023, a –43.8% and –32.4% YoY drop, respectively, according to PitchBook data.
Apple does not enjoy this, which should surprise exactly no one.
Somehow, despite that, society remains intact and people are mostly ok with using those platforms with reasonable success.
What isn’t so understandable is just how petulant the company is being about prying open fingers on its tightly closed fist when it comes to compliance here.
At best, it seems short-sighted: Yes, doing so will mean Apple’s revenue picture doesn’t materially change in the near-term.
And developers are increasingly irate at Apple’s antics.
Expense management startup Brex, which was valued at $12.3 billion two years ago, laid off 282 people, or about 20% of its staff today.
The once high-flying fintech startup sent a note to employees (that was also published on the company’s website) today, announcing the news.
In addition, Brex announced that its COO, Michael Tannenbaum, is transitioning from his role to become a board member.
It is not clear how many employees Brex has today, though its layoff indicates the figure at around 1,400 before its latest cuts.
But that growth has since slowed, largely due to the hike in interest rates and resulting slowdown in VC funding.
Astrobotic’s lunar lander will be reentering Earth’s atmosphere over a remote part of the South Pacific Ocean tomorrow afternoon, bringing to a close the failed moon landing mission.
Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic has been providing frequent updates on the Peregrine lunar lander since it launched on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur on January 8.
The source of the anomaly was an ongoing propellant leak, which were preventing Peregrine from pointing its solar arrays at the sun.
But by the time it reenters the atmosphere tomorrow, Peregrine will have operated in space for over ten days.
Due to the propellant leak, Astrobotic said it had devised a two-step process to maneuver the spacecraft to the projected trajectory for reentry.
This news came as a surprise to many in the startup community, as Silvergate Bank had been making efforts to rebrand itself as a more conventional bank in recent months.…
