NFT fantasy sports startup Sorare lays off 13% of staff, as web3 gaming continues to sputter Sorare is not completely shuttering its New York office but is shifting more employees to ParisWeb3-enabled fantasy sports platform Sorare laid off 22 employees based in its New York office in February.
The company will backfill most of these laid-off roles in Paris, according to Julia, with plans to hire more than 20 roles in the next six months.
Sorare is not shutting down its New York office.
Sorare saw $200 million in user transaction volume in 2023, a source familiar with the situation said.
Web3 gaming startup Mythical Games raised nearly $300 million in venture money before holding three rounds of layoffs.
Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has held discussions in recent weeks about potentially acquiring Dunzo, the hyperlocal delivery startup backed by Reliance Retail, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
The acquisition talks follow a turbulent year at Dunzo, which has been struggling to raise cash and make staff payroll.
Flipkart is skeptical about precisely what all it will be able to take over if it were to acquire Dunzo.
Reliance Retail, the largest investor in Dunzo, has also not approved the deal.
Flipkart and Dunzo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion, is willing to cut its valuation to below $2 billion as it hunts for new funding, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Byju’s willingness to cut the valuation is a stunning reversal of fortune for the startup, once the poster child of the Indian startup ecosystem.
Byju’s has been chasing for new funding for nearly a year.
The new funding deliberation follows BlackRock cutting the value of its holding in Byju’s, slashing the implied valuation of the Indian startup to about $1 billion, according to disclosures made by the asset manager.
Byju’s was preparing to go public in early 2022 through a SPAC deal that would have valued the company at up to $40 billion.
The deal would allow General Catalyst to tap deeper into India’s vibrant technology scene that has lured over $100 billion in startup investments since 2010.
The deal hasn’t finalized, so things may change, the sources cautioned, requesting anonymity as the deliberation is private.
The U.S. firm held conversations with many senior individuals in India last year looking to find an India-based partner, many people familiar with the matter said.
Its new focus on India follows the firm expanding in Europe last year by agreeing to merge with La Famiglia, an investor in several high-profile early-stage startups including AI firm Mistral.
Investing in India has proven uniquely challenging to many global venture firms that have entered the country or have explored such possibility, a partner at a India-based venture firm said.
Yesterday, President Biden sent a strong message to Big Tech in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal: His Administration has been working and will continue to work towards curbing…
