Tech
Robinhood’s crypto bet, AI-powered healthcare, and the fall of Fisker
As always, a lot happened in the startup world this week, and the Equity team had a great time breaking it down for you.
On today’s episode of TechCrunch Equity podcast, Mary Ann AND Rebecca discussed Robinhood plans to buy European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp for $200 million in cash and because they were not particularly surprised by the news.
The duo then delved into not just one but two exciting healthcare-related deals. Rebecca wanted to take inspiration from Sword Health’s innovative AI-powered virtual physical therapy technology recent fundraising and corresponding increase in valuation. Mary Ann then talked about Eko Health, which simply raised 41 million dollars after gaining FDA clearance to help detect early signs of heart failure during a routine medical exam (really, how good is that?!).
From there, they got to transportation reporter extraordinaire Sean O’Kane about his thorough investigation in trouble at electric vehicle maker Fisker. He thinks hoods flying off and pinching parts off the production line are a disaster. Ugh.
Finally, Mary Ann and Rebecca talked about the AI mortgage startup drama LoanSnap and how that company is being sued left and right, among other things. On a more positive note, they then talked about two very interesting fintech startups focused on Gen Z, Fri (which stands for ‘effin rich) and Effervescent – the latest of which is a YC alum who just raised $14.4 million in a seed round led by Kleiner Perkins.
That’s all for this week, but we’ll be back bright and early on Monday with more tech and startup news. We will talk soon!
Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo and published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Sign up with us on Apple Podcasts, Covered, Spotify and all the cast.
You can also follow Equity on X AND Discussions on @EquityPod. For the full transcript of the episode, for those who prefer to read rather than listen, check out our full episode archive as well as Simplecast.