Dispo is in the midst of a sexual assault controversy, Zoom introduces an SDK and Android owners will have to continue waiting for Clubhouse access. This is your Daily Crunch for March 22, 2021.
The big story: Investors back away from Dispo
After a recent story in Business Insider brought allegations to light that a member of David Dobrik’s vlog squad had sexually assaulted an extra during a shoot, Spark Capital announced that it would “sever all ties” with Dobrik’s photo-sharing startup Dispo, as did fellow investors Unshackled Ventures and Seven Seven Six.
“We have stepped down from our position on the board and we are in the process of making arrangements to ensure we do not profit from our recent investment in Dispo,” said Spark, which led a $20 million Series A in Dispo less than a month ago. That means any potential profits will be donated to organizations supporting survivors of sexual assault.
Dobrik, meanwhile, has stepped down from the Dispo board and left the company.
The tech giants
Zoom introduces new SDK to help developers tap into video services — The company envisions application developers embedding video in social, gaming or retail applications.
Next Billion Users head Caesar Sengupta is leaving Google — Sengupta, who also led the company’s payments business, is leaving the firm after nearly 15 years.
Tim Cook and Tim Sweeney among potential witnesses for Apple/Epic trial — A proposed witness list filed by Apple for its upcoming trial against game-maker Epic reads like a who’s who of executives from the two companies.
Startups, funding and venture capital
Side raises $150M at $1B valuation to help real estate agents go it alone — Side works to turn agents and independent brokerages into boutique brands and businesses.
Indonesian savings and investment app Pluang gets $20M in pre-Series B funding — The company offers proprietary savings and investment products that allow users to make contributions starting from 50 cents USD.
Clubhouse says its Android launch will take ‘a couple of months’ — Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davison said the company is working “really hard” to come to Android, but said it’s going to take a “couple of months” to make that happen.
Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch
NFTs could bridge video games and the fashion industry — Real-life fashion brands use NFTs for marketing in virtual worlds like Minecraft, as well as in several Atari and Microsoft video games.
ironSource is going public via a SPAC and its numbers are pretty good — Before you tune out to avoid reading about yet another blank-check company taking a private company public, you’ll want to pay attention to this one.
Where is the e-commerce app ecosystem headed in 2021? — Superapps are likely to emerge, according to PipeCandy’s Ashwin Ramasamy.
(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
Everything else
US privacy, consumer, competition and civil rights groups urge ban on ‘surveillance advertising’ — Nearly 40 organizations expressed their concern in an open letter.
Five reasons you should attend TC Early Stage 2021 in April — We’re just days away from kicking off TC Early Stage 2021: Operations & Fundraising on April 1-2.
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