Startups are once again considering layoffs as a way to control cash consumption and attract new capital.

News that Fast, a one-click checkout software provider targeting the e-commerce market, is offering sharp staff cuts to investors in hopes of securing new capital is notable, but a single data point. A public database tracking startup layoffs, however, indicates that the company is not alone in looking to reduce its headcount.

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It’s doubtful that accelerating staff reductions will make the startup labor market dramatically less talent-friendly. Startups are not the only companies in the market hiring technology workers. Upstart technology firms must compete with both industry incumbents, like Apple and Microsoft, for talent, as well as traditional firms building out their own in-house engineering and data teams. So it’s likely that even as startups trim staff, the labor market for tech workers remains more than temperate.

But cutting headcount is a quick way to cut burn and extend runway. If cash is business oxygen, laying staff off lets a company breathe more slowly, extending its life expectancy without an infusion of external capital (air).

It doesn’t seem likely that we’re on the precipice of a similar spike in layoffs that the onset of COVID-19 brought in 2020. That moment is essentially impossible to reconstitute in business terms. This time around, folks better know what is coming. Changing public market valuations for tech companies and a frozen IPO market have soured private-market sentiment concerning high-growth, high-burn startups. But the damage will accrete more slowly, as startups are each on a different cash countdown, meaning that their respective hard choices about staffing levels won’t occur at once.

Let’s take a quick moment to consider the latest state of the Fast saga, skate through recent startup layoffs to see if we can spy a trend, and ask what we’re going to see in Q2.

You’d think data visualization and exploration is a bit of a solved problem thanks to the likes of Tableau, Sisense, Looker, Microsoft Power BI and their competitors. But for the most part, these tools were developed before every company had a data lake and warehouse — let alone a lakehouse. Of course, that means there is space of more startups in this field to provide a modern experience for building dashboards on top of all of this data. One of those is Glean, which is now coming out of stealth and announcing a $7 million seed funding round led by Matrix Partners’ Ilya Sukhar. A number of angel investors, including Elad Gil, Shana Fisher, Dylan Field, Scott Belsky, Cristina Cordova, Akshay Kothari, DJ Patil and Anthony Goldbloom, also participated in this round.

Glean co-founder Carlos Aguilar was an early systems engineer at Kiva Systems, where he got to work with large data sets from the company’s warehouse robots. It was there that he realized that a lot of teams wanted access to this data, but writing new SQL query for every request wasn’t scalable in the long run. “Even back then I developed this passion for not having to do that,” he told me. “I could build these data apps and then a whole subset of questions would just disappear. But more than that, people were super empowered and now they could do all sorts of things that they couldn’t do before. […] I loved this idea of like taking the complexity, simplifying it and building tools out of it.”

After Amazon acquired Kiva, Aguilar worked there for a few years and then joined Flatiron Health as the first data hire there and while the team was able to build tools to wrangle data there, too, the bottleneck now shifted to building data apps to help the rest of the company get insights from their data as quickly as possible. That meant lots of time building dashboards in legacy BI tools and helping others to use those.

The mission of Glean, Aguilar said, is not just democratizing data but democratizing insights. Being able to dig through data and not just looking at a dashboard is what most users want, he argued, and that is something that a lot of the legacy tools actually do quite well. “There’s a bunch of startups and upstarts, but nothing really gives gets you the powerful sort of interactivity that you get with a lot of these legacies tools still,” he said.

Glean wants to combine this interactivity without the barrier to entry of the likes of Tableau. You still need somebody in a company to know a little bit of SQL and somebody who can model the data, but once that’s done, Glean will automatically try to find the best defaults to visualize this data. The service currently supports Snowflake, BigQuery and PostgreSQL. As Aguilar noted, the company’s focus right now is on data warehouses, in part because this data is typically already cleaned up and ready to be queried.

Image Credits: Glean

Once those first steps are done, even non-technical users should be able to easily dig through the connected data and remix a given view for their own use cases, too. As of now, Glean supports all of the standard visualizations (think pivot tables, line charts, bar charts, etc.). And while it may try to democratize this data analysis workflow and many of its users will be non-technical, the company is also building a lot of tools for engineers, including git integrations, a CLI, a native build tools and more.

“We’ve seen a massive revolution in data infrastructure over the last few years. Organizations of all kinds now have access to more data than ever before. But there’s been little innovation in how data teams surface insights to their colleagues. They struggle to keep pace and deliver the business impact expected of them,” said Matrix Partners’ Sukhar. “Carlos and his team at Glean are rethinking the BI layer to solve this problem. The idea is to empower everyone in an organization to dive into data and make sense of it. The team has deep experience building data products at Flatiron Health and we’re excited to work with them on capturing this huge opportunity.”

Looking ahead, the team wants to build more collaboration features to bring an almost Google Docs-like experience to these dashboards — and that is, in part, what the team is going to use the new funding for. “The focus is really on trying to create an incredible experience with a very high level of fit and finish that just feels incredible to use,” said Aguilar. “It turns out, doing that in the data context and with a lot of different personas is a very hard problem. So investing in these core analytics workflows and making that an incredible experience is high on the list.” The team is also looking into building more automation systems and tools to automatically create models from various points in a company’s data pipeline.

Mobile dominates the world of gaming, with smartphone and tablet games generating $93.2 billion in revenues in 2021, more than console ($50.4 billion) and PC ($36.7 billion) combined according to gaming market research firm Newzoo. And that’s before you consider the thousands of popular apps out there that are not strictly games but rely heavily on gaming mechanics to entice users.

Now, banking on the idea that both professional developers and more casual enthusiasts are going to want to build even more mobile games in the future, an Israeli startup called Kooply is announcing funding from key investors to build out a mobile games development platform.

The company is still in stealth mode — it hopes to have a soft launch later this year — but in the meantime it has picked up $18 million in a seed round co-led by Microsoft (via its M12 fund), TPY Capitial, and Israeli mobile casino games giant Playtika — with Aleph Venture Partners, Entrée Capital, Glilot Capital Partners and Samsung Next also participating. The money will be used for hiring, and to continue investing in R&D and building out Kooply’s platform ahead of its launch.

Kooply’s CEO Ido Yablonka — who co-founded the company with Vadim Zak and Guy Pitelko last year — would not get very specific about what the company is building when we talked about the seed funding the other day, instead talking about the challenge that they have identified and want to address.

That challenge is that while there are a lot of mobile games on the market already, a lot of them are not very good, either in how they are built, or how they meet what consumers want, or in how they are amplified in the world — or a combination of all three.

“When you look at the App Store and Google Play, more than 99% of the mobile games will have between 50 and 100 downloads,” he said. “For sure, most of them are not very good but 40% are adequate, 5% are very good, and the rest are okay. What you should infer from those numbers is that in terms of distribution and monetization, for the adequate, okay, and very good games it was never in the game, so to speak, to succeed. They were dead on arrival.”

This, he said, is because even with good ideas, that is only half the challenge to executing on them to make an attractive game, and then to get it in front of those who are most likely to love it — hard work in itself that needs its own expertise and access to the right tech. “We try to shorten that path for developers,” Yablonka said. “Our mission statement is that if you have a concept and know what [you want] to build, we take on the development, the assets and the distribution so that you can focus on that vision.”

This will, he said, bring the company both into the realm of tools for experienced developers but also those who are keen to build something but might lack those technical skills. He said initially the focus will be casual mobile games — an area that has seen a huge amount of activity in terms of M&A, startups raising big money to scale and stay independent, and most critically of all, massive audiences (more than 20 billion downloads projected for this year on revenues of over $19 billion).

There are a number of games development platforms already on the market or in development, with different takes on the level of expertise needed to build, and for which environment. Some of the more recent fundings include Yahaha — Chinese founders with studios in Finland as well, a no-code platform aimed at immersive gaming — announcing $50 million in funding; PortalOne — a hybrid and immersive platform that will start with its own games — which recently raised $60 million; and companies like Overwolf, which focus not on the games themselves but customizations within them; and of course a number of platforms for building mobile games such as Unity, Unreal Engine and more.

Yablonka believes that there is an opportunity in building new kinds of tools that go beyond what people typically get these days with no-code interfaces.

“Usually when I see visual programming it’s no less complicated than regular programming, so I don’t really see the point,” he said. “We are allowing for very significant no-code developing including certain logic in the system, which we think should suffice for most use cases, and for users who wish to extend beyond that, we will allow for script writing.”

If you wonder why founders who are only still talking in general platitudes are getting $18 million in a seed round, then chances are they have shown some interesting early developments to investors, and they likely got the doors opened to those backers because of their backgrounds. In this case, Yablonka has a long history of building and selling his own companies to a number of bigger tech giants, with interestingly a focus not on gaming but security. That is an interesting angle when you consider how central the themes of data protection and cyber have become in recent years.

Yablonka knows Vadim Zak and Guy Pitelko from a couple of those experiences, including working at ad fraud prevention specialist ClarityRay, which eventually got acquired by Yahoo (which is now the parent company of TechCrunch). Zak is now the VP of R&D at Kooply, and Pitelko — a data scientist by training — is the chief data science office. The fact that there are three technical people as co-founders who have experience touching the adjacent parts of the mobile games business (security, monetization) says a little something, I think, about how they are approaching building a games development platform, and what they see as the most valuable things to put into it.

What will be left to discover is whether the games design community feels the same, and whether the proof is in the pudding: whether audiences come to the games as promised.

For now investors are intrigued enough to punt.

“Kooply embodies everything TPY Capital seeks in a startup: a visionary, yet grounded team with mutual entrepreneurial backgrounds, and a close proximity to the challenges mobile developers face,” said Dekel Persi, co-founder and managing prat of  TPY Capital, in a statement. “Add to that a bold perspective on how to democratize game development and favorable trends such as the growth of UGC in game development, as well as the prominence of mobile in this space, and this becomes an extremely compelling story.”

“We believe Kooply has the potential to create an entirely new gaming category that can capture hundreds of millions of users,” added M12 partner Irad Dor. “Kooply is tapping into a rapidly growing market that has been disrupted by technological advances in mobile networks, devices, and consumer behavior. They understand how to meet users where they are, with compelling content they’ll want to stay and engage with. The ability to create for the mobile domain first will be increasingly valuable as the metaverse becomes more established and consumers seek new experiences.”

“As a company, we strongly believe in encouraging and supporting visionary gaming entrepreneurs. What stood out most about Kooply’s approach was its focus on mobile native creation specifically and the ease of use of its tools not just to create experiences, but also to operate these experiences after their creation,” added Eric Rapps, chief strategy officer at Playtika. “Kooply is one of the few companies to understand the game management challenges and lower the barriers to operate user generated content and games as a creator.”

Celonis, the process mapping startup, has been on a nice run the last several years, forging significant partnerships with IBM and ServiceNow, while announcing a $1 billion Series D last June on a massive $11 billion valuation.

With that kind of capitalization, the company decided to expand its reach today when it announced the acquisition of Process Analytics Factory (PAF) for $100 million. Celonis gets an eight-year-old German company with expertise in process mapping the Microsoft ecosystem, which should help Celonis move into that space.

Celonis CEO and co-founder Alexander Rinke said that his company has carved out a big role in the automated workflow ecosystem, figuring out how work moves in an automated fashion to help point out inefficiencies and look for ways to make work flow more smoothly through the organization. He says that includes automation, collaboration and virtual platforms.

“Obviously, a big part of that is Microsoft with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Office. So we acquired PAF to enable that and bring the unique insights and targeted actions we provide to Microsoft users,” Rinke said.

PAF founder and CEO Tobias Rother gave the familiar argument that the two companies will be better together. “This combination leverages the strength of Celonis market leadership with the foundation that PAF has created in the Microsoft Power Platform. This allows our companies to build the bridge between the Microsoft Power Platform and the Celonis Execution Management System,” he said in a statement.

PAF launched in 2014 with the goal of embedding process mining insights into the Microsoft platform. “They have a huge head start in this space, and we thought if we can bring this functionality into the Celonis world, there will be a huge benefit for their customers, our customers and prospects. And for everybody who uses Microsoft,” Rinke said.

As he points out, that’s just about everybody in his target market. In fact, 97% of the Fortune 500 use Microsoft Office.

The company has been on a roll in recent years, forging relationships with much larger companies like IBM, SAP and ServiceNow, while also building a large presence with consulting firms like Deloitte, Accenture and WiPro, among many others. All of this is driving sales and the massive valuation.

It has also made several strategic acquisitions like today’s. PAF represents the fourth acquisition for the company. Rinke said the deal closed at the end of last year, and they are in the process of building the PAF functionality into the broader Celonis platform. The plan is to roll that out in May. The deal included 30 employees coming over to Celonis. The company should hit 3,000 employees some time later this year.

Celonis launched in 2011 and raised $1.4 billion, according to Crunchbase data. While the company has ambitions to go public at some point, Rinke was not ready to commit to any timeline.

Microsoft today announced the launch of the Azure Game Development Virtual Machine at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. In partnership with the likes of Unreal Engine, Perforce Helix Core, Parsec, Incredibuild, Blender and HP’s remote desktop platform Teradici, Microsoft’s cloud platform now offers a game development workstation in the cloud that can be set up in minutes. The new VM is now in public preview.

As Microsoft notes, game studios can get started with the default workstation built and then use this as a base image and customize it as they become more experienced with Azure. The company also expects to build upon this first iteration and add new tooling over time, as well as deeper integrations with its partner network.

“At Microsoft, we are focused on strengthening our commitment to making Azure the cloud of choice for game creators so that they can take advantage of the benefits of cloud,” Ben Humphrey, principal software engineer, Microsoft Azure, writes in today’s announcement.

At the core of the development workflow here is the Perforce Helix Core version control system and Azure DevOps as the default CI/CD solution.

Image Credits: Microsoft

Microsoft argues that a system like this will make life easier for distributed game development teams. It not only eliminates the need for local specialty hardware but also allows teams to work from a centralized server.

In addition to the new virtual machine, Microsoft also used its GDC announcements to launch new features for its platform-agnostic Azure PlayFab service, including new real-time notifications and a new PlayFab Lobby Service to manage multiplayer sessions, as well as a new service for integrating user-generated content into games, which the company unsurprisingly dubbed PlayFab User Generated Content.

Talking about names, ID@Azure may sound like an enterprise-grade identity management system, but it’s the company’s program to “accelerate your game development in the cloud” and it’s coming out of beta today. It’s a free program that can give game developers access to a free PlayFab plan, for example, as well as additional support and access to tools.

Microsoft today announced an update to its translation services that, thanks to new machine learning techniques, promises significantly improved translations between a large number of language pairs. Based on its Project Z-Code, which uses a “spare Mixture of Experts” approach, these new models now often score between 3% and 15% better than the company’s previous models during blind evaluations. Z-Code is part of Microsoft’s wider XYZ-Code initiative that looks at combining models for text, vision and audio across multiple languages to create more powerful and helpful AI systems.

“Mixture of Experts” isn’t a completely new technique, but it’s especially useful in the context of translation. At its core, the system basically breaks down tasks into multiple subtasks and then delegates them to smaller, more specialized models called “experts.” The model then decides which task to delegate to which expert, based on its own predictions. Greatly simplified, you can think of it as a model that includes multiple more specialized models.

A new class of Z-Code Mixture of Experts models are powering performance improvements in Translator, a Microsoft Azure Cognitive Service. Image Credits: Microsoft

“With Z-Code we are really making amazing progress because we are leveraging both transfer learning and multitask learning from monolingual and multilingual data to create a state-of-the-art language model that we believe has the best combination of quality, performance and efficiency that we can provide to our customers,” said Xuedong Huang, Microsoft technical fellow and Azure AI chief technology officer.

The result of this is a new system that can now, for example, directly translate between 10 languages, which eliminates the need for multiple systems. Microsoft also recently started using Z-Code models to improve other features of its AI systems, including for entity recognition, text summarization, custom text classification and keyphrase extraction. This is the first time it has used this approach for a translation service, though.

Traditionally, translation models are extremely large, making it hard to bring them into a production environment. The Microsoft team has opted for a “sparse” approach, though, which only activates a small number of model paramters per task instead of the whole system. “That makes them much more cost-efficient to run, in the same way that it’s cheaper and more efficient to only heat your house in winter during the times of day that you need it and in the spaces that you regularly use, rather than keeping a furnace running full blast all the time,” the team explains in today’s announcement.

A UK-based incubator focused on non-profit startups that are addressing climate-related challenges through open-source data initiatives has announced the six startups which will be put through its 2022 program.

Selected projects and platforms for the data-for-climate focused accelerator program include a startup trying to prevent rainforest deforestation in Africa; one that’s hoping to help websites and cloud services speed up their switch to renewable energy; another supporting more accountable carbon accounting and novel pricing models in the energy sector; a couple of progressive think tanks aiming to arm policymakers to push back against fossil fuel industry disinformation; and a climate-focused online training initiative that aims to enable activism through education.

The Subak incubator launched last summer — with a goal of making a tangible difference to not-for-profit climate action by linking eco-minded entrepreneurs and projects with an ecosystem of tech innovators who know how to scale projects and create global impact.

The incubator was founded by Baroness Bryony Worthington, who was the lead author of the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act — and is funded by the Quadrature Climate Foundation, a climate-focused corporate social responsibility initiative launched by algorithmic trading tech firm, Quadrature Capital, in 2019.

Founders and mentors/advisors (aka “fellows”) associated with the program include former policymakers, engineers and VCs, including former engineers at Google DeepMind, Songkick tech builders, an ex VP of Policy for Facebook, a former UK government minister and a former MD of Microsoft for Startups UK and CEO of Code First: Girls, among others.

Subak’s thesis is that open data is a key tool for tackling the climate crisis.

Its one-year+ accelerator program is specifically focused on startups that are trying to come up with innovative ways to use and share data to tackle climate change, rather than being more broadly open to climate startups of all stripes (i.e. such as those seeking to develop greener products or cleaner industrial processes etc).

The idea being that with time running out for humanity to avoid catastrophic temperature rise, data-drive change has the agility to be able to make a difference quickly. (Hence: “We are looking for organisations with data underpinning their theory of change, and which build open data assets as a core output of their work,” as Subak puts it on its website.)

The six startups making the cut for Subak’s 2022 program will each receive up to £110k (~$145k) of unrestricted grant funding, along with mentorship and support to scale their impact.

Here’s a quick round-up of the six startups that have made the cut for this year’s program:

• Project Canopy: A not-for-profit that’s aiming to become “the data broker for the Congo Basin Rainforest” — a forested area that spans 2.5 million sq km over six countries and is the world’s largest tropical carbon sink — by applying machine learning to parse satellite imagery in order to be able identify illegal logging activity in real time. The startup’s goal is to be able to provide rich, real-time analytics to local policymakers, conservation groups, NGOs etc so they’re armed with actionable intelligence to combat deforestation and biodiversity loss
• AimHi Earth: An “education-to-action” organization that’s building accessible climate training with the goal of empowering “everyone to understand the whole picture of climate change, how to communicate about it and how to make a positive difference — both individually and collectively”
• The Green Web Foundation: A non-profit organization that’s developing tools and an open database to measure the carbon emissions of websites and cloud services to try to help speed up the transition to a fossil fuel-free Internet by 2030
• EnergyTag: Another energy-focused startup with a mission of accelerating the shift to renewable energy. It wants to help to drive investment in technology needed to decarbonise energy grids through 24/7 energy tracking. So it’s creating an internationally recognised standard for hourly certificates that allow energy users to verify the source of their electricity each hour of the day — which it says will enable accurate carbon accounting and support new market models, like nodel pricing
• Autonomy: An independent think tank developing tools and research to tackle climate change, the future of work and economic planning — with the goal of generating data and policy solutions to underpin the shift to sustainable jobs and just, green transitions
• Instrat: Another progressive think tank — this one based in Poland and focused on the local energy sector using open energy data to drive policy debate and a just transition to net zero. Poland remains massively reliant on coal-fired power stations for energy generation but this startup says it’s developing a one-stop-shop for the local energy sector data “to prove that a coal-based economy is unprofitable in the short-term and absolutely unsustainable in the long-term”

Commenting on being accepted into the program in a statement, Jules Caron, co-founder of Project Canopy, said: “A few months ago, Project Canopy was just a couple of guys with a pdf. Joining Subak is really our watershed moment. Subak’s funding and support will allow us to put data at the heart of decision-making for the Congo Basin rainforest — the key to global climate change mitigation. We’ve seen the work Subak’s first cohort has already achieved. The emphasis on collaboration and sharing tools is crucial to our progress in the climate fight, and it’s why we are so excited to join Subak.”

An initial five startups were announced by Subak as founding organizations at its launch last year: Namely New Automotive, Transition Zero, Ember, and Open Climate Fix –– and Subak says the five remain involved with the program, sharing data and learnings with the network to support incoming cohorts.

The Subak program is divided into three phases: An initial three months badged as “Accelerate” (when up to £20k is distributed in two chunks); then nine months of “Growth” (up to £60k is unlocked through this phase, depending on milestones); after which there’s an “optional bespoke” element referred to as “Cooperate” — aka an ongoing alumni and collaboration programme — where there’s an additional £40k in potential support up for grabs for each selected startup.

More details about Subak’s program are available via its FAQ.

While the data-for-climate accelerator started in the UK, Subak is building out a global network of incubators to underpin its program — and has already launched its first international hub in Australia.

Policymakers in the European Union, meanwhile, are also focused on opening up data access as part of the bloc’s ‘green deal’ strategy to shrink carbon emissions to zero by 2050 — announcing a swathe of digital regulations in recent years which are intended to unlock the change-making power of data and drive efficiency upgrades by, for example, encouraging and enabling reuse of industrial data and real-time sensor data, and supporting cross-industry and public-private sector collaborations.

The Russian App Store has lost 6,982 mobile apps since the start of the Ukraine invasion, as numerous companies have now pulled their apps and games from Apple’s iPhone and iPad App Stores in the country, according to data shared with TechCrunch by app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

To date, those apps had been downloaded around 218 million times in Russia, representing a little over 3% of their total 6.6 billion global lifetime installs. Amid the widespread exits, several Big Tech companies’ apps continue to rank highly on the Russian App Store, though the Top Charts currently are filled with VPN apps.

While Apple routinely removes outdated and abandoned apps from its App Store, the Russian App Store app removals post-invasion (February 24 through March 14) represent a 105% increase in the number of apps removed from the store when compared with the first two weeks of February 2022 (February 1 to 14). During that earlier period, Russia’s App Store had seen only 3,404 app removals — a figure that was in line with the number of apps pulled from Apple’s App Stores in other markets, including the U.S., where 3,422 apps were removed. These pre-invasion app removals were likely related to Apple’s ongoing cleanup efforts, Sensor Tower noted.

Russia is not the only country being impacted in this way. Many publishers also removed their apps and games from the App Store in Belarus, Russia’s neighbor and ally. That country has now seen a loss of 5,900 apps since the invasion’s start — a figure that increased by 73% when compared with the 3,418 apps removed from February 1-14.

By comparison, other app markets had seen smaller increases in app removals, perhaps also related to Apple’s App Store maintenance efforts.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

As a result of Russia’s decision to wage war against Ukraine, the country has been cut off from the global economy as the U.S. and its allies coordinated to enact broad economic sanctions. Large companies have also stopped doing business in Russia, including some of the world’s best-known brands, like McDonald’s, Apple, Microsoft, Disney, IKEA, H&M, Adidas and Starbucks, as well as payments giants Visa, Mastercard and Amex, among others.

In some cases, the Russian App Store removals are related to those big brand exits. For instance, Coca-Cola pulled its iOS loyalty and rewards-focused app out of the Russian App Store, as the company recently vowed to suspend its business in Russia. Retailers like H&M and American Eagle Outfitters also pulled apps, along with Ebates’ shopping platform ShopStyle.

In sports, apps from the NFL, NBA, WWE and Eurosport have disappeared from the Russian App Store following the invasion. Also gone are health apps from MyFitnessPal, Kaiser Permanente, and numerous smaller fitness, meditation and yoga apps. Of these, MyFitnessPal had been fairly popular in Russia, having seen some 4.2 million installs to date, including those across both iOS and Android.

Mobile gaming giants leave Russia

Games are the largest category seeing removals in Russia and represent some huge departures. The Russian App Store has lost a number of top games from publishers including Zynga, Supercell, Take-Two (Rockstar Games), and others — many of which have publicly announced their exits.

For instance, Supercell on March 9 tweeted that, in response to the ongoing war, “new downloads are halted and access for existing players will be suspended“ with the next update. The company’s games that were pulled from the App Store in Russia included Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Hay Day. These are sizable exits — Clash of Clans alone has seen 36 million installs across both iOS and Android to date in Russia, for example.

Rockstar Games pulled over a half dozen titles from its Grand Theft Auto series, among others. Its parent company, Take-Two, had announced its intentions to exit Russia on March 7, noting it had watched the events unfolding in Ukraine with “concern and sadness.” It said it would stop new sales, installations, and marketing in both Russia and Belarus.

Zynga, meanwhile, said on March 8 it’s been watching the events in Ukraine with “great concern” and would exit Russia and Belarus as well as donate to relief organizations. The publisher has now pulled dozens of its casual games from those countries’ App Stores, including many bigger titles like Farmville 3, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells, Empires & Puzzles, Solitaire, Zynga Poker, and others from its 2020 acquisition, Rollic Games.

Netflix has also delivered on its promise to leave Russia with the removal of its streaming app in the country. Dating apps Bumble and Badoo are gone, too. Bumble (Badoo’s parent) said during its Q4 2021 earnings on March 8 that it would leave both app stores in Russia and Belarus. The combined revenue it saw from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus was approximately 2.8% of total Bumble annual revenue in 2021, the company added.

Other notable removals from the Russian App Store include Amazon’s IMDb, travel app Trivago, The Weather Channel (IBM), Playtika and Big Fish Games (games), Hily’s dating app, Citizen, DAZN sports live streaming, AllTrails, and Google Home. (AllTrails had not yet released a public statement, but told TechCrunch it has now “indefinitely suspended” services in Russia. “We stand with the people of Ukraine, and refuse to associate with Russia as they wage this tragic war,” the company said.)

In terms of removal by categories, the types of apps that have seen the largest number of removals from the Russian App Store include those in Games, Productivity, Utilities, Music, Business, Education and Health. As a point of reference, more than 860 games were removed across impacted App Stores, including those in Russia, Belarus and, to some extent, Ukraine. (Only a handful were pulled in the latter, however.)

Tech giants’ apps still top the charts

However, not all tech giants have fully exited Russia’s App Store at this time.

Microsoft on March 4 announced it was halting all new sales of products and services in Russia and has since pulled apps like Solitaire, Majong, Wordament and, notably, Minecraft from the Russian App Store. But still ranking at the top of the Productivity charts in Russia are Microsoft’s Word, Office, Excel, Powerpoint, Teams and Outlook, per Sensor Tower data.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower. Russian App Store’s Top Charts for Productivity apps on March 15, 2022.

Microsoft is not alone. Google took several actions against Russia, including the suspension of its advertising business in the country, but its productivity apps are still available in Russia. Currently ranking highly on the Top Productivity apps chart are Google’s Docs, Sheets, Slides, Assistant, Calendar, Drive, One and Keep, for instance.

Adobe, too, committed to leaving Russia, saying on March 4 it would “halt all new sales” of Adobe products and services in Russia, “effective immediately.” It also said it would terminate access to Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Document Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud for all Russian state media outlets and pledged money toward the refugee and humanitarian aid.

In the days since, Adobe has pulled some of its apps from the Russian App Store, like Photoshop and Illustrator, but others remain available for download, as of the time of writing, including a top-ranked Business app, Adobe Reader. Its iOS app is currently at No. 15 in the top Business apps chart.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower – Adobe Reader in Russia on March 15

Microsoft, Google and Adobe did not yet respond to requests for comment.

Social apps still highly ranking, despite blocks

At present, Russia’s Top Chart for its overall App Store is pointing to apps that no longer work or where content is heavily restricted.

On Monday, Instagram was blocked in Russia, impacting 80 million users. But the app still ranks at No. 34 overall in the country today, as it wasn’t actually removed from the App Store. (That means users can still download the app, but can’t access the service, except, perhaps, via a VPN). Russia has also restricted other social media, including Facebook and Twitter, while TikTok suspended users’ ability to livestream and post new content in Russia and has blocked all non-Russian content.

But TikTok is still ranking well, as the No. 18 overall app on Russia’s App Store, followed by YouTube at No. 27. YouTube, like other platforms, has banned Russian state media outlets and paused advertising and payments.

But VPNs dominate the Russian App Store’s Top Charts

The downranking of these social apps can only partly be attributed to the bans and restrictions. Another factor is the VPN apps, which now dominate the Top Charts.

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

The top 10 VPN apps collectively reached 4.2 million installs from February 24 through March 13, up 2,286% from the prior period, when the top 10 apps hit about 176,000 installs, Sensor Tower data indicated. The firm noted it also saw apps like Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 and Psiphon appear in the Top 10, though the app dubbed 1.1.1.1 isn’t only a VPN; it advertises privacy and security, which likely appeal to Russian users at this time.

As the war in Ukraine continues, companies as varied as Exxon, Visa, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have suspended sales in Russia. Tech companies like Adobe, Apple and PayPal have joined in over the last couple of weeks.

We queried the world’s top cloud infrastructure vendors (including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM and Cloudflare) to find out how each was reacting to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Each company let their public blog posts stand as the message they wished to share, with the exception of Google Cloud, which sent a brief statement stating its position.

In a blog post on March 4, AWS indicated that it has no data centers in Russia, and as a matter of policy, it does not do business with the Russian government. It stated that while it had Russian customers, they were all headquartered outside of the country, though it stopped short of saying it would suspend sales. That changed on March 8, when the company updated the blog post to indicate it had “stopped allowing new sign-ups for AWS in Russia and Belarus.”

Microsoft also took the action of suspending sales to Russia. “We are announcing today that we will suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia,” Brad Smith wrote in a blog post on March 4 announcing the action. That presumably includes Azure infrastructure services.

As for Google, the last of the big three cloud infrastructure vendors, it said, “We can confirm we are not accepting new Google Cloud customers in Russia at this time. We will continue to closely monitor developments.”

IBM has taken a similar position, announcing in a March 7 blog post written by CEO Arvind Krishna that it was suspending sales in Russia. “I’ve heard from many of you in response to last week’s announcement regarding the war in Ukraine, and I appreciate your feedback. First, let me be very clear — we have suspended all business in Russia,” Krishna wrote in the post.

Cloudflare, which is not a pure cloud infrastructure vendor, helps provide secure internet access via hundreds of data centers around the world, including Russia and Ukraine. As an internet provider, the company thinks it’s important to keep the internet running in the country in spite of calls to shut down service there:

“Beyond this, we have received several calls to terminate all of Cloudflare’s services inside Russia. We have carefully considered these requests and discussed them with government and civil society experts. Our conclusion, in consultation with those experts, is that Russia needs more Internet access, not less,” the company wrote in a blog post.

It’s worth noting that in a report published this week, IDC found that the economic impact on cloud companies taking these actions will likely be minimal. “While IDC expects a steep decline and slow recovery for ICT spending in Russia and Ukraine, the global impact of this decline will be somewhat limited. Combined the two countries only account for 5.5% of all ICT spending in Europe and 1% worldwide,” the firm reported.

Google is suspending billing on its mobile app store, Play, and pausing payment-based services for YouTube users in Russia — blaming “payment system disruption” related to Western sanctions on Russian banks.

The development, which was reported earlier by Reuters, comes in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions on Russian banks that swiftly followed as the West opted for an economic response to Putin’s war in Europe.

In a support note on its Android developer website, Google confirms the Play billing suspension — writing:

“Due to payment system disruption, we will be pausing Google Play’s billing system for users in Russia in the coming days. This means users will not be able to purchase apps and games, make subscription payments or conduct any in-app purchases of digital goods using Google Play in Russia. Free apps will remain available on the Play Store.”

In a further note, regarding “recently enacted international sanctions for Play developers”, Google says:

“We are committed to complying with all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws and we continue to monitor the latest guidance. Users in affected regions will still be able to use Google Play, including downloading free apps, but unable to make purchases.”

The FAQ also warns Play developers that existing subscriptions in sanctioned regions will be cancelled at the end of the billing cycle.

“The situation is rapidly evolving and we encourage you to return to this page for the latest information,” it adds.

A YouTube spokesperson confirmed the “pause” on payment-based services inside Russia — sending us this statement:

“We’ve recently paused all Google and YouTube ads in Russia. As a follow-up, we’re now extending this pause to all our monetization features, including YouTube Premium, Channel Memberships, Super Chat and Merchandise, for viewers in Russia.”

The latest measures expand previously announced restrictions on Google’s services inside Russia.

On Friday, the company announced a suspension of its own ad sales in the country — although it did not entirely cut off ad sales to Russians, saying at that point that it would continue allowing entities there to purchase ads served outside Russia.

It’s not been confirmed whether or not the banking sanctions which are now disrupting payments on Play and YouTube will also mean Google is forced to suspend any remaining ad sales in Russia — per Reuters YouTube channels in Russia will still be able to generate revenue from viewers outside the country through ads and paid features, which suggests there is not a full cut-off — but it does look increasingly challenging for Russians to be able to make and receive payments to/from foreign entities as Western sanctions bite.

In recent days, other tech giants, including Apple, Airbnb and Microsoft, have taken similar steps to suspend sales and operations in Russia — joining a growing number of multinationals effectively boycotting or withdrawing from the country as a protest against Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Tech platforms have also taken steps to adjust their response to Russian disinformation, including in response to EU sanctions on Kremlin-backed Russian state media outlets Russia Today and Sputnik — with Google and others announcing geoblocks on the pair’s YouTube channels and apps.

Google in October announced a preview of Android 12L, a version of the Android operating system designed specifically for large-screened devices. Today, Android 12L is officially becoming available, offering features that will make it easier to use Android on tablet devices. The software will begin to roll out to supported devices from Samsung, Lenovo and Microsoft starting later this year, Google said.

The idea with Android 12L was to tailor Android for users on tablets and foldable devices larger than 600sp with an updated user interface, multitasking enhancements and improved compatibility support so apps would offer a better experience by default when run on bigger-screened devices.

With Android 12L, for example, the notification shade takes advantage of the expanded space by showing Quick Settings and your Notifications in a two-column layout. The lock screen also uses a two-column layout to show your notifications and clock. Other built-in system apps, like Settings, are also optimized for the bigger screen, so you can make changes without having to go in and out of each section. Some key interactions have changed, too — like putting the PIN controls and lock screen pattern off to the side of the screen for easier reach.

Image Credits: Google

Android 12L addresses foldables with an optimized home screen grid and a polished fold-unfold transition, Google notes.

12L also adds a new taskbar for launching and switching between apps, while gesture navigation helps users do things like flip through recent apps, reveal or hide the taskbar, enter split-screen mode and swipe up to go home. Users on Android 12L can now drag and drop apps directly into split-screen from the taskbar or use a new “Split” action in the overview to start split-screen mode. That means you can watch a YouTube video while you read the news, search the web in the Chrome browser or use Google Maps, for instance. (Split-screen mode wasn’t new, to be clear, but now it’s easier to access in Android 12L and doesn’t require the developer to opt in to support the mode.)

And 12L offers visual and stability improvements to Android’s compatibility mode for apps that are not yet optimized for large-screen devices.

Image Credits: Google

The updated version of Android follows other improvements Google has made to Android tablets in recent years, which included the launch of a Kids Space in 2020, which is essentially a “kids mode” on tablets; and an Entertainment Space, launched last year, which offers a one-stop shop for all your content, including movies, shows, books, games and video — all in one destination.

While Android 12L is similar to its Apple counterpart, iPadOS, in that it also aims to address the needs of tablet owners, Google stopped short of actually forking Android into a separate operating system as Apple did with iOS and iPadOS.

The official launch of Android 12L arrived alongside the latest Pixel Feature Drop, the update that brings Google’s Pixel devices the latest set of new features. In this tenth feature drop, Google has added Night Sight support Snapchat, Live Captions for phone calls, language expansions for Live Translate, and other additions.

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. App Annie says global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year-over-year to reach $295 billion.

Today’s consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before — even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And they’re not even the world’s heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours, either. They can grow to become huge businesses. In 2021, 233 apps and games generated over $100 million in consumer spend, and 13 topped $1 billion in revenue, App Annie noted. This was up 20% from 2020, when 193 apps and games topped $100 million in annual consumer spend, and just eight apps topped $1 billion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps and games to try, too.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Top Story

Image Credits: Anna Fedorenko (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The Russia-Ukraine war continued to have a wide-reaching impact on the world of apps as major tech companies took action to block Russian state media outlets, RT and Sputnik, and to further isolate Russia from participating in the broader tech economy. The EU specifically banned the Kremlin-based media outlets in the region, to prevent the further spread of disinformation and propaganda, across EU broadcast channels, online platforms and apps.

The app stores pulled the Russian state-owned media outlets’ apps, RT News and Sputnik News, from their global marketplaces, outside Russia. This includes the ban of RT from the Windows app store, plus Google and Apple’s ban of RT and Sputnik’s apps.

Sensor Tower said that RT News had 5.7 million installs worldwide since its launch in May 2013 across the App Store and Google Play while Sputnik had 2 million installs worldwide since its release in March 2015. Another firm reported different data. Apptopia estimated RT News had 10 million global installs and Sputnik had 3.85 million.

Among other key changes this week:

• Facebook and Instagram said they would suppress the spread of Russian state media via algorithms and will begin attaching labels to their content to provide more context. It also restricted access to their content in the EU, and more recently, the U.K. per a government request.
• Facebook said it would let users in Russia and Ukraine lock their profiles — a feature that prevents non-friends from viewing posts and photos, downloading images and more.
• Instagram announced it would make encrypted DMs available to users in Russia and Ukraine.
• Reddit banned links to Russian state media outlets across its site for all users worldwide and ads that originated from Russia or those that target the country.
• Spotify closed its office in Russia “indefinitely,” and removed all content from Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik in the EU and other markets, except Russia.
• Snap halted ads in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and pledged $15 million to relief orgs. It’s also helping to relocate the 300-plus person Ukrainian staff of its AR platform.
• TikTok blocked Russian state media accounts, Sputnik and RT, in the EU. The accounts are also no longer able to post to audiences within the EU.
• YouTube banned Russian state media outlets in the EU and U.K.
• Google Maps removed newly added user content, like pins, in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, amid claims of its use in coordinating Russian military activity. Google also disabled live traffic tools on Google Maps.
• Apple halted product sales in Russa, disabled Apple Pay services in the country and, like Google, disabled Apple Maps’ traffic and live incident reports.
• Apple’s Maps and Weather apps began showing Crimea as part of Ukraine in all regions outside Russia, after not showing the region as part of any country since 2019.
• Microsoft halted all new sales in Russia, and is suspending many other aspects of its business in the country.
• Airbnb suspended all operations in Russia and Belarus and said it was offering free short-term housing for up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
• Google stopped selling online ads in Russia on Search, YouTube and outside publishing partners, after similar moves by Snap and Twitter.

Weekly News

Platforms: Apple

• Apple is hosting its next event, dubbed “Peek performance,” on March 8 at 10 AM PT. The company is expected to reveal a new 5G iPhone SE, new iPad Air and possibly new Macs.
• Apple launched its Entrepreneur Camp for Latin founders, which invites developers from the U.S., Brazil, Guatemala and Portugal to receive one-on-one code-level guidance from Apple experts and engineers, mentorships and other insights from Apple leaders.
• A group of software engineers and web developers have launched a project called “Open Web Advocacy“ in the hopes of pushing Apple to allow other browser engines on iOS besides WebKit.
• Apple updated its App Store Small Business Program to no longer reject app transfers — that is, when a developer moved one of their apps to another account. Before, developers who transferred apps were barred from the program.

Platforms: Google

• Google Play Pass, the company’s subscription-based games and app service, launched in India. The service first arrived in late 2019 and now has over 1,000 titles.

E-commerce

Image Credits: Walmart

• Walmart launched an AI-powered virtual clothing try-on feature called “Choose My Model,” which lets online shoppers build a virtual model that matches their dimensions, body shape and skin tone to see what clothes will look like on their own body. The feature is powered by Walmart’s Zeekit acquisition and will be available on the web and in the Walmart mobile app.

Social

Image Credits: Twitter

• Twitter is expanding its community-based fact-checking service Birdwatch to a small and randomized set of U.S. users after testing it since January 2021. The company was recently criticized for not prioritizing fact checks over other features, when the Russia-Ukraine war is leading to a spike in misinformation.
• Facebook is killing its college-student-only social network called “Campus.” The feature was meant to give students a private place to network like the original Facebook had done and had 204 schools on board — but likely not enough traction to continue. The service shuts down March 10 and all data will be deleted.

Image Credits: Facebook

• Instagram’s standalone IGTV app is shutting down in mid-March and IGTV’s in-stream video ads will be discontinued as well. The company is shifting its focus to Reels, where it just rolled out new advertising options for creators.
• Trump’s Truth Social app, a right-wing Twitter alternative, has fallen to No. 57 in the U.S. App Store, as many are still on a waitlist after nine days post-launch, and Trump isn’t posting.
• Nextdoor beat Wall Street expectations in its first earnings report as a public company. The neighborhood social network recorded revenues of $59.3 million, up 47.9% from its year-ago tally of $40.1 million.
• Instagram introduced auto-generated captions for videos initially in 17 languages after TikTok first launched the feature in April 2021.
• Instagram head Adam Mosseri tried to explain why the company isn’t releasing an iPad app, saying there weren’t enough users to justify the work. (Or maybe there are enough iPad users but they just don’t care about Instagram?) He also noted Android is the largest user base and every new surface adds overhead; people share more in messages than Stories and Feed; and Instagram is “leaner than you think.”

Photo/Video + Creator Tools

• Face-swapping video app Reface, developed in Ukraine, showed its support for its home country in an interesting way. The app implemented push notifications that alerted its 200 million-strong user base about Russia’s invasion and urged people to #StandWithUkraine by watermarking the videos created in the app.

Streaming & Entertainment

• iHeartRadio modernized the radio call-in with its new “Talk Back” feature. The company’s mobile app now offers a microphone button that lets listeners send in voice messages to their favorite radio programs and soon, iHeartRadio podcasts, too. The tool integrates directly with the company’s CMS so the messages can be received in near real time to enhance the radio broadcast. IKHeartRadio says it’s open to expanding access to other broadcasters and podcasters in the future, too.

Image Credits: iHeartRadio

• Disney announced its streaming service, Disney+, would introduce an ad-supported subscription tier later this year. Pricing was not detailed, but the service’s current ad-free plan costs $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year.
• Twitch’s new policy cracks down on chronic spreaders of misinformation on the streaming service, and will take down channels that routinely lie about vaccines and election fraud, as well as Russian state-run media.
• Verizon introduced Plus Play, a new platform that will bundle customer subscriptions across devices, including those for Netflix, Peloton, Disney+, A+E Networks, Duolingo, Calm, Discovery+, AMC Plus, Hulu, The Athletic and more in gaming and news. (Some were already partners before this move.) The service is meant to help customers centralize their subscriptions in one place and plans to offer exclusive deals, Verizon said.
• Twitter is working on a “Podcasts” feature in its app, which could possibly serve as a home for recorded Twitter Space in the future.

Gaming

Image Credits: Netflix

• Netflix is launching a new interactive daily trivia game, called “Trivia Quest.” The show, which begins airing April 1, is based on the popular Trivia Crack mobile game, which Netflix licensed as part of its broader gaming push. The game will be playable across platforms, including mobile.
• Mobile games Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile will be delayed. EA and Industrial Toys indirectly cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (described on Twitter as “current world events“), as the reason.
• Samsung was caught throttling the performance of 10,000 apps on its phones, with its Game Optimizing Service likely to blame. The throttled apps weren’t limited to games, as other top apps — like Office, Google Keep, TikTok and even Samsung’s own apps — were also impacted. Benchmark apps, however, were not throttled. The company said an update is on the way to fix the issue.
• Amazon launched its cloud-based game streaming service Luna in the U.S. with free games for Prime members and more via subscription. Users can try Luna on Fire TV using their iPhone or Android phone as a controller via the Luna Controller app.

Image Credits: Amazon

• Snowman announced its anticipated remastered expansion of Alto’s Adventure, dubbed Alto’s Adventure: The Spirit of the Mountain,” will comes to Apple Arcade on March 25.

Productivity/Utility

• Popular productivity app maker Readdle, founded in Ukraine, pulled its apps from the Russian App Store and says it will not do any business with Russian-owned companies. Existing users in Russia will still have access to the apps, but will receive no future updates or support. In a statement, the company shared its reasoning, saying: “Readdle was founded in Ukraine, and many of our employees call it home. Right now, Russian armed forces are bombing & attacking Ukraine by land, air, and sea. Our company stands with the people and government of Ukraine against the Russian invaders.”
• Slack said it’s dropping support for iOS 13 on iPhone and iPad, forcing users to move to at least iOS 14 which was released in 2020.
• Rakuten Viber said it’s launching free “Viber Out” calls in 34 countries that allow users to reach any phone number, landline or mobile phone. It also disabled advertising within Russia and Ukraine.
• Zillow users now compare for-sale home listings with a new “Homes to Compare” tool in the Zillow mobile app.

Transportation

Image Credits: Uber

• Uber becomes even more of a super app. The ride-hailing and food delivery app Uber launched a new feature that will allow customers in 15 cities across the U.S. and Mexico to book dinner reservations or other experiences directly in the app. Users will find the options in Uber’s new Explore tab, where they can browse categories like food and drink, art and culture, nightlife, music and shows, and more.

Government & Policy

• A bipartisan group of state attorneys general will investigate TikTok to determine if the video platform negatively affects the psychical or mental health of younger users or if it violates state consumer protection laws. The investigation is the latest to examine the potential harms of Big Tech, and follows TikTok’s release of several minor safety features clearly meant to assuage regulators’ and investigators’ concerns.
• Apple, which has now been fined six times by Dutch regulators for failing to comply with rules around dating apps and in-app purchases, said in a letter that its App Store IAP changes comply and only need a “minor technical change.”

Security & Privacy

• A report by The Markup looks into how location data brokers have simply shifted tactics since Apple and Google rolled out stricter policies. Instead of relying on SDKs that automatically sent data to brokers, they will often just buy the data directly from app publishers, who hide their disclosures in legalese about sharing data with “partners.” And policies don’t necessarily require apps to disclose who the data is sold to.
• An Android banking trojan designed to steal user data, including passwords and text messages, was discovered in Google Play and downloaded thousands of times.

Funding and M&A

Netflix acquired Finland-based mobile game developer Next Games for around $72 million to expand its games business. Netflix has been offering subscriber-only games through its mobile apps on iOS and Android through partnerships and licensing deals. Next Games had ties to Netflix already, having published the role-playing game “Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales.” It had reported sales of $30.2 million in 2020, largely from in-app purchases.

Thatgamecompany, makers of the popular mobile game “Sky: Children of the Light,” raised $160 million from TPG and Sequoia Capital. “Sky” has over 160 million downloads and nearly 7 million DAUs. The company also added Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull as a principal adviser.

Alibaba-backed Perfect Corp., makers of AR camera app YouCam and maker of tech that powers virtual AR try-on features at Google, Pinterest, Snap and others, to go public in a SPAC merger valuing the business at $1 billion. The company will raise up to $335 million in the merger.

Fortnite maker Epic Games acquired online music platform Bandcamp for an undisclosed sum, hinting at its “music metaverse” ambitions. The company will continue to function as a standalone operation, it said.

Bengaluru-based Pocket FM, which offers a streaming app for audiobooks and podcasts, raised $65 million in Series C funding led by Goodwater Capital, Naver and existing investor Tanglin Venture Partners. The app offers more than 100,000 hours of content and reports having over 50 million users.

Stax raised $2.2 million in a seed extension round for its app that allows Africans to buy airtime, send and request money and transfer funds between accounts. U.S. firms World Within Ventures and Noemis Ventures co-led the round. Stax has 170,000 customers, 40,000 of which are monthly actives.

U.K. investment app Shares raised $40 million in Series A funding in a round led by Valar Ventures. The company has 130 employees in London, Paris and Krakow and is working to expand the app to other EU markets.

Food delivery app maker DoorDash acquired hospitality tech startup Bbot for an undisclosed sum. The deal aims to expand DoorDash’s services, like DoorDash Drive and DoorDash Storefront; increase partner restaurant sales; and reduce wait times to order and pay.

Mobile marketing company AppLovin to acquire content distribution and advertising service for connected TVs, Wurl, for $430 million, 55% cash and 45% stock. The deal will close in the first half of 2022, and follows AppLovin’s acquisition of Twitter’s MoPub.

HearHere, a storytelling app designed for road trips, raised $3.2 million in seed funding to scale its business. The app, which is also backed by actor Kevin Costner, has more than 100,000 registered users and offers more than 8,880 stories across the U.S. The new round was led by RV and outdoor camping retailer Camping World.

Flashfood raised $12.3 million in Series A funding to scale its grocery app that aims to tackle food waste. The app lets users browse deals at nearby grocery partners, then pay for items in the app and arrange for pick up. To date, the company claims to have saved shoppers $100 million and diverted more than 34 million pounds of food from landfills.

GetMyBoat, a boat rental marketplace and mobile app, raised $21 million in Series B funding. Japanese manufacturing company Yanmar Global took a majority stake in the company, which now overs over 150,000 rentals in 9,300 destinations.

iSpot, a real-time TV measurement company, expanded its cross-platform viewing verification capabilities through the acquisition of Tunity, a TV-viewing solutions and analytics company that measures consumer viewing habits in public locations nationwide. Through its iOS/Android app, Tunity allows users to hear live audio from muted televisions directly on their mobile devices.

Download This

MyHeritage (update with LiveStory)

Last year, genealogy service MyHeritage went viral after introducing a new “deepfake” feature that allowed users to animate the faces of loved ones in still photos. TikTok users posted videos reacting to the technology, called “Deep Nostalgia,” as they brought back relatives they never got to meet or those whose loss they still grieved. To date, more than 100 million photos have been animated with the feature. Now comes the next iteration. This week, MyHeritage along with technology partner D-ID is expanding upon “Deep Nostalgia,” with the launch of “LiveStory,” a feature that doesn’t just bring the people in photos to life with movement, but actually has them speak.

The company licensed the new technology from D-ID, a Tel Aviv-based startup that works to create patented video reenactment technology powered by AI and deep learning techniques.

To make the lips match the words, D-ID trained a neural network on a database of videos of people speaking. Its technology is able to work with any language, the company says. The MyHeritage implementation, however, supports 31 languages, including dozens of dialects, with both male and female voice options. After the LiveStory is created, users can watch it, share it with friends or post it to social media. They also can customize the story further by editing the text, choosing a different voice or even uploading their own audio recording.

The feature is available in the MyHeritage mobile app and is free to use a few times before a subscription is required.