EU, Brute? The Commission vs. Apple, Alphabet

Top News

• Apple, Alphabet dinged by EU: The European Commission wants Apple to make iOS more interoperable. The EU’s executive arm also told Alphabet that its search product treats its own services “more favourably compared to rival [offerings]” and that Android’s “app marketplace Google Play does not comply” with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act, or DMA. The EU locking horns with American tech companies is nothing new. However, the current US presidential administration has made considerable noise about the EU’s actions — what might have once been a spat between regulators and corporate interests could become something more.

• Ripple wins suit: Ripple Labs, best known for its work on the XRP blockchain, told the market that it will win a 2020 suit filed by the SEC. The decision to back off Ripple Labs comes after the second Trump administration has closed a number of cases against companies in the web3 space. The value of the XRP token is up around 10% in the last 24 hours following the news. For founders who had hoped for a more open lane to sell crypto assets, here’s your golden period!

• Nvidia snaps up Gretel: During its keynote this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang name-checked synthetic data as one path to creating ever-more powerful AI models. He wasn’t kidding. Wired reports that the GPU giant has purchased Gretel, a startup previously valued at more than $300 million that helps generate synthetic datasets so that developers can “improve AI models without compromising on privacy,” in its own words. The final price is not known, but is said to be above Gretel’s final private-market value. Another startup deal for the books!

TWiST500

Telegram is a weird beast. With a reported fundraising history that includes a venture round, an ICO, and several debt transactions, it’s not exactly a traditional startup.

Still the cross-platform social media and instant messaging service is part of the TWiST500 thanks to its private-market status and its enormous scale. To that end, Telegram announced that it has “more than 1 billion active users” today, per TechCrunch. That’s up a few percentage points from last year, indicating that while Telegram is no longer growing at a torrid pace, it’s still able to attract new users, even with more than a tenth of the world already using its messaging technology.

Founder Pavel Durov also said that Telegram had profits of more than a half-billion dollars last year. That’s an insane amount of money for a private company, and certainly enough for an IPO. Though, now that I write that down, the chance that Telegram goes public feels very slight. Perhaps we need a new category for the TWiST500, something like ‘perpetual private companies’ or something similar. We could throw Stripe in there, too, I reckon. — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2099: On a very special BONUS TUESDAY edition of TWiST, Alex chats with not one but TWO incredible founders! First up, Replit CEO Amjad Masad stops by to talk about “vibecoding” and the future of collaboration with AI agents. THEN, we’ve got Starfish Space co-founder Austin Link explaining why we need a satellite towing service, and how they can help clean up Earth’s orbit. Space! Cutting edge technology! What more could you want?

E2098: We had to record early before Jason got snowed in! So on a special Sunday night This Week in Startups, hear Jason, Alex, and Lon talk Klarna’s big IPO, and whether their interest rates are usurious… PLUS is $300 million too much for a Netflix Original movie? Is the era of remote work, and even remote job interviews, over for good? AND was Mark Rober’s Tesla self-driving experiment entirely fair? All that and MORE on a brand new TWiST!

E2097: Jason and Alex chat with British VC Harry Stebbings about his Project Europe initiative, hoping to return good vibes to the European startup space. PLUS Jason digs into his 2024 startup funding strategies and angel investment advice, and gives his unfiltered thoughts on Sam Altman and OpenAI’s latest maneuver to get around copyright protections.

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Angel University

Angel University is back! Jason and Mike, President at LAUNCH, are hosting our next live Angel.University workshop in person on Wednesday, April 23rd, in NYC. Jason will be teaching the strategies he’s used to invest $100M+ in 300+ startups over the past decade. Register at: angel.university.

Founder University

Applications are open for Founder University Cohort 10, a 12-week remote pre-accelerator program tailored towards navigating early-startup practices, building an MVP, and growing traction. Submit your application at Founder University— Cohort 10 will kick off Spring 2025!

LAUNCH Accelerator

Applications are open for the 34th cohort of the LAUNCH Accelerator; a 14-week program focused on fundraising and growth. We invest $125K in our accepted companies and help them raise their pre-seed or seed round. Submit your application at LAUNCH Accelerator.

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