Perplexity teams up with Polymarket, the Apple Tax, and a call for European startups

Top News

• Perplexity + Polymarket: AI search engine Perplexity is teaming up with prediction market Polymarket in a deal that will see Perplexity results displayed on the latter company’s individual betting pages. Polymarket also intends to use Perplexity’s “Pages” feature, TechCrunch reports. Perplexity recently locked up deals with publishers, moved into ads, and now is landing partnerships with other rising tech names. Not a bad run for the startup.

• Meta locks up major music access: UMG, the label behind global stars like Billie Eilish, has expanded and extended its deal with Meta, the social networking giant. Key to the agreement are terms covering short-form video, which is a big deal online these days. It’s worth keeping in mind that TikTok got into a scrap with UMG earlier this year before settling the argument after much public sniping. Meta, it seems, managed to avoid a similar dustup.

• Startups can’t dodge the Apple tax: If you subscribe to a creator on Patreon, and use the company’s iOS app, Apple is coming to take a cut. After existing in a grey area for some time, Patreon has informed its users that it is moving to Apple’s in-app payment system — at risk of being bounced from the digital marketplace altogether. Patreon has until November to make the switch, and it isn’t too happy about the situation it finds itself in.

What’s good in Europe?

Hey friends, Alex here. I’m very glad to be back and thankful to Bianca and Lukas for keeping the newsletter warm while I took time off.

Now, Europe. Thus far on the TWiST500 we have a handful of companies that hail from the continent, but I suspect that our list is far from complete. Sure, everyone is talking about Mistral, but I need to go deeper.

My conviction here is based on three things. First, yes, France’s growing profile in the AI gold rush is notable. Also, Spotify is now a $68 billion company, meaning the ability of Europe to build globally-leading tech companies is well proven. Third, Balderton just raised $1.3 billion for two new funds aimed at Europe. Sifted called the two funds the “largest ever combined early-stage and growth fundraise dedicated to European startups.”

That made me sit up and take note. Much hay has been made concerning a slowdown in venture capital fundraising — the capital that VCs themselves raise, not their pace of disbursement, though that too is slack — so to see so much capital arrive on European soil in one go was a good reminder to go deeper. The fundraise was an endorsement, essentially, of the promise that LPs and VCs see in and amongst European startups.

So, shoot me a note. I can look up and sort the biggest names from Europe myself, but it’s hard to parse amongst the Series A and B and C companies from a distance. If you know of a startup in the EU that’s crushing it — the UK too, of course — let me know: [email protected]. — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E1991: Jason sat down with founders from four different Founder University companies, listening and responding to their pitches live. Pablo Fernandez of Big Rentals, Brittany Peregoff of Where2Wheel, Ardalan Mirshani of MyLens, and Mariano Apodaca of Prosperous AI shared what they were building and detailed their current traction. If you love startups, this is a must-watch episode.

E1990: This episode throws it back to our LIQUIDITY Summit! Featuring Antonio Gracias of Valor and Gavin Baker of Atreides Management.

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