Friday, January 24, 2025

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we have details on the celebrity power of MrBeast, Trump's plans for crypto, and a startup dedicated to women's health. We're also looking at the future of Tom Brady's startup, Meta's penchant for blocking links, Tesla's new Model Y car, a VC that scored big, and more. To work! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: MrBeast/YouTube

1. MrBeast is in high demand: Multiple bidders for TikTok's U.S. operations are trying to lure the YouTuber to back their bids. A couple have publicly claimed the YouTube celebrity as their own, including Employer.com and real estate billionaire Frank McCourt, but MrBeast only seems to be in talks and keeping his options open. Read More

2. Stockpiling crypto's hot again: Trump has been slinging out executive orders since coming to office, and one of the latest involves the formation of a working group to propose federal regulations for crypto, and evaluate the viability of a crypto stockpile. What could go wrong? Read More

3. A win for women's health: Founder Rachel Blank realized the hard way that most OB-GYNs are not trained to treat common hormonal conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis and hypothyroidism. So she founded Allara, a telehealth platform for women with hormone conditions that just raised $26 million in a round led by Index Ventures. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: Mike Ehrmann / Stringer / Getty Images

🏈 Are you not entertained? Tom Brady's company Autograph, which tracks fan engagements with celebrities and rewards them for it, is merging with digital fitness company Future. The latter connects people with digital fitness coaches and builds personalized routines for users. Will we see celebrity AI avatar training sessions in the near future? Read More

🔥 A new way to feel the burn: Fitbit has agreed to pay $12.25 million as part of a settlement with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission after customers complained that the company's Ionic smartwatch was burning their wrists. Read More

🚗 Not quite a new model: Tesla is launching a redesigned Model Y SUV in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in March at a starting price of about $60,000. The automaker's lineup has been aging, and customers have been waiting for a new, cheaper model as they were promised. This isn't it, but it could still offer Tesla some relief. Read More

💰 30, flirty, and thriving: Seattle-based Madrona Capital is celebrating its 30th birthday by raising $770 million in fresh capital, its largest fundraise to date. It's a big deal for the VC firm at a time when most other VCs are reducing their fund hauls. Read More

⭐ Five stars? Google has committed to counter the flood of fake online reviews as part of an agreement with the U.K.'s antitrust regulator. Of course, the tech giant is only committing to do that in the U.K. Read More

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Around the web

🌱 In some sectors, a little goes a long way: Crunchbase News reports that while seed funding has generally declined over the past year, at least four sectors saw an increase in early stage funding in 2024, including robotics and legal tech. Read More

😶 Free speech isn't for everybody: Meta has been blurring, blocking, or removing posts from two abortion pill providers, reports The New York Times. This is happening despite its CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying the company was committed to free expression of ideas. Read More

🧌 Long live the trolls: The Trump administration has set up a "tip line" encouraging federal employees to rat out their colleagues who are working on diversity issues as part of its dismantling of DEI. The internet has responded by spamming the tip line with porn and Simpsons jokes, reports HuffPost. Read More

Before you go

🚕 This is my robotaxi now: Security researcher Jane Manchun Wong hacked a Waymo robotaxi to display whatever characters she wanted on the vehicle's top display. All she had to do was fiddle with the Waymo mobile app on her Android as she waited for her ride. Read More