Shein and Forever 21 have entered into a partnership that will give both brands new ways to reach customers, the retailers announced on Thursday. As part of the partnership, Shein will acquire around a third of Forever 21′s operator, Sparc Group. Sparc will also take a minority stake in Shein. The financial terms of the…
YouTube is growing its commitment to hosting podcasts on its platform. This week, at the Podcast Movement conference, YouTube product lead Steve McLendon confirmed the platform will be rolling out support for RSS uploads for podcasters by the end of the year, among other updates. The new functionality had been in beta testing since earlier…
Banking-as-a-service (BaaS), embedded finance and open banking are among the hottest topics in fintech today. The promise? Make opening a bank account, storing money, receiving a payment card and lending money as easy as opening a social network account. The reinvention of banking is well underway, and we’re excited to welcome three key players —…
On-demand grocery delivery giant Instacart has finally dropped its much anticipated S-1. The company, actually named MapleBear, is one of the best-known unicorns on the IPO shortlist. Instacart’s public-offering filing has been long awaited due to not only its massive fundraising history, but also its sheer anticipated heft. Instacart is, indeed, a very large private…
X, the company formerly known as Twitter, has a new initiative aimed at luring smaller businesses to advertise on its platform. The company announced on Wednesday it would offer a one-time ad credit of $250 to select businesses when they spend $1,000 or more on new ad campaigns over the next 30 days. In its…
Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. Welcome to an old-school Equity tradition: the bonus show! Despite getting through our regular episodes this week, we have one more for you. Why the extra…
As soon as I saw the cover slide for BusRight, I knew I was looking at something really interesting. BusRight is a school-bus management platform that aims to improve efficiency and safety by, among other things, allowing caregivers to track bus locations. It also offers route-mapping and real-time GPS. Running a school bus network is…
YouTube this week put out a new video meant to address creators’ questions over its short-form video platform, YouTube Shorts. The questions it answered ranged from how the algorithm for Shorts differs from long-form YouTube to what counts as a view as well as those that addressed other best practices for creators who want to…
The crypto industry has not had a great run over the past year. Along with increasing regulatory scrutiny and skeptical investors, capital deployment has pulled back significantly from the highs of 2021, which has left many young startups struggling to raise funds. This capital crunch is affecting the Bitcoin ecosystem as well. According to Erik…
Last week, WhatsApp announced it was adding support for HD photos, allowing the messaging app users the option to preserve the high-def resolution of the phones they wanted to share with friends and family. At the time, the company said support for HD videos was coming soon. Today, the company confirmed with TechCrunch that HD…
