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Six bullets of updates

1. 🚖 Elon Musk's Ambitious Self-Driving 'Robotaxi': Can Tesla Make It a Reality?

2. 👩‍💼 Deel acquires Hofy to introduce its own IT device management service, boosting its offerings for startups. 

3.  🧱 More than a quarter of European startup employees think their stock options will let them start their own company in the future.

4. 💨 Byju’s, once India’s most valuable startup, valued at $22 billion, faces insolvency proceedings.

5. 💝 What if social media boosted our well-being, especially for women, by providing support and positivity instead of causing misery?

6. 💸 Nigeria fines Meta $220 million for violating consumer, saying it appropriated users’s data on its platforms without their consent

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What follows the global tech outage?

Bloomberg described the Microsoft system outage as “the most spectacular IT failure the world has ever seen.” On Friday, July 19, cybersecurity company CrowdStrike made headlines, though not for the best reasons. A misconfigured update caused a major Windows systems crash, disrupting flights, news broadcasts, and bank transfers globally.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz clarified on X that the outage was due to a “defect” in a software update for its Falcon Sensor, not a cyberattack. He stated that the issue was isolated and a fix was implemented the same afternoon, and he later apologized for the disruption. Despite this, some businesses and organizations faced recovery challenges at the end of the day, with potential effects extending into the weekend or beyond.

Additionally, CrowdStrike had previously identified a 'zero-day' vulnerability that hackers could exploit—however, a poorly configured patch led to the global system failure. Following the outage, the company’s stock dropped over 14%. Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike is a leading cybersecurity provider with nearly 30,000 global subscribers and a market cap previously around $83 billion. Known for its growth and high margins, the firm's stock had doubled in the past year before this decline. The outage may lead customers and investors to reconsider their reliance on CrowdStrike, potentially benefiting rivals such as Palo Alto Networks, which saw a 1.7% stock increase on Friday, and Sentinel One, which rose by 3.6%. Don’t miss more details.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Financial Modeling Bootcamp | July 22 | Bootcamp

2. How to close a Funding Round | July 24 | Webinar

3. Crash Course in Financial Modeling |August 7 | Webinar

4. SaaStock: Dublin | August 14 | Conference

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These companies just raised money

1. 🚗 Mexican fintech OCN raises $86M in Series A to boost tech and expand its gig worker car leasing service.

2. 💰 Sam Altman's fintech startup Slope raises $65M from notable investors, including JP Morgan. 

3. 🏖️ Fintech startup Coast secures $40M, just four months after raising $25M, highlighting investor confidence.

4. 🤯 PE firm PartnerOne acquires HeadSpin for $28M, a fraction of its previous $1.1B valuation.

5. 🕹️ Artificial Agency raises $20M to revolutionize video game NPCs with advanced AI technology.

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Despite raising $15.5B, female-founded startups face ongoing hurdles

Female-led startups have raised $15.5 billion this year, a notable sum, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Despite this impressive figure, only 2.5% of all venture capital funding goes to female founders. The funding gap persists. 

What's the catch? While the amount is up, the overall percentage of funding for female-led ventures has stagnated. The VC world remains a boys' club, and female founders often face higher scrutiny and harsher terms.

According to Kyle Stanford, PitchBook's lead venture analyst, companies with all-women teams face a more challenging 2024, with activity significantly slower than last year. Read more here.

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Don’t you ever never do this in your Pitch Deck!

Several things should be avoided when pitching your startup to investors. In this video, we will share those red flags you shouldn’t miss and give you some tips on what might be helpful to impress investors. Enjoy and take note! 
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