Top Tech Startup News For Today Wednesday, January 18, 2023: Amazon, EarthOptics, Import.io, And Microsoft

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Good evening! Below are some of the top tech startup news stories for Wednesday, January 18, 2023.

Amazon is set to begin a fresh round of layoffs affecting more than 18,000 people

Retail giant Amazon on Wednesday will begin a new round of job cuts that would affect more than 18,000 employees, making it the largest workforce cuts in its 28-year history. Early this month, CEO Andy Jassy told employees in a memo the retail behemoth was looking to eliminate as many as 18,000 roles, primarily employees in its human resources and stores divisions.

As we reported back in November, the company was looking to lay off about 10,000 employees. Amazon’s headcount grew after the company went on a hiring spree during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its global workforce increased to more than 1.6 million, from 798,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Amazon is one of the many tech companies that have introduced cut-cutting measures to reduce spending amid the current global economic slowdown. In the last year, Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech companies have بیش از 60,000 کارمند را رها کنید.

Earlier today, Microsoft also announced it would lay off 10,000 jobs instead of the 11,000 reported by major news outlets. In addition to the layoff, the Redmond-based company also said that it would take a $1.2-billion charge as its cloud-computing customers dissect their spending and the company braces for a potential recession. The layoff is far larger than the 1,000 job cuts the company announced back in October 2020.

ThriveCart raises $35M in funding to help businesses build eCommerce carts and funnels

ThriveCart, an Austin, Texas-based tech startup that provides a comprehensive cart and funnel builder for small and medium businesses, has closed a $35 million investment from LTV SaaS Growth Fund to accelerate its product roadmap, grow its team and create best-in-class cart experiences for digital product sales. ThriveCart solves shopping cart abandonment issues that plague many online eCommerce websites.

Founded in 2016 by Josh Bartlett, ThriveCart is a shopping cart, payment processing, and affiliate marketing platform in the industry. ThriveCart’s platform is specialized for creators and businesses that sell digital products such as lessons and tutorials. E-commerce businesses that sell digital products use on ThriveCart to create high-converting content, cart pages, funnels, and affiliate campaigns.

ThriveCart’s platform features include profit boosters, upsell abilities, tool integrations, and real-time business insights, as well as ConvertBox, an on-site engagement platform for personalized offers and lead capture forms.

ThriveCart will also use the new capital infusion to further invest in its technology, which SMBs already adore for its lifetime license, flexibility, technical support, and integration possibilities. The startup also plans to grow its team to further tap into the thriving creator economy. The investment will accelerate the company’s growth as it offers tools to set up taxes, payments, subscriptions, coupons, and marketing solutions, as well as build and manage affiliate programs.

Scaleworks acquires web data extraction tech startup Import.io

Scaleworks announced today it has acquired San Antonio, TX-based web data extraction provider import.io for an undisclosed amount. Founded in London, UK in 2012, Import.io simplifies and streamlines the data collection process with technology and expertise to deliver web data at scale.

Import.io provides a scalable web data platform that extracts, prepares, and integrates high-quality comprehensive web data into customers’ analytics platforms and business applications. With thousands of website feeds collecting over half a trillion data points per month, Import.io powers the analytics capabilities of the world’s most recognized brands.

The company delivers data to over 800 enterprise customers from millions of web sources. Headquartered in San Antonio, TX, Import.io maintains offices in London, UK, and Bangalore, India.

In addition, Paul Lynch, former CEO of Scaleworks-backed Chargify and Assembla, was named Chief Executive Officer, replacing longtime CEO Gary Read. Scaleworks is a SaaS growth fund that acquires and operates B2B software in the lower middle market.

“This is an exciting acquisition for Scaleworks and an excellent addition to our portfolio. Import.io provides critical services to its customers and has an excellent technology pedigree,” Ed Byrne, General Partner of Scaleworks گفت:. “We look forward to working alongside the Import.io team and its CEO Paul Lynch in this next phase of the company’s expansion.”

EarthOptics raises $27.6M Series B funding to advance data-driven agriculture through actionable soil insights

EarthOptics is an Arlington, Virginia-based technology platform that gives farmers, carbon markets, and CPG companies trusted accuracy in measuring, reporting, and verifying the amount of carbon stored in the soil. EarthOptics provides farmers with tools that have the ability to generate added value across the food supply chain by helping companies offset their GHG emissions and create a new climate-smart product category.

To further advance data-driven agriculture through actionable soil insights, EarthOptics announced it has raised a $27.6 million round of funding, led by Conti Ventures, with participation from Rabo Food & Ag Innovation Fund (RFAIF), CNH Industrial, Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, and CHS and Growmark’s Cooperative Ventures join current EarthOptics investors Leaps by Bayer, FHB Ventures, S2G Ventures, iSelect Fund, Route 66 Ventures, and Middleland Capital’s VTC Ventures.

Founded in 2018 by John Dombrosky, John Anderson (PhD), and Todd Martin, EarthOptics is an agricultural technology company developing next-generation soil-sensing technologies that give growers revolutionary insights into the physical characteristics of their soil. The company has offices in Raleigh, North Carolina; Arlington and Blacksburg, Virginia; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Fayetteville, Arkansas.

EarthOptics will also use the new cash infusion for product and service offerings to farmers and ranchers working to meet growing customer demand. “We believe EarthOptics has a clear advantage in soil measurement technology, as they improve the scalability of measurement while helping to reduce extrapolation error,” said کریس ابوت, Co-Head of Conti Ventures. “As we look for technologies that can verify critical soil measurements for growers, we believe EarthOptics stands out in providing agronomic value as well as verification for initiatives like carbon credits.”

Microsoft CEO confirms 10,000 job cuts as recession worries hit the tech sector

Microsoft confirmed today that it would lay off 10,000 jobs instead of the 11,000 reported by major news outlets. In addition to the layoff, the Redmond-based company also said that it would take a $1.2-billion charge as its cloud-computing customers dissect their spending and the company braces for a potential recession. The layoff is far larger than the 1,000 job cuts the company announced back in October 2020.

In a memo to Microsoft employees, CEO Satya Nadella said the layoffs, affecting less than 5% of the workforce, would conclude by the end of March, with notifications beginning Wednesday. Nadella added that customers wanted to “optimize their digital spend to do more with less” and “exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.”

The news comes at a time when the tech giant was trying to expand into generative artificial intelligence to further broaden its service offerings. In July 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI as part of the effort for the two companies to work together to bring supercomputing technologies.

FTX says $415 million of crypto was hacked from its accounts

Last week, bankrupt crypto exchange FTX announced it recovered over $5 billion in cash and crypto assets. The lawyer representing the company disclosed the $5 billion includes cash and digital assets. What wasn’t disclosed at the time was there are still significant shortfalls at both its international and U.S. crypto exchanges due to a hack.

In an announcement on Tuesday, FTX disclosed that the recovered crypto assets also include $415 million worth of crypto that was hacked from the exchange’s accounts. The amount represents a sizable chunk of the identified assets FTX is trying to recover. The bankrupt crypto exchange said that $323 million in crypto had been hacked from FTX’s international exchange and $90 million had been hacked from its U.S. exchange since it filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

In a news release, FTX said: “With respect to FTX.com, the FTX Debtors have identified approximately $1.6 billion of digital assets associated with FTX.com as of the Petition Date, $323 million of which was subject to unauthorized third-party transfers post-petition, $426 million of which was transferred to cold storage under the control of The Securities Commission of The Bahamas, $742 million of which is in cold storage under the control of the FTX Debtors, and $121 million of which is pending transfer to cold storage under the control of the FTX Debtors.”

FTX در نوامبر سال گذشته اعلام ورشکستگی کرد. طبق اسناد متعدد دادگاه، صرافی ارز دیجیتال FTX ورشکسته در حال حاضر در مجموع حدود 3.1 میلیارد دلار بدهی دارد به بیش از 1 میلیون نفر، که تماس با هر قربانی را "غیر عملی" می کند. دولت ایالات متحده یک وب سایت برای قربانیان FTX راه اندازی کرده است تا با مجریان قانون ارتباط برقرار کنند.

Coinbase to halt operations in Japan due to ‘volatile market conditions’

crypto exchange Coinbase Global announced today it’s halting its operations in Japan due to volatile market conditions. The news comes a few days after it announced job cuts amid slow demand for digital assets.

اوون لاو، تحلیلگر اوپنهایمر، گفت: "ژاپن بعید است که سهم مادی در درآمد کوین بیس داشته باشد." رویترزو افزود که صرافی کریپتو مدتی است که بازار را بررسی کرده است اما یک سال و نیم پیش مجوز را از رگولاتور ژاپنی دریافت کرده است.

کوین بیس جدیدترین صرافی از سری صرافی های رمزنگاری است که در هفته های اخیر اخراج شده اند. به گزارش رویترز، Crypto.com و Huobi همگی برنامه‌های خود را برای اخراج حدود 20 درصد از کارکنان خود اعلام کرده‌اند، در حالی که جنسیس نیز مشاغل خود را کاهش داده است که معادل 30 درصد از نیروی کار خود است.

در همین حال، هفته گذشته کوین بیس اعلام کرد که حدود 1,000 کارمند خود را با عمیق تر شدن شیوع کریپتو اخراج می کند. این صرافی اعلام کرد که به عنوان بخشی از اقدامات کاهش هزینه و طرح بازسازی، حدود 950 کارمند نیروی کار خود را کاهش خواهد داد. آرمسترانگ در یک پست وبلاگی گفت: «ما همچنین شاهد پیامدهای بازیگران بی‌وجدان در صنعت بودیم و همچنان ممکن است سرایت بیشتری وجود داشته باشد. ما چندین پروژه را که در آن‌ها احتمال موفقیت کمتری داریم، تعطیل خواهیم کرد.»

این استارتاپ کریپتو از ابتدای امسال روزهای سختی را پشت سر گذاشته است. در 4 ژانویه، کوین بیس با پرداخت 100 میلیون دلار موافقت کرد با تنظیم کننده های ایالات متحده در مورد نقض قانون مبارزه با پولشویی به توافق برسند. کوین بیس موافقت کرد که 50 میلیون دلار جریمه برای اجازه دادن به مشتریان برای باز کردن حساب‌ها بدون انجام بررسی‌های پیشینه کافی و مناسب و 50 میلیون دلار دیگر برای بهبود انطباق بپردازد. این معامله همچنین مستلزم این است که Coinbase با یک مانیتور شخص ثالث کار کند.