Also in this letter:
■ SoftBank’s Latin American fund team to report to Rajeev Misra
■ Apollo.io raises $110 million led by Sequoia Capital
■ TCS to play key role in overhauling Air India
Crypto giants won’t ban Russians from using their platforms
Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance reiterated on Friday that they have no plans to preemptively ban all Russians from using their platforms.
Crypto breaks ranks: That means some of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges are choosing to stay put in Russia, breaking ranks with mainstream finance.
Their decision, experts said, weakens Western attempts to isolate Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, an EU official said the European Commission was studying whether crypto assets were being used to get round financial sanctions imposed on Russian banks.
In their words: “We believe everyone deserves access to basic financial services unless the law says otherwise,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a series of tweets on Friday.
“We are not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts,” a spokesperson of Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, told Reuters.
Yes, but: Both cryptocurrency exchanges have said they will comply with government sanctions.
The statements come days after Coinbase and Binance said they would not freeze all Russian accounts following Ukraine’s request to major crypto exchanges asking for a complete ban.
Ukraine’s appeal: On Thursday, Ukraine said it planned to urge about 50 more tech companies, including those in gaming, esports and internet infrastructure, to take action against Russia. The country has already sought support from about 50 companies since Russia’s invasion began last week.
The outreach, which has included tweets from Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov calling on Silicon Valley CEOs to take action, has helped bring Ukraine Starlink internet satellites from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and new restrictions on Russian state media by YouTube and other social media services.
Yes, but: SpaceX chief Elon Musk warned there was a high chance the company’s Starlink satellite broadband service could be targeted in Ukraine.
“Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution,” Musk tweeted.
The warning came days after an internet security researcher warned that devices used for satellite communications could become “beacons” that Russia could target for airstrikes.
Google halts ad sales in Russia: On Friday, Google said it had stopped selling online advertising in Russia, a ban that covers search, YouTube and outside publishing partners. The move followed similar pauses in Russia by Twitter and Snap.
Airbnb suspends ops: Airbnb is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus, CEO Brian Chesky said in a tweet. On March 1, the company had said its non-profit arm Airbnb.org would offer free, temporary housing for up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine.
SoftBank shuffles Latin American fund team to report to Rajeev Misra
SoftBank Group Corp. Vision Fund CEO Rajeev Misra
SoftBank Group has given responsibility for its Latin American funds to Rajeev Misra, CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisers, who oversees its gigantic Vision Fund, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
The SoftBank Latin America Fund and SoftBank Latin America Fund II now fall under Misra’s purview, the people said. SoftBank has committed some $8 billion across those vehicles.
The team leading Latin American fund investments remains the same, including managing investment partners Paulo Passoni and Shu Nyatta, and operating partner and head of Brazil, Alex Szapiro. Hired by Claure, they will all report to Misra, according to the people.
Son’s prodigal son: The change comes after the January departure of chief operating officer and SoftBank Group International chief executive officer Marcelo Claure, who was responsible for the Latin American fund.
His exit ended a tumultuous tenure, capped by a clash over compensation with founder Masayoshi Son. The firm said at the time that Michel Combes would take over Claure’s responsibilities.
Claure had advocated for a spinoff of the Latin American investment fund he had overseen for SoftBank, Bloomberg reported last year. But Son saw little benefit to shareholders and thought a spinoff would complicate management and governance, the people said.
After Claure left, SoftBank said SGI’s chief strategy officer Nicola Calicchio had also left the firm to pursue personal projects.
Apollo.io raises $110 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital
Apollo.io, a business-to-business (B2B) sales intelligence and engagement platform, said it has closed a $110 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
The round also saw participation from existing investors Tribe Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, and NewView Capital.
What will the funds be used for? The platform plans to use the funds to accelerate its product-led growth. It also plans to increase its investment in product and engineering by nearly 300% to continue to build the best platform in its category. Apollo.io has raised over $150 million to date.
ETtech Deals Digest
Integrated business-to-business (B2B) sales intelligence and engagement platform Apollo.io, audio streaming platform Pocket FM, instant live tutoring startup Filo were among the startups that raised funds this week. Here’s a look at the top funding deals of the week.
TCS to play key role in overhauling Air India
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is expected to play a pivotal role in overhauling Tata group-owned Air India, sources told us, to bring it on par with its private counterparts. It plans to achieve this through tech-led reforms and cost efficiencies.
Captains in the cockpit: Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran and TCS chief executive Rajesh Gopinathan are personally involved in analysing Air India’s cost optimisation and tech-led transformation needs, the sources said.
Key TCS executives are also expected to move to Air India to see how the airline’s systems can be overhauled across operations, supply chain and customer experience.
Known flight path: TCS has deep experience providing technology for Tata’s JV with SIA — Vistara — and as well as for AirAsia, in which the Tatas have a majority stake.
The company also provides a range of IT solutions to global airlines such as Lufthansa Group, Virgin Atlantic, Star Alliance, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
Twitter may add dedicated podcasts tab
Twitter is likely building a tab dedicated to podcasts, as shown in a screenshot posted by reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong.
The image shows a microphone icon in the Twitter app’s bottom menu bar, which appears to lead to a page titled “Podcasts”, The Verge reported.
Twitter began branching out to audio when it first launched Spaces in 2020 and dove even deeper into the medium with its acquisition of social podcast platform Breaker, the report said.
Podcast fever: If a Twitter podcast feature is anything like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, users will be able to choose and listen to podcasts at their leisure, and not have to rush to catch a live Spaces broadcast or listen to recordings before time runs out.
Return to office: The social media firm’s new chief Parag Agrawal said it would reopen offices globally this month but let people work remotely if they wished.
Google is also preparing for employees to return to its Silicon Valley offices in early April, with the expectation they will work from home only a couple of days a week.
Today’s ETtech Top 5 newsletter was curated by Arun Padmanabhan in New Delhi and Zaheer Merchant in Mumbai. Graphics and illustrations by Rahul Awasthi.
