Crypto ticks higher, fintech gets interesting again, and fraud is still bad

Hello and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

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Our Monday show covers the latest in tech news from the weekend and what’s making headlines early in the week. Here’s the rundown:

The crypto mini-boom of the last week came after a brutal few fortnights of pessimism; for the crypto-faithful, it must feel like a breath of fresh air.
Startups: IRL turned out to be a digital fraud, Vanta is a unicorn worth watching, given its quick ARR growth helped it grow into its valuation, and TreasurySpring is making the most of the macroeconomic winds spurring fintech growth.
Amazon pledged more investment in India, and it’s not alone. Many American companies plan to invest more in India, often focused on chip-related work.
Globally, there seems to be a trend of becoming more self-reliant for chip production: Japan is looking to buy one of its domestic chip producers. And American investors are putting capital into domestic chip efforts as well.
Finally, IBM is buying Apptio for $4.6 billion.

Whew! That’s a lot, but we had a good time. We’ll see you back here on Wednesday!

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